This article is about an innovative technique — using EFT in dreams. It explains the theoretical background in why EFT combined with Lucid Dreaming can have a major impact on people’s lives, and how to do it. Anxiety can be defused if we become conscious in our dreams. Part 2 will go into the background with more techniques.

Combining EFT with Lucid Dreaming: Part 1

EFT is a feast – a gift to all who use it. It can instantly dispel the toxic waste that accumulates around negative feelings. But just consider how doubly effective it might be when you do it while you are dreaming. Many of us have the ultimate goal of finally ridding ourselves of anxieties, and with EFT this is attainable. Yet, Adults spend 25% of their lives in sleep — for babies it’s 50% — time which might be wasted for self-development, if sleep is only used to recharge batteries. We are often plagued by unknown anxieties in dreams. If we can learn to do EFT while the brain is in lower frequency brain wave patterns, it could impact directly on these anxieties, stimulating, clearing and realigning the meridian energy flow of the sleeping body.

In some way dreams help regulate and control how effective we are in life. Yet many people experience what Freud called “free floating anxiety.” This often manifests in dreams with tense experiences that bleed into our waking lives, causing untold confusion, weakness, procrastination and fear. The anxious dream can be a bumpy ride filled with horrors. You wake up feeling jittery, and that carries into the day, triggering habitually ineffective reactions and responses. Now techniques developed by lucid dream experts can help you develop greater flexibility in your approach to waking life. It involves becoming conscious in your dreams. While this may not seem easy to control, people report having spontaneous lucid dreams and feeling elated at the memory. Surely, being lucid in any state of consciousness is desirable?

EFT and Lucid Dreaming

One day I started mental tapping while in this half-awake state, while immersed in my worries. It felt different. Tapping at this deep level of mind worked away at the underlying physiological roots. The brain makes no distinction between imagination and the real thing as many studies have shown. My worries were stripped away in layers. So I wondered — what if conscious dreamers could tap on issues during their dreams? This innovative combination of techniques has rarely been tried outside psychotherapeutic practices. Be among the first to consciously tap while encountering a dream figure that seems threatening. It might just change your life.

Dreams occur in REM (Rapid Eye Movement) sleep which has a 90-minute cycle throughout the night. Admittedly, this might be tricky to pull off, like trying to see the end of your nose while tight-rope walking. As soon as you realise you are doing it, you are likely to wake up. Some theories suggest that lucidity is itself adrenaline-fueled, the energy we need to become awake and get up.

Lucid dreaming expert, Stephen LaBerge, recommends that you should just slip back into the dreamscape. It’s easy enough to do EFT with eyes closed, mentally, developing strong inner visualisation of the meridian points. Imagine tapping them. This works rapidly to counter negative thoughts that sprout habitually from patterns woven into the fabric of the subconscious. Perhaps results won’t manifest immediately, as to do it while asleep may take some time to achieve. While this practice requires strong intention, plenty of patience, good timing, awareness and skill, everyone should be able to do. You might just find that you have a knack for it.

Using EFT in Dreams

Bad dreams are good opportunities to practice EFT to re-balance and re-harmonize internally. Carlos Castaneda even suggests that these dreams stem from ‘inorganic entities’ (The Art of Dreams, 1994).

Imagine the scenario: you’re about to open a door; there is darkness, shadows; you feel threatened, in grave danger. What’s behind the door? Maybe nothing, but that does not help you when you are there. It is survival mechanics. We are prone to such experiences in dreams as the dream body is separated from sensations so has free reign to create phantoms and bogey men. The subconscious mind is at large and completely unedited. This gnawing feeling of disquiet may appear as someone chasing you, or as standing on a cliff, or a high building. You are teetering on the edge, falling or running away from a demon tiger that hasn’t had lunch yet. It is not enough to know this might be a projection of your own fears. We need to take action there and then. The fear works so fast, we have such little control that it may already have triggered the molecules of emotion that create our reality, and pumped adrenaline into your system, leaving you exhausted and full of inexplicable tensions when you wake up. This cycle could continue for years without our realising.

EFT Tapping While Dreaming

Here’s what you can do: When you catch yourself dozing, and running through nightmare scenarios, with free floating anxiety, mentally do EFT on them. Fully imagine yourself tapping eyebrows, side of the eyes, under the nose, chin and collar bone and mentally repeat the phrases. The power of intention is undisputed. This is not just mental tapping which you can do any time of the day, but goes deeper into slower delta and theta brain wave patterns. Observe any dream phantoms melt away.

1) Karate Point/Sore Point: Even though I’m feeling anxious I love and accept myself completely.
Eyebrow: This anxiety
Side of Eye: This fear,
Under the Nose: this trembling, …… this horrible feeling…. this weakness, this enemy within.. etc.

2) Karate Point/Sore Point: Even though I’m being chased by a monster round the house, I love and accept myself completely. This beastly face. .. this demon.. this shadow self.. this mirror of myself.. this un-integrated part… this thing that chases me

3) Karate Point/Sore Point: Even though I’m paralysed with fear, I love and accept myself completely and profoundly.
Meridian points: This fear.. this petrified state.. this impasse .. this stalemate…. this blockage.. this sign I need to change… this inflexibility.. feeling paralysed etc

Breathe and even drink an imaginary glass of water to aid the flow of energy. The effect of repeating these words in this way is like a mantra. It helps increase greater awareness in dreams, and sharpens the experience of everyday life. A bonus is that it provides the groundwork for expanding the mind’s capacity to be flexible and supple, just as in yoga practice. You need never become fixated on anything if it is “just a dream” dredged up by the layer of your own attitudes, assumptions and beliefs.

Kieron Devlin is a hypnotherapist, NLP and EFT practitioner and writer, working in Islington, London. He aids clients in developing their creativity and offers regular workshops in Healing Through Writing. He can be reached at www.kierondevlin.com

I have a client, I will call her Megan, who had a very hard childhood with severe abuse and neglect. We have had many, many sessions focusing on different issues.

One of her main problems has been Multiple Chemical Sensitivity. Especially “smelly” people, means people using ordinary soap, shower gel, deodorant, shampoo, or perfume plunged her into severe physical discomfort and instant panic attacks. When I started working with her, she was practically housebound and feeling hopeless.

After our work together, she now drives everywhere, goes to her daughter’s extremely “smelly” school, talks to her son’s baseball coach right after he took a shower, visits her “smelly” siblings’ homes – and feels o.k. She still doesn’t like the scents, but she does not go into a panic attack and can handle it.

How Did That Happen?

Well, it happened in one session, actually within minutes in that session. (I will get to the “however” later).

She had told me (and other practitioners), that when the smell hits her, it is like a switch in her brain that is being turned on. She feels the panic attack coming on, and then she is physically sick for hours or even days. We had tapped on, “Even though I have this switch in my brain,” repeatedly, but it didn’t have much effect.

One day, it came to me to ask her:

“How exactly does this switch look like?”

Megan said: “Like an ordinary light switch, light beige. It is flipped up when it is on.”

“Well,” I said. “Why don’t we just fixate on it in the ‘off’ position? How can we do that?”

She said: “Duct tape. I am taping it down with multiple layers of duct tape right now. There is no way it can go to the on position.”

From that day on, no panic attacks, only mild to moderate discomfort with those smells. I have checked in repeatedly, and the switch stays securely taped down.

Now, this begs the question: If I had come up earlier with that simple question (duh!), could we have achieved this profound release much earlier?

Actually, I don’t think so.

These were the main people in her childhood who were abusive – and “smelly” (In case you wonder: Her mother was not abusive but weak, sick, and “out of it”).

1. Her father, using lots of aftershave, often flew into a rage and beat his children severely. One of the painful memories was an incident, when Megan witnessed her father beating her 4 year old sister with a belt after she had eaten his jelly.

2. Her much older brother using Irish Spring soap who beat and tortured her for years.

3. Her “smelly” aunt who disliked her and let her know it in many ways. We tapped on one memory when the aunt took her daughter and Megan’s sister to the circus while Megan was not invited to go with them.

4. Cruel, “smelly” foster parents (she lived with several of those) who let her freeze in the cold outside for hours and punished her for things she did not do.

5. Rich “smelly” girls in junior high school who tortured her in the restroom because she was poor and didn’t belong.

We had tapped on these – and more – traumatic memories for many sessions. I do believe that all that work needed to be done before the switch was ready to be taped down.

What do you think?

Carna Zacharias-Miller assists her clients from her private practice in Tallahassee, Florida.

I had been struggling with weight issues and used and worked through umpteen programmes, Energy Psychology ones as well, but still there were theses extra 5 – 7 pounds that seemed to be jumping back onto my body as soon as they were gone – or simply did not want to leave.

With all the EFT et al I had no issues left on body size, protection etc., but still struggled with eating for a couple of specific emotional reasons.

From the newsletter of Gwyneth Moss I learned about the Anxiety Gremlin (www.emotional-health.co.uk/articles.htm) – it was just what I needed.

First step

I turned the Anxiety Gremlin into an Overeating Gremlin and personalised it, using:

My anxiety is like a ____________. She is (was) a sleek, slinky and manipulating temptress, looking quite like one of those beautiful members of Cirque du Soleil. She used to whisper into my ears as soon as one of mainly three different unpleasant feelings seemed to creep up.

And so, using Gwyneth‘s anxiety protocol, I tapped the Karate Chop three times:

“Even though my overeating is a temptress I accept myself anyway…”

Then I went around the tapping points and described the personification of temptress in specific detail as I went.

Eye brow: sleek
Outer eye: slinky
Under eye: smooth soft voice
Under nose: undulating
Chin point: staring hypnotising eyes
Collar bone: multicoloured silky
Under arm: sensual
Liver point: hypnotising voice
Top of head: so sensual

I pictured the gremlin again and notice what had changed; She now looked a lot less colourful and almost stiff. And I tapped another round with the new description, using, “still a little ________” as I pictured her again, she actually looked quite bland and stiff, so I moved to the second step.

Second step

I described to myself the body response to the Overeating Gremlin’s whispers:

My brain/mind gets stiff, my only focus is on food, I feel tenseness in my neck and in the lower jaw; I feel defiant, my eyes become tense, staring, my breath becomes tense and short, there is a knot in the stomach.

Third Step

The Gremlin gets that response in me by whispering to me:

“oh, come on, you deserve it, who cares how you look like, it is not so bad anyway, it’s the insides that are important, do not short change yourself, only this last time, oh, come on, just one more little bit – and another one… and anyway you can drink some digestive tea later.”

I realise that she is actually an ogre in the disguise of a temptress. Now I put the steps together and tapped the karate point three times with:

“Even though the Overeating Gremlin makes my mind/brain focus only on food, my neck, jaw and eyes tense, the knot in my stomach keeps me from breathing deeply, I love and accept myself anyway…”

Eye brow: the overeating gremlin makes me focus only on food
Outer eye: by telling me it‘s not so important how I look
Under eye: that I deserve a little bite and another one
Under nose: she making my neck tense
Chin point: my eyes narrow
Collar bone: the Overeating Gremlin makes me feel defiant
Under arm: makes my breathing short and tense
Liver point: she gives me a knot in my stomach
Top of head: and that‘s how the OG does it

After the second round of tapping my breathing around the midriff has become regular and deeper even than it normally is, my shoulders have relaxed and I hadn’t even noticed that they were tense… I have a feeling that I am in control of deciding, not the temptress, what and how much to eat; I do not feel to be in her grip anymore – all the while she was beguilingly talking to me she had my neck in a firm grip with one hand; interesting I only notice it now, that it is gone.

Step Four

I repeated out loud how the Overeating Gremlin does her tempting: she tells me that I deserve to satisfy my immediate wish to eat and that it does not really make any difference, and that I can always loose weight later on, as I have done before, and I am only slightly overweight. The real truth is that I feel really very well when I eat to nourish myself instead of stuffing myself in order to “follow her temptations,” and I know that it does make a difference to my over all well being, physically, emotionally and mentally, even socially; it makes a difference to how I feel about myself.

And so, tapping the Karate Chop point:

Even though the Overeating Gremlin, the Temptress, tells me that I deserve to fulfill my desire to eat, and makes me feel that this is my own thought, the real truth is that I love to feel light, and that I feel really good when enjoy food to nourish me in just the right amount.

I also used the meridian points with the same ideas until the temptress had morphed into a combination of St. Bernard dog and Golden Retriever.

The St. Golden is soft and caring, “feeding’” me with warmth and tenderness, gets me to drink water and to go outside for long or short walks and to go and meet other people, HE is loving and encouraging…

It really works! I do not own a scale so I do not know how much I have lost in the last 10 days, but my trousers fit easier and I have not binged at all. (I have also not starved myself.) So far, whenever a situation popped up when the Overeating Gremlin would have tempted me into eating or stuffing myself, I felt a tender warmth around my shoulders and neck whispering into my ears:

I love you, you do not need this food… the best about it is that it happens automatically, I do not have to think about it.

With gratitude to all involved, starting with Gary

Christina Hurst-Prager uses EFT in combination with Craniosacral Therapy in her practice near Zurich, Switzerland.

I specialise in working with people who suffer from chronic anxiety conditions arising from childhood trauma, known and unknown. This complex case highlights how a sensitive use of inner child work and parts work can help bring peace to a conflicted internal system.

My client V, contacted me from Goa because he had an issue with food and self image he would like to address. Three years previously he had totally burnt out whilst trying to lose weight and get fit and he had a pattern of sabotaging behaviour. He felt totally locked in a cycle of stress in every part of his life.

He felt consumed by burn out, acidity and negative emotions. He had an understanding that there were parts of him still feeling as they did during the traumas of the past and were influencing his behaviour now.

I asked him to be aware of what he wanted from this work together today.

He spoke of a real fear of moving on, fear of stepping out, fear of taking responsibility, failure means punishment and pain. He has to make a decision about what he wants to do with his life and it feels very, very difficult. So much stress involved and this had a negative impact on his health. He felt stuck in repeated patterns, still feeling the shock of the burnout. Every time he made the effort to go forward it took him back to the trauma. Even eating a meal is stressful, so every aspect of his life felt stress inducing.

He had a clear conflict between a part that wants to move on and a part that didn’t feel safe.

I decided to use an exercise I use with my clients to gauge the state of the nervous system I call “The Watcher on the Hill.”

Imagine the nervous system as an army. In a healthy nervous system our amygdala, the watchman, is in a state of relaxed expectation. I asked him to visualise his watchmen. He saw many watchers looking out for danger, more watchers than soldiers.

Even though there’s more watchers than soldiers, they are all looking out for danger, they expect danger, I don’t feel safe, there are parts of me that feel really unsafe and they can’t relax and they remember a time when I wasn’t safe, I want these parts to know, that right here, right now, its over, I am safe, we survived, we’re okay.

Even though parts of me remember the feeling of a time when we were unsafe, that was then, this is now, its a feeling, we remember the feeling and feelings can change, I allow these feelings to flow.

There were still some there but there was less energy running through his head, he had been experiencing adrenaline surges in his head. I asked him to be aware of his soldiers

Even though the soldiers look tired, they have been ready for danger, ready for action, expecting action for so long that they are just exhausted, they have been working so hard, they need a rest, there is no danger right now, they can rest right now, I give them permission to relax and have some time off.

I asked him what he sensed they needed to recuperate. He realised they needed to have some fun.

I allow them to have some fun, they can be there when I need them, with the appropriate rest and relaxation.

I explained that we do need our nervous system to be ready and gave him some examples of when we need a little surge of adrenaline.

I asked him to tune into when his nervous system felt like it had to fight all the time.

He felt there had been fighting ever since he got on that treadmill of dieting and overexercising, months and months of stress locked in.

I asked him to get in touch with the part of him that decided it was a good idea to push his body to the limit. He felt really angry with this part of him.

Even though I am so angry with this part of me, I don’t want to talk to him, I don’t accept him, I am open to the possibility of accepting that part of me was doing the best it could and I will try to understand him somehow, but right now I AM angry with him.

Even though I am angry with that part because….(just wait for answer)… it destroyed me, I am open to the possibility that the part of me who did that was doing the best he could. I am open to the possibility of understanding him somehow.

I asked him to tune into his feelings now, he felt not so angry but upset with the fact that so many years of his life have gone into managing this situation, going from one doctor to another, getting some success, falling back, constantly struggling. He wanted to be free and enjoy a good meal and laugh instead of having to micromanage his body.

I invited him to just acknowledge how hard this has been

Even though I have these problems with food, and I have had to try and manage things and manage these problems I love and accept myself with kindness and compassion.

I acknowledge how difficult this has been, it has been really hard for me, it has been hard, its really hurt, there’s been so much trauma, so much pain, I honour these young parts of me, the must have felt… (I asked how they might have felt)… so lonely, frightening alienated.

I acknowledge how hard I have been on myself, I choose to be kinder to myself, I hold myself in kindness and compassion.

He realised how hard he has been on himself.

Even though I have been hard on myself, I wanted results, I wanted my body to be fixed and to heal itself fast, I wanted it to be done fast and my body has been through alot, it needs time and space and kindness and compassion. Right now I am opening the doors for healing, its time for things to change, its time to bring healing to these parts. There are some parts that need healing with kindness, compassion and patience. I am ready to allow something to change, I give myself permission to take all the time it needs, I allow all parts of me the time and space to heal, I can let these feelings flow and let it go in the timing thats right for me.

I asked him to tune into this and his response to this and any possible conflict that might be present. He felt there was a part that was really keen to let go and shower himself with kindness but there was a part that was very stubborn, the punisher, like a taskmaster that said. “No, you can’t do this.”

I asked him now to take the part who was willing to be compassionate and to help him communicate with the taskmaster part. I told him that I need all these parts to know that I know they were doing the best they could, they were trying to protect themselves, and were stuck in a pattern and that I also understood they might not trust me right now but I was also doing the best I could to help my client and them.

He realised this came from being a child, his parents left from India and left him at home for 2 months at home with his grandmother. There were people around but his safety was gone, he felt threatened by this. Later his mother went through many operations and went missing from his life by being in hospital, so there was alot of stress and separation continually. It felt like there was no security or safety, thats why he has needed so many watchers. He would keep talking to himself to calm himself down. (Separation from the mother in early childhood is a common trigger for dissociation.)

I asked him to be aware if his baby self felt safe with his mother and he was initially, but when they left it broke his trust and he couldn’t express his anger, and also felt guilty for this. When his mother got sick the anger increased and also anger towards his father. He couldn’t handle these emotions he became rebellious and seemed self destructive. He had no remembrance of clarity of why he was so angry.

I asked him to get in touch with the little boy who was left at home when he was 3. He could picture himself in his parents room, very confused, what has happened, where have they gone? What have I done?

Even though my three year old feels confused bad and guilty, I love and accept my young self without judgement.

Even though I am three and feel so guilty and bad its time for this heal.

Even though you’re three and you feel so bad and guilty and confused, I want you to know its not your fault, there is nothing wrong with you, you’re just a little boy… it’s time for this to heal.

Tuning into his little boy now he still looked angry. I asked him to let this little boy know we wanted to help him. He was not happy we were there to help at all.

I know you don’t trust us, I know your feeling angry, I accept you, I take your feelings seriously, (he still doesn’t believe me)… I know you don’t believe me, I know you don’t trust me, I understand how angry you are feeling right now, and you don’t know who I am, I am willing to give you some time, what do you need to feel better, what do you need from me? I take you seriously, even though no one understood what you were going through, I do understand, and I am with you now. I know how painful it was for you, I take your feelings seriously. Someone should have helped you then, nobody did, but I am here to help you now.

V now felt there was a part of him that was resisting this experience. It was angry with him for doing this process and angry with me for leading him through this process. A part that doesn’t want change.

I asked that part to talk to me and tell me how it was feeling. He said it was a violent abusive part who is angry and doesn’t trust women and thinks women will inflict pain of some sort. He sensed it was all coming from this child.

I acknowledged that I as a woman might not be helping. I told him that I understood he would be angry, his mum left him, that wasn’t fair, every time she left, he didn’t know if she would come back, it made perfect sense to me.

My client was able to see this angry part that was angry, didn’t like me and was resisting this process. I asked him how he felt about this part. He felt he had made peace that he had a part but up until now was afraid of the power of it and what it could do. Now he realised it was just a part that has been through trauma, is begging for help, but can’t accept help when it comes.

I assured him I understood this. He said it all came from a sense of detachment and from this has come guilt, anger and rage. This part grew into becoming rebellious and mistrustful, but I mentioned that this was just like any other child trying to get his needs met.

The child wants the love, wants the acceptance but also wants to prove a point.

I explained that when a child is trying to get our needs met, and the parent is frightened and feels unsafe, this does not bring security to the child. Similarly for us if we are afraid of our own parts, this does not bring safety to us. If my client felt afraid of this part of himself the part would feel unsafe.

It felt a very big move forward for my client to accept this parts existence and influence with any kind of compassion.

I spoke directly to the part here. I told him that I had not been through his experience, had not been through what he had been through but I did know he was doing the best he could. We weren’t here to fight or judge or force, we were interested in understanding it.

My client asked me what did I think his part need, it was asking for something. He felt the child had a passion, his passion was to be creative and he felt trapped.

I suggested that he did what many of my clients do when they meet these parts, allow them to do something the child part would enjoy. Agree to do something the child part would enjoy.

He realised the child part would love to paint, bicycle.

I encouraged my client to be aware of his parts presence and fill its needs when possible.

He realised his part didn’t want to be here, in Goa, he hated his fathers business and had never wanted to work for his father.

Even though this part of me doesn’t want to be here, and hates working for my father, I want this part to know that I want to be get out of here too, I am not comfortable, but there are better ways to deal with these feelings.

Even though you’re angry because you don’t want to be here, I want you to know I do understand and I do want to make change, I want change too and if all my parts can work together, we can change things, we can all work for the same purpose.

He understood now his child self never wanted to work for his father. He realised he had taken on the role of victim and created this situation where he couldn’t leave and he ended up feeling secure with his father, becoming dependant, like an addiction. This part was angry because of this,

I encouraged him to communicate to this part and say, “I am sorry, you didn’t want to work with dad, and thats what I am doing now, I am sorry, forgive me”

His little boy self looked alot happier and more relaxed.

I encouraged him to let this part of himself communicate his feelings, to give him permission to express himself, to tap on whatever feelings come up. He realised he was now expressing things to himself that he never had done before. He realised that coming out of the office today his soldiers would be fighting and he was saying to himself, “I hate this, I hate working here.” He realised this was the part of him expressing itself. I encouraged him to tap on whatever feelings were coming up, as his parts express himself, “I hate working here etc.”

At this point he realised I understood his experience of dissociation, that he had parts of himself which felt and behaved seperately to the others and were in conflict with each other and also with him and his adult decisions, such as being married and working for his father and was grateful to talk with someone who understood this situation.

He realised he had come to a place of insight and he was learning to allow his parts to express themselves, he didn’t know what these parts were at first, he had felt possessed at one point, hearing voices, feeling like he was going insane. However he started looking for solutions, outside his comfort zone and realised he had dissociated parts through all his research. Only recently had he got to the place where he could face his parts or even admit to their existence but there were some he didn’t not want to meet. He realised there were just parts not the whole of him, but sometimes it feels like the whole of him when they took over.

He felt like something shattered and each part took a life of its own, and they all went on their own way, but all part of the same energy system. It works great as a survival system when you need it but was a disorder now, and it was backfiring. However he had found EFT to be of great benefit in reducing the overall feelings of stress and could now see how applying EFT in this way can ease the internal communication and be used to specifically heal the parts that were still hurting, who did not realise that the trauma was over.

I encouraged him to be patient with these parts and give them the time and space to express their hurt and pain.

Now he understood he has to be brave enough and courageous enough to hear what his parts need to say. I encouraged him to be aware of his own feelings about the fact that his parts need to communicate and use EFT for any fear or discomfort this brings, creating a safe place in his mind to meet these parts. We can acknowledge the feelings of our parts, sometimes they disagree with us so much and the decisions we make, and we can allow these parts to express their feelings WHILE we tap. However we can communicate with them and help them to see that we have more resources now and things can be done differently.

I got an email after this session:

“Just to let you know that I’m grateful for the session we had and the insights you gave me. I used the watcher and the soldiers and was able to see the internal structure that existed. That along with other things I coupled and the grace that I received led me to one of the most if not the most sacred moment in my life … the encountering of my self and the truth set me free.

For years I had been so ANGRY with my SELF and I hated myself for I had so many false beliefs about me. From that deep hatred for me came my deep hatred for my parents, my family, my world really and I used shame and blame. Gillian, it was such a truly blessed moment to come to, to see my “self” that I was avoiding and shift that final stone. I cannot explain it… I can only say what it felt like and even that is pale. I am a new person today. I feel different. Like I’ve never felt before. A certain freedom.

With much gratitude and love,
V”

Gillian Wightman
www.eastneuktherapies.co.uk

I often find that using spontaneous images that arise for some clients during a round of tapping, furthers the healing process. This example was such a powerful image that came through after several rounds of tapping and several layers of fears being revealed. It was a true breakthrough for this person.

In the beginning of our session we worked on tapping on fears of loss.

Even though I have these huge fears, they’re big as a house! Fears of not being able to make a living, of losing my children’s love, of not being good enough, of not being in a relationship, of not being lovable… still I deeply and completely love and accept myself.

After doing a couple of rounds of this, my client said that one of the things coming up for her was that she is very resistant to helping herself. In sessions, she is really present and open, but at home, by herself, she just resists doing any healing work for herself. So we tapped on that issue.

Even though I am so resistant to this, I don’t believe this works, I’m not worthy, I’m just saying these words because Gwendolyn wants me to, but still I deeply and completely love and accept myself.

This round led to an even deeper level under these emotional layers. It became evident that she needed to discover these layers for herself. Tapping on the resistance piece led to an intense level of self-hatred, which of course, we tapped on.

Even though I am so hard on myself, I really hate myself, and I don’t believe these words-I deeply and completely accept and love myself- I’ll say them because I would like this to change.

After this round she visibly calmed down and we began to talk and tap again on the same statement. She then commented in the tapping that she was creating this craziness around her. We incorporated that into the statement.

Even though I really hate myself and I am creating this craziness around me that is whirling faster and faster around me, I still deeply and completely forgive, love and accept myself.

Upon completing this round I used the visualization of my client being the eye of a hurricane. She said she could see it (the hurricane ) as coming from her, being connected to her. Once again from the tapping, she experienced a calmness from not pushing herself to be “fixed” and not being angry and heaping more and more pressure upon herself.

The discovery was about acknowledging and accepting all of her feelings, just being in the center and observing herself. That gave her the new opportunity to look at her emotions in a different way, as the observer, so that she can take a step away from her drama to make better choices. We decided that her assignment this week is to be the eye of the storm, observing, taking measurements, and just being without the pressure or the sabotage of not being able to fix it. This seemed to highlight the value of being present with her feelings and being at the center while still having the storm blowing around her. This illustrated a huge shift for her in her relationship to her own emotions.

This session affirmed for both of us that the need for just being, not doing or fixing is a critical part of the healing process.

Gwendolyn Evans
www.lovingself.net

I would like to share this example of how work with EFT has helped one of my students to transform a long-term fear and hurt through a series of powerful metaphorical images. I always make an emphasis on using any symbols or metaphors that come up during tapping, as these can encompass so much more than ordinary words describing an event or situation. A metaphor could contains a range of emotions and thoughts, memories of specific events, beliefs – all encoded in an image – and when we tap on a metaphor we are likely to be working on a large number of linked aspects simultaneously – something that would be considered challenging or even undesirable within standard EFT protocols, where we would normally focus on one specific aspect at a time. Work with metaphor allows to break that rule and can lead to profound changes rapidly and safely.

You may note that I am not quoting any specific set-up phrases in this article – but the symbolic imagery speaks for itself, and to me this is yet another wonderful example how EFT and metaphor combine to create a significant and transformational healing experience.

Theresa (who kindly gave me her permission to share her story in this article) had recently attended one of my EFT training courses. On Monday evening following the weekend event, she was tapping with another fellow student on the fear of her mother, which she felt as a “tight silver ball in the stomach”, that slowly dispersed with tapping, but still left her shaking and feeling sick.

Tuesday morning Theresa still felt shaky and sick. In the afternoon she tapped on these feelings which produced a picture of an archery target in the middle of a field with a stream at the far end:

“There was no-one around but then a child appeared behind it. All I could see/feel was pain and hurt. She wanted the target moving but was too small to do it. The target had a feeling of being immovable and I thought – if only it had legs. The target got bigger and then all I could see was the red circle. Both of us (me and child) wanted the target moving peacefully, not kicked over. The target returned to its normal size in the field and then a young woman appeared in a suit and tucked the target under one arm and the easel part under the other. The young woman walked away side by side with the child to the stream at the end of the field. The young woman used the easel part to paint a picture on.”

Theresa couldn’t remember the words she used while tapping during this.

Later in the evening (while Theresa was eating ice cream and mince pie), she had a vivid picture of the child waving goodbye just in front of her eyes. She says,

“I couldn’t stop crying, it came up and out of my stomach, gut wrenching. I started tapping… The child was happy, skipping away down the field with her back to me, turning round to look and waving, and also waving as she went. The target was left there in the field and then became smaller into a child’s blackboard and easel, with white chalk. The child was sitting in front of it, a blackboard duster was perched on the ledge of the blackboard. There was nothing on the blackboard.

This image was replaced by another picture of the target, which then became fluid and had arms and legs. It started jumping backwards and forwards and then from side to side, it then started hopping around. Slowly it then changed into a beautiful young woman with her back to me, then back to the target and then back to the young woman, who was now dancing free in the field, flowy dress and very small flowers in her hair, daises, carefree. The target was now gone. I can’t remember the words used during this tapping either, but finished by saying I wanted to keep this image.”

A few days later Theresa emailed me about the impact of this tapping experience on her feelings about her mother:

“It feels as though I’ve had a huge emotional shift, just a massive release of something that I find difficult at the moment to put into words (years of early childhood hurt and pain that I didn’t know was so deep).

Before this I couldn’t speak, or think about my mother without some kind of negative reaction, either physically, mentally or hidden emotionally, and the worst sensation I’ve had was of a complete inability to speak, as though I was choking/blocked in the upper chest… I feel wonderful.”

Masha Bennett
www.practicalhappiness.co.uk