EFT can be done almost anywhere. Though I don’t necessarily recommend it while driving, I must admit that I did it today. I drove my 91 year old mother and her dear friend “Irene”(who is in her 80′s) to a casino this morning. Irene sat in front with me. She asked if I had had a bone density test, admitting that she was afraid to get one. I asked her why, and she replied that it was like an MRI, and she felt claustrophobic when she was in such close quarters. I told her that EFT could probably help her with her claustrophobia, and if she wanted, we could clear it before we got to the casino. Irene was game.

I asked her if she could remember a really bad experience when she felt closed in. She related that when she was eleven years old, she went into some very small caves with her mother, grandmother and aunt. Her grandmother had to turn back because she felt so panicky. Irene said that, just like her grandmother, she felt trapped and panicky. I asked her to imagine being in the cave now. Then I asked, “What is the intensity level that you feel right now when you think about being in that cave?” She said it was a 7 (and this was 70 years after the incident).

I had my car on cruise control at about 65 miles an hour. We were past the rush hour traffic. I had done EFT with Irene a couple of years ago, so I didn’t have to explain how it works, I just told her what to say, and reminded her where to tap. I asked her if her experience in the cave was a video, how long would it be? She said only around 10 minutes. I asked her to come up with a title of that video that would make her laugh, and she came up with “Scared Stiff”. I also reminded her that she could add cuss words if she wished, and it felt right to her.

Her set-up phrases were, “Even though:

• I have uncomfortable feelings when I think about going to that cave, I deeply and completely love and accept myself.
• I still feel scared and panicky when I think about going in that cave…
• I feel surprised that I still feel stuff around being in that cave…

We did one round of tapping using “Scared Stiff” as her reminder phrase. I also encouraged her to inhale and exhale with each point that she tapped on her body — working to get it out of her energy system. After only one round, her intensity level dropped from 7 to 4.

On her second round, she got to the point under her eye and she blurted out “Scared Shitless”. We both cracked up, so she used “Scared Shitless” as her new reminder phrase. That brought her intensity down to a 2. I asked her how she was feeling about getting an MRI, and she answered, “Not bad at all.”

So, I encouraged her to do one last round, without set-up phrases, and tapping in the positive. Some of the phrases she used:

• I am whole and complete
• I am glad that I’ve let go of my fear of being in tight places
• I am safe
• I am safe—even in tight places
• I am safe wherever I am
• I am safe in the MRI

After the third round, I reminded her that when we started her intensity level around being in the cave was a 7, then dropped to a 4, and then a 2. “What is it now?” I asked. She reported that there was nothing there. Then I asked about her fear of feeling claustrophobic while in the MRI. With a growing sense of wonder, she replied, “I don’t have any. There is nothing there.”

She said she wouldn’t be able to tap in the MRI machine because there wasn’t enough room. I told her she could just imagine tapping her points, and that should work.

We were able to clear 70 years of fear of being in tight spots in just 20 minutes while traveling down the freeway. EFT is amazing!!!

JoAnn SkyWatcher is a Spiritual Coach who offers EFT via phone from Northern California. She comes from a spiritual perspective, and loves to use humor as well as using her intuition to find those pivotal points where life changing decisions were made. JoAnn is certified Level 3 via the AAMET. She is author of Touched by a Miracle: EFT Healing Stories. You can visit her website at www.JoAnnSkyWatcher.com.

“Candace” had such a severe terror of flying that she had not been on a plane for 22 years. She called me because an important family event was taking place in a few months and she didn’t want to miss it. But attending the event would involve a 5-hour flight. She was nearly hopeless yet determined to face her fears.

As our phone session began, I gathered history and found that she did have some traumatic memories from her few flying experiences long ago. In one case, a plane had not pressurized correctly, and in another the plane had to be diverted because of fog. The feeling in her body when she thought about being on a plane was, “a little like throwing up — sick to my stomach.”

We started tapping using her words and focusing on the body sensation, which was a 6-7.

Even though I feel sick to my stomach, a little like throwing up, when I think about flying, I deeply love and accept myself…

At the end of the round of tapping, Candace said, “What bothers me is thinking about the plane in the air. All I can think about is a lack of support and falling. It’s a sensation of, I’m going to fall any second!” This felt like a horrible dread in her stomach, an 8 in intensity. So we tapped again using her words.

Even though I feel like I’m going to fall any second, I deeply love and accept myself…

Something popped into my head during the course of that tapping and I shared the thought with Candace. “You know, it’s interesting that your fear of flying is really about fear of falling. I’ve heard that the fear of falling is one of the few natural fears that we are born with. Babies have an innate fear of falling.” This seemed to ring a bell with her and she said, “you know, the whole time I’ve been visualizing myself falling through the sky!” So once again we used her words for tapping:

Even though I visualize myself falling through the sky, I deeply love and accept myself… and it’s time to bring some healing to this…

As we tapped the points, I gave her some blanks to fill in:

I visualize myself falling through the sky… and I think it goes back to___

I visualize myself falling through the sky… and I feel____ And _______(what else?)

As she completed the sentences, she was tuning in more and more to the feeling: “I think it goes back to being very young… and I feel terrified… and no one’s going to catch me! And I’m going to hit! And it’s going to hurt! And it all makes me feel really sad.” So we tapped again, using her words:

Even though I am terrified because no one is going to catch me… and it makes me feel… sad…
This sadness… this little one is falling… afraid no one is going to catch her… terrified… I’m going to hit… it’s going to hurt… so sad… I love and accept this little child.

Candace was feeling very emotional and tears were coming. She said, “I believe I had some early childhood trauma. My sister was 6 years older and hated me intensely. I think she probably did hurt me sometimes. I think she did things to scare me. I wonder if she threw me up and didn’t catch me!”

We tapped and tapped until the emotion had subsided. Then Candace got an image of a little girl being gently bounced up and down by kind and loving arms. She said, “I want to think of the loving arms of the Universe always under the plane, guiding it safely to its destination.” So we tapped a few more times to acknowledge this healing outcome:

Even though I had such a fear of falling… it’s time to bring healing to this… and I see the little girl gently bounced, safely bounced up and down by loving arms… and the loving arms of the Universe are always under the plane…

Candace felt immensely better. When I tested our work by having her think of being on a plane and say, “I feel like I’m going to fall any second,” she could no longer feeling the dread in her stomach and wasn’t connecting with the image of herself falling through the sky anymore. Instead, she felt curious and intrigued! She had no idea that the root of her fear of flying might not have to do with planes at all. Now the idea of being on a plane wasn’t nearly as upsetting.

We ended up doing several more sessions to deal with the previous flight experiences, but the initial intensity never returned. The last time I spoke with Candace, she had bought her tickets!

Looking back at the session, I believe that listening carefully to my client’s own words and paying close attention to her descriptions of what she was feeling were the keys to uncovering the core issue. As we used her words and tapped, it was like following a thread back to the source. Sentence completions are also a great way to uncover more details. As we complete the sentence with the first thing that comes, the subconscious can’t help but volunteer the information.

I have been using EFT for five years and with great results and am always on the lookout for unusual ways of using it. I would therefore like to share an unusual way to eliminate a fear of heights and anything associated with it by watching a Youtube movie and performing EFT as well.

The first time I watched the movie, I had the brilliant idea of tapping along to help eliminate any remaining fears I had associated with heights, as I previously had a fear of heights – especially using high, open elevators, and I always avoided Ferris wheels and similar types of rides .

The movie lasts six and half minutes and is titled “The Scariest Path in the World?” I did find bits of it nerve racking.

I decided to watch it again using EFT and recommend the following to any person who would like to attempt to eliminate any fears associated with heights.

Before pressing the “start button,” tap on the Karate Chop point 3x and say:

“Even though I have this fear of ________(your fear connected with heights in your words), I completely love and accept myself anyway…” After which you may say, “The movie I am about to see is real and am asking for my fear of ____________ to be eliminated.”

Press the start arrow of the Youtube movie, then after viewing it for about 1 1/2 minutes, pause it and rate the intensity level of your fear on a scale of 1-10 (10 being the most fearful).

Continue watching and start tapping on the points – eyebrow, side of eye, under eye, under nose, chin point, collar bone and under arm, taking deep breaths along the way .

If at any part you feel extra scared, pause the movie and tap on the Karate Chop point and say, “this part is really scary (or some other comment about what you’re feeling), I love and accept myself and anyway…” then continue watching the video, tapping on the points and stopping the movie at the scary scenes, repeating the comment.

At the end, test your intensity level again while thinking about what you just saw or replay it using the same technique (don’t forget the deep breaths or sighs) until you bring it down to zero or a 1 or 2.

I brought my intensity level down from a 6 to zero – 1. I have not yet had the chance to test it out with a life situation, but when visualizing I feel peaceful about the situation and feel confident I will be okay when faced with one of my fears associated with heights.

Good luck to any person who tries out my suggestion with amazing EFT. I welcome any feedback.

Janice Rennalls
janrennalls@gmail.com

Last week my daughter took four days of nature classes in Yosemite National Park. On the second day I helped chaperon the group of eight kids. We began to hike up a steep trail toward the top of Yosemite Falls, but one little girl, “Anna”, age 9, was really holding up the group. She kept repeating that she “hated heights” and wanted to go back down right now. She would only walk very slowly, and only with the teacher holding her hand.

When we stopped for a break I could see the teacher was frustrated and at a loss, so I asked the little girl if she’d like me to help take away her fear. I told her that was my job back home and it was very easy and wouldn’t hurt at all.

After some hesitation she agreed and I had her tap on her karate chop point with the set up statement:

“Even though I have this fear of heights I’m a great kid.”

We tapped the short cut points with “This fear of heights” but about halfway through, another little boy shouted “does anyone want my apple?” totally distracting Anna.

I had to ask for her attention again to complete that single round of tapping. Nevertheless, when I asked about her fear, she in a very matter of fact voice: “It’s gone.”

And it was! No more problems hiking.

The other chaperon was very excited by this success. He asked if this EFT only worked on children? This made me laugh since I rarely get to work with kids in my practice. He told me his wife, “Jane” had a severe height phobia and I agreed to work with her back at our camp the next morning.

When I asked Jane to just think about heights in the most general way, she reported her anxiety as an 8 out of 10. A round of tapping on “this fear of heights” only brought it down to a 7. Not much improvement. I added in the 9 point gamut, but got no real change.

I asked how she knew it was a 7 and she said there was a heavy feeling on her heart. So we began tapping on “This heavy feeling on my heart” and after six or seven rounds we got it down to zero. It took some persistence!

After that I asked her for specific situations that had triggered her fear. Climbing to the top of a ladder, to get into her attic, was a big one. Especially the feeling of falling over backwards. She started about a 7 again, but this time it only took three rounds, which included “This falling over backwards feeling”.

The next memory was about going on a carnival ride with her son. Even though the ride was “only” about 15 feet high, and she trusted it enough to put her son on it, she’d been in tears the whole time and very embarrassed by her fear.

I had her tap the karate chop point and say:

“Even though I was afraid of this dumb kiddie ride…”

and at that point she began to laugh. She laughed and laughed harder until tears were running down her cheeks. Her husband looked at me in astonishment. I’m used to sighs and yawns, but this was a huge release of energy. We never got past the set up statement because she said all the anxiety was gone.

I asked her to vividly imagine various scenarios—standing on a cliff edge, at the top of a wobbly ladder, etc. She said she could maybe get up to a “2” so we did one more round of general tapping.

Luckily there was a fairly large boulder right next to the campsite. I had her climb up to the top and stand on the edge, about 10 feet off the ground. No anxiety. I had her husband hold onto her coat while she put her feet right on the edge and closed her eyes. I had her imagine she was on the edge of a precipice. No anxiety.

It had taken nearly an hour—no one minute miracle this time, but we called it a success.

That evening her husband came up to me and said he had “photographic evidence” on his digital camera. The pictures showed Jane climbing the very steep and sheer path up to Vernal Falls, then standing a foot away from a vertical drop (she was still using normal caution). I was elated, but it wasn’t till the next day, when I hiked up that path myself, that I really got how successful we’d been.

I’d have to say we were three happy campers!

Rob Nelson
www.TaprootsEnergyPsychology.com

When Ted first came to see me, he was afraid of snakes as small as a worm. He lives in an old stone house with lots of stone patios and enjoys gardening, so he was encountering snakes a lot in his daily living. He said, “Being this scared is just not worth it.”

Over three sessions we worked with hypnosis and EFT. I helped him go into a relaxed state and learn how to do progressive relaxation on his own. I used hypnosis to help him begin to imagine himself the way he wanted to be, free of this fear.

We brought in EFT to clear the trauma and anxiety around snakes, using specific snake images and a long rubber snake. The rubber snake was great to help him get in touch with different aspects of what bothered him about snakes. Here are some of the key phrases we used:

Even though the eyes look evil, I can feel safe.
Even though they move in that side to side motion, I am okay, I am secure.
Even though the tongue darts, I can feel safe.

We did three movie techniques on three major snake events in his life:

1. “Snake in the Attic” which he thought was a garden hose.
2. “Medusa” A time when he discovered a hundred snakes under the hood of an old Jeep.
3. “Snake in the Ferns” one of his earliest encounters with a huge snake

Ted never made it to the pet shop before Christmas to test the hypnosis and EFT (tapping) work we had been doing, but something better happened. He took his visiting grandkids to Echo, a science museum, and did not know they had snakes there. He turned the corner upstairs and there were three snakes. So the surprise element was there, which is why it was better than visiting a pet shop. And guess what? Not only did he not run and leave the snake area of Echo, which is what he reported he would have done in the past, but instead he peered in and leaned against the glass of their habitat to get a closer look. Ted peered especially at the eyes and how they moved, which were key areas of our work over the three session leading up to this unexpected snake discovery. His wife said “I can’t believe you are looking at these snakes. That hypnosis and tapping are really working for you.” Success! He actually said he is looking forward to spring and discovering the snakes on his property and he is going to learn more about them before then.

I encouraged him to keep tapping and use empowering anchor phrases like this:

Even though they just show up, I can be surprised and realize they are just another creature, and we can co-exist.

Anita Germain
www.champlainhypnosis.com