Emotional Freedom Technique (EFT)

A powerful technique for managing your stressful emotions is gaining popularity: Emotional Freedom Technique (EFT) or “tapping”. There are hundreds of testimonials online of people who have used tapping to clear emotional pain, traumas or conflictual feelings from their bodies and their minds.

The technique helps users release unwanted negative emotions that stand in the way of accomplishing what they want in their personal and professional lives. They report feeling a renewed sense of well-being after tapping.

Emotional Freedom Technique or EFT can easily be learned in one session but regular repetition really anchors in 

the technique (photo: eftpics)

Studies have shown that EFT can also cure many types of phobias, often after just one session!

How? This is because tapping combines the strength of modern scientific concepts with traditional Chinese medicine. Without suppression, it can be used to release patterns of mental-emotional dysfunction imprinted in our nervous system that manifest through anxiety, phobias and fears, as well as painful, debilitating emotions such as shame and guilt.

Traditional Chinese Medicine (TCM) and “Energy Medicine” teach us that energy (in Chinese: “Chi” or “Ki” as in Ai-ki-do or Chi-Kong) circulates throughout our bodies in specific tracts called meridians. These meridians run through points where they are close to the surface of the skin and can be accessed.

Other than through the science and art of acupressure (shiatsu) the energy meridians can also be accessed through the pressure of pressing or tapping to improve the circulation of energy. All it takes to start tapping are simple instructions.

You will be tapping on your meridian points while repeating to yourself the “affirmation” of your choice: a statement that’s positively phrased, and that helps you focus on your goal.

For instance: “I release the anger that I am feeling right now; I let it go.” Don’t worry about whether you’re saying it the correct way or not. As long as what you say honestly expresses your intention and truly reflects the pain you are feeling, then it's going to be effective!

The science behind tapping will help you be less skeptical about this method. Scientists now believe that by tapping the acupressure points in EFT, the level of arousal or excitement in the brain’s amygdala is reduced. The amygdala is one of the major parts of the brain that is implicated in our emotions. It is also the threat-detection part of the brain.

Tapping reduces arousal of the brain's amygdala (photo: eftpics search)

EFT has recently been in the limelight as it was used successfully by soldiers returning from combat zones to get over their post-traumatic stress disorder symptoms (PTSD).

When a person experiences a really dangerous life or death experience, it leaves a deep impression in their nervous system, an imprint. In some persons, this can lead to generalized anxiety disorders, going as far as Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder or PTSD. In PTSD cases, the brain is easily triggered into a “fight or flight response” and the person is continually living with the impression of danger; with constant releases of stress hormones, the person feels irrational, helpless, and vulnerable in a dangerous world, potentially triggering panic attacks.

Whether housewife or returning soldier, anyone can use tapping to get over Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder

When you are in a state of anxiety, your body is releasing chemicals that make you feel fearful and tense. While traumatic experiences often involve a threat to life or safety, any everyday situation can be perceived as “traumatic” depending on your constitution, circumstances and predisposition to trauma. Even if it doesn’t involve physical harm, any experience that leaves you feeling deeply shocked, overwhelmed and alone can mark you deeply, and EFT can help you get over such marking experiences.

There are a few EFT practitioners in Egypt, usually combining tapping with other self-help alternative or complementary medicine techniques. There are also resources online, especially from pioneering practitioners like Myrette El Sokkari who brought EFT to Arabic-speaking audiences (Taqneyit Al-Ra7a Al-Nafseya, as she calls it in Arabic). You'll find her videos on Youtube.

Diagram showing the acupressure points for tapping technique or EFT (photo: slideshare.net)

The Journal of Clinical Psychology published a study in 2003 showed how treating phobias using EFT was effective, when compared to regular relaxation techniques that used deep or “diaphragmatic” breathing to help subjects relax. The subjects in the study wanted help in getting over their “strong irrational fears of insects or small animals, including rats, mice, spiders, and roaches.” More encouraging still, the healing effects were present even 6 to 9 months after the treatment. Other studies have since replicated these findings. EFT is also safe and easy to use on kids.

At any age or health level, Emotional Freedom Technique can be used safely and effectively..

EFT is gaining popularity as a natural technique to deal with panic attacks, unmanageable anger and generalised anxiety, to even less concrete goals like attracting abundance in your life, manifesting more creativity in your work, etc. It can be used to remove obstacles that stand in the way of self-development, such as writers’ block, feelings of undeserving or low self-esteem.

Even kids can learn to tap away their fears!

For example, fear of success can be cleared using EFT. The approach is to picture what it would look like to be successful or to get what you want and then clearing the fears this image triggers using tapping. As it is safe and has no side effects, there is no limit on how you can use EFT.
In addition to being safe, free and fast, the best part is: you don’t have to believe in the technique to get results, as it is not based on “suggestion”. Try it for yourself and see what it can do for you!