Emotional Freedom Technique EFT

Emotional Freedom Technique (EFT)

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According to EFT International (www.eftinternational.org), “EFT stands for Emotional Freedom Techniques. EFT is a practical self-help method that involves using the fingers to gently tap on the body's acupuncture points along the meridian lines of Chinese medicine.

It is often referred to as ‘EFT Tapping’ or simply as ‘Tapping’. The therapeutic effects of this technique are recognized around the world. One can use EFT tapping for anxiety, weight loss issues, pain, stress, and many other issues.  EFT Tapping helps us tune in to the negative patterns that we form around our uncomfortable thoughts, feelings, or troubling memories. We ‘tap’ on the correct pressure points while bringing the thoughts or emotions into consciousness. The aim is to find relief, relaxation, and promote healing around the emotional or physical issues that hold us back.”

It is also commonly referred to as Emotional Acupuncture without the needles.

The History and Background of EFT

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In the 1970s, Dr. George Goodheart, Dr. John Diamond and Dr. Roger Callahan each discovered that verbally focusing on a problem or issue (emotional or physical) – while manually stimulating acupuncture points – could bring surprising relief in their patients – particularly with regard to fears, phobias and physical responses to stress.

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Dr. Callahan was so moved by his discoveries in this area that he patented his emerging "tapping" program TFT or Thought Field Therapy. Eventually, his focus on "tapping" would completely transform his Psychology practice, which was unheard of in therapeutic circles at that time. TFT, while effective and still widely practiced today, was involved and complex. It was primarily accessible only to therapists or those willing to make a substantial financial investment in learning the process. One of Callahan's students, Gary Craig, was able to synthesize it into a more simplified form – one involving fewer tapping points and far less complexity. A Stanford trained engineer and Master of NLP (Neurolinguistic Programming), Craig added key NLP concepts, and called it EFT or Emotional Freedom Techniques.

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EFT first appeared in the late 1990s via Craig's popular website (emofree.com) where he made it available to laypeople via low-cost videos. Since that time, it has proliferated steadily beyond traditionally therapeutic circles and taken-on added refinements – many of which were shepherded-in by Craig and his students through experimentation.

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Despite some rapid evolution in the early years, original or "classic" EFT has remained largely unchanged. It is this version of EFT that comprises EFT International's model of EFT tapping training.”

But, how does it actually work?!?

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Picture this.  There is a watchguard in a tall tower overlooking your city.  Their only job up there is to sound the alarm when they see something suspect going on or they see something that could be dangerous and harm you, and it is almost upon you! Immediately you can hear the alarm ringing.  High alert!  You go into survival mode.  There must be a sabretooth tiger nearby!  Panic!  Your only goal now, is to stay alive.

Translated…. In your brain you have an amygdala.  Its job is to analyze threats and it lives deep in the emotional part of your brain, beyond the conscious level.  It can be very helpful when you are in danger (like when you are being stalked by a sabretooth tiger), and you need to respond immediately.

However, if the threat is only perceived, and not actually going to harm you, and then if the amygdala is regularly being overworked for no good reason, it starts to fizzle in its effectiveness.  Constantly being in fight, flight, freeze, or fawn makes it even harder for the amygdala to overcome the smallest of issues, which in turn creates more issues.  See the problem here?

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Positive thinking alone won’t fix this.  Neither will trying to simply journal your way out it.  They might help, but we need to be able to tell the amygdala to chill out.  That it is safe to relax.  There have been studies done that shows this happening when functional MRI scans are used while tapping happens!

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Once that control is re-established, the other parts of our brain that are not based solely on survival can be used to choose differently.  We can do this when we know we are safe and calm, and we can be logical about what we want to design for our life next. 

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But, what does that actually mean?!?

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Well, let me tell you another story.  Say I called you up and suggested we go to the mountains for a hike.  We pack a picnic, grab our shoes and water bottle and head out for the day.  When we come back at the end of the day, we run into some others at the trailhead, and we smile and share what an enjoyable day we had.  We saw lots of wildlife, snapped some great flower pics, and enjoyed the stress-free day in nature.  It was a wonderful day, indeed.

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With the other group of hikers, you see they had a guide with them.  You overhear one hiker says how nice it was to have been taken to see the waterfall, and the crystal caves, and the overlook spot where you can see the whole valley below.   

What?!?!  Where were those spots when you were out there!  You didn’t see that!

Even though your day had been lots of fun, it would have been nice to have seen those other unique sites!

Tapping, like hiking, is something that you can do on your own once you learn how.  You can have satisfactory results working by yourself for sure.  However, many people benefit from having a guide there to take them to specific places to get specific results.  It can provide faster relief for specific areas in your life, and potentially take you places you wouldn’t get to on your own (like waterfalls and caves).  This is what is offered by me; a facilitated conversation, using a proven technique, to take you places safely, so you can have specific desired outcomes and powerful results.

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But….but….

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Ok, ok.  Here is how it actually goes down. 

You provide the words; I create the conversation.  We then play follow the leader and you mimic what I do.  I look like a monkey, then it is your turn. 

Seriously.  I know it sounds weird.  It looks even weirder.  Yup.  It does.  It even looks weirder than it sounds….and it works.

How is that possible??? There have been over 100 clinical trials around the world that prove it works.  For those of you who drool over stats and graphs and charts, go to https://eftinternational.org/discover-eft-tapping/eft-science-research/ 

For those of you who want to just trust the process....book a session!