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Written
by: Deborah Mitnick, LCSW-C
Courtesy of Gary Craig at http://www.emofree.com
 I'm
teaching a four-session "Introduction to EFT" class
and thought I'd share what the first meeting was like
this week. The purpose of telling you about this is
to provide another suggestion as to how to integrate
the basic EFT information with some quick hands-on skills
for your students, clients, or other professionals.
Each of the four weekly sessions
is 90 minutes. The students realize that our scope is
limited and that this class is meant as an education
process and not psychotherapy. They know that my job
is to teach them the basics, but that the time is too
limited for me to do in-depth work with any student.
The students want to learn how to tap on their own phobias,
traumas and physical issues.
My hunch is that this class
will meet its goals.
In previous first-sessions of
classes to non-clinicians, I've spent a lot of time
giving information on the background of EFT, the theory
of acupuncture and the energy meridians of the body,
and I've taught the tapping points. But in all previous
classes, I've had the luxury of knowing that there were
six 90-minute sessions, rather than the four we have
now.
I decided to change the format
this time. I briefly introduced myself, asked the students
what attracted them to the workshop, and showed Gary's
Introduction to EFT video. I told them I wanted to do
a demonstration with one person while the other students
tapped along for their own issues.
"Ken" volunteered, but I'm sure
it was not just out of curiosity! He was having a severe
asthma attack and could barely catch his breath! On
the 0-10 Subjective Units of Distress Scale (SUDS),
he said he was a 10 on "constricted breathing." He said
that he had just come from his doctor's office and had
been given a new steroid treatment, but he didn't think
he'd notice results from that for at least six hours.
I asked him if he needed to
use his inhaler, but he said he'd rather try EFT. Since
Ken had only known about EFT for 20 minutes (enough
time for my personal introduction and for watching the
video), I had some concern that if he had a positive
result with the tapping, he might attribute our work
to the steroid medication (the "Apex Problem"). I asked
him if he thought the steroids could possibly help in
the next 10 minutes. He said there was no way that the
medication would kick in that fast. He'd be convinced
about tapping if his breathing improved that quickly!
What a perfect hands-on teaching
opportunity this presented, as well as an opportunity
to give this man some real relief! I asked the class
to tap on the same points I directed Ken to use and
told them they'd learn enough just by doing that to
try this method on themselves when they got home.
I told Ken to take full responsibility
for his physical and emotional well being. I reminded
him that we had just met and I did not know what was
best for him. I told him that if there was anything
I asked him to do that was not comfortable for him,
he should tell me. If he needed his inhaler, he should
use it. He agreed to these conditions.
To check the degree of constriction,
I asked Ken to take a deep breath. He couldn't do it,
but coughed violently instead.
I instructed him (and the class)
to tap the side of the hand and for Ken to say, "Even
though I have this constricted breath, I want to deeply
and completely accept myself." I instructed the
other students to do the tapping and think about one
of their own goals for the class. (Because Ken was in
immediate distress, I didn't want to take any extra
time to get the students more focused on specific goals
at that moment.)
Ken and I tapped the entire
Basic Recipe so that I could demonstrate it for the
rest of the class. I could hear that his breathing was
less labored, so I allowed my focus to move to the rest
of the class. I looked around the room and saw that
all of the students were successfully following along.
Twice during the rest of the session, I walked around
the room and coached the other students on the correct
locations for some of the tapping points. (By the way,
Ken's breathing was clearly better after we had tapped
the first six tapping points in the first round, but
I continued through the Basic Recipe because my goal
was to teach them the whole process. Had this been an
individual session with just Ken, we would have been
close to being finished by this point!)
When I asked Ken what his SUDS
was then, he looked amazed and said he was now a "six"
on the scale! I told the class that EFT sometimes takes
persistence and that there may be more than one round
for each challenge.
I explained about the need to
modify the affirmation to acknowledge to the unconscious
that some change had occurred. Ken then tapped for "Even
though I still have some of this constricted breath,
I want to deeply and completely accept myself."
After the three repetitions of that affirmation and
another full Basic Recipe, his SUDS was a "three."
[Note from GC: More details
on the "Constricted Breathing Technique" are given on
our Steps toward becoming The Ultimate
Therapist tape set]
Although his breathing was better,
he suddenly looked upset. My hunch was that an emotional
issue had emerged for him.
I asked, "If there were an
emotional reason for the remaining constricted breath,
what would it be?" With no hesitation at all, he
told me that he wished he could feel less stilted in
his relationships with his grown children.
So we tapped for, "Even though
I have a constricted relationship with my kids, I want
to deeply and completely accept myself." For the
second and third repetitions of this affirmation, I
had him repeat some forgiveness statements and "doing
the best I can with my resources and history" statements.
And after the Basic Recipe was completed, his "constricted
breath" SUDS was a "one."
Adding the emotional component
here gave me the opportunity to help the class understand
the connection between physical and emotional issues.
There was a lot of head nodding at this point as I talked
(as everyone continued to tap each point) about aches
and pains that are held in place by emotional issues.
Now, back to my work with Ken.
Two rounds of "Floor-to-Ceiling Eye Rolls" and his breathing
was totally clear.
Ken was impressed! He said he's
never found such fast relief from any asthma attack.
He also said he learned how to tap for himself through
my demonstration and planned to use the techniques before
we meet again at the class next week
When I asked the other students
for their reactions, observations, and assessments,
they were all amazed at Ken's results, but more than
that, most noticed that they were feeling more relaxed
and less concerned about the issues they had been privately
tapping for. I don't know yet what anyone else tapped
for, but I'll find out next week.
So, what have I learned from
this? I learned that I don't have to take people through
the tapping points in a hypothetical "dry run." They
can just jump in and tap on a real issue, following
my modeling.
I learned that these students
didn't care that they didn't get "theory." They got
relief and that's what they came for.
I learned that while I'm having
people tap on a sequence of meridians, I can present
a lot of information to them about tapping, even while
they are saying their reminder phrases. For example,
while they were tapping under their eyes, I had them
continue at that spot while I told them the purpose
of the reminder phrase was to keep them "tuned in" to
the problem.
When they laughed at how silly
it looked the first time they tapped under the arm,
I encouraged them to say their reminder phrases while
I acknowledged how weird this method looks. I talked
about how some people are skeptical and some say that
positive results are only a "placebo effect," but in
order for it to be a placebo, they'd have to believe
it works and most people don't!
So, they're tapping under their
arms, getting the desired results, Ken's breathing is
improving, and I'm also informally getting to teach
all of the information I wanted them to have in the
first session.
And we're tapping for the entire
duration of the class. There is no time when I "just
lecture."
For the newcomers on this EFT
list, I'd like you to know that I might have been lucky
to have a good outcome with Ken. Usually I'd choose
to demonstrate with a whole group and hope that a majority
of the students would get the result they were looking
for. I think it's a bit risky to choose just one student
for such a demonstration, but I decided to take that
risk in this situation.
As the class adjourned, the
students came up to me and told me they were excited
by what they had learned for themselves, what they had
witnessed for Ken, and what they hoped to achieve in
the next three sessions. Many of them told me that they
are now "believers," even though they came to the class
with hesitancy and a degree of skepticism. One person
referred a client to me for phone sessions.
I feel good about what I accomplished
in this brief session!
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