EMOTIONAL FREEDOM TECHNIQUE

INNER GODDESS
February 10, 2021
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EFT stands for Emotional Freedom Techniques. Commonly referred to as ’Tapping,’ it is an elegantly simple and easily learned way to release emotional overwhelm, limiting beliefs and even pain. It’s the modern, drug-free method of working with the Mind-Body connection everyone’s talking about, and can be used for self-help, peer-to-peer care and in practiced hands, therapeutic care.

A unique combination of ancient Eastern and Western medicine, EFT brings together an efficient mix of mindfulness, brief exposure, neural re-consolidation and simultaneously uses the somatic, to down-regulate the nervous system by using body’s meridian energy (Qi) system.  Its ease of use is legendary: we’ll teach you to simply use your own fingertips to Tap upon just a few of the body’s acupressure points, while focused upon an issue you’d like to change for the better.

Professionally applied EFT has been found to be so effective that we say Tapping can achieve in minutes what therapy has taken months to accomplish.

What Kinds of Things Can it Be Used For?

Gary Craig, EFT’s founder, always said, “Try it on Everything!” He knew that it worked suprisingly well on a great number of troubles, ailments and conditions. His vast archive of case studies documented EFT’s use on things from emotional turmoil and upset all the way to serious health conditions and troubling memories from childhood events. Now that we understand how intertwined the mind and body really are, EFT is the perfect tool for using that information to great advantage, and restoring well-being.You might want to use it on things like this:
 
In the Moment:
  • Pain, such as headaches, injuries, emotional overwhelm
  • Fear, such as performance anxiety or worries
  • Negative moods and emotional states that hamper your enjoyment of Life
  • Confusion around what troubles or blocks you from what you want
  • Stress reduction
In Deeper Use:
  • To resolve old memories, hurts and wounds
  • To release traumatic events, including PTSD
  • To find and release old limiting beliefs
  • To create more rapid healing of health conditions and bothersome symptoms
  • To bring clarity to the beliefs we have inherited or adopted unconsciously so they can be examined and revised to align with present day truth and realities
  • Self-sabotaging behaviors that keep you small, limited or unsuccessful
  • For phobias and bothersome behaviors
  • Old habits or coping behaviors that affect your health, such as smoking and cravings

How is it done?

As a self-help tool, ‘Tapping’ uses your own fingertips to gently stimulate 8 acupressure points along the head, hand and torso, while focused on something you’d like to change for the better.

As a therapeutic tool, EFT is directed by a certified facilitator, on a deeper, more skillful level. They will show you how to use the Tapping to bring relief to all parts of the Mind-Body system and the brain’s neural connections that words alone cannot reach. Tapping affects more than the cognitive/rational mind; it also down-regulates the nervous system and accesses the emotional and sensory areas of the limbic area of the brain.

Here is a handy EFT Tapping chart to show you the basic tapping procedure:

Step 1: The setup phrase

  1. Focus on a problem and rate its intensity from 1-10, while tapping on the side of your hand (see picture).
  2. Now add a simple affirmation: “Even though I (have this problem), I want to accept myself anyway.”
  3. Repeat this affirmation three times while still taping on the side of your hand, until you are really focused on whatever is bothering you.

Step 2: Tap on the points using the reminder phrase

Tap on the following points 5-9 times while repeating only the problem (my headache, this fear I have, etc.)

For points 2, 3, 4, 7, 8, 9, you can tap simultaneously on the right and left side, or just one side – whatever is most convenient for you.

 

Step 3: Check in with yourself

Breathe. What might be different for you now? Has the intensity changed?

Repeat the process until the problem is less troubling to you.

 

How does EFT work?

Based on thousands of years of Eastern medicine that recognizes our bodies as energetic systems, and the life force (Qi or ‘chi’) flowing within it along pathways called meridians.  EFT harnesses that knowledge, and combines it with simple, mindful focus on targeted problems with acupoint stimulation along the body’s 13 meridians.

In plain English, EFT is a rapid re-balancing tool for our entire system. When we apply Tapping, we directly affect the intricate network of body, mind and emotional well-being.  Very quickly we experience a shift in our thoughts, our feelings and body, as EFT releases tension, stress and troubling thoughts.  Tapping re-sets our Mind-Body system to a more peaceful, relaxed state and returns us to our resourcefulness.

EFT has a great deal of research behind it, much of it published in professional, peer-reviewed journals.* There is a link to the studies, below.

EFT’s effective mechanisms are thought to be that it:

  • down-regulates our body’s limbic system (our Threat-Response Cycle)
  • decreases stress hormones cascading in the body (Cortisol, Adrenaline)
  • clarifies and allows revision of limiting beliefs lodged in the unconscious and neural pathways (Memory Reconsolidation)
  • removes energy system blocks in the Meridian system pathways (fingertip Acupressure stimulation)
  • addresses meanings & beliefs adopted from childhood/cultural environment, family, etc. (Epigenetics)
  • returns a sense of power to the individual (empowering vs enabling)

We can enhance our everyday performance, dismantle self-sabotaging behaviors and create new meaning in our lives for what is most important to us. We can revise old beliefs that no longer serve us, decrease and often release pain and stress symptoms.  We can even deconstruct and neutralize old events and memories still plaguing us.

As a stress reducer, EFT is unmatched in its speed and effectiveness. And as the best hospitals in the country acknowledge that over 85% of the conditions they treat are stress-related or caused.

Based upon Gary Craig’s understanding of the underlying emotional contributors of pain, negative emotions and thoughts, his elegantly simple EFT techniques empower us with clarity around these contributors and thoughts, beliefs and emotions that affect our bodies and our lives, and are a natural tool for bringing rapid relief from the Mind-Body disruptions we all experience.

“Emotions are our body’s reactions to thoughts.” – Eckhart Tolle

Is There Scientific Evidence for EFT?

Yes!  Over 100 field studies to date.

EFT Tapping is Supported by a Large and Growing Body of Scientific Research

Read more about the science and research behind EFT tapping

The Best Proof? Your Own Experience

‘Try It On Everything’ was EFT founder Gary Craig’s advice from his own experience, but the real proof is in your personal experience of this technique. Even though there are many videos you can find on the internet, we recommend you try these simple but powerful techniques with someone professionally trained and certified, for the best experience and quality results.

See for yourself EFT’s ability to rapidly change perception, body chemistry, and stress response to present or past events. Find out what more than 8 million people across the globe have found: Relief, Clarity and Well-Being with Tapping. You can quickly and easily feel better, and fast!

How Did EFT Begin?

In the 1990’s, Stamford-trained engineer Gary Craig took a larger, more cumbersome protocol he’d learned from Dr. Roger Callahan (TFT), and created something simpler that could be used by everyone, not just therapists, to resolve problems, aches and pains and overcome obstacles.  He called it EFT, or Emotional Freedom Techniques, as he understood that by addressing the emotional foundations and underpinnings of troubling thoughts, painful symptoms and frustrating obstacles that problems could be more quickly and easily resolved. Here is a video of Gary Craig, the founder of EFT, speaking about EFT.
Dr. Callahan’s discovery in the 1980s, along with fellow healthcare professionals John Diamond and George Goodheart, brought the Eastern practices and concepts of Acupuncture, Acupressure, and the body as an integrated, energetic mechanisms to the West. All three discovered that focusing on a problem at hand while simultaneously stimulating the body’s energy meridians created surprisingly rapid and deeper results.

It’s time to tap!!!

 

 

 

IMPORTANT YOU READ:   The resources, descriptions and materials on this site are intended for educational and informational purposes only.  EFT is NOT  a replacement for professional medical or mental health advice, or for common sense and good judgment.  Using the materials offered do not imply a practitioner/client relationship. Claudia Bhagaloo’ work as a professionally accredited practitioner and personal development consultant use EFT’s evidence-based approaches and concepts.  However, there is no representation within her body of work as a diagnostic or licensed medical/mental health caregiver.  By moving forward with the information and resources freely given to you on this site, you agree to take full responsibility for your emotional and physical wellbeing in every way, and further agree to hold provider Claudia Bhagaloo harmless from any claims involving its use. If you cannot agree to these terms, please do not make use of the materials displayed here.