What is Emotional Freedom technique?
Clinical EFT/tapping is a blend of the ancient wisdom of acupressure and research-backed modern techniques of Western psychology including cognitive and exposure therapies. This gentle practice calms the nervous system, reduces cortisol, and is proven to help with goal achievement, weight loss, pain reduction, stress reduction, and post-traumatic stress. And, while tapping is gentle, it is also deep. With a practitioner, clients can access and release long-ingrained patterns and core beliefs. When it comes to effectively and permanently processing and interrupting seemingly stuck patterns of emotions, trauma, behaviors, and beliefs, research has shown EFT to be one of the most groundbreaking methods available.
The practitioner guides the client through a spoken script that explores the client’s presenting issue, challenge, or symptom. At the same time, the client taps on acupressure points, which signal relaxation to the brain and body. The fight/flight sections of the brain are soothed, the prefrontal cortex – or “thinking brain” – comes online to problem solve, and the brain is rewired and retrained in lasting ways. Although tapping can be used as a self-help tool, it is generally more effective when done with a practitioner. Working with a trained Clinical EFT provider is recommended for stickier issues including trauma.
During and after the session, clients feel a sense of deep relaxation and experience profound insights and cognitive shifts that give them a new sense of perspective and freedom.
Try EFT FOR YOURSELF!
Here are simple instructions for locating the points and performing EFT’s basic recipe.
How to Do EFT Tapping
The EFT Tapping technique involves a few basic steps that you can do whenever you feel anxious, stressed or upset:
Identify the issue that's bothering you. Focus on something that is bothering you, like a fear or anxiety, a physical ailment, a bad memory, or an unresolved problem.
Rate the intensity of the issue. Once you've identified your issue, rate how it makes you feel on a scale from 0 to 10. A score of 0 means you feel completely fine, while 10 means you feel as bad as possible. Write down your score.
This scale helps measure the emotional or physical discomfort you're experiencing. It also serves as a benchmark to track your progress after completing an EFT sequence.Acknowledging whatever is bothering you and causing you distress, while accepting yourself fully. Create a statement that describes the issue, followed by a statement of self-acceptance, such as “Even though I have this [insert problem or emotion], I deeply and completely accept myself.”
For example: “Even though I feel anxious about giving my presentation tomorrow, I deeply and completely accept myself.”
The statement should focus on your own feelings about the problem, not on someone else’s issue. For instance, instead of saying, “Even though my friend is upset, I deeply and completely accept myself” say, “Even though I feel helpless that my friend is upset, I deeply and completely accept myself.”Start the EFT Tapping sequence. The EFT tapping sequence involves systematically tapping on the endpoints of 9 specific meridian points.
Start tapping your fingertips on the 9 Tapping points along the body’s meridians while maintaining your mental focus on the issue at hand. While you tap, you may say statements that help you to first focus on and acknowledge what you are feeling (often called a reminder phrase).
For example, you might say, “anxious about the presentation”.
You can then move towards letting go of the distress, resolving your difficult emotions, and turning towards the positive. As you tap, you might also do visualizations or bring to mind certain thoughts or memories.Rate the final intensity. Rate the intensity of the issue again on a scale from 0 to 10. This allows you to assess if anything has changed for you.
Repeat as needed. If the intensity is still higher than you'd like, start again! You can keep Tapping through the points until you find some relief.