Beware Of Piling On The Negatives With EFT

By Suzanne Zacharia

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EFT mainly involves tapping with two fingers on special points in the acupressure meridian while using specially-worded phrases to release an emotional or physical pain. The Reminder phrases used are usually negative, as they represent the negative feelings that we direct our mind-body to release with the tapping. The Setup is about half negative and half positive.

EFT is so effective that there are many Youtube EFT videos out there, as well as EFT DVDs, that show just how effective it can be and demonstrate it. Different presenters have different styles. Some come from a counselling background and so give insights and encourage the client to talk, others come from a massage background and get to the physical tapping as soon as possible, and some have an NLP background and use clever wording as a preamble or as part of the tapping. It is this NLP wording that often gets mistaken for plain wording without special skills that take years to perfect. Of course, there are short-cuts. You can learn a crash-course in NLP in a week from one of the good NLP trainers, or a crash-training in NLP reframing from a workbook in about a week if you work diligently through it for a few hours a day. However, no matter how you look at it, you will have to put in the effort to learn some form of NLP if you want to use it. NLP stands for Neuro Linguistic Programming. The problem arises when a new EFT practitioner watches the videos and DVDs where others use varied wording and stream-of-consciousness talk during EFT, deduces that they should talk and say more in their statements, and simply start adding many more negative statements on each point. This has the effect of piling on so many negative feelings on one single round of tapping, that this round hardly has an effect. Too many aspects will have been brought to the surface, often resulting in a totally avoidable abreaction or the client outwardly being in control but inwardly feeling too triggered. This is unnecessary.

One example of piling on negatives is as follows. If you have a fear of flying, please be aware that it could be triggering.

Setup

¨Even though I have this fear of flying, and this fear of death, after all, I could easily fall out of the sky, and I could die, leaving my children orphans, so they could have the bad childhood that I had, and I feel terrible about it, and I feel so trapped in that plane anyway, this fear is really terrifying and makes me very anxious, and when I get anxious I am afraid of having a heart attack, I really feel bad, I feel like I can´t breathe, if I take that plane, I´m going to die, I accept myself anyway¨.

Reminder

On Eye Bow: ¨This fear of flying¨

On Side of Eye: ¨This fear of death¨

Under the Eye: ¨I will fall out of the sky¨

Under the Nose: ¨I could die¨

Chin: ¨My children will become orphans¨

Collarbone: ¨They will have the same terrible childhood I had, with a step-father that will beat them to an inch of their lives, what a terrible thing, I am so scared¨

Under Arm: ¨I feel so trapped in a plane, it brings up my claustrophobia, it reminds me of when my step-father would lock me in the cupboard for hours after beating me, I feel panicky and trapped, I´m getting really anxious now, planes are really unsafe, they remind me of being helpless and vulnerable, I´m so scared¨

The best way a newcomer can phrase the above Setup is simply: ¨Even though I have this fear of flying, I accept myself anyway¨. However, if the practitioner feels a need to use longer statements, they can add a totally positive affirmation in there. For example, they can say: ¨Even though I have this fear of flying, I accept myself anyway, and I choose to feel calm¨. And the best way to phrase the above Reminder is simply: ¨This fear of flying¨. Or, if the practitioner really feels unhappy sticking to simple statements, there is the following suggestion, adding in some positive statements.

Reminder

On Eye Bow: ¨This fear of flying¨

On Side of Eye: ¨I choose to be calm¨

Under the Eye: ¨This fear of flying¨

Under the Nose: ¨I accept myself even though I have this fear¨

Chin: ¨This fear of flying¨

Collarbone: ¨I choose to be calm¨

Under Arm: ¨This fear of flying¨

EFT should be as gentle a process as possible. EFT is not a test of how complicated your statements can be. It simply is an effective method for release of emotional or physical pain. Enjoy the simple, effective release.

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Author's Bio:

© Suzanne Zacharia 2010.  My name is Suzanne Zacharia and I am committed to spreading the word about health options. I believe that the more and better options one has, the more choice there is. And of course, you are advised to consult with your medical practitioner before embarking on any course of alternative, complementary, or beauty therapy. Want to use this article?  You can, as long as you credit me with it and invite your readers to get my FREE "EFT How-to for You" and regular free EFT Tapping script samples in my newsletter at http://www.EFT-Scripts.com

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While EFT has produced remarkable clinical results, it must still be considered to be in the experimental stage and thus practitioners and the public must take complete responsibility for their use of it.

In addition, the articles on this site represent the views of the authors and do not necessarily reflect those of the founder of EFT, Gary Craig, nor the owner of this web site, Stefan Gonick.