I just completed a 14 hour workshop on EFT and TFT, and earned master practitioner level certifications. I started experimenting with EFT several years ago after my step-son’s therapist suggested it. At that point, I was familiar with EFT. I’d read several books, and used it on myself, my husband and taught several clients the process as well. Short version of this is that EFT did help my step-son, when he was willing to use it — which was infrequently.
Fast forward to today, I’ve been using the basic recipe of EFT with clients ever since, and felt that I needed to expand my knowledge of the subject. So, I attended an on-line workshop given by a practitioner in the U.K.
He’s good. He combines EFT with it’s predecessor TFT, and adds a bit of NLP in for good measure. I like the combined approach. It seems to me that combining EFT, TFT and NLP can have a very strong effect on people’s thought processes.
For those not familiar, EFT stands for Emotional Freedom Technique. You might have heard it referred to as Tapping. That’s because the technique involves tapping on specific meridian points to realign the energies of the body. Meridian points are the same points used in acupuncture. In EFT, you tap a pre-set selection of points while repeating a phrase related to the issue you’re experiencing. It’s kind of a catch-all system. People like it because it’s easy to learn, easy to remember, and easy to teach clients.
TFT stands for Thought Field Therapy. It’s what EFT is based on. It’s different from EFT because you don’t repeat any phrases, and you tap different points in a specific order, depending on what you’re experiencing. For example, the points used for depression are not the same points used for pain. It’s harder to learn than EFT because each “condition” requires a different sent of points be tapped in their own unique order.
NLP is Neuro Linguistic Programming. It’s not as scary as it sounds. NLP uses the facts about how the brain works to help people see things from another perspective, learn new behaviors, and change self-defeating attitudes and thoughts. Phrases, are combined with eye movements to help the new ideas “take” in the brain. The eye movements come directly from modern brain science. It’s been proven that we unknowingly move our eyes in different ways when we’re taking in and processing information in different ways. Intentionally using specific eye movements triggers the same brain response as when those eye movements are done involuntarily. When psychologists use eye movements they call it EMDR.
Up until now, I’ve only used EFT with a specific type of client. Specifically, I teach people how to use EFT to manage stress. Since taking the workshop, I’m thinking about other ways I can incorporate EFT/TFT and NLP in managing chronic illness. The workshop trainer taught his wife to use tapping in order to relieve chronic pain from a long-ago spinal injury. She was in a car accident which broke her neck, and she suffers from severe pain as a result. EFT/TFT gives her 60-90 minutes of greatly reduced pain that her many medications don’t touch.
Personally, I have used EFT for pain associated with the Multiple Sclerosis. Occasionally, I get nerve pain that travels from my hip clear to my toes. It feels like fire traveling down my leg. I’ve used the EFT basic recipe to help relieve the pain. Tapping usually stops the pain. I’ve tried tapping when I’m experiencing mild asthma symptoms, with mixed results.
My biggest EFT success was with my own phobia of heights. There is a fire tower at one of the local lakes. I hike there with my family frequently. My husband and kids like climbing the stairs to the fire tower at the top of the mountain. The mountain, and by default, the fire tower, look out over the lake. They kept telling me how pretty it was up there, and I thought that climbing all those stairs would be a great workout. But, I had an intense phobia of heights. I could only climb one set of those stairs before I started experiencing a panic attack. I wanted to go up to the top, but I simply could NOT force myself to take one more step. My husband and I were up there alone one day and I decided that this would be a great test of the EFT. So, I did several rounds of the EFT tapping recipe while focusing on the fear I knew I would feel. When I felt ready, I headed for the base of the tower. I got about halfway up before I started to feel the fear. I stopped and did several more rounds of tapping. That got me up several more flights of stairs. More tapping. I made it all the way to the top. There’s an enclosure with benches at the top of the fire tower. I sat down and was able to look around for a few minutes. We didn’t stay for long because there was a wasp nest in the enclosure. I made it down the fire tower without getting dizzy.
EFT and TFT work.
