In the 1990s, Gary Craig simplified Dr. Roger Callahan’s Thought Field Therapy (TFT) from a complex tapping system into a single algorithm tapping technique. Why did Gary call it “Emotional Freedom Techniques?”

In the opening pages of his The EFT Manual (2008), Gary claims that EFT could free a person from negative emotions, years of self-doubt, grief over the loss of a loved one, anger, and negative memories involving rape or other abuse. He says “freedom” could also mean freedom to earn a greater income, to improve one’s golf score, to make cold calls with ease, to lose weight, and to become a public speaker, singer, or comedian. He states one can achieve freedom from the anxiety that drives one to addictions and freedom from PTSD, guilt, and depression. Gary writes, “I mean freedom to express love easily and walk upon this planet with grace and confidence” (pp. 25-26).

Most people who have done their share of tapping have experienced new levels of emotional freedom. One client is free from her vomiting phobia which stunted her life. Another client is free from migraines that kept her from planning with confidence anything in the future. Another client experienced freedom from Diet Coke, another from twice-a-day trips to Dairy Queen, another from late night binging. Another client is free from incessant negative self-talk that zapped him of energy. Still others are free from anger at that one person in their lives who used to drive them crazy. Many clients are free from childhood limiting beliefs about themselves, such as “I don’t deserve a good life,” “I don’t matter,” and “I’m invisible.” The increased emotional freedom I have witnessed proves Gary named his technique correctly.

Freedom to Dance

I wanted to feel more emotionally free when I attended my high school reunion last summer. I had not seen the vast majority of my classmates for 40 years having not attended the previous reunions. I knew old feelings of self-consciousness and awkwardness could make for one long, miserable evening if I didn’t do some tapping.

I did more than one round of tapping, but below is a summary of how it evolved. On the Karate Chop (KC) point I tapped:

Even though I won’t know anyone there and won’t know what to say, I deeply and completely accept myself anyway

Even though I don’t like social situations where I have to make small talk with strangers, maybe I can enjoy myself anyway

Even though I’m afraid of feeling self-conscious, what will they think of me? I accept myself and all of my feelings

Tapping through the points:

I’m afraid of going to my reunion

They don’t know me

I don’t know them

What will we say to each other?

It can be so awkward

Maybe it doesn’t have to be

Maybe I can enjoy myself!

That would be strange — but nice

All these fears about uncertainty

Maybe I can let them go

When I got to the reunion I was relaxed and expecting to have a good time. I had the insight from the tapping that these were just people, and it didn’t matter if we didn’t know each other well. I didn’t find the small talk annoying. In fact, I felt so at ease that when the music started I jumped up to dance in front of my high school classmates without feeling self-conscious. Before tapping, I would have preferred to stay in my seat.

EFT increased my choices of how to behave and how to feel in this situation. It didn’t feel difficult after tapping! I felt emotionally free at my reunion.

In my practice as a psychotherapist and EFT practitioner, I make extensive use of the “Parts” process, based on the NLP model of Six Step Reframe and significantly expanded and developed by Fran Burgess in her Personality Alignment approach.

Whilst helping a client to meet and communicate with their own Personality Parts can be successfully done through talk therapy alone, adding EFT to this approach significantly enhances the process of alignment and internal “peace-making.”

“One Part of Me”

When trying to make changes in your life, you may have heard yourself say something like, “One part of me really wants to be healthier and go to the gym, but another part just wants to sit in front of the TV eating crisps.”

Metaphorically, you can think of your overall personality as a team of workers, all striving towards better health, well-being and success of the whole system–you! The problem arises when some of the team members do not communicate with others, or reject, oppress or even bully each other. The resultant inner conflict gets in the way of achieving our goals. We can spot such internal battles in most cases of addictions, eating disorders, autoimmune illness, procrastination, but it is also present in less obvious everyday situations – whenever it feels like we put obstacles in our own way.

The first principle for pulling this “dysfunctional team” together and helping them communicate better, is for the therapist to develop good rapport with the Part associated with the dysfunctional behavior pattern which the client wants to work on. You can also do this process yourself with the suggestions below.

Identifying the Leading Players

Whilst there may be quite a number of players in the “team,” at the very least there will be two Parts who play the leading roles – the Part that is responsible for the undesirable behaviour and the Part that is critical, punitive, often perfectionist. The latter has high expectations and blames and chastises the “naughty” part when things go wrong.

When we lapse on our road to change, the internal critic will rouse such feelings of shame and guilt that the obvious solution is to tranquilise the pain with the addictive substance, food or behaviour. For this reason, it is extremely important for the therapist to show empathy and understanding for both the Parts and not to side with one against the other so as to avoid helping to reinforce the ongoing internal warfare.

Basic Tips

Here are some basic tips on how you may incorporate Parts Work into your EFT therapy. When I get a sense of an internal conflict or sometimes simply when I hear words like “one part of me (…) and another part of me (…),” I begin to ask a series of questions:

So if the Part of you that is responsible for [drinking, smoking, procrastinating, worrying etc] was a person, what would it look like? (I give the client time to visualise the Part)

Is it male or female? (The Part can be of the same or different gender to the client, or sexless)

What is he/she wearing? (Clothing and appearance can symbolise significant aspects of the internal conflict)

How old does he/she look? (The Part can be younger, same age, older than the client, or “ageless”)

Does he/she have a name? (The name may be different or the same as client’s own name, sometimes there is no name, or just a descriptive nickname)

Finding the Job Description

The client’s feelings towards the Part can vary widely but are often negative. It is crucial that the therapist maintains neutrality and does not judge this part of the client’s personality, even if its behaviour appears very destructive (e.g. in self-harm or serious drug addictions). Occasionally I find that the Part is so fearful or suppressed that it is unable to “show up” – but for the purposes of this piece we will assume that the client has come up with some visual image of the Part.

I invite the client to tap with me, acknowledging the existence of the Part.

“Even though there is a Part of me which is responsible for my drinking, it is male, wearing filthy rags and is called Roger, I accept myself anyway.” Facing an “undesirable” Part of themselves can emphasize the difficulty the client may have with self-acceptance, and the set-up phrase may have to be modified, such as “I accept some parts of me,” “I accept most of me,” or “I’d like to accept all parts of me.”

Once we have done a round of tapping, I check with the client what the Part is looking like now. Then I ask “If this Part was trying to help in some way, what might its purpose be?” – or I may speak to the Part directly and ask “What job are you trying to do for [client’s name]?” I invite the client to say the first thing that comes to mind. The answer usually relates to some crucial function like safety and protection, being strong, motivation, connection and love – the client is often surprised by this information.

When we have identified the job of the “misbehaving” Part, I invite the client to acknowledge it through tapping:

“Even though I thought this Part of me was putting obstacles in my way, I recognise its purpose of… [include the wording of the positive intention].”

It is important to keep validating the negative emotions and beliefs that the client may still have about the “naughty” Part, also.

Occasionally, simply acknowledging the existence of the Part responsible for the undesirable behaviour and showing some understanding of it may be enough to make a dramatic change in an addictive or compulsive pattern. Often the client will come up with alternative ideas for how to fulfil that crucial task that their misguided “team member” has been trying to work towards – safety, peace, connection, joy etc. If these new awarenesses are not popping up, you could gently prompt them with phrases such as

“Even though this part of me has been [include positive intention identified] through [behavior], I am curious whether there may be any other ways to achieve that.”

If solutions are offered, it is important to check out with the “dysfunctional” Part whether these are acceptable to it – remember that all our Parts are terrified of being unwanted, of literally losing their job! What we are trying to achieve is NOT to “sack” the Part that has been causing trouble. What we CAN do is to give it a new job description.

A Two-Part Conversation

Often, it may not be sufficient just to acknowledge the internal Part responsible for the unwanted behaviour, and we need to summon the perfectionist, critical Part (call it Part B), who is in direct conflict with Part A. I ask questions on the lines of “Is there a Part that is critical of, or does not like Part A?” Inevitably, the client will recognise this Part – in fact it has probably already popped up during the session if the client has been saying disparaging or critical things about Part A.

I would ask the client questions about Part B, and then tap on the client’s description of it, to acknowledge its presence, its purpose and the positive intention.

I will sometimes ask the client to draw the two conflicting Parts – and any other Parts who may be present! – on a piece of paper (drawing skill is unimportant here). This makes it easier to examine the relationship between the two. You can explore this in client’s imagination if they are reluctant to draw.

I ask questions such as:

How far away are they from each other?

Are they looking at each other or away?

What are their facial expressions?

Are they hearing each other?

What do they feel about each other?

What do they want from each other?

We tap on these answers using the client’s words as accurately as possible, without distorting them or trying to force any shifts in the imagery – these will happen all on their own with tapping. If the client has done a drawing, they may make any alteration or additions to the drawing that seem significant.

You are likely to find that whilst at first the two parts may have been positioned in two far corners of the paper (or client’s visual field) and were scowling at each other, through tapping they may gradually move closer and seem to open up to one other. Their appearance, age, clothing may begin to transform. Feelings of love, compassion, warmth, and often tears begin to arise, sometimes very slowly and cautiously, sometimes in a big gush.

Client-Led Integration of Parts

It is not uncommon for the client to spontaneously make a symbolic gesture of holding, hugging or otherwise accepting the previously rejected and despised part of themselves. It is important to note here that there are some techniques in NLP and other therapeutic modalities where the therapist encourages the client to “integrate” or “bring in” the rejected part of themselves – but if the client is not yet ready for this profound process the attempt could further intensify the conflict. Far safer, in my experience, to gently tap on whatever arises, and allow the process to take place naturally and organically.

The details of these transformations are utterly unique to each individual and the length of time that true integration may take can vary widely. It is crucially important for the therapist not to hold pre-conceived ideas. It is vital for the therapist to model patience, respect, and non-judgement towards all aspects of the client’s personality and experience. In addition to the healing properties of EFT, this is the most important component of healing these internal wars that are such a common part of the process of human change, development and transformation.

“Compound interest arises when interest is added to the principal, so that from that moment on, the interest that has been added also itself earns interest.”

It’s so easy to forget that we have EFT to use as a day-to-day tool to make life a bit easier.

When disaster strikes and we have major upsets or trauma to deal with it’s obvious that we need to deal with it. Major problems are easy to spot and hard to ignore, with EFT you have an excellent tool for working with these difficulties, but what about the day-to-day stuff?

Many of the minor discomforts and problems that we experience on a day-to-day basis seem too small to bother about, we tend to get on with things and not bother tapping on it.

Most of these incidents aren’t so bad, a little dip in our mood and then we are back on track. A lot of life’s challenges give you repetitive and annoying little jolts of stress or distress that we work through every day.

Let’s imagine that you have a work colleague who has a gift for upsetting you – something in the way they speak or look just gets you annoyed.

If you meet for just a few minutes each day it’s not so bad, you only have to speak to them for a few minutes and then it’s over until tomorrow.

At first glance that doesn’t look too bad, it’s “just one of those things”. But it is not just one of those things it’s just one of many of those things, which added up, over time, can cause you a lot of stress.

Each stressful situation you go through prepares you (in a bad way) for the next one.

We are conditioned beings. What happens in any situation prepares our body-mind for the next time we are in a similar situation. We might get apprehensive or stressed, even when we think about the next time we have to go through that kind of experience again.

Dentist’s waiting rooms are full of people being stressed about something that hasn’t happened yet based on their previous experiences of drilling and filling.

Vicious Circle

This stress response pattern leads to a vicious circle.

* a difficult situation …
* leads to upset and stress …
* leads to apprehension of the next time you are in that situation …
* leads you to be in a less resourceful state when next in the situation …
* leads you to have more upset and distress …
* and so on …

Compound Suffering

You might be able to handle one stressful situation at a time with ease, but if you add them up it doesn’t look so good.

Try this little experiment.

Get a calendar, mark in difficult, recurring events, such as:

* Problem meeting at work
* Weekly dinner with the in-laws
* A problem customer
* Having to deal with a troublesome neighbour.
* Mark the last time this event happened on the calendar.
* Now mark the next event when it is due
* And the one after that
* And the one after that
* And the one after that
* And so on …

These situations add up, don’t they?

Let’s imagine that your stressful event takes just ten minutes and only happens once a week.

Ten minutes are not so bad. Anyone can survive ten minutes of discomfort, can’t they?

But 52 weeks of ten minutes discomfort adds up to nearly nine hours of distress.

Imagine nine full, uninterrupted, hours of that kind of stress.

If you got that all at once would you do some tapping to relieve it?

It gets worse. It’s not just this one example of repeating stress, we probably have a lot of little stress events in our lives repeating at regular intervals and compounding their stress over time.

Happily there is a way out.

Compound Freedom

Let’s imagine that just 30 minutes of tapping cleared that reaction.

If you did that, then for just a little effort up front, you could have eight and a half hours less distress in a year.

Not only that the less triggered and more resourceful you can be in that situation the more likely it is to go well.

Tapping on the upset as it occurs will probably diminish the stress of each situation as it occurs as you get more and more able to handle it. Over time the stress response is reduced and all the later occurrences of this situation will be easier, leading to much less stress.

With a bit of tapping you can transform the vicious cycle with a virtuous one.

Virtuous Cycle

This cycle starts with the same event but goes in a different direction.

* a difficult situation …
* leads to upset and stress …
* cleared with EFT …
* leads to more confidence about the next time you will be in that situation …
* leads you to be in a more resourceful state when next in the situation …
* leads you to have less upset and distress than before …
* and so on …

That’s much less stress in your life and much more freedom for a small investment of tapping.

Putting it into practice

Is simplicity itself.

* Review the last week.
* Pick a modest (at first) recurring stressful incident.
* Take care of it with EFT
* Take care of any residual stress the next time it happens
* Rinse and repeat until the stress response is diminished or eliminated.
* Pick another incident and repeat the process

In the time it takes to complain about something that has happened to you, you could take steps to make sure that it doesn’t happen in the same way again or you could allow your stress levels to increase again.

What’s the first change you could make to invest in your happiness?

Andy Hunt is an EFT & NLP Trainer and Practitioner living in the North East of England. He works with people who give themselves a hard time, judge themselves harshly, feel bad about themselves and spend far more time beating themselves up than living the life they would want. Visit him online at www.practicalwellbeing.co.uk.

WORDS FAIL…

We all take communication for granted. We assume that most people have similar values, beliefs and communication skills as ourselves and it is often quite easily forgotten that this is not always the case. Everyone is unique, with different frames of reference, experiences, communication skills, conscious and unconscious learning styles. Yet effective communication is key in building rapport and assisting our clients with EFT. It is a medium that not only conveys poignant statements but also gives an insight into their problems.

Equally important, we are aware that negative emotion arising from trauma can affect our energy levels. But what about the effect on our communication skills? We assume that our clients have the verbal skills and competency to relay, inform and provide feedback to us about their negative experiences and trauma. But what if this isn’t always the case? Whether this issue is a consequence of learning difficulties, age, illness or emotional issue, we, as practitioners, need to be creative and explore different techniques and mediums which will allow our clients to express their feelings in comfortable and safe ways. Often by using alternative mediums to the spoken word, we create disassociation from the trauma itself thereby enabling the client to revisit or speak of the event safely.

They say that “a picture says a thousand words,” and I would like to share with practitioners some of the tried and tested EFT tools in my toolkit that use pictures and photographs. I have found that by allowing my clients to create their own picture board or use their own photographs to “tell a story,” I can glean the information I need to proceed with EFT. It also gives me an insight into their world as they see it, highlighting the modalities and sub-modalities used as well as a glimpse of their values, self-limiting beliefs and suppressed emotions. I have also found that pictures and photographs can also help a client create their Palace of Possibilities that is not only instantly visual, but also specific, measureable (tangible), achievable, rational and timely. Simply put, their Palace of Possibilities becomes their SMART goal.

Here are a few of the creative yet inexpensive tools that I have used:

PICTURE AND COLOUR STORY BOARD

This is my personal take on “tell a story” in pictures, instead of words. Whenever I come across an interesting picture or facial expression in a magazine, I will cut these out and place these in my “picture box”. At client sessions, I will introduce this picture box and ask the client to select pictures that he/ she feels depicts their mood or emotion presently and place these on a felt sheet or cardboard. Interestingly, if you offer the client a selection of coloured felt sheets or cardboard sheets to choose from, it may give you an indication of how they represent their problem in colour. But don’t assume that a red choice will always represent “anger” as red could also be an “empowering” colour. It is always best to ask the client to explain why they chose that particular colour background out of the rest. Giving the client a task not only injects some fun into the session but also connects to the child within. This allows the client to disassociate from their negative emotion by creating a safety zone. Once the client has selected their pictures, I will ask them to “tell me their story.” I will also ask them to briefly describe why they chose those pictures, what they see in those pictures and whether size, colour or texture has any significance. Listen out for “Hot Words” to be incorporated into the Basic Recipe.

Next, I will ask the client to put the “happy pictures” in a pile, within view of the client but to the side of the client. This keeps the “happy pile” nearby but not forgotten, which I will reintroduce at a later stage when we create the client’s Palace of Possibilities.

I will then ask the client to look at the remaining pictures left on the felt sheet and try and delve deeper into the selection left behind. Obviously, if these are not selected by the client to be in their “happy pile,” the inference is that these remaining pictures belong to “the sad pile”. Once again ask the client to tell you a story about the remaining pictures, why they were chosen, etc. Also ask the client if there was a time in the distant or recent past, when they felt the same emotions and expressions represented in the pictures they have selected.

When it comes to creating their Palace of Possibilities, I will retrieve the pictures in the client’s “happy pile” and the process of why, what, when will be played out using the pictures. In setting the POP as a SMART goal, it is important from a life coaching viewpoint to add some time scales. For example, what can be accomplished instantly, weekly, monthly etc. It mentally commits the client to achieving their goals as well as providing them with pictorial evidence that change is instantly possible or may happen imminently. It reinforces the “evidence criteria” in the “change-link” sequence of NLP and Cognitive Hypnotherapy.

It is interesting that clients who have difficulty either naming or talking about their emotions, can identify or relate to the pictures on the felt sheet. Hence it is important to have a wide range of magazine cut-outs available to the client to choose from. Having too few cut-outs will compromise the exercise as it will limit the client’s choice and representational scope of their present problem.

THE ENERGY EXCHANGE PHOTO TECHNIQUE

This technique was developed by my EFT trainer, Marie Holliday. Photographs are memories frozen in time. Memories are only memories to the conscious mind and current events to the unconscious mind. In the same way that magazine pictures can help a client express their emotions and feelings, so can photographs old and new.

In Marie’s technique, a client is either asked to bring a selection to the face-to-face session or kept within reach if it is a telephone or SKYPE session.
Tapping with photographs involves either:

*Tapping on the photograph itself.
*Interchanging with tapping on self and tapping on the photograph.
*Tapping on self and looking at the photograph of self or other people.
*Introducing a few photographs to tap with i.e. family group photographs.

Not only are photographs a great way to introduce surrogate or proxy tapping into your skills mix but it also provides some clients with closure to either a traumatic event, death or abusive situation. It allows the client to have the last say about their feelings or to say the words that they did not have the opportunity to say in the past. Whatever the usage, photographs are an effective alternative medium to the spoken word.

THE PICTURE TAPPING TECHNIQUE. (PTT)

This is a technique developed by Philip Davies and Christine Sutton and incorporates artistic metaphors and symbolism into the delivery of EFT.

In PTT, clients are asked to draw a representational sketch of their present emotions and problem. The client is then asked to describe the picture and the emotions experienced. These are incorporated into the Basic Recipe and tapped upon.

Next the client is asked to either add to the original picture or draw a fresh one. Description by the client is important as it helps the practitioner get an insight into their visual and mental frame of mind as well as giving the practitioner key information to tap on.

It is amazing how the client’s emotions and perspective of their problem changes as their drawing changes.

However, having used this technique myself, I think it is important to make the client feel at ease and emphasize that no artistic skill or competency is required. Otherwise, the client may feel secondary pressure to produce an artistic picture.

BOX THERAPY

This is another dissociation technique that I have developed and used with clients. Before any session, I will ask the client to complete a questionnaire which gives me an idea of their problem. If it is a problem with anxiety, stress or phobia, I will ask the client to write down or collect pictures that represent their anxiety etc.

Before the start of the session, I will ask the client to place their written statements or pictures into a cardboard box, labelled “It stays in here!” This can be done in face-to-face sessions or via telephone or SKYPE. The purpose of the box (with lid) is to create a safe zone for the client to express their negative emotions without the constant reminder on their minds. Placing statements or pictures in a lidded box may be meaningless if it is not accompanied by the Set-Up statement as they place the items in the box. Saying, “even though I feel……and it stays in the box until I am ready/safe etc, I completely and deeply accept myself” mentally creates a safety zone. This is especially useful in abuse cases.

When the client has had rounds of tapping and feels comfortable to revisit their problem, then the contents of the box can be retrieved and the problem revisited. It is also an effective method of re-testing the client’s association/disassociation with the problem.

I hope these alternative methods are of use to practitioners and would appreciate any feedback on the success or challenges of the methods mentioned.

Jennifer Rahman is a Certified level 2 practitioner living in Murcia, Spain. EFT has complemented her life coaching, business coaching and NLP skills. Jennifer offers EFT support ranging from pain relief, food cravings to helping clients quit smoking. Jennifer also uses surrogate and proxy tapping to help traumatized abandoned and abused animals in Spain. To contact her, visit her website at: www.lifemaxxinternational.com.

Editor’s Note: This article first appeared in EFT-Articles.com and is republished here with permission of the author.

The finger points are not used so much in EFT these days. Working with them can still provide a doorway into healing a complicated issue. Here’s an example of where starting with a particular finger point provided my client and me with the quickest way in.

“Hilary” came to me with a list of issues we could work on. We spent the first 40 minutes exploring the various issues we might deal with. This was great for rapport building, but my normal approach is to get clarity within the first 20 minutes. This way we can work efficiently and start to make progress.

The “Heart” of the Problem

The problems Hillary raised were inter-connected in some ways, but also separate. After some discussion we settled to work on an irregular heart beat issue that Hilary has been troubled with all her life. It helped that Hilary is very self aware and familiar with therapeutic techniques. As a result she was open to going with the flow of the energy.

As our conversation had given us many doorways, I went for the least obvious. The tapping point on the little finger of each hand is connected to the heart meridian. I felt drawn to tap there very gently and asked her what she felt. That one action launched Hilary into a huge emotional wave of sadness. The change was dramatic, accompanied by lethargy and coughing.

We continued at a gentle but constant rate of tapping to soothe down the reaction. It helped that Hilary understood what her body’s reaction meant – she’s experienced it before. From experience I also understood that the intense reaction that came on meant that we had touched a core issue quickly.

There were multiple issues to the sadness that came up to deal with which we tapped on. We tapped through many rounds on different aspects for the following issues:

Sadness at being rejected by her church for asking questions when a teenager; and Hurt and guilt at losing her sibling twin whilst in the womb.

Moving to the positive, through tapping, we:

Brought in sunny energy into her solar plexus;
Improved the energy channel between heart and solar plexus so that she could feel joy in expressing herself; and
Brought in more divine energy and self acceptance.

Her irregular heart rhythm went from 7 at the start of our session to a zero by the end. Talking with Hillary 7 weeks later, she reported feeling calmer and able to open up from the heart to give more love to others as a result of our work.

Whilst Hilary recognizes that she has more tapping to do on heart-related issues she felt she got a tremendous benefit from our work together. That’s because there were two minds and two intents focused on the one problem.

Below is a helpful list for those interested in exploring the EFT point connections with the relevant meridian. These connections are NOT intended as being prescriptive, e.g. if you have a heart condition then tapping on one point alone is unlikely to resolve the issue by itself. The connections are best worked with as a possible doorway to finding and working on the underlying core issues.

Eye Brow – Bladder 2
Side of Eye – Gall Bladder 1
Under Eye – Stomach 1
Under Nose – Governing Vessel 27
Chin – Central Vessel 27
Collar Bone – Kidney 27
Under Arm – Spleen 17
Under Chest – Liver 14

Hands:

Thumb – Lung 11
Index Finger – Large Intestine 1
Middle Finger – Pericardium 9
Gamut spot – Triple Warmer 3
Baby Finger – Heart 9
Karate Chop – Small Intestine 3

The Belief Flip is a simple process I use with EFT for neutralising many types of limiting beliefs quickly and easily.

One such limiting belief might be: “I will always be poor.”

In standard EFT you could use several approaches to soften or neutralise this belief:

• Persistent tapping on the belief statement to reduce the charge over time.
• Investigate the events that led up to the formation of this belief, neutralising each memory with the movie technique until the belief has collapsed.
• Use some clever reframing in your tapping to verbally loosen the belief’s hold.

The Belief Flip is a simple reframing pattern that you can use on many types of belief. It will typically neutralise the belief with just one or two rounds of tapping. It might take a little bit of effort to fully “get” the pattern at first, but it is worth it.

This process works by stretching the limiting belief so far out of shape during the tapping that it can not come back into its original form. It works well with beliefs that involve permissions and black and white thinking. These beliefs often start with:

• I always or I never. For example, “I am always late”
• I can or I can’t. For example, “I can’t control my eating”
• I am or I am not. For example, “I am not allowed to be happy”
• I must or I must not. For example, “I must be in control”
• Nobody or Everybody. For example, “Nobody loves me”

The Belief Flip works by taking the belief statement, splitting it into two pieces, flipping the meaning of both pieces to create a set of four phrases that are tapped on, in sequence, to neutralise the original belief.

For example: each of these beliefs can be split into two parts

• Part 1: I am always… Part 2: late
• Part 1: I can’t… Part 2: control my eating
• Part 1: I am not allowed… Part 2: to be happy
• Part 1: I must… Part 2: be in control
• Part 1: Nobody… Part 2: loves me

Both parts of the belief will have an opposite: a “flip-side.”

For example, “I am always” flips to “I am never”, “late” flips to “on time”

Or in the case of “Nobody loves me,” the word “nobody” flips to “everybody” and “loves me”, might flip to “hates me.”

Or in “I am not allowed to be happy,” the flip-side of “I am not allowed” is “I am allowed,” and the flip-side of “to be happy” might be “to be serious.”

The full Belief Flip process for the belief “I will always be poor” might go something like this:

In this example below, I split the belief “I will always be poor” into its parts, flip them, then recombine the pieces to get a tapping sequence. Tap on each of the acupressure points using these statements:

B: I will always be poor
SE: I will never be rich
UE: I will never be poor
UN: I will always be rich

Keep repeating the process with the other remaining points:

CH: I will always be poor
CB: I will never be rich
UA: I will never be poor
TH: I will always be rich

Keep in Mind:

The first flip is usually straightforward, however the second flip needs to be the opposite meaning *the client* gives to that part of the belief.

For example:

“I must be in control”

“I must” flips to “I must not”

Depending on the client’s point of view the flip-side or opposite of “in control” could be:

• relaxed
• flexible
• balanced
• …

It’s up to the client to choose *their* flip-side of the original meaning. This will make the process much more powerful

Belief Flip Instructions:

1. Identify the belief. For example, “I must be in control”. Say it out loud to get a sense of how true it is on a 0-10 scale.

2. Split the belief into its two parts and ask the client what the opposite of the second part of the belief is for them.

Remember: the opposite needs to be their opposite not yours. The client decides how to flip that part. In this example, they have chosen “be relaxed” as their flip-side to “be in control.”

Build the list of the four reminder phrases (do this on paper at first, because it can be a bit confusing until you get used to the pattern).

1st – The original limiting belief – “I must… be in control”

2nd – Flip both parts of the original belief. – “I must not… be relaxed”

3rd – Keep the flipped first part of the belief and add the second half of the original belief -”I must not… be in control”

4th – The original belief with the second half flipped – “I must… be relaxed.”

3. Tap while speaking the four statements on the first four acupressure points (starting with the Eyebrow (EB) point). Repeat the four statements while tapping on the next four points. In other words, use eight points to make a full round. (There is no Setup statement required).

EB: I must be in control
SE: I must not be relaxed
UE: I must not be in control
UN: I must be relaxed

CH: I must be in control
CB: I must not be relaxed
UA: I must not be in control
TH: I must be relaxed

4. Check the intensity of the original belief. If there is still a charge on it, rinse and repeat. It may be that the tapping brings up some other issues that need to be worked on.

Note: It’s possible that one or more of the statements will have a charge on them, or get a charge on them, when you start tapping. If that happens, tap out the excess charge on that particular statement and start the Belief Flip again.

You may find after the Belief Flip that the “flipped belief” hasn’t been taken on – that’s fine. The Belief Flip is intended to neutralise the limiting belief rather than install an alternative.

Here are some more examples of Belief Flips:

I am not allowed to be happy
I am allowed to be miserable
I am not allowed to be miserable
I am allowed to be happy

or

Nobody loves me
Everybody hates me
Nobody hates me
Everybody loves me

Please Remember:

If your belief is the result of traumatic, or multiple incidents of trauma or abuse this process probably won’t be enough to undo the belief. You may need extensive work with EFT or other modalities to take care of those experiences before you can use the Belief Flip on your beliefs.

Andy Hunt is an EFT & NLP Trainer and Practitioner living in the North East of England. He works with people who give themselves a hard time, judge themselves harshly, feel bad about themselves and spend far more time beating themselves up than living the life they would want. Visit him online at www.practicalwellbeing.co.uk.

Recently, I learned something very powerful about practicing EFT that I’d like to share. A practitioner friend named Ganesha, a friend and recent student of Sonya Sophia out in California, did something with me that has not only been beneficial for me personally, but has also strengthened my ability to help others. In essence, by offering a gentle, thorough line of questioning, he helped me release my problem. I believe this happened because I was able to make connections at the beginning of our session that served to disarm my resistance to looking deeply at what was going on with me.

Many practitioners are familiar with the importance of asking good questions and building rapport with your client. What was new to me was how Ganesh allowed the details and intensities to linger while we delved deeper and deeper into my subjective experience of the issue. This is something I had previously touched on in many sessions, but never quite like this. Later what I realized was so powerful about this approach was how our exploration seemed to naturally disarm any body resistance to change (called PR or Psychological Reversal).

Our rapport together was also strengthened, and I literally felt so held and free by his gentle line of questioning, there was literally no real need to use the “setup” phrase during the entire process. Experienced EFTers will also notice how we employed the strategy of “continuous tapping” on acupuncture points during the discussion – which helped my body clear the energy of the words as we tapped. He also tested and measured my intensity levels around the original issue as well as several other aspects that were uncovered along the way. It is also worth noting that we spent time tapping on one specific (and intense) early event that rose into consciousness during the process.

My Body Won’t Let Go

We began with me talking about my “issue.” I had just awoken from a nap at a friends house and had noticed my jaw was tight and that I felt frightened. It had occurred to me that this was a somewhat common occurrence. I started to describe my symptoms:

It feels like I’m scared to sleep sometimes. Like I’m afraid to completely let go. It’s almost as if my consciousness is hanging on for dear life and won’t let go of the bed.

He asked me to put my issue into a few succinct words. We decided upon, “My body won’t let go.”

What Are Some Negative Feelings You Have Around “My Body Won’t Let Go?”

In other words, he was asking me what is was like to experience what I was going through. My EFTer’s mind was racing: I remembered that these symptoms had appeared in my late twenties, and I knew that there had been trauma that was a likely cause. However, I actually didn’t want to revisit this today. Instead I chose to go with the sense that something else, something earlier in my life was involved. Ganesha was already tapping, and motioned that I could tap along as well. So I tapped as I talked, one thought per point or so:

“Frustrating. It isn’t safe. Disappointing. I can’t fix it. Out of control. Awareness of teeth clicking. Unease. Trepidation. Limitation. Stuckness. The stuckness is about a 7 (on an intensity scale of 1-10).”

As many people know, EFT can be applied to any one of these words or phrases – each one a possibly rich healing doorway, but Ganesha encouraged me to keep tapping while he gently questioned me some more:

What’s Some of Your Negative Self-Talk Around This?

I answered:

“You should be free of this. All this EFT and you can’t be free of this? You’re doing something wrong. You’re irreparably broken.”

I was kind of surprised at what was coming out of my mouth, but it was honest, and I sensed the tapping – and Ganesha’s gentle voice, was really helping things flow. I did really want to get to the bottom of “body won’t let go,” not just in my sleep habits, but in my musical, creative expression as well.

What Do You Think Are Some of the Cultural Beliefs Around This?

Immediately I came out with:

“Letting go isn’t safe – I might be out of control. I might be too much. Things might get out of hand. If things get out of hand, they might embarrass someone. Maybe someone else will feel bad. Oh my god, I’m totally seeing an image of my mother.”

What is Your Earliest Memory of This?

This one was easy:

“My mother disapproved. At 10 or 11, she could shut me down with just one look. I made her feel uncomfortable. My behavior was too much for her. Too girly for a young boy. Too expressive. I had to protect her from me. I think I still do that. Letting go is never safe. Always trying to let go, but how can anyone TRY to let go? It’s impossible! I’ll never be able to let go. Music. It’s part of why I have never given myself over to music.”

Ganesh asked for some intensity levels around what was coming up for me. Sad: 8 (out of 10). I responded with some more thoughts about letting go, knowing from my own work that imagining the possibility of “letting go” might bring up some more core stuff. I continued to talk and tap:

“I don’t know if I can do that. I don’t know if I can let go consistently. What might happen if I did? If I let go, others might be hurt. I was always worried about letting go and hurting others.”

He asked:

What Happened Before When You Did Let Go?

“I lost control. People got hurt. It was ugly. I could have killed someone. I was afraid to hurt others. It was also humiliating. It was shameful when I did lose control.”

At this point a clear memory surfaced. I was seeing myself as a 10 year old, dancing in the laundry room of one of my childhood homes. I tapped and described the scene before me and how I had been mercilessly teased by the neighborhood kids who had been spying on me. How there had been no privacy in that house and how angry I had been. I recognized that there were literally a cascade of emotions, aspects and other memories here, but it felt right to just bring my attention back to this one, specific memory. I continued to visualize myself as a young man, then talk about the house and that time in my life, including all the players involved. It was at this point Ganesh took me back to my original phrase with some systematic tapping:

“Eyebrow Point (EB): Body Won’t Let Go
Side of Eye (SE): Body Won’t Let Go
Under Eye (UE): Body Won’t Let Go…”

Long story short, we continued to tap through “Body Won’t Let Go,” stopping to measure the intensity (in this case, the truth) of the original statement. I actually couldn’t find much truth in the statement at all by this time, and the “stuckness” (remember if was a 7) was now quite low as well.

As our session drew to a close, we discussed the many aspects that had come up, and how I could use EFT to “sweep out the corners” or investigate other areas further as the days went on. I was thankful that he had four pages of notes outlining the process for me to take home.

The Ability to See the Big Picture

In the days that have followed, the most startling effect from our session is my approach to my creative work. Something powerful has shifted within me, and I’m heartily exploring my musical work in ways I never have in the past. Update 5/18: I have also been awakening with a greater sense of peace and confidence in all my abilities – and having this last throughout the day. I attribute this profound shift to this latest session.

In EFT, we are always on the lookout for core issues, but sometimes a core issue is so big, it’s like we’re standing too close to a large painting. Tapping through the questions in the way we did was a like a slow stepping back. With each step the whole story was allowed to come into greater focus. I am greatly appreciative to my friend Ganesha (and his recent teacher Sonya Sophia) for their mindful approach to EFT. Stay tuned!

D, an American, was having a great deal of emotional reaction to the multiple tragedies unfolding in Japan. He recognized that his reaction to this disaster seemed to be more acute than to other similar situations. For example, it hit him harder than the news from the 2004 earthquake and tsunami in the Indian Ocean.

We mused on reasons why this might be the case, but none of them seemed to account for the deep level of identification D seemed to be feeling with the disaster victims, especially in the early days of the nuclear reactor crisis.

We tapped on the disaster together, including how the people of Japan might be feeling: the devastation, fear, and helplessness. He stated his belief that we all live with an illusion of control of the world around us, which a natural disaster challenges, and we worked on that. Although these produced energy shifts, they did not seem to reach the source of his anxiety.

About a week after the tsunami he told me that while virtual tapping in his mind at 2 AM, unable to sleep from worrying about the Japanese, he’d had a crucial insight.

D’s father was a career Air Force officer, commanding base hospitals across the country. During the 1962 Cuban Missile crisis, when D was seven, his family was living on a SAC (Strategic Air Command) base, with 12 Intercontinental Ballistic Missile sites nearby. As America came to the brink of what it assumed would be nuclear war, these nuclear warheads were made operational.

As the crisis intensified, the families on the base were prepared for evacuation. Although thankfully the crisis was over before D’s family had to leave, his memory was of the anxiety of those days, and the fear that he and his family would have to leave his father behind to face a nuclear attack.

This particular incident wasn’t one of those ‘top of mind’ stories of emotional turmoil that we tend to carry and recount frequently. The disaster in Japan, and in particular the danger from the reactors, had shaken loose an old and buried memory for him.

Insights

This incident illustrated two effects of EFT, and also gave us insight into the world of childhood.

It demonstrates how EFT works underground, or in the background, to keep opening up the areas of blocked energy in our mind and memory banks. If we keep using it, the insights will come.

Additionally, it is a wonderful testimonial to how we can mentally visualize a tapping round, with the same benefits as physically tapping on ourselves.

And it reminds us that adults frequently underestimate the sensitivity of children to the events unfolding in their lives, and overestimate their resiliency. Although children may seem to shake off crises quickly, they bear the scars—sometimes unknown or unacknowledged. In EFT we have a tool to use with and teach our kids, rather than assuming or hoping that the storms of life will pass over and leave them unscathed.

Most smokers know they light up a cigarette when they are under stress. Many more are unaware that many other emotions lead to smoking as well, such as, anger, worry, fear, hunger, sadness and a host of others.

It appears that those negative emotions trigger something within each person that leads them back into their old habit of ameliorating it by lighting up a cigarette and taking a few drags to calm down.

What if you could eliminate that trigger? Can you imagine what it would be like to deal with your anger or stress using EFT instead of using a cigarette? It would be freeing and release you from your addiction to cigarettes. So how do you do it? Here’s how:

First, it takes a little bit of conscious noticing of when you’re feeling like you are so stressed that you find yourself wanting a cigarette. When that happens, its very important that instead of reaching for a cigarette, you instead start using EFT to tap away the negative thoughts and feelings. For instance, if you’re feeling stressed, you can simply do a Setup like this:

“Even though I’m feeling so stressed that now I want a cigarette, I love and accept myself nonetheless.”

“Even though I don’t believe I can stop this urge to have a cigarette because of all this stress I’m under, I accept myself anyway.”

Then go on to the reminder statements as you tap on each meridian access point as follows:

Eyebrow (EB): “I’m under so much stress.”
Side of Eye (SE): “I really want a cigarette.”
Under Eye (UE) :“Whenever I’m under stress, the only thing that helps is a cigarette.”
Under Nose (UN): “I really want that cigarette right now.”
Under Mouth (Ch): “Actually, I don’t really want a cigarette, I just don’t know what else to do.”
Collar Bone (CB)“Actually, I do know what to do and I’m doing it right now. I’m tapping my urge away.”
Under Arm (UA): “I’m under so much stress.”
Top of Head (TH): “All this stress I’m under. I let it go.”

Drop your hands and take a deep breath to integrate and process the tapping and then check in on your SUDS (emotional intensity) level to see how much the urge for a cigarette has changed. If it has gone down somewhat, continue along the same lines as before, only add a phrase that acknowledges that some of the urge has gone away.

Before you finish 2-3 rounds, your stress may be gone along with the urge for a cigarette. If another urge arises, treat it the same way.

Editor’s Note: We first read this article on EmotionalBuzzz.com where it was reprinted from PracticalWellbeing.co.uk. It is reprinted here with the author’s permission.

You probably cut yourself when you were a kid. Maybe you fell off your bike, or stepped barefoot on broken glass. When you ran screaming to your mum to show her the wound she probably did three things – calmed you down, cleaned the wound, applied a sticking plaster.

Imagine if you suffered an injury today as an adult, you might end up at your local hospital’s accident and emergency unit, where the staff would calm you down, clean the wound of all the stuff that shouldn’t be there and then bandage you up so you can heal.

But, imagine for a moment that you are lying there with a wound full of soil, splinters and other bits and pieces that don’t belong to you. What would your reaction be if the medical team started to bandage you up without cleaning the wound? Would you become a little bit apprehensive?

You might ask: “Aren’t you going to clean that? What about infections?”

“There, there, you’ll soon be better!” say the medical team.

You protest: “What? I’ve got an armful of soil and you’re covering it up! It will go septic.”

“No, no, no, don’t you worry. Just think happy thoughts and you’ll soon feel better!” they say, wearing happy smiley faces.

“Happy thoughts! That hole in my arm is full of muck! Aren’t you going to clean it first?”

“Just think of all the fun you’ll have when you are all better – we’ll just get your bandage on.”

“Arggghhhh! I’m phoning my mum. At least she knows what she’s doing!” you shout, as you run for the exit.

I know, it’s a ridiculous scenario. Competent medical staff would want to clean the wound so that you have the best possible chance of healing.

EFT can do a powerful job of releasing negative emotions. Anyone who has experienced this release can testify that negative feelings seem to melt away. In some situations there are a lot of facets to a problem and lots of painful emotions to be worked with and through. Life can be very cruel at times and there may be a lot of work to do to clean up the debris of early traumas and difficulty.

It’s not always fun for the client or the therapist, but it’s necessary work and it’s essential to do a thorough job.

Unfortunately some EFTers (and I imagine other kinds of therapists) rush over the necessary wound cleaning to apply the positive bandage. When a negative emotion shows the first signs of clearing they rush into reassurance and positive thinking.

“One does not become enlightened by imagining figures of light, but by making the darkness conscious. The latter procedure, however, is disagreeable and therefore not popular.” – Carl Jung

Premature Reassurance Is Unhelpful

It’s disrespectful to your client. They are sharing their deep inner experience. It’s very personal, tender to them and the therapist seems to want to gloss over the pain and go straight to the happy ending. How can your client accept and work with their experience if the therapist can’t?

If there are still painful emotions and beliefs to be worked with they need to be dealt with. If that work is not complete, you are leaving important work undone. Gary Craig rightly works to get the intensity of issues down to zero so that his clients can have emotional freedom from that issue.

Most difficult emotional situations are highly interrelated. One of the joys of EFT is that one emotional clue will take you to another important fact of the problem and take care of that as well. Stopping the tapping early cuts off the possibility of a more thorough healing because those roots are never exposed.

If Premature Reassurance Is So Unhelpful Why Do Therapists Do It?

• Fear: Specifically the therapist’s fear that the client, immersed in painful emotions, is going to go out of control and you, the therapist, are not going to be able to stop them. This is not helpful to clients who also have this fear and at least the therapist ought to be confident that they can contain the client’s distress
• Discomfort: Some emotional states are very uncomfortable to be in and very uncomfortable to witness. If the client’s pain triggers the therapist’s pain then the therapist might feel highly motivated to get out of their shared misery
• The Need to Fix: It is possible that the reassuring therapist might believe that the client is broken, the therapist has to “fix” them and they, the therapist, know just what they need. This is “poor you, I know just what you need.” It is a condescending attitude and it doesn’t help. Remember how you have felt when someone has tried to fix you (even if they had good intentions), it’s not a good feeling
• Faulty Positive Thinking: Many EFT therapists (and others) are immersed in a New Age / Positive Thinking culture that promotes the supremacy of positive thinking. The belief being that positive thoughts are good and must be encouraged, negative thoughts are bad and must be avoided, denied, suppressed. Simplistic reading of the Law of Attraction, books and films such as The Secret have given some people the impression that negative thoughts are to be feared and avoided so that you don’t stray too far from the light. If that’s your understanding, you might feel obliged to get the client into a positive state as quickly as possible (for their own good of course)

What Can You Do If You Think You Suffer From Premature Reassurance?

• Tap on your fears about clients going out of control (in whatever way that frightens you). Tap on any memories where this happened in the past. If you have memories of family members or friends flying out of control tap on those memories as well. You need to be able to hold a space for someone else’s pain without going to pieces yourself. Practice abiding with the discomfort of your clients. Tap on any previous discomforts you may have experienced
• Check and neutralize the need to fix. Say out loud “I have to fix my clients” or “I need to fix my clients.” If either of those ring true for you get tapping. Being free from that attachment to that outcome will save you (and your clients) a lot of pain. If you suspect you are attached to the positive you might like to start tapping on your “fear of the dark.” Are there emotional states that scare you? Are there states you feel compelled to avoid? Being accepting of so-called negative states is not the same as supporting them and won’t lead you to be seduced by the ‘Dark Side of the Force’. Quite the opposite, being comfortable with them as the therapist demonstrates to the client that these feelings can be handled in a positive, accepting way

A Place For The Positive

To be clear about this: I’m not arguing that there is no place in EFT for the positive, that it’s all doom and gloom. Quite the contrary, there is an excellent place for the positive – it’s after the negative has been resolved and there is room for it to go in without opposition.

After all, if your child came to you with a cut or a graze you would clean the wound thoroughly before you applied the bandage, wouldn’t you?

Andy Hunt is an EFT & NLP Trainer and Practitioner living in the North East of England. He works with people who give themselves a hard time, judge themselves harshly, feel bad about themselves and spend far more time beating themselves up than living the life they would want. Visit him at Practicalwellbeing.co.uk