I have been a fan of Emotional Freedom Techniques (EFT/ Tapping) long before I thought to use it professionally. That’s because it’s great at reducing stress. You don’t even have to be perfect at it to get benefits.
The main issue that initially led me to use Tapping for myself was my high background level stress, and hopelessness that I’d never manage it. I loved how effective EFT/Tapping was at making me feel better, and how easy it was to use it by myself. It gave me a way to measurably bring stress down right away.
It was only when I got professional training that I realized there were gaps in what I had learned about EFT online. Fortunately, Tapping is a really flexible technique: I was seeing my stress levels improve even if I wasn’t using EFT perfectly. Nonetheless, there was a hidden cost to my approach: the results I was getting didn’t go that deep. The EFT methods that I had found online were not personalized. I still got in-the-moment relief, but once I understood EFT better, I personalized what I Tapped on and I got better relief and permanent change for what was bothering me.
I’m not alone in using less-than-perfect technique in EFT as a beginner. I see this all the time with clients. Some are like me: they see results and don’t realize how much further they could get if they improved their approach. Others don’t feel much or any benefit. They’ll conclude: ‘EFT isn’t for me’, not realizing that they didn’t really get the best EFT experience.
What I see time and again is that when people that experience EFT done right, they realize how much scope it has for situations they are working through.
Let me share an example:
At one of my drop in sessions, ‘Lisa’ admitted that she had friends rave about how much EFT had helped them, but she’d tried it and didn’t have results. Her ‘EFT doesn’t work for me’ story was front and centre!
She wanted to give it a try despite not having had notable success before. Within a short time of working together, Lisa felt the stress about her issue change, and surprise came over her face. After we finished our short session, she acknowledged that she had not understood how to use EFT in the way that I showed her. It turned out that before working with me, she had looked at resources online and used ‘scripts’. A lot of EFT tutorials online rely on generic scripts for participants to follow. The scripts are meant for mass consumption, and need to guess at themes that everyone can relate with. Sometime those scripts do help you get started. In Lisa’s case, it didn’t.
Even when scripts have picked general words that apply to your situation, they are best used as a starting point. You’ll want to leave them behind as you go deeper, and move to focusing on the nuance of your specific situation.
I also found myself using scripts when I started with EFT. Unlike Lisa, I had landed on some that helped me. Still, I wasted time searching for fancy wording that only partially applied to me. My own efforts felt less elegant and less good. This is a pity, because the best EFT is done with connecting on a feeling level, not finding the best words. This is not the only pitfall beginners face, but it is one thing that got in my way and happens to my clients.
After switching to consistently using well-focused and personalized EFT, I’ve moved past a lot of things I was struggling with. A few years ago, the transformation had become so noticeable that a friend who I hadn’t seen me in a many months complimented me on how much better I seemed. The difference was stark to her eyes.
I am committed to helping my community improve the ways they use EFT for themselves. I teach EFT as a self-help tool to all my clients. I also demonstrate good Tapping techniques in my accessible group drop-in sessions.
Clients also see massive improvements in their personal Tapping practice when they work with me privately. This is because you get direct advice and accountability for personal work between sessions. More importantly, you can move through things with my help that would be hard to manage alone and get stalled by bigger issues.
There are several ways I can help you improve your personal EFT practice right now:
- When you practice tapping for yourself, remember that connecting to your feeling matters most. Move beyond worrying about the words and trust your feelings. A good place to start is to Tap when you are having a reaction in real-time. For example: one of my clients just stood at the pile of shoes in her entryway (a trigger for her) and tapped while looking at them!
- This summer, in June & July 2021, I am making a mini-course available: EFT/Tapping for Personal Use. This will help you break down the process and give you worksheets to help you put it all together.
- I’m offering a small group program for June & July that combines group coaching (2 sessions) and one-on-one coaching (4 sessions scheduled at your convenience over 2 months). This is a opportunity to get some very focused one-on-one to really accelerate your results and launch a personal practice.
- Join one of my 3rd Thursday group drop-ins each month in 2021. You’ll learn see EFT guided by a practitioner who knows it, and you can ask your personal questions. We often have time for me to share direct advice to directly support your personal practice.
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