EFT
What is EFT ?
EFT stands for Emotional Freedom Technique.
For Gary Craig, founder of EFT in the 90’s:
“imbalances in the body's energy system have profound effects on one's personal psychology.”
EFT is a simple, quick and efficient method to diminish the intensity of traumatic memories. Who hasn’t gone through more or less traumatic situations? From a very young age we accumulate (traumatic) memories, which shape our current beliefs and behaviours.
As soon as a traumatizing memory resurfaces, our energetic physical system is unbalanced and this causes negative emotions. If a memory doesn’t cause any unbalances in our energetic physical system, then we will not feel any negative emotions. Some people are taken off balance by their memories, and others aren’t.
When the energy circulates normally, (just like our blood circulation), we feel good. But as soon as the energy flow is disturbed, negative emotions as well as physical symptoms can then manifest themselves.
To correct these imbalances, we tap on certain specific points of the meridians, which will then liberate these negative emotions that are getting in the way.
This is a method based on Chinese acupuncture, but using fingers to stimulate the different points rather than needles. By having it’s roots in Traditional Chinese Medicine, the EFT method joins up the orient and the occident.
It is a psychophysical method :
- psycho : we think about our problem
- physical : we tap strategic points on our body. The EFT acts on the autonomic nervous system: we start by activating a negative emotion, then we calm it by tapping, which then deactivates our body’s alarm response, we ‘deprogram’ the inappropriate response.
For example, in a car: accelerating and breaking at the same time. By acting on these painful emotional memories, we can keep those memories but without having to deal with the emotional negative impact of those memories.
The next time that the memory will resurface, the brain will recognize it, but will not ring an alarm bell. It will have become just another memory from the past.
The therapist doesn’t need to know all of the details to be able to help the patient. To get someone to relive a memory isn’t necessary, it will only make the energetic imbalance worse.
The therapist will only ask you to remember what your problem is. This can already be hard enough.
You don’t even have to understand the problem. Only thinking of the problem will provoke an energetic imbalance, which means that we can then start to work on harmonising with what is called “the basic recipe”.
If the patient isn’t well focused on the problem, then the energetic imbalance will not happen, and the basic recipe will not work.
After an EFT session, the patient will feel relieved, and will not see the problem in the same light.
With the relief comes a new understanding, and we then often stop trying to comprehend the problem.
If someone is in need of more than one session, it is because of the complexity of the problem, because different aspects will emerge and will need to be treated as a whole.
With EFT, we do not need :
- long sessions during which patients has to talk about their life story
- relive traumatising events of the past
- sessions during month or years
This technique, which is very easy to learn with a therapist, can be used between sessions.
WARNING
EFT is a very powerful therapeutic tool !
Do not hesitate to ask your EFT therapist about their training and with which teachers.
Be informed, it i for your own good !
Indications and effects
A well known quote by Gary Craig: “ Try EFT for everything ! ”
EFT has endless possibilities; it was initially used to treat psychological problems such as stress, anxiety, phobias, emotional trauma, etc. but Gary Craig realised that this technique could also be applied for physical problems.
Here is an idea of everything we can treat with EFT, the list is far from complete :
On an émotional / psychological level :
- loss of self-confidence: fear of speaking in public, shyness
- loss of self-esteem: I am not good enough, I am not worth anything, I do not belong here, etc… (limiting beliefs).
- controlling stress and anxiety: problems linked to anxiety, depression, burn-out
- unexplained fears, phobias, panic attacks
- post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD)
- rape, abuse, assault
- obsessive compulsive disorder (OCD)
- generalized anxiety disorder (GAD)
- eating disorders
- addictions, compulsions
- allergies
- insomnias
- loss of motivation
- mourning
- emotions such as feeling abandoned, rejected, guilty, embarrassed, sad, angry, or even feeling resentment
- enuresis (bed-wetting)
- developing sporting performances
- secondary effects of chemotherapy
- accompanying people suffering from illnesses such as cancer
On a physical plan :
- chronic physical pain, of psychosomatic origin
- headaches, back pain, neck pain, shoulder pain
- joint pain, muscular pain, ligament pain, tendon pain
- breathing problems, asthma
- chronic fatigue syndrome
- irritations of the skin, psoriasis, sores
- constipation, irritable bowels and other digestive problems
- excessive sweating, shaking, nausea
- visual problems
- and much more…
Some people have lived through such bad traumatic situations that they have very serious psychological problems, for example: multiple personality disorders such as paranoia, schizophrenia, and other mental disorders. Even though EFT has been proven to help with these serious cases, it should only be applied by specialists who have a lot of experience with such cases… (Gary Craig).
WARNING
EFT does not carry out any medical examinations, treatments, consultations or analysis. EFT is not a medical treatment and in no case replaces a trip to your doctor !
Never stop or reduce a treatment without consulting your doctor first.
How do the sessions take place ?
During the first session, we will take the time to get to know each other, identify the problem and prepare for the EFT sequence. Talking about the problem will trigger certain emotions, that I will ask you to formulate. I will also ask you (if possible), what were the situations that triggered these emotions.
You will not be required to tell me everything, just take an image of the event, and tell me your emotional reaction (I am scared, I am embarrassed, I feel guilty, etc…), your physical reaction (heart palpitations, breathlesness, etc…) and attribute to this situation a number between 0 and 10. 0 being “everything is fine” and 10 being “it’s unbearable”.
With all of this information, we will work together on preparation phrases and reminder phrases; we will do this together because I think it important that the words of the phrases resonate within you, and what resonates better than your own words ?
From this moment, we can really start work with the EFT, which means: tapping on the specific acupuncture points, situated on the body, all the while repeating the chosen phrases. I will guide you in this process.
During the session, other stressful situations can resurface, situations that have up to then been subconscious: we call these “aspects”. Each “aspect” has to be treated as a separate problem, which is why it is difficult to know how long a session will last, especially the first one.
Sometimes, only one session is necessary. Other times, for more complex cases, a few sessions may be necessary.
After our first session, I will give you all of the necessary information to allow you to continue these sessions at home.
EFT is an excellent tool that can be used autonomicly. However, self-treatment is not advised for serious traumas. For these, it is recommended that you are guided by a well experienced practitioner.
For online consultations I use Skype, so we have both sound and image.
For people with mobility difficulties (elderly people, ill people, people with reduced mobility), I can come to see you at home.
