EFT Emotional Freedom Technique

EFT is a Meridian energy therapy, which works directly on the meridian energy system in the body. We tap or massage different points along the meridian lines with our fingers to release the energy of trapped or stored emotions we no longer want to hold onto.

As well as the physical action of tapping we also bring mindfulness to what our body needs as we become focused on whatever pain or problem we are dealing with.    In this way, we learn to tune into our body and become aware of the many signals it gives us.   

So EFT is a invitation to tune into the discomfort we are feeling about a situation in our life.   This can be anything from feeling anxious about an upcoming event, being fearful, having a phobia, dealing with an addiction like smoking, or the emotional aspect of a physical illness.

EFT is a self-help protocol and it’s very easy to use.

I will add a caveat here; If you need a diagnosis for an illness you are suffering from it is always best to check with your medical physician first.

When we use EFT we are working in the emotional and energetic realm and we are taking the emotional charge from stories we tell ourselves that have formed through limiting beliefs.   

When we're young we form beliefs around things that happen to us in our environment;

something happens, we react and if it is A BIG STORY for us, we form a BIG story around it.   

Take an example of a child going through the terrible twos, which is an important developmental initiation stage for a child. They are beginning to realize that their actions have an effect on the world.   They realise that when they do this mommy reacts like this and when they do something else daddy reacts like this.    They are gauging the reactions from those around them because they are beginning to step into their personal power.   It is at this stage that we start to form our beliefs around our stories.

If a child feels they are not getting the love they need they may develop a belief that they are not lovable.

I will reiterate something I always mention which is that:

we form our beliefs from our perception of our environment which is not always necessarily the real truth of what is going on. 

For example, a child's parents may have suffered some kind of trauma and at one particular stage in the child's life, the parent may not have been able to give the child what the child needed. But to the child's mind in their limited emotional intelligence and awareness of the full story, they may perceive and develop a belief that they are not loved, whilst in fact, it was a temporary situation where the parent may be distracted or disassociated from life through trauma.

That is what I mean by it not necessarily being the truth of a situation, it’s our belief around how we perceived it, it’s our truth.

Perhaps when the trauma abates life goes back to normal and the parent is available to be present in a way the child needs, the child may still cling to the old belief that they are not lovable, even though they are now receiving their parent’s love.   An unconscious part of them may worry that the love will be taken from them again.  Unfortunately, in some cases, this belief stays with a person and they enter into relationships with an underlying belief that it is only temporary, that they are not lovable, and that the love could be taken away at any stage.     

So how can EFT help us with these beliefs?  

We have millions and millions of thoughts over the course of a day.   Although thoughts are intangible they drive our life in every single moment.   Depending on our attachment to these thoughts and the associated emotions, this will determine how our bodies react.   

Thinking a stressful thought can create stress hormones in your body, you are creating them within seconds of having those thoughts and they are causing a biological shift in your body.    

Of course not ever thought will have this same effect, but a stress thought that we think about over and over again becomes a belief or in fact even our worldview. 

We want to make sure that the biological shifts we are making in our body are producing the more beneficial chemicals in our body like the happy hormones like Dopamine

We can use EFT to help us with this.    

Now we are getting to the part where we are going to start doing the EFT. 

First, we want to contact the problem we want to deal with.    We focus our mind on it and form a statement of what the problem is.     You choose a statement that rings true to you.   The more forthright, direct and truthful you can be, the more profound a change you will experience.   

Examples;

• I am so afraid of heights;

• I can’t resist eating chocolate,

• I am terrified of the dark;

• I am so unhappy in my relationship;

• I don’t know where I am going in my life.

Then we test the statement

On a scale of 1 – 10 how does it make you feel, with 10 being extreme and 0 being you don’t feel it anymore?

We tap using whatever words we have decided we are going to use. You can click on this video to learn the tapping points.  

Is it possible to use EFT to support people with big stories/traumas?

 When we talk about simple trauma, we are talking about real trauma and not taking away anything from someone’s story. It’s trauma from accidents, from relationships, from emotional abuse etc.

Complex trauma relates to things like abuse during a person’s developmental years when the brain is still growing.

A child often doesn’t have the language to verbalise what they are experiencing, but the experience is very much embedded into the fabric of their brains.

So when dealing with complex trauma we never want to re-traumatise a person, they don’t have to FEEL the same feelings they did when the initial trauma happened. In a case like this I deal with things in a different way and instead of having someone connect with the original event we deal with where in their body they feel blocked and use language that avoids them having to bring them back to the original event.

EFT works on all of the stories that have an emotional charge for us.

To have an EFT session with me you can book here

This FREE Lesson is a part of my Children’s Emotional Empowerment Programme which is designed to help children navigate their emotional realm and understand how we can change our react to get a different result.