As natural and holistic healing techniques rapidly become more and
more accepted in the world today it can be a challenge to know which approach
to choose. The obvious consideration is simply to ask – how well does it work? What
results have people experienced from this method?
EFT - Emotional Freedom Techniques - is a relatively new modality that is attracting the attention of ordinary people and health professionals of all kinds. It offers amazing possibilities for the effective healing of a wide diversity of ailments, both emotional and physical. Some examples are: chronic pain (e.g. headaches, back-pain), fears and anxieties (e.g. public speaking, exams, etc.), all kinds of phobias, cravings and addictions, trauma and post traumatic stress, depression, obsessive disorders, procrastination.
The EFT healing method is based on two empirically supported assumptions:
1. The cause of all negative emotions is a disruption in the body's energy system.
2. Our unresolved negative emotions are major contributors to most physical pains and diseases.
These ideas have been largely ignored by conventional Western healing practices and therefore EFT often works where nothing else will.
In the hands of a skilled practitioner, EFT has a unique ability to uncover and dissolve underlying emotional issues by directly addressing the mind/body interface. The method has been developed over the last 20 years and has achieved astonishing results for thousands of people around the world with all kinds of conditions.
EFT is based on ancient Chinese Meridian therapies (other well-established examples of meridian therapies are acupuncture and reflexology). The process involves tapping lightly with the fingers on an ordered sequence of acupressure points on the face and upper body (clothing is not removed). It is entirely non-invasive and there appears to be zero possibility of negative side-effects or harm of any kind.
Benefits of EFT
Instead of taking months or years as is typical of conventional "talk therapy," EFT often clears out emotional “debris” cleanly and thoroughly in one or two sessions... and sometimes does it in moments.
The next thing that happens is that physical ailments tend to fade. Headaches, back pains and other discomforts tend to spontaneously improve or vanish. Vision sometimes becomes clearer and
everyday stress has less impact on the system.
Thus EFT can be used for just about everything. The same basic procedure is applied for fear of public speaking as for improving sports performance, for a common cold or cancer, for emotional issues like fears, trauma, depression, grief and even psychiatric disorders.Two case histories
1. A man in his mid-50s came to see me for chronic debilitating pain in his upper back, with referred pain in his right shoulder and neck. He was struggling to get a good night’s sleep, and could not turn his head easily when driving. X-rays showed degenerative disc disease and intensive physiotherapy
had failed to provide any relief at all. He rated his pain intensity at 8 on a scale of 1 to 10. Just three sessions of EFT produced extremely positive results. The healing process worked by uncovering and releasing suppressed emotional traumas that he had held in and stored in his body since early childhood, in his pre-teens and in his early adult years. The treatment resulted in a reduction of his pain to less than 1 out of 10. His life returned to normal again and, at the time of writing, his shoulder and back have not bothered him for the last 15 months since the treatment.
2. A client in his early 30s wanted to deal with obsessive cravings for certain foods which were negatively impacting his weight and his health. Diets and self-discipline were not working. The treatment revealed unresolved emotional pain in his relationship with his mother from his teenage years and pre-teens. Dissolving these emotional blockages caused a significant reduction in his
cravings. In addition, there has been a positive effect on his marriage relationship. The treatment took only 5 sessions. Tthe client - a clinical psychologist - expressed amazement at the efficacy of EFT as a psycho-therapeutic modality - all his years of training and his own therapy had never revealed the specific core issues that emerged during these EFT sessions!
These cases clearly lend support to the theory that suppressed, stressful emotional memories can be unconsciously stored in the body and eventually show up as pain or disease, even decades later. EFT offers a remarkably direct and powerful way of healing these kinds of conditions.
