EFT - Emotional Freedom Techniques - What is It?
Sunday, January 27th, 2008EFT - Emotional Freedom Techniques was developed by Gary Craig. He, attended a course on TFT - Thought Field Therapy (Dr. Roger Callaghan) and wanted to simply what he discovered to make the process as easy as possible to use but without detracting from its effectiveness.
What is EFT?
EFT is a technique which involves the stimulation of various acupuncture points whilst connecting to (thinking or talking about) the issue that the person wants to resolve.
In order to understand the principals beyond EFT it is useful to start off with an understanding of acupuncture.
Acupuncture has been used for thousands of years in China as a method of helping people overcome physical, psychological and emotional problems and issues. The underlying idea of acupuncture is this: -
1) The body has a number meridian lines contained within the body.
2) Along the meridian lines flows energy which is called ‘Chi’ (pronounced chee)
3) The ends and beginnings and parts in between of each of the meridian lines (acupuncture points) are close enough to the surface of the body for them to be affected by physical manipulation.
4) If a person has an particular issue, an experienced acupuncturist will know which meridian lines will have a blockage in them relevant to the issue, will know the acupuncture points appropriate to use for the resolution of that issue.
5) Acupuncture needles, which are very thin and hollow, can be inserted in appropriate acupuncture points to deliberately help the flow of energy through a particular meridian line.
6) With the blockage in the flow of Chi gone the issue goes or improves as well.
Now acupressure is the manipulation of those same acupuncture points on the body but instead of using acupuncture needles, the fingers and thumbs are used instead. Forms of acupressure that you might have experienced before are reflexology or shiatsu.
With EFT, instead of using needles or pressure on the acupuncture points, a series of light tapping with the fingers is used. The tapping can be done by the person with the issue for themselves or a practitioner can do the tapping for them.
Now at the same time the person is asked to repeat a sentence which describes the issue. The idea behind this is that the person stays connected to the issue (by repeating the description of the problem). At the end of one round of tapping on various acupuncture points, the strength of the issue is checked with the person. Of the issue is still present more rounds of EFT (tapping) will be used.
One round of EFT takes only around 60-90 seconds and the majority of people who have experienced EFT report a decrease in the strength of the issue.
With EFT being a process that anyone can use on themselves, it can be a very useful tool to help anyone deal with any issue whether physical, psychological or emotional.
The great news about EFT is that you do not have to have your belief system involved. You do not have to believe in EFT for it to be effective. All you do need is maybe a sense of curiosity and willingness to do it. As the rewards are high, the loss of that old issue, thousands of people have become regular EFT users and there are many EFT practitioners in the UK and worldwide now available to help people quickly.
Steven Harold
EFT Practitioner London