Lillian Nader, M.ED
Founder of Transformational Hypnotherapy
Certified Hypnotherapist
Conscious Kids Facilitator

My first introduction to EFT came in a round about way through my intuition. The fortuitous chain of events was as follows: I attended my first IACH meeting when Kathleen Scott was the guest speaker. She announced that she and Donna Kannard were forming a group called Coaches Alliance for workshop presenters. Being a workshop presenter, this appealed to me. One day when I was driving to one of these meetings, I had a strong premonition that I would be invited to something. That was it; I would be invited to something. No details were given. As a firm believer in the intuitive process, I took note of the message and forgot about it until after the meeting. As I was saying my goodbyes and preparing to leave, Donna Kannard asked me to tea, I thought. Remembering my earlier intuitive message, I immediately said, “yes, would you like me to bring anything?” “No thanks,” Donna replied. “We’re not having refreshments.” Oh, dear, what was going on? “I thought you invited me to tea.” “No, EFT”, she said. I had never heard of it, so she explained and began to demonstrate by tapping on her head and face, etc. That was several years ago, and I am still attending Donna’s EFT group on alternate Fridays each month. From there, I began to implement EFT into my hypnotherapy practice with amazing results.

Learning EFT

I learned EFT by doing it with Donna in her group, and by studying Gary Craig’s manual from his website, emofree.com. Soon, I began receiving newsletters from Patricia Carrington and then Til Schilling’s Tappy Bear.com. At a time when I was at a crossroads in my hypnotherapy career, I received another invitation. This one was from my spiritual center, Common Ground, asking me to offer EFT for kids as part of their Children’s Enrichment program. Here was another offer I would not refuse, and from there, I linked up with Judith Freyer to form our program called Conscious Kids. Together, Judith and I took Tappy Bear to Common Ground and introduced the children and their parents to EFT with pleasantly surprising results. Here’s what one parent has to say about it.

“We have used the tapping technique on our three young kids (9, 7 and 5) when they are upset, angry, crying, or sad and it works like a miracle. Immediately they calm down and start enjoying the tapping with a relaxed smile on their face. It’s like pressing some magic reset button. Thank you so much for teaching parents this powerful technique. It is a powerful and easy way to instantaneously relax and regain our composure. It helps prevent parents from fighting emotion with emotion, and removes the complexity from the charged event.

EFT = Emotional Freedom Technique

EFT stands for emotional freedom techniques, which is a powerful and fun way to release negative energy and replace it with more peaceful responses to the stresses of daily living. EFT is based on a theory by Dr. Roger Callahan, which states that the cause of all negative emotion is a disruption in the body’s energy system. Also called Meridian Tapping, it works to relieve both physical and emotional pain. It’s a modified version of acupuncture without needles. Instead, you stimulate energy points, or the endpoints to some of the meridians, by gently tapping on them with your fingertips. It’s easy to learn and only takes minutes to feel positive results. I have found that one-to-one tapping with clients for specific issues prior to hypnotherapy greatly enhances the total effect of the session. Moreover, tapping in a group setting has been extremely beneficial to me personally, not only as a learning tool but as a way to release emotional blocks to my own success and prosperity. The effects of EFT seem subtle, but they are amazing nonetheless. I suggest giving it a try. “Try it on everything,” says Gary Craig. Indeed, there is a DVD by that name which I use as a teaching tool with my own Meridian Tapping (EFT) group meetings at Common Ground Spiritual Center in Tustin, CA the first Friday night of each month.

HOW EFT Works

The following example of successful use of EFT with a close friend is described here to illustrate how it works on a specific case. The more specific the issue, the more effective the procedure will be. In this example, we used the meridian points of Gary Craig’s sandwich technique followed by an aspect, which also needed to be resolved. Ideas for wording for each meridian point were derived from my friend’s stated desired outcome, affirmations by Dr. Jean Krueger, and Dr. Carrington’s choice Method.

My friend identified an ongoing problem in her life regarding her adult children, and their decisions. She said, “I want to feel more acceptance and serenity, but I feel intense sadness and heartbreak.” To make it more specific, we pinpointed the immediate source of her sadness to just one of her sons.

OK, now close your eyes, take a deep breath, and visualize a scale from 0 to 10, with 0 being no intensity of pain or feeling and 10 being the highest level of intensity. Thinking about these feelings of sadness and heartbreak, how would you rate the intensity?

With tears streaming down her face, she gave it a 10.

Where do you feel it?

She said it was consuming…that she felt heaviness all over her body, but symbolically, it was in her heart. She saw a heart with a crack in it.

So we’re going to create a set-up phrase that is specific and accurately describes the problem. Here, we’re going to tap on the karate chop point on the side of either hand just above your little finger. It really doesn’t matter which hand or side of the body you use.

The set up phrase will be:

Even though I feel intense sadness and heartbreak about my son’s decisions, I deeply and completely love, respect and accept myself.

Repeat the set up phrase…two more times…

Even though I feel intense sadness and heartbreak about my son’s decisions, I deeply and completely love, respect and accept myself.

Even though I feel intense sadness and heartbreak about my son’s decisions, I deeply and completely love, respect and accept myself.

Next we focus on a reminder phrase while taping on each of the meridian points, starting at the top of the head.

Her reminder phrase was, “this sadness and heartbreak….”

One needs the reminder phrase to recreate the energy disruption so that it can be healed….

I like to add an affirmation to the reminder phrase for each point, such as

TOP OF HEAD:

This Sadness and Heartbreak—I’m open to change.

EYEBROW POINT:

I release my fear of this sadness and heartbreak. I have more courage now.

OUTSIDE EDGE OF EYE:

This sadness and heartbreak is wearing me down. I’m ready to release the stuck energy, get rid of the junk in the trunk, and I choose peace and serenity instead.

UNDER EYE:

This sadness and heartbreak is cluttered thinking. I can see clearly now.

UNDER NOSE:

This sadness and heartbreak is wrecking my communication and relationships. Instead, I choose harmonious communication and loving relationships.

UNDER MOUTH:

This sadness and heartbreak is related to emotions from past trauma—I release them and circulate positive energy from now on.

COLLARBONE:

This sadness and heartbreak is due to indecision and fear of the unknown. I release that now, and increase my momentum and determination to follow my inner voice, my intuitive guidance.

UNDER ARM:

This sadness and heartbreak is from resentment and confusion. I release it and increase focus and concentration.

Now we go to the GAMUT POINT, which ties all the points together and releases energy blockages, allowing progress toward goals.

Eyes closed

Eyes open

Eyes pointed down to the right while holding the head steady

Eyes pointed down to the left while holding the head steady

Roll eyes in a circle clockwise while holding the head steady

Roll eyes in a circle counterclockwise while holding the head steady

Hum two seconds of a song like “Happy Birthday”

Count rapidly from one to five

Hum two seconds of song again

TOP OF HEAD:

This sadness and heartbreak—I’m open to change

EYEBROW POINT:

I release my fear of this sadness and heartbreak. I have more courage now.

OUTSIDE EDGE OF EYE:

This sadness and heartbreak has lost its power, and I choose creative expression of my divine nature instead.

UNDER EYE:

This sadness and heartbreak is now gone and I choose to feel love and peace in its place.

UNDER NOSE:

This sadness and heartbreak is now released, and I choose harmonious communication.

UNDER MOUTH:

This sadness and heartbreak is dissipated, and I choose love and peace instead.

COLLARBONE:

This sadness and heartbreak is being released, and I choose acceptance and serenity instead.

UNDER ARM:

This sadness and heartbreak is from resentment and confusion. I choose acceptance and peace.

Now we reassess the intensity scale:

My friend, who started at a ten, went down to a four; but since she still wasn’t at 1 or 0, at this point I usually probe for an aspect which might be related to the problem. Aspects often reveal themselves and add another dimension to the source of stress and therefore, lack of peace and serenity. In this case, my friend said she now had a headache, and she has a history of migraine headaches. She didn’t have a headache when we began the EFT round though. Something, while focusing on this issue, caused the headache to emerge.

So after a brief discussion, we decided to tap on the headache itself. In our discussion about the headache, she mentioned feelings of anger welling up inside of her. She recalled as a teenager, she was not allowed to express her anger, and that’s when she started getting the headaches. After a round of tapping on the headache, she said the headache went away. We also worked with her feelings of anger and ways to nurture herself to prevent so much anger, as well as ways other than headaches to express her anger. It was important for her to be able to express herself appropriately without attack as she put it, or without causing harm to others. This particular example of EFT and me is also demonstrated on my video, “Creating Peace Within”, which can be found at www.thebutterflygift.com.

When I first began tapping and teaching EFT to others, I used Gary Craig’s “sandwich “ routine outlined in his manual. Now, I find the short form with eight tapping points to be very effective in group and workshop settings. For more in depth work with a client, I use a variety of methods including the “choice” method by Dr. Patricia Carrington.

I like to allow my intuition to guide me in the process. With the kids, I utilize Tappy Bear, a stuffed toy with the tapping points sewn into him for an easy way to teach children the benefits of tapping. They tap on Tappy first, and then on themselves.

My latest adventure in EFT has to do with Gary Craig’s Peace Procedure, which he describes on pages 65-67 of his manual. The procedure involves making a list of all the disturbing events that have occurred in your life. He says everyone has at least fifty or more, depending on age. Tapping on one or more of these each day helps clear away disruptions in your energy system caused by these events. Using the metaphor of the Redwood forest, each disturbing event is represented by a tree. I have created a guided imagery based on this metaphor in which one is guided through the forest to relate to a specific event to release via EFT. This works equally well with private clients and for group tapping sessions. Although there is no one strategy that is a cure-all for everything, I recommend adding EFT to your tool kit of therapeutic strategies and techniques. Combined with hypnotherapy, it’s profoundly successful in replacing negative energy with positive action. You can download Gary Craig’s EFT manual for free at www.emofree.com.