Emotional Freedom Techniques (EFT) is a new energy psychology method for healing emotional and physical ailments. Tapping on specific stress relief points on the body, based on the acupressure of the ancient Chinese, brings accelerated relief from troublesome memories, addiction, pain and much more.
This article is a useful technique to add on, for those already familiar with EFT.
Used together with tapping, it has many compelling benefits, including improving the testing of results, and finding core memories for “emotion less” clients.
Many will recognise it as an adapted technique from NLP(Neuro Linguistic Programming).
Here it is.
1) Assuming your client has identified some intensity to work on, encourage them to physical ise it, (i.e. “where do you feel that in your body?”).
2) Now encourage them to see, hear or feel this energy in their body and begin to feel it moving – slowly at first down through their body and out through their feet, out into the outside world, then back down through the top of their head, and down through their body and out again…in this way forming a loop, like a ferris wheel at the fair. Gesture using your hands towards the energy visually moving, and move only at a rate that the client can work with.
3) Check in with client frequently on SUDS (Subjective Units of Distress) levels experienced. Quickly at first, to establish if this is the right direction for the wheel to turn in for your intended outcome and the clients benefit at this particular moment.
4) Increase client’s awareness of the energy by asking for colours, feelings, texture, weight, sounds, etc coming from the energy; gradually increase the speed of the energy moving, and check back in with SUDS intensity. Typically it will have lowered by this point. Instruct client to continue feeling the energy moving in this way, with increasing speed.
5) Now you can introduce whatever tapping procedure you wish at this point. Normally I would be tapping on the client here, to allow them to stay with the flow of energy. Usually the combination of tapping and internal energy shifting will bring substantial results.
Important caveat – I’ve found that most **but not all** folks increase SUDS when the wheel spins up through the body, and decrease SUDS when the wheel spins down through the body; but naturally have a practice run first with your client to establish which way is right for them.
Worked example:
Working with a client it might go like this:
“Feel where that energy is in your body…good. Now, begin to feel the energy moving down through your body, through the legs and out… feel it leaving through the soles of your feet and out into the world…and as it does so it moves round in a loop like this (therapist following loop of energy with finger in the air) and back in through the top of your head and down through the body again, so that its moving round in a loop like this, kind of like a ferris wheel at the fair, you know? That’s right, and it’s moving round at just the right speed…can you feel that…and I know this energy has a colour, what colour is it?...Good. And as it spins like this it begins to move faster and faster so that it’s moving down through the body and out, down and out, down through the body and out… down through the body and out…”
Flexibility:
Once set up with the client, you can now move the ferris wheel in forward or reverse mode to modulate your client’s level of association into or out of a specific memory, thus it’s a great tool to keep your clients SUDS at just the right level so that you continue to have enough intensity to work on, and yet are keeping them emotionally safe and out of fight/flight.
I’ve also found that introducing some tapping at any point in the procedure will normally help things along, e.g. if client can’t initially identify or “feel” the energy in their body.
Possible Uses:
1) SUDS Management Tool
As above, use throughout a session as a general SUDS management tool to maintain client in a tear free place whilst continuing to make material progress on any remaining aspects or intensity.
2) To Help Dig Up Core Memories For Otherwise Tricky, “Unfeeling“ Clients
Take the current feeling, (usually emotionally void, SUDS zero) and spin the ferris wheel in the “wrong” direction, in order to increase intensity (not too much), such that when you invite the client to backtrack in their mind to find related memories, there is enough “charge” there for their unconscious mind to find a link to a relevant memory. Once in the memory, turn the wheel in the other direction to bring the client back into a comfortable emotional place to begin working on the memory, using tapping in the normal way.
3) As A Quality Tool To Help Resolve Emotional Hijack
I’ve found that having the client focus on moving the ferris wheel in the appropriate direction (make sure you’ve established this first) whilst you continuously tap on every point repeatedly will help to rapidly dissipate an emotional hijack situation.
4) As An Additional Testing Tool
Add this to your toolkit for very thorough testing. As an alternative to you re enacting the movie, or role playing, or re telling the story again, to test your work, have the client relive the scene whilst spinning the wheel in the “wrong direction” to try to bring intensity levels up. Then stomp all over anything that shows up with EFT as normal.
Final tip – always calibrate your clients awareness of the energy – they must “feel” the energy moving in their body. If they don’t, slow the speed of the loop down to let them catch up.
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