What is AAMET?

AAMET stands for the Association for the Advancement of Meridian Energy Techniques. It is based in the United Kingdom. For the past 8 years, AAMET members have been leaders in quality EFT training in the UK. We are thrilled to announce bringing AAMET training opportunities to the United States and beyond. In essence, EFTfree.net will become a “portal” for EFT certification through the AAMET and will promote EFT trainings that meet their agreed-upon training guidelines. Any practitioner or student can apply to become a member of AAMET, and teachers who currently share EFT can go through a coherent process of having their skills and abilities recognized by the AAMET (see Grandparenting, below).

What are AAMET-Agreed Guidelines?

AAMET-approved guidelines for training are the bedrock of EFT skills-building. EFT Levels 1,2, and 3 have been taught in the UK for over eight years where the curriculum has become finely-tuned (learning steps for each level of training are posted in our EFT Training and Certification section). Member Trainers of the AAMET already lead trainings using this core curriculum while bringing their unique perspectives to the classes. Looking for EFT training here in the US or Canada, visit www.EFTUnited.com.

Many EFT Masters are already AAMET EFT Trainers and teach to the approved AAMET guidelines. You may be surprised to learn that there are currently almost 200 AAMET Trainers throughout the world who meet AAMET’s strict teaching requirements – and this number is growing. In fact, Betty, Jade, and Lynne have already joined the AAMET as Trainers (Betty is also on the Communications Committee and has been named Area Representative for the Northeastern US), and all of us at EFTfree are firm supporters of AAMET’s flexibility, integrity and commitment to both EFT and it’s members . If you are a US-based student, practitioner or trainer, we now heartily endorse contacting the AAMET about joining at your appropriate level of membership.

Grandparenting

If you are already practicing EFT professionally, carry 3rd party certification (Cert-1, -2 or EFT-CC/ADV, etc.) and wish to join AAMET at the Practitioner, Advanced Practitioner or Trainer level, first visit the FAQ page at EFTUnited.com to get your questions answered. Then download this form and submit it together with your AAMET application. Your application will be reviewed on a case by case basis.

Coming Soon:

We are very excited to be a part of promoting high-quality standards for EFT training and look forward to hosting a wealth of complimentary EFT training material designed to help visitors and EFT students get the most out of an EFT education. As always we will continue to publish articles by explorers of EFT—whether you blend tapping with other modalities or simply have an EFT story to share.

Are you an EFT explorer interested in developing your skills? Visit www.EFTunited.com for quality training opportunities in your area. We are thrilled that for the first time, US-based students will finally have access to consistent, high-quality EFT education, lead by skilled, experienced EFT professionals – the same hands-on level of scholarship that students in the UK have enjoyed for years.

Much more on the horizon,

The EFTfree Team

We will continue to share high quality EFT articles by our contributors, but now with an even greater emphasis on innovative and effective applications of EFT. For example, if you’re blending EFT with other modalities successfully on yourself, in your practice, or with your friends and loved ones, we would love hear how. If you have gained insight into something new from a session with a client — consider sharing your experience. As always, we love sharing your unique approaches, discoveries and session stories — so please keep sending these along.

Starting this summer, we will also begin developing specialized training opportunities and multimedia tools to help you most effectively apply EFT. We’ve already begun this process with our unique “Passionate About EFT ” podcasts, and we are envisioning some very special workshops and resources to bring you creative, results-oriented EFT strategies.

The Art of EFT

We appreciate diversity within the EFT community — the myriad ways so many quality practitioners and explorers alike are helping each other and promoting the EFT process. At the same time, we support a firm grounding in core EFT principles — those tried-and-true skills that form the bedrock of skillfully guided and fully explored EFT sessions. We also recognize that each person who uses EFT will find and follow their own ways of adapting it to their own circumstances. One of the remarkable things about EFT is its flexibility, and how it can be customized for each person. Exploration is integral to the process, and we honor how many people naturally experiment and innovate along the way.

Bringing in Wisdom from Other Modalities

EFT fans throughout the world are bringing in wisdom from other modalities as they find creative ways of applying EFT. EFT (Emotional Freedom Techniques) itself was in many ways a creative blend. Originally, EFT was developed in part through the lenses of TFT (Thought Field Therapy), NLP (Neuro Linguistic Programming), earlier forms of talk therapy, and principles of acupuncture. In other words, exploration and tenacity, and seeing results for many people over time, helped make the core of EFT what it is today. We believe quality is enhanced when practitioners successfully integrate the best of what they know from other modalities.

In addition to the free resources currently offered, including The EFTfree Manual and our articles feed, we are excited about sharing our successful EFT discoveries — effective strategies for blending EFT with:

• Inner Visuals / Inner Theater / Matrix ReImprinting
• Creative Language for the EFT Process
• Inner Child Healing
• Events Psychology
• Parts Work
• Concepts from Hypnotherapy
• Law of Attraction Principles
• Metaphysical Strategies (Abraham-Hicks teachings, spiritual dimensions, etc.)

Welcome aboard the new EFTfree.net. Do you have an EFT innovation or unique experience or insight you would like to share? Consider contributing an article and join with us in this exciting adventure.

Got questions, comments or concerns? Consider posting a comment on this article or contact us at info [at] eftfree.net. We would love to hear from you.

Joyously Forward,
The EFTfree Team:
Jade Barbee
Betty-Moore-Hafter
Lynne Shaner
Carna Zacharias-Miller

As EFT creator Gary Craig shared the news of his retirement for early 2010, he also announced the release of EFT into the public domain. It is with great appreciation that we acknowledge this gift to the world. The freedom to develop and share EFT in a variety of ways is both a privilege and a responsibility.

We at EFTfree.net know there will be many ways that the EFT community will respond to these changing times. Diversity is one of our most treasured values – and we celebrate the diversity of the EFT world. We look forward with excitement as EFT finds a comfortable new home in the public domain. What resources will emerge?

Our vision for EFTfree.net is that it be akin to a public library, offering a wealth of useful information and searchable resources in a manner that is free of commercialism. Now that Emofree.com will no longer be available as our central resource after March 1, we offer our not-for-profit site as a venue for holding and sharing information and creating connections.

We value your presence here, your feedback and your contributions. If you like something that you read here, we hope you will contact the person who wrote it. If you have feedback, a comment or a concern, consider leaving public feedback or contacting us via email. People will certainly be looking for EFT resources and we would like to see a whole web of connection and cooperation to help people find whatever they need. May we all find wonderful ways to join together to usher EFT into this new era.

Back in June 2009, Betty Moore-Hafter and I began asking, “What makes EFT, EFT?” At this time, there were no agreed-upon training guidelines being used in the United States, and we felt the need to recognize how we consistently rely on essential, tried-and-true or core considerations that form the bedrock of a skillfully guided tapping session. These “Core EFT Principles” represent the skillful application of the simple and effective system that Gary Craig developed, based on the discoveries of Roger Callahan. As time went on and the efficacy of EFT became more and more widely known, Gary encouraged feedback, welcomed personal discoveries and incorporated many of these into the process. We offer that although EFT continues to be shared in many unique ways, there are Core EFT Principles that can be loosely named and even crystallized in an open-ended way that honors the individual approaches, refinements and innovations of each person — the unique Art of Delivery that represents the highly individualized nature of sharing EFT.

While there are many questions as to which of these principles may or may not belong to EFT exclusively, taken together they represent to us the core of a skillfully explored EFT session. In early 2009, when it became clear that EFT was going through the beginnings of a critically important administrative transition, Betty and I felt the need to attempt to delineate the principles that form the systematic, strategic underpinnings of our EFT Practices.

We contacted Gary with our list of principles as we understood them, because we felt that it was important that he outline his definition of EFT in his own words. At the time he did not see the need, but several months later he asked for our input on his own EFT principles document. We spent many hours discussing the history of EFT and how certain key principles were discovered or refined. The outcome of these talks largely became Gary’s Timeless Principles of EFT document published on his blog as a work in progress. We contributed to this document and continue to develop the ideas that are presented below. Keep in mind, our ideas are not necessarily Gary’s – and Gary’s assertions are not necessarily ours.

In light of EFT’s release into the public domain, we feel it more important than ever that core common ground EFT principles be discussed, in an effort to answer the question, “What is EFT?” and to help maintain the consistency and integrity of the process. In delineating these principles, we also acknowledge that there is as much diversity as there is unity around agreeing on them. While our document differs structurally from Gary’s, we believe that the core considerations illustrated below stays true to his sizable pioneering contributions to the meridian tapping process as well as the history of EFT. The list below incorporates many of our perspectives and interpretations – as well as expertise from others – around the considerations needed for an optimal EFT session. In fact, we believe many seasoned practitioners will find key elements of their work reflected here. We hope our creative presentation reveals the common ground from which your Art of Delivery surely expands.

UPDATE 2-2011: Over the last year or so since we wrote this list, we have connected with the AAMET, an association of EFT practitioners and trainers in the UK. We were heartened to discover that they were already utilizing all these core considerations in their training guidelines – and had been for many years. Not surprisingly, our list has had near-universal agreement among venerable trainers and practitioners. Is your trainer giving you the needed instruction in these basic EFT skills?

One Tree, Many Branches

Download .pdf version of the Core EFT Principles article here

Core EFT Principles are about skillful EFT – the Art of Delivery that takes the mechanical tapping process to a more exploratory level. Below we articulate guidelines intended to illustrate the systematic underpinnings of what is shared as EFT (Emotional Freedom Techniques) by EFT professionals worldwide. We see this as a “living document” and welcome discussion and feedback. Consider leaving a comment at the bottom of this page.

Core EFT Principles include (but are not limited to):

Recognizing the importance of engaging specific acupressure meridian endpoints while intentionally and vocally*:

• Acknowledging/tuning in to the energy of the problem, negative feeling, thought, challenge or uncomfortable body sensation
• Reaching to affirm (in some form) that you “deeply and completely love and accept yourself” even though you have this negative emotion, problem, challenge, etc.
• Continuing to focus upon specific negative feelings, thoughts or energies as needed to allow resolution of emotional intensity (while simultaneously recognizing the importance of allowing positive reframes to play a major role)
• Repeating variations of the process as needed to completely resolve negative emotional intensity where possible

*These processes are generally known as the Setup and the Sequence

Valuing and demonstrating (in all of your EFT activities) the importance of:

• Listening deeply to your client
• Developing and trusting intuition
• Getting out of your own way (i.e. through me, not by me)
• Trusting the process
• Developing rapport (see below)
• Recognizing that your client (even if the client is you) is always doing the best they can
• Allowing your client to express themselves in whatever way they need
• Developing the ability to appreciate each clients creative coping skills, which helps them appreciate it in themselves, thus allowing the self-acceptance aspect of EFT to become possible
• Setting a healing intention (including preframing a positive vision or goal)
• Taking Intensity Levels
• Using client language and perspective in the Setup and the Sequence
• Identifying and effectively handling aspects as well as shifting aspects
• Identifying and articulating simple vs. complex issues
• Identifying and skillfully addressing the complexities of resistance and/or psychological reversal
• Recognizing global vs. specific issues
• Valuing being specific wherever possible
• Asking skillful questions for the purposes of revealing information about the location, character and amount of negative emotional intensity
• Understanding the role of potentially limiting beliefs (i.e. writings on the wall)
• Asking skillful questions for the purpose of discovering and addressing core issues
• Recognizing and following healing doorways that potentially lead to core issues

But wait, there’s more…

• Recognizing and articulating the Apex Effect
• Building bridges of belief
• Skillfully encouraging clients to notice their progress
• Confidently exploring course corrections “when EFT isn’t working”
• Developing awareness of “not going where you don’t belong”
• Recognizing and effectively exploring tail-enders
• Learning when and how to reach for options, strategies, applications and refinements (9-Gamut, The Personal Peace Procedure, shortcuts, continuous tapping, touch and breathe, imagining tapping etc.), where appropriate
• Developing and following gentle and effective strategies for Chasing the Pain
• Finding your own relationship to Borrowing Benefits
• Minimizing pain by gently and systematically approaching intense feelings, events or memories by skillful application of Sneaking Up, Tearless Trauma, Movie and Tell the Story Techniques
• Taking appropriate opportunities to allow humor
• Testing appropriately, repeatedly and effectively
• Facilitating bringing intensity levels as low as they will go where appropriate
• Recognizing, understanding and communicating the Generalization Effect
• Checking in with your client
• Cultivating awareness of Surrogate Tapping
• Developing skills for working with visual, auditory, metaphorical and/or body-centered awareness of emotional intensity
• Becoming skilled at artful and effective positive reframing during the tapping process
• Understanding the role of persistence
• Skillfully demonstrating the Basic Recipe and EFT Shortcuts when appropriate
• Coming to your own unique understanding of the Discovery Statement
• Exploring the role hydration may play before, during and after a session
• Actively expanding and refining your personal Art of Delivery (i.e. staying updated with the latest EFT scholarship, coming to your own conclusions, pursuing independent study etc.)
• Cultivating awareness, understanding and appropriate application of a myriad of advanced sequences, strategies, applications and/or related methodologies

We’re not done yet…

• Learning the vocabulary and skills behind the Core EFT Principles and systematically applying them as the backbone of your EFT sessions
• Acknowledging and understanding the relationship between Core EFT Principles and your personal Art of Delivery
• Knowing the difference between doing EFT mechanically and The Art of Delivery
• Coming to your own refinements around Core EFT Principles
• Actively doing your own work
• Taking complete responsibility for your use of EFT and for your emotional and physical well being during the EFT process and encouraging others to do so
• Exploring your relationship to the spiritual and/or scientific dimensions of this work, when appropriate
• Experiencing the value of feedback (i.e. supervision, mentoring, users groups, “EFT buddies”, trading sessions etc.)
• Developing a consistent, passionate and compassionate practice of “Trying EFT On Everything”

We hope you will find this list quite comprehensive — however incomplete. We welcome feedback and discussion. Feel free to post comments below. They may not appear immediately.

Very special thanks to fellow EFTers Lynne Shaner and Carna Zacharias- Miller for ongoing encouragement, editing and support and to Gillian Wightman for her wisdom, input and language around developing rapport.

Jade Barbee
Betty Moore-Hafter