At 57, Rebekah Demirel is a classically trained acupuncturist and East Asian medicine practitioner. She is a Master Practitioner in Clinical Counselling specializing in post-traumatic stress and critical incident stress debriefing. She’s also the writer of the critically acclaimed autobiography, Nothing’s for Nothing-Transformation Through Trauma. Even with her countless accolades, however, success has not come easy. Rebekah’s journey has been paved with more valleys than peaks, but her tenacity and determination has helped her overcome and endure almost insurmountable odds to fulfill her dream of helping others.
From the beginning, Rebekah’s childhood was different than average.
“I grew up in southeast Vancouver in a rundown veteran’s home, overlooking the Fraser River flats towards Richmond,” she says.
Inside that house, Rebekah witnessed things a three-year-old should never see. She grew up in an abusive home, where psychological and physical trauma were commonplace.
“Mom left when I was three and my brother, Michael, was six,” she recalls. “After 20 years in an unhappy marriage to my dad, who beat her and abused their children, she felt she had no choice. Mom tried to keep us with her, but my father hired lawyers and with testimonies from family and the church, he was able to obtain full custody of us.”
With no protector, Rebekah learned how to survive and function despite her unpredictable environment. Not unlike a robot, she was able to shift her mind to autopilot and compartmentalize her feelings of being in constant danger.
“At age 13, I ran away with an older boyfriend who beat me and tried to force me into human trafficking,” says Rebekah. “Police found me and took me to an emergency shelter, where I met my social worker, John Turvey, who helped me through many chaotic years in and out of foster care and living on the streets. He convinced me to go back to school and was my guiding light of stability.”
After many years of struggle and homelessness, Rebekah was offered an advanced first aid course. Later, she was hired by BC Ambulance as a paramedic and eventually became a paramedic trainer. But Rebekah found ambulance work the stuff of nightmares. She was often caught in the aftermath of chaos and violence. Snapshots of horror had become ingrained on her cerebral cortex.
“I could no longer sleep at night,” she says. “I was diagnosed with Post Traumatic Stress Syndrome.”
Rebekah received intense counselling to address her long-buried childhood trauma. Without it, she says she wouldn’t have been able to deal with the pain and denial she’d experienced. Her personal healing propelled her to embark on a three-year counselling program to study how to aid others afflicted with stress and trauma.
“With my physical health still in bad shape, and suffering from insomnia, digestive issues, skin rashes, headaches and a nervous system in constant fight or flight mode, I noticed a Chinese medicine school in Victoria was offering therapy in a ‘student clinic.’”
Doctor Jenny and her husband Dr. Mui owned the school, and both provided acupuncture and directed their students to take care of Rebekah.
“Over the course of a year, I regained my health and, one day, I experienced an epiphany. ‘Dr. Jenny,’ I said, ‘I want to be an acupuncturist. I am going to quit the ambulance service and return to school to study Chinese medicine.’”
After graduating from both counselling and Chinese medicine school, Rebekah opened a practice and continued her studies in the science of mind-and-body connection, called psychoneuroimmunology.
“My practice at The Point Acupuncture and Counselling is especially for women who have experienced early childhood trauma and who may be having both emotional and physical manifestations of post-traumatic stress.”
Rebekah is a National Acupuncture Detox Association (NADA) instructor and specialist, using the NADA five-point ear protocol especially for both post-traumatic stress and addictions to help withdrawal and cravings. The NADA Protocol is a non-verbal approach to healing. It involves the gentle placement of up to five small sterilized disposable needles into specific sites on each ear.
With the combination of counselling therapy to facilitate personal insight and growth, along with acupuncture and other East Asian medicine techniques like qigong, Rebekah provides patients with support and guidance to find their own paths to health.
“Using my unique personal experience, training and skills, I have developed a series of programs that I offer to medical professionals, social service professionals and many other groups who are exposed to secondary trauma from people they work with,” she says. “I call this work Trauma Integration Programs, which is based on the latest information on trauma, loss, addiction and homelessness.”
Her cutting-edge techniques are derived from traditional disciplines, which assist participants in discovering their own insights and ways to move forward, beyond the current issues plaguing them.
“Secondary traumatic stress impacts social service providers facilitating access to essential needs, while giving emotional support to their clients,” says Rebekah. “It can feel overwhelming when issues of trauma and loss arise for providers, affecting their lives, both on and off the job.”
Evidence suggests that insomnia, depression and poorer immune function are some frequent symptoms. If secondary traumatic stress isn’t properly addressed, life can quickly feel untenable.
“When we begin to discover all the feelings and beliefs that can come from difficulties in life, we can also begin to find the lessons and insights, which give us wisdom and freedom to squeeze the richness from life. I consider my own challenges and difficulties to be my greatest gifts,” says Rebekah. “I am a more full and whole human being because of every single hardship.”
Another part of Rebekah’s practice women seem to love is facial rejuvenation acupuncture, also known as cosmetic acupuncture, which helps boost skin collagen and take years off your face.
“I call it the spa treatment with results that last! It’s a 90-minute pampering, including constitutional body needles and very fine facial needles and massage.”
Rebekah has always been a survivor, but surviving wasn’t enough. Today, her world is about helping other woman who have been through the same cycles of violence and turmoil she had to endure. As she helps her clients, she continues to thrive on her own journey to healing her body, mind and soul.
For more information on the types of therapy Rebekah offers, visit www.lovethepoint.com and www.traumaprograms.com
You can find Rebekah’s book at the Victoria Public Library as part of the Emerging Local Author’s Collection, and online at: https://www.amazon.ca/Nothings-Nothing-Transformation-through-Trauma/dp/0997036850/ref=sr_1_3?keywords=Rebekah+Demirel+nothing’s+for+nothing&qid=1564760518&s=gateway&sr=8-3
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