How NET Helped a Child Overcome Years of Night Terrors in Just One Session

When a young child suffers from relentless night terrors, it can be a nightmare for the whole family. But what if there was a way to resolve these deep-seated fears in just one session? Let me share a story about how Neuro Emotional Technique (NET) helped a 4-year-old boy named Ethan overcome his night terrors—and how it might just change the way you think about healing.

I know, “one session” sounds like BS, right? I asked my patient if I could share her story because it would have more credibility if it wasn’t just me saying it. The patient texted me back a LOL and declared, “Nobody believes me, either!” 😂 Oh well. Here it goes anyway!

So, the mom (we’ll call her Clara) had been a patient of mine before moving away right before the pandemic. It was a crazy time for everyone, so it wasn’t surprising that we lost touch. (Besides, when people move away, they rarely keep in touch with their old chiropractor!)

But late last year, I received a text from Clara asking for my advice.

She was at her wits end. Her son Ethan, who was born shortly after they left SF, had been having trouble sleeping… for his entire life. It wasn’t just normal sleeplessness or even the normal-ish “bad sleeping” that some kids go through. This was bad.

She wanted to know if NET worked with little kids and if yes, who could she bring Ethan to?!

Well, it so happened that I was going to be in their town – literally 10 minutes away from their new home – for an NET conference in just a couple of days! I offered to make a house call myself to see Ethan, and Clara agreed that that would be great. I would do some NET with her as well, since she was so stressed about Ethan.

Here is part of the text message exchange that I had with Clara, where she describes some of the intense night terrors that were plaguing Ethan. Keep in mind that this kid is just 4 years old.

 “Just wanted to mention that Ethan’s biggest challenge (and always has been since the day he was born) is sleep. He hates going to sleep and is up (often times for hours) throughout the night… For example, last night at 4am he was yelling ‘when is it morning time? How much longer until the morning? Please mommy can you please wake me up in the morning? Mommy are you knocking on my door? Whoever that is come in please. Please please. Who’s knocking on my door?! Ughhh. I’m going to see.’ (no one was knocking). Then he opened the door and kept asking who is knocking on his door. And he is WIDE AWAKE.”

“And he yells before falling asleep for about 10-30 minutes every night. (We’ve tried everything!) He doesn’t want me to leave. He’s scared of the dark, calls me to come back, says I’m the worst. He doesn’t like being in his room, doesn’t like being alone, yada yada. Threatens that he’ll do certain things (he has, and so we’ve had to put locks on his doors, remove furniture, etc.)”

“I think his nervous system is just super heightened and he doesn’t feel safe a lot of the time. It breaks my heart.”

As I read Clara’s texts, I thought, “Holy smokes… this poor kid might need an exorcist, not NET!”

But I played it cool and stuck with the program!

Like many little kids, Ethan was leery of strangers. He also had a ton of energy and was bouncing around, rolling on the couch, etc. So, I focused on Clara and did some NET with her. She hadn’t had any NET since leaving San Francisco! We mainly focused on helping her to be OK with the stress that Ethan’s night problems were causing for her. Getting Clara’s nervous system settled down helped to calm Ethan enough to feel safe to try it himself.

Young kids often get their first NET treatment while sitting in a parent’s lap. This helps them to feel safe. It also allows the parent to help the child with breathing deeply and holding a hand on their forehead or other body points.

Little kids can have a hard time articulating what’s happening, but the body knows all. We just follow the muscle test! In Ethan’s case, we started first by having him just think about “bed time.” Sure enough, the muscle reacted immediately, and it went right to the kidney point, which then connected to “fear.”

When we went digging down for the “original event” (where the seed of the trauma was first planted), there was some pre-birth anxiety that was connected to mom’s (Clara’s) anxiety. But the BIG ONE was something that happened within his first year of life. Something that happened at night.

Of course, Ethan had no idea what that was. He was barely present enough to stay in place on his mom’s lap! He was wiggling around wanting to play and be goofy!

But as the process unfolded, mom had a revelation.

“OMG, I can’t believe I forgot about this…”

Clara then told me about an apartment that they lived in before finding their permanent housing in their new town. The apartment itself seemed OK, but it was on the corner of a busy intersection in a sketchy part of town. Every night, there was a lot of negative activity happening outside. People yelling at each other, cars racing or doing doughnuts in the middle of the night, sirens wailing...

It was pretty stressful, and the baby’s room faced this noisy and chaotic street corner.

One night, the chaos reached a crescendo, and there was gunfire!

Some of the shots hit the apartment building! Clara ran into the baby’s room, screaming, heart racing, picked him up and ran for cover! (Wowzers, MY heart was racing just listening to her tell the story!) She just sat there holding the baby, thinking she was going to have a heart attack. That was the last straw for that apartment, and they moved out shortly after the shooting.

They never had a scary living environment after that, but the baby never “outgrew” his sleeping problems. Instead, as the texts show, things just got weirder and worse.

After we found the original event. I had mom help Ethan to hold a hand on his forehead and a hand on his kidney point. She helped him to breathe nice and deep. Of course, he had no memory of that night, so I just walked him through the basic story.

“Ethan, when you were just a baby, you and your mom and dad lived in an apartment that was on a scary street. It was so loud every night. It was hard to sleep because of the noisy people outside! And one night, some people were doing really bad stuff outside and it really scared your mom. There was a REALLY loud noise, and it scared you so much, and it scared you mom, and she came in and picked you up. She was so scared, and you could feel HER scared feeling, too. It was so scary that you all moved away into a new house.” He kept holding the points and breathing, and mom was thinking about the events and breathing deeply, too.

Honestly, I couldn’t tell if he was tracking along with the story at all. He had that little kid goofy grin on his face and wiggled away as soon as we were done. (I think I gave him some of the ER 911 homeopathy, but I don’t remember. I know that mom needed some!)

And then, that was that! I thought for sure that he would need more NET, because that was a big one, so I referred them to an excellent local NET practitioner who had a nice family practice and would be comfortable treating a little kid.

I texted Clara the next morning to check in, but I didn’t hear back immediately. Darn, I thought, it didn’t work… I’m no exorcist...!

A reply came in later that afternoon:

“Hi DK!! Last night was one of the best nights Ethan has had in a long time. He was upset when I left his room, but it didn’t last long and he was asleep within minutes. I didn’t hear him at all in the night. He woke up calling for me before he even opened his eyes, but he slept through which is a miracle!!!! Thank you for that great referral! I will reach out soon.”

Boom! Victory!

And that was that. As far as I knew, Clara and Ethan were now in the capable hands of their wonderful local NET practitioner!

Fast forward to today, August 11, 2024. I recently booked a flight to another NET conference close to their town, and it made me think of them. So, I texted Clara to see how she and Ethan were doing and to see if they were still seeing Dr. R.

Here is her reply:

“Hi Dr. Kim! Thank You! I never did see Dr R because Ethan had such improvement after your session with us. He’s been so great.”

Wow!

That was just one NET session, almost a year ago! 😲

I wish everyone got miracle results after just one session. 😅

But I will say this. Kids *do* usually get more dramatic results in fewer sessions, compared to adults. Why? Simple. It’s because they haven’t accumulated nearly as many layers of trauma, and their nervous systems are still so pliable and quick to heal.

Think about how fast you used to heal from injuries when you were a little kid, compared to now. Skinned a knee as a little kid? Bah! You’re back up and running the same day! Skinned your knee as an adult? Yeah, you probably ruptured something on the inside, maybe cracked your patella, too. Should probably call in to work, maybe get one of those disability parking placards…

Emotional healing is the same. Kids can heal fast – if you just give them the right tools.

NET is great for healing night terrors. 3 more cases jump to mind. There is the person who was having night terrors following a botched surgery (night terrors stopped after just one NET session), the person who was having night terrors following Hurricane Katrina (even though it had been years since it happened and since they had moved away from New Orleans), and the person who was having night terrors almost 20 years after experiencing war in her homeland.

I think that dreams are your body trying to work things out. And recurring dreams (and nightmares) suggest that the body is stuck on a problem. NET helps to unstick it.

Ethan’s story is a powerful reminder of how unresolved trauma can manifest in unexpected ways—and how quickly things can change when we address the root cause. If you or someone you love is struggling with similar issues, NET might just be the key to unlocking a peaceful night’s sleep.