EFT And Anxiety

How Effective Use Of EFT Can Help Relieve Acute Anxiety Over Survival by John Howell

How effective use of EFT and clever use of language can help break through the boundaries created by anxiety and help relieve an acute state of anxiety, particularly when the client is at the point of having broken sleep and this has created a fight for survival issue.

Case Study

Using EFT Emotional Freedom Technique (tapping with fingertips on meridian points) & clever use of language to break down boundaries and help release negative emotions in a client with acute anxiety.

What is EFT

Emotional Freedom Technique requires tapping gently with the fingertips of your hand onto various meridian points around the body. Gary Craig later used the same principles that are used in acupuncture and proven to exist by Vernejoul, and ideas from TFT as the basis for EFT which he developed into a highly effective treatment for helping remove negative emotions and continues to evolve.

Meridians have been "medically traced" in the body. In 1985 Pierre de Vernejoul at the University of Paris carried out a definitive and much-quoted experiment. He used a radioactive marker, technetium 99m, which he injected into subjects at classic acupuncture points. He then used gamma camera imaging to track the subsequent movement of the isotope. He was able to show that the tracer migrated along the classic meridian lines, travelling quite quickly: a distance of 30 cm in 4-6 minutes. [P. de Vernejoul et al., 'Etude Des Meridiens D'Acupuncture par les Traceurs Radioactifs', Bull. Acad. Natle. Med. Vol. 169 (22nd October 1985): 1071-5.] As a control he made a number of random injections into the skin (not at acupuncture points) and also injected the tracer directly into veins and lymphatic channels. There was no significant migration of the tracer at other sites than an acupuncture point.

Client information:

Female 36
Divorced & living on own with child of 5 yrs old.
Living in ageing and difficult to get to flat.
Family: Mum & 2 sisters, one older, one younger.

History of Client

Divorced 3 years ago. Works as a secretary for a charity working with older people. She loves her job and would like to work less days so she can do other things. This was the one great positive in her life apart of course from her daughter. She has given notice to her landlord that she wants to leave her flat and has till June to find somewhere new. She had also had a stalker, who she had reported to the police on two occasions and found they had not been able to do anything and had not caught him. She had also not been sleeping well, waking up in the middle of the night and not being able to go to sleep again.

Reason for treatment:

She wanted to get through a period of high anxiety, highlighted by her lack of sleep and fear of survival issue of not being able to do her job, look after herself and her child. Other issues include one sister having growth in breast, and other sister having left her partner and continually breaking down and being often in tears on the phone. Her mother had also been in hospital with a growth and illness, and father is no longer around. She found she was always taking everyone else’s problems on her shoulders and did not have enough time for herself or was able to deal with things going on in her life.

She also had to put her very much loved dog down at Christmas because he was old and very sick. The dog came into her life just at the time when her relationship with her ex-partner ended and she had not had a relationship since.

She was planning to visit her doctor in a couple of days later to get anti-depressants, to help calm her and said that the thought of going to see a doctor to ask for anti-depressants was also causing her anxiety

Total: 2.1/2 hrs of treatment

Session 1. 1.15mins

Deciding which issues to work on:
It was clear that there were many issues and it seemed as if there were far too many to deal with in one session as there were was so much history.

Symptoms:

The anxiety symptoms presented as not being in a relaxed or calm state, rapid breathing, taught facial muscles, pallid skin colour, rapid and not flowing speech, cold hands, waking up in the middle of the night, fear of not being able to work because of tiredness, and worry and concern she had about everything going on in her life, lack of a relationship, especially taking on her families problems and losing her beloved dog at Christmas.

Having taken a history, it was evident that some considerable anxiety was present around the issue of relationships, or loss of them and around a stalker who she had reported to the police and they had not been able to do anything about him, as well as the illnesses and problems presented to her by her mother and sisters whose problems she was taking on board herself.

Treatment:

I decided to work on the anxiety, and just went straight onto tapping to calm her without getting an idea of the intensity at this stage, as it was clear the intensity of anxiety was very high.

Using a ‘set up’ statement I tapped on the ‘Karate Chop’ point, which is on the edge of the hand between the base of the small finger and the wrist.

I began speaking with:

“Even though …”
(Tapping lightly and continually with finger tips on karate chop point)
“I have this anxiety, I deeply and completely love and accept myself”
I asked her to repeat this…
I said again,
“Even though …”
“I have this anxiety, I deeply and completely love and accept myself”
And again…
“Even though …”
“I have this anxiety, I deeply and completely love and accept myself”
In all I did this about 5 times.

I then tapped on the top of her head.
Saying ‘anxiety’ and asked her to repeat.
After about 30 taps I moved onto the top of the eyebrow on the bone.
And said again ‘anxiety’, she repeated. (whilst I did about 15 taps)
Then the same again I tapped on the outside of the eye on the bone just above the eyebrow, and she repeated.
Then below the eye, on the bone where the tear duct is, again saying ‘anxiety”.
Then below the nose above the lips, again ‘anxiety’
Then below the lips and above the chin, again ‘anxiety’
Then at the neck where your shoulder bones join, ‘anxiety’
Under the arms at the side of the body, ‘anxiety’
Then on the edge of the nail bed on the thumb and fingers, again ‘anxiety’ on each.
Then back to the Karate chop point, where I did more ‘Even though… etc…’

After 3 rounds I stopped and said ok, so if ‘0’ is no anxiety and ‘10’ is too much then at what level is the anxiety now?
She said, ‘8’.

At which point, I said is there a place, colour, feeling, or sound associated with this ‘anxiety’?

Its very important to weight the words exactly the same in order to give no indication to the client that they should or should not go for a particular choice, and of course they don’t have to choose anything, it may be that you get a client who has no place, colour, feeling, or sound associated with the issue.

She said, yes, ‘it’s going up into my throat’

So from this I went into a set up statement and said,
‘Even though, I have this no 8 throat, I deeply and completely love and accept myself’

I did 4 rounds of this and asked for another check on the level of anxiety, ie; ‘0 – 10’, ‘0’ no anxiety, ‘10’ very high.

This is just a guide and shows how much a client is improving from their experience, and it’s their experience that counts.

Having done those rounds, I changed tack slightly and did the following. Using the same words and having checked with her the level of intensity of the anxiety I did the set up:-

‘Even though, followed by..
I have this no 4 anxiety I deeply and completely love and accept myself’

And next - This was one of the more fun bits & use of clever language
After 6 times of doing this I tapped on the
top of the head and said, “I have no anxiety”
eye brow centre “I love anxiety”
eye brow right side, “what anxiety?”
under eye, “I hate anxiety”.
Under nose, “I love anxiety”
Under lips, “I hate anxiety”
Neck, “bring it on”
Under arm, “this number 4 anxiety”
Of course all the time she repeated the words after me, and while I am tapping.

You get the picture here, basically making short statements that she liked the issue and then she did not, and by using this technique it breaks through the boundaries of negative thinking quickly, especially while using EFT. I did several rounds, always using her keywords and things she had said to ensure she was associated as possible with the issue.

You can use lots of different combinations, don’t want, do want, can’t have, can have, do have, don’t have, always love, always hate, bring it on, take it away, how can I love anxiety, how can I not love anxiety, who loves anxiety, I love anxiety, he gave me anxiety, he didn’t give me anxiety.. etc. Have fun with this and it makes the session much more fun for the client and this also helps release the negative emotions much more rapidly.

I did several rounds of this, then I asked for another ‘0 – 10’ reading. I got ‘0’. And sensing there was still something there and being very persistent as I always am, thought it would be best to really clear any remaining feeling, and so I did a remaining feeling set up.

‘Even though, I have this remaining feeling of anxiety, I deeply, etc... etc..
After 3 rounds of remaining feeling with set ups which lasted about another 5 minutes, suddenly the tension around the muscles on the top of the eyebrows went, so there was smooth skin and she had also got some face colour back. She also had a tingling sensation she said that went through her.

How can I tell I am making progress?

These are all indicators that something has changed and that therapy has had an effect. For me, my perception was that her breathing, posture and muscle tone had changed and relaxed since the start of the session and with other indicators such as yawning, tingling etc we were making progress. So a great success.

Further session

We agreed another session was needed to work on the issue of relationships and particularly the dog that she had to have put down. This was tied in of course with the end of her marital relationship and so was high on the ‘to work on’ list.

Session 2. 1.15mins

Issue: loss of dog. Her eyebrows had gone taught again by the next day, and so I went straight into 'even though' and then used the name of dog and the word loss which she had given me in order that she was associated as much as possible into the issue.

I basically followed the same pattern as the day before, and went straight into tapping on the Karate Chop point on her,

“Even though… I had to put my dog down.. I deeply and completely love and accept myself”.. several rounds later and going around the various tapping points as the previous session, and using the clever language we got the intensity down again to '0' from a very very intense ‘10’.

This session lasted a bit longer than the previous days session which was no surprise considering the level of intensity at the beginning of the session. I could tell she had made some significant progress, she had yawned, and said it was the first time that she could put the loss of the dog behind her. Her muscles on her forehead had relaxed, her skin had colour and her breathing had slowed, her voice was also steadier, and she had yawned.

One main indicator was that she said she felt like she had finally let go of him and felt better for it.

If this goes to prove anything it is that with therapy someone can help themselves avoid having to take sleeping pills or anti-depressants, although these can help, they do not necessarily help treat the cause of the issues. NB: Always consult your doctor if you are unsure of symptoms, treatments, or conditions you may have.

Summary

EFT can be used for so many issues, its flexibility and ease of use has to make EFT one of the most effective ways of helping relieve negative emotions. With the combination of clever use of language, checking the level of intensity of the issue and constant observation of the client for signs of change (eg: skin tone, colour, as well as skin shiny or matt, muscles relaxing, breathing becoming more even and regular, tone of voice relaxing) you would find EFT a quick and highly effective tool for a huge range of issues.

NB: Always consult your doctor if you are unsure of symptoms, treatments, or conditions you may have. Before using EFT I strongly suggest you speak with an experienced EFT Master and ensure you are insured if you are doing it on other people.

Copyright 2007 John Howell DipTCL, AdvAAMET EFT, MasterNLP, MasterTLT, MasterHYP, IMMADip
AHA, MANLP, MIMMA. Having a performance background I find that I naturally fit into a genre of therapy which helps people perform better, whatever their issue, and whatever they are doing. Whether they are ill, depressed, have relationship problems, people in sport or entertainment, a business manager or someone just wanting to achieve more focus to get more done. My passion is healing and motivating people to get more out of their lives and to do things they thought impossible.
www.eft-healingwithin.co.uk | Email

Based in Guildford and covering, London, Surrey, Hampshire and Berkshire. 07881 958937 mobile; 01483 536600
Performance Therapist, Executive Coach, Mentor, Motivational Speaker and Meta-Medicine Coach & Trainer.

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