EFT - Emotional Freedom Technique
EFT is a way of hacking into the limbic system - the non-verbal part of the brain that controls stress and fight or flight.
Because the limbic system (and the key player here is the amygdala) doesn't register spoken language, 'talk therapy' is relatively ineffective for many issues.
Imagine telling an Iraq war vet, suffering from PTSD, "Hey relax, you're home now. You're safe". Would that be helpful at all? Of course not! EFT on the other hand can produce an immediate and often dramatic change. Sometimes the results seem almost miraculous.
With EFT we're using finger tapping on certain key acupuncture points while focusing on whatever specific issue or problem we'd like to change. We're essentially discharging, or sloughing off, whatever is stuck - feelings, beliefs, behaviors and sometimes even physical symptoms.
One of the best things about EFT is that it's easy to learn, and this happens automatically in a session. My clients are empowered to continue tapping on their own to further the change-work.
This beautiful video by Gary Craig, the founder of EFT includes the inspiring story of
one man's recovery from crippling back pain and Multiple Sclerosis
Go Ahead and Take It For a Spin!
5 simple steps:
1. State the problem (be as specific as you can)
2. Measure on a 0 to 10 scale how distressing it is right now
3. Do the "set-up statement" while tapping on the side of your hand: 'even though I have this problem, I deeply love and completely accept myself'.
4. Tap around all the points until you feel better
5. Re-measure the intensity on the 0 to 10 scale
Lather. Rinse. Repeat. The ideal is to keep tapping until the intensity gets down to zero. It may take multiple rounds to get there.
Two Key Ways To Get the Best Results
1. Be as specific as possible when stating the problem.
2. Focus on the NEGATIVE. EFT works best by tapping away what we want to get rid of or slough off. Don't be afraid to name, acknowledge and feel into the bad stuff while you're tapping.
Is There Any Scientific Evidence? Yes, lots.
There have been more than 80 published studies showing the efficacy of "Energy Psychology" and EFT in particular. Here's the official research page for ACEP, the Association for Comprehensive Energy Psychology.
Here is a quote from the ACEP site:
"Energy psychology (EP) modalities have been researched by more than 100 investigators in at least 7 countries. As of 2016, over 80 research studies have been published on EP modalities; out of these only one has not shown efficacy. There have been 43 RCTs published on energy psychology approaches. Four meta-analyses have also been completed. Three of these have demonstrated large effect sizes and the 4th demonstrated a moderate effect size.
The results of these studies have been published in more than 15 different peer-reviewed journals, including the Journal of Clinical Psychology, the Journal of Nervous and Mental Disease and the APA journals Psychotherapy: Theory, Research, Practice, Training and Review of General Psychology. While many important questions remain to be answered, a great deal of groundwork is in place."
Want to Learn More?
Gary Craig, Founder of EFT
To explore EFT in depth I highly I recommend Gary Craig's free on-line tutorial (Just click on his picture).
However, If you really want to master the techniques, a live workshop is the best possible venue.
How Does EFT Work?
EFT is amazing. What might have taken years of therapy can be accomplished in just a few sessions. And actually, EFT has been proven effective for issues that no amount of conventional treatment can help. One of our mottos is "Often works where nothing else has".
But how? How can tapping on your face and body do anything?
There are really two good answers to that.
One is relatively straightforward neuroscience - we're "tapping into" the amygdala in our limbic brain and 'down regulating' specific triggers or cues from the environment that are paired in memory with bad memories.
In traditional psychotherapy we use words to try and feel better - mainly through insight into our problems. With EFT the words are actually used to trigger and sustain the bad feelings! To keep them present while the tapping discharges them. We also get insight through tapping, but it's more of a lovely byproduct.
The second answer to 'how does this work?' involves energy and the quantum field. In general terms energy is much faster than chemistry. Nerve impulses travel through your body almost instantly compared with the neuro-peptides (the chemical basis of our emotions) moving through your bloodstream.
On an even more profound level, your body is made entirely of energy. This was the great discovery in quantum physics. "There is no matter as such." Our bodies certainly seem real. If I bang my shin against the coffee table it really hurts. But both my shin and the coffee table are appearing out of space in the moment - vortices of energetic patterns coalescing into what we perceive as material reality.
Every time we tap, we're creating a tiny spark of piezo-electric charge and sending it shooting through our meridian system at incredible speed (much faster actually than nerve impulses travel). These meridians are channels for not just energy, but also information. That tiny spark we're generating is encoded with information for our entire system. Essentially the message is "This thing (whatever we're tapping for) is no longer a threat/problem"
In my practice I've seen physical problems disappear in minutes. Problems like a rotator cuff injury. My client had seen the X-rays. They'd been in a lot of pain with severe limitations to that arm's mobility. And within 5 minutes the problem is gone. I've seen this happen at least 5 times.
Or terrible hay fever. I've seen symptoms entirely vanish within minutes. Congestion gone, eyes clear, throat no longer scratchy. It just doesn't seem possible. But it's actually routine with EFT.
And this is because, on the quantum level, energy is primary. Everything (every thing, including our body) is made of energy and we're able to hack into that system and do repair work.
And where this gets even more interesting is when we're dealing with traumatic memories. That's where Matrix Reimprinting takes over from regular EFT.
Learn about Matrix here...