The Emotional Scale in EFT.

An article published on Gary Craig website.

Hi Gary,

We thought you might be interested in our recent experiences with applying the Emotional Scale to EFT practice. We have found that it is a really great way of highlighting to clients just how far they have come along the healing pathway during one healing session or over the course of several healing sessions. It has become a regular, extra method of testing in our practice. It is also a great tool to aid empowerment of the client.

Introduction:

In our work with clients and students we have often found ourselves trying to summarise what EFT does in a general sense. These are some of the phrases that we have come up with:

• EFT identifies the place(s) in a lifetime where the love is perceived to have gone missing and offers the possibility of alternative perceptions.
• EFT identifies the “writing on the walls” which is responsible for the emergence of an issue and re-evaluates it for current truth and acceptability.
• EFT works with both the emotional and physical manifestations of problems.
• EFT neutralises over-reactions at both the emotional and physical levels.
• EFT helps people to recognise the significance of their emotional and physical reactions.
• EFT helps people to respond more consciously to the emotional and physical manifestations of their issues, rather than experiencing an unreasoned reaction.
• EFT guides people towards acknowledgment, acceptance, understanding and eventually forgiveness of the circumstances and people involved in setting up their issues - including themselves.
• EFT helps people to move towards their place of personal peace.
• Another and much simpler way of saying all of this is that we are aiming to help our clients and ourselves to “feel better”.

“Feeling Better”:
Usually after treatment a client recognises easily that they have shifted to a better place either emotionally or physically. However sometimes, even with frequent testing, clients find it difficult to recognise consciously all that they have achieved.

This is particularly true for complex issues because once a particular issue or aspect is cleared they shift immediately onto the next one in line. The emotions associated with that one can mask the resolution already attained. From their perspective they still feel “Bad” – albeit a different bad from when they walked in the door. Sometimes no amount of reassurance helps and the client can become disillusioned and may refuse further treatment.

Also, sometimes after applying EFT treatment to an issue, clients will literally forget that it was ever a problem. This is the Apex Effect and it can be frustrating for the EFT practitioner because the client does not seem to realise what has happened. They may have begun the session in deep emotional distress and by the end cannot even think about the issue and may say that it was never a problem at all. Despite the practitioner’s best efforts at reminding them of the clearance that has occurred the client may go away thinking that EFT is ok but it didn’t really do much.

What is needed in both of these cases is a way of highlighting the progress made by the client and helping them to register the shifts which have occurred at the conscious level. We have found that introducing the client to the Emotional Scale can be a way of achieving this. It also helps clients to see the state that they are ultimately aiming for – the state of Personal Peace. Realisation that this state is attainable by everyone tends to encourage people to continue with the healing journey.

Please note that the Emotional Scale is not an original idea. We have found various versions of it in many spiritual development and self-help books. All we have done is to apply it to our work with clients and students with interesting results.

The Emotional Scale:
Please note that the scale is not used in the same way as the SUDS or level of intensity scale. The purpose of the SUDS or level of intensity scale is to assess the current intensity of an emotion during emotional processing. The Emotional scale is used to identify the particular emotional state being experienced at any time and its relationship to how we want to feel.

The version of the Emotional scale that we have adopted is this:

The Emotional Scale

To simplify matters we have grouped the emotional states into coloured zones with which people seem to identify very easily. Though this is a visual representation of emotional status we have found it to be equally useful to clients no matter what their favourite sensory modality (Visual, Audio or Kinaesthetic.) Most people seem to accept the scale with instant recognition and are able to tell you easily in which zone or range of zones they are currently living.

The number and colour of each zone links to the “Feel” of the emotions in each band. The higher frequency colours (green, blue, violet) relate to emotions that feel good and seem to carry a higher energy. The lower frequency colours relate to emotions which feel progressively worse as we move down the scale. These carry a lower energy. If you are familiar with the idea of energetic vibrations you could say that the upper level emotions carry a higher vibration than the lower level emotions.

Try it Out: Try this simple test out for yourself - close your eyes and think, “Depression, Despair, Depression, Despair” over and over again. Notice how you feel. It is actually very difficult to maintain a smile on your face while you do this - the energy just seems to leach away and your smile gradually droops and flows downwards. Anyone who has experienced depression will recognise this feeling and will already understand what low energy states depression and despair are. They feel paralysing!

Now try the opposite, close your eyes and think, “Joy, Passion, Joy, Passion” over and over again. This time it is difficult to keep the smile off your face! These words and their respective emotions carry a much higher energy level or vibration and you will feel your energy lift as you think the words.

What you have just done is to experience the two extreme ends of the Emotional Scale. As Gary comments in one of the DVD sets, each time we think the words related to each emotion our mind briefly samples that emotion for a fraction of a second, just enough to identify it. We feel and recognise the response as our energy system aligns with that thought or emotion. Similarly any event or memory which triggers a particular emotion will produce the related and recognisable energetic shift. This is happening all the time as we continually access different thoughts or memories or we are affected by events and the people around us. We are constantly shifting into different levels of the Emotional Scale.

Have a look at the scale again and decide for yourself in which zone you spend most of your time.

For example, you may find that spend most of your time in the Orange zone (Disappointment, Doubt, Worry, Blame) but that you bounce around from time to time down to Brown (Jealousy, Insecurity, Guilt, Unworthiness) and sometimes on a good day you can get up to Yellow (Boredom, Pessimism, Frustration, Irritation, Impatience) Does life in your zone feel good?

Now imagine how much better you would feel if you were living mostly in the green, blue or violet zones which are the home of Personal Peace. Where would you rather be?

Most people are very good at distinguishing the different energetic feel of their various emotions and there has to be a reason why we all have this innate skill. The reason suggested by several authors is that we are meant to use this skill to “feel” how we are in any particular moment so that we may then respond by choosing a thought or activity that gives us a slightly better “feel” than the one that we started with. The sense of relief felt as we access an emotion at a higher level tells us that we are travelling in the right direction - Up the Emotional Scale.

One of the things that EFT does so well, by clearing out the negative and limiting thought patterns, is help our clients and ourselves to move towards the upper part of the scale. As the layers of emotional garbage are cleared we feel better and find that we gradually spend more and more time near the top with frequent excursions right to the topmost level. This is the zone that feels ecstatic, where our peak experiences happen, where we are completely in tune with who we really are and we align completely with the flow of well-being in our lives. Conversely, the lower down the scale we slip then the worse we feel as we move out of alignment with the flow.

If this idea is accepted then it follows that the emotions can be used as a direct barometer for the degree of alignment with the flow of well-being at any point in time.

Once we have recognised from the feel of our emotions that we have moved out of alignment all that is needed to move back into alignment is to choose a thought or activity that produces a better feeling. We can simply change our mind and “feel” our way back into the flow. This takes practice but can give real benefits. There is often resistance to the change desired (one definition of psychological reversal is resistance to change). All that is needed is more EFT until the resistance crumbles and the change is implemented.

We have consistently found that introducing clients to the Emotional Scale can aid a real understanding of where they are in the healing process and it also acts to empower them by allowing control of the thoughts and emotions they accept into their experience. This is just another application of the Law of Attraction. When we consistently choose thoughts and activities that make us feel better (rise up the scale) then we automatically attract events and people that reinforce that better feeling.

Using the Emotional Scale in therapy:
Typical Case study:
M: A male client aged 34. Issues with feelings of failure, anger and resentment about a failed marriage which he could not seem to let go of. These were carrying him down towards depression.

1^st session:
At the beginning of the session he was asked to look at the Emotional scale and estimate where he thought he was emotionally at that time (this is the Emotional Set Point). He estimated that he was bouncing between zones Black and Red but settled on Brown as his current Emotional set point.

We worked in the normal way using his levels of intensity for testing on his feelings of guilt and being unloved. As these cleared he shifted upwards on the scale to anger and thoughts of revenge (Red zone on the scale). Initially this was directed at his ex-wife but as he vented these feelings other targets emerged including his father. It seems that both of these people (and probably others too) had contributed in some way to his feelings of failure, insecurity and worthlessness.

Ten minutes and a good rant later he started laughing and said he felt so much better after letting all that out. He apologised for his colourful language and we ended the session with him settling into a set point in the Green zone (optimism).

2^nd Session:
His emotional set point at the start was in the Orange zone (feeling discouraged and sad because he thought he was going backwards after the progress in the first session).

What had happened was that memories of specific events in his childhood and in his marriage had emerged and had been bothering him for 2 to 3 days. These had a common theme of him being put-down, criticised unfairly or being cast in the role of scapegoat. We dealt with these in the order of importance that he rated them using a mix of Tell the Story and Movie techniques and cleared them fairly easily but interestingly he still rated his set point as in the Orange Zone indicating that there was something else we needed to work with.

Conversation and questioning led towards his realisation that he felt “useless” and “could not ever get anything right for dad”. We worked in depth on this and reframed towards understanding of his Dad’s reasons for the way he behaved (“he did the best he could given his background and awful childhood”) and eventually moved towards forgiveness. He could not or would not forgive his dad at that time (“I cant let Dad off the hook just yet”) but was left feeling much lighter and brighter and as if a load had shifted from his back. He finished this session with his emotional set point in the Green zone.

3^rd session:
A tidy- up session. Initial set-point in the Orange zone - he was sad that he still could not let the “Dad” issues go completely. We worked with a few more “Dad” events, then switched back to the failed marriage and worked with events in the marriage, reframing towards understanding and possibly forgiveness of his ex-wife and himself for what they had created together. At the end of the session he said that he was really bored with the whole thing (Yellow zone) and just wanted it all to go away. We did a few rounds of “feel good” tapping, bringing in possibilities for his future and the advantages of his freedom from his ex-wife and the marriage. This made him laugh and we finished the session with him estimating his emotional set point as in the Blue zone .

Follow up:

By phone, a week later – he said that he felt great, his energy levels were much higher than before and that he was planning a change of job and a holiday. He commented on how much sunnier he felt and also that other people had noticed too.

Observations:

• · Generally we have noticed that overall progress is up the scale. Though a client may temporarily slip down the scale during a session or between sessions as they access deeper levels of their problems the slippage is rarely right back down to where they were before treatment. Whenever slippage does happen we work with whatever has emerged for attention and clear it, then overall progress upwards is resumed.
• · Some clients are concerned because they suddenly find themselves expressing hatred or rage as we work, or may start blaming other people for whatever has happened. They see this as wrong so it is important to explain that rage, hatred or blame are simply higher on the emotional scale than despair and depression and represent a temporary state en-route to healing. Once they realise that actually it “feels” better (i.e. gives a sense of relief) to be angry or to blame someone than to be depressed they accept that it is a necessary phase of the healing. Acceptance of all of the emotions being felt is real progress!
• · We give out copies of the Emotional scale to our clients so that they can practise assessing their own Emotional Set Point before and after homework tapping. With practice at conscious observation of their emotions people get much better at spotting when they slip into a negative feeling and so can identify what event or thought pattern has caused it to happen. This realisation can then form the basis for more rounds of tapping and so encourage further releases and shifts upwards. In our experience this really accelerates the self- healing process.
• · In practice the stepwise progress up the scale seems to be necessary. It would be very difficult for anyone to move upwards directly from despair to joy without steps in between. This would represent a huge energetic shift which would probably be unstable. We know that it takes time to process various aspects of an issue. They are only released at the right rate for that person and in the right order. The progression upwards through the levels with stepwise release of all aspects and issues along the way seems to stabilise the energetic shift and it becomes a permanent change.
• · Use of humour to produce laughter or deliberately stimulating release of anger can produce dramatic upward shifts but the release of aspects and issues must still happen in the right order and at the right time.

Conclusion:
We already know that EFT is a superb tool for helping us to reach for the place of personal peace by allowing us to deal with the events and issues which mar our lives. Using the Emotional Scale deliberately can help to reinforce the shifts which occur with EFT and can give direction to the whole process. As a person learns to consciously notice their emotions, and practices choosing ones that feel better, or chooses actions which lead to a better feeling they inevitably rise up the Emotional Scale and achieve a calmer, happier way of living. Life becomes easier, more joyful and seems to flow better.

Somewhere along the way as we release issues and practice ways of thought that take us upwards rather than downwards on the scale we shift from life being an exercise in damage limitation to life being a joyful adventure in creativity. It all comes down to choice!

“Feeling will get you closer to the truth of who you are than thinking.” Ekhart Tolle

Love,

Christine Sutton and Philip Davis

Restless Leg Syndrome and EFT.

An article published on Gary Craig website.

Hi Gary,

I was at a conference recently and at the end of the first day, a number of the delegates were at a local bar eating a meal, etc. One of the delegates, “C”, suddenly started rubbing her legs, and walking around stamping her feet, rather like she had cramp in her legs.

I asked what was wrong, and was surprised to hear that it was something called “Restless Leg Syndrome” (or RLS). I had never heard of this, so I asked her about it and she said it was a neurological thing that happens to people and there was no known cure for it. She (like many other sufferers of the problem) contracted it soon after giving birth to her son, 20 years ago.

Subsequently, I researched this on the Internet and found it was called Ekboms Syndrome. The symptoms of which are:

• · A strong urge to move your legs which you may not be able to resist. The need to move is often accompanied by uncomfortable sensations. Some words used to describe these sensations include: creeping, itching, pulling, creepy-crawly, tugging or gnawing.
• · Symptoms start or become worse when you are resting. The longer you are resting, the greater the chance the symptoms will occur and the more severe they are likely to be.
• · Symptoms get better when you move your legs. The relief can be complete or only partial but generally starts very soon after starting an activity. Relief persists as long as the motor activity continues.
• · Symptoms are worse in the evening especially when you are lying down. Activities that bother you at night do not bother you during the day.

“C” said that she was often kept awake by this problem, she couldn’t settle because all her leg muscles are going in and out of mild spasms. " It's horrible” she said. Sometimes she has to walk around her bedroom for hours. If she was tired, or if she had drunk any alcohol, it tended to make it a lot worse. But, she said “there is nothing that can be done, I just have to put up with it.”

The EFT practitioner inside me immediately rose to this “nothing can be done” challenge and so I suggested we might try some EFT on this. After some discussion about EFT, she was agreeable, and so we started tapping.

She estimated that the 0-10 intensity level was about an 8. So we tapped on…

“Even though I have these restless legs....” Then we tapped the shortcut sequence, including the Top of Head point saying “Restless Legs”

After, she said that maybe it had improved slightly, but they were still jittery. So, we tapped on “Even though I have jittery legs I deeply and completely love and accept myself and I choose to let my legs stay calm and relaxed.” Again she said that it was improved, but not gone.

I asked her about the causes of the problem, and she said that she had read it was a probably a bad connection in the brain, a short-circuit or something like that. Ok, I thought…. If it’s a problem in the brain, maybe a bit of Brain Balancing in the form of the 9 Gamut sequence will help? So we did the 9 Gamut sequence just once through.

The problem immediately disappeared. The intensity went to ZERO. “C” was amazed. She kept on looking at her legs, fully expecting it to return. But it never did that whole evening much to her delight.

There was also no recurrence that night or over the next few days, even though there were times when she would have expected it to happen (when she was tired late at night, for example).

I don’t use the 9 Gamut sequence a lot in my work as a practitioner, usually. It is rare that it makes a major difference like this when I do add it back in. So it just goes to show that my neglected friend the 9 Gamut does have its uses now and then!

I followed up two weeks later to discover that the RLS had returned. Albeit at a much reduced level. Over the 2 weeks, ‘C’ said that she would normally expect to have around 10 full blown attacks of RLS, but she had only experienced it only 3 times, and at a much reduced intensity. She said “it was a very mild version of it, a kind of warning, not the full blown thing”

So, we arranged to meet again and I started chasing the emotional drivers behind the problem. These were rapidly identified as being her home situation with her husband and children. So, we tapped on all the issues surrounding that.

“Even though my husband takes me for granted…”

“Even though my kids don’t appreciate me… “

And so on.

What seemed to really hit the mark was tapping on “Even though my legs want me to run away from home…” so we tapped on some variations of that “Even though I would like to leave this situation, I know its not possible and I accept the messages my legs are telling me but now I choose to allow my legs to be at peace… “ and so on with a whole long rambling set-up.

During the session, I also taught her the basic recipe and the shortcut version.

Over the next 2 weeks, she reported that she rarely gets the problem now, but when it does start, it is always when she feels that she should be doing something, but cant for some reason. For example, when she has lots of computer work to do, but cannot because one of her children are using the computer, or, when she thinks about all the things that need doing, but duty demands she has to go out for the day.

Whenever this happens, she simply taps the RLS symptoms away herself using a couple of shortcut rounds.

All in all, she is delighted that the symptoms she has been suffering for the last 20 years have all but vanished, and I am honoured that I (and EFT) have helped her remove the symptoms of this “incurable” problem.

With much love,

Philip

A Height Phobia with an unusual cause.

Article published on Gary Craig website.

Hi Gary,

This was an interesting case I dealt with recently where there was an unusual issue behind a height phobia. The use of freeform EFT with the rambling set-ups to identify the relevant issues and aspects made this fairly easy to collapse.

Kay (name changed) came to me for relief of a height phobia which was becoming very intrusive in her life as it was preventing her from flying, going into any high building or crossing bridges. She seemed very anxious and nervy about trying EFT and about life in general.

We did 2 preliminary rounds of basic EFT on feeling nervous about doing EFT which settled her and also introduced her to the procedure. Initial conversation showed that she had no conscious memory of a triggering event e.g. a fall or being stuck in a high place. This was not likely to be a simple phobia!

I asked how she felt if she thought about being in a high place such as the top of a tall building. She answered that she did not know, and when invited to guess at what her response might be she again said that she did not know i.e. did not want to go there at all. However, as she answered she shuddered and her hands started shaking so we did 2 or 3 rounds on "Even though I've got this jittery, shaky feeling just by talking about high places........" The 0-10 intensity moved down from 9-7.

This was some improvement but not much so I focused in and asked her for a specific time when she had felt like this before. She went straight to a memory of driving in Italy up a mountain road with a rock face on one side of the car and a sheer drop on the other. She had to keep going as she was the only driver present but was sweating and shivering as she drove and could only look straight ahead at the road. By the time she reached the hotel at the top she was so distressed that she fell over and could not get up without help. As she told the story her real time reaction increased to 10 - she really was shivering and shaking.

We tapped 4 rounds on different aspects - "this shivery shaking", "this hot and sweaty feeling", "this panic", "fear of that road". When asked for her intensity on each she said that perhaps it had gone down from 10-9. I felt she was humouring me - a clue in itself as it gave insight into her personality. Then she added spontaneously "I feel so ashamed of myself, acting like a silly child!" Another clue! We tapped for the shame aspect and reduced it to 0 in 2 rounds.

I asked her to tell me the story of the drive again and she went to an intensity of 8. Not much improvement, so I used a rambling type set-up, throwing in several phrases which were relevant. The one which caught her attention was "I feel so unsupported" and we then reduced this from 8-4 in 2 rounds. At last we were making progress!

I asked when else she had felt unsupported and she went straight to an incident when she had got into trouble at school and her mother had said that she must deal with it herself as she was a big girl now (she was 8). 10+ on this. We tapped on "My mother wouldn't help me..." then reframed to "perhaps she was busy that day, perhaps she wasn't very well but she still loved me" and reduced the intensity to 5.

I asked "Did she love you?" Kay answered "Oh yes! She put me on a pedestal!" The penny dropped for me then, and we tapped a long rambler including "Mom loved me so much she put me on a pedestal...it was very high and I was afraid of letting her down and falling off it....( Kay's eyes went very round and she said "Oh!" as the penny dropped for her too)...I accept and love myself and I forgive myself for trying to live up to impossible expectations all my life from Mom and everyone else including myself".

The intensity dropped to 0 within 3 rounds. As a test I asked her to recreate the drive up the mountain road in great detail in imagination - no reaction. I asked her to imagine stopping the car and getting out - no reaction. Then I asked her to imagine walking to the edge of the road to look over the drop. This pushed her back up to 5 which we tapped down until she could look and comment what a beautiful view it was.

I gave her a visualisation of an eagle flying in the clear air in front of her and asked "Do you want to be free like the eagle? " "Oh yes!" she said with some tears. So we did another rambler including the phrases "....clear air around me, no one expecting anything I can't give, I can breathe here, I choose to release all expectations and just be myself because I do so many things so well...I choose to forgive my mother for putting me up on that impossible pedestal....I choose to forgive myself for anything I have done to contribute to this....Now I choose to let all of this go forever...I choose to be free of fear... I choose to fly free like the eagle....." She has some tears and released some huge sighs as we processed different parts of all of this.

I tested her in imagination on as many aspects as possible and got no reaction except feelings of peace and joy.

As I write this Kay is on holiday in France and will be testing out her reactions on a real mountain road. I think she will be fine unless other new aspects arise.

Chris Sutton

Followup: Apparently, no new aspects arose because she drove up that real mountain road and was free of her previous problems. However, she has not tested air travel or being in high buildings. Perhaps other aspects will show up for EFT to handle.

Nail biting.  A one minute wonder!

Article published on Gary Craig website

Hi Gary,

I thought I would like to share with you something that happened on a Level 1 course we were giving here in the UK recently.

We were coming up to the first break of the morning and had 10 minutes before the coffee was ready. So I asked if anyone had an issue they wanted working on, and a lady in her mid-30’s said that she bit her nails and wanted to stop. Questioning her, she said that she had bitten them all her life.

So, as an experiment, I did one round of EFT on her. Even though I bite my nails… I did the complete Basic Recipe exactly as described in the EFT Manual.

She didn’t bite her nails at all for the remainder of the day.

Some 2 months later, she came back to do the Level 2 course with us. On the first morning she came up to me and said… “Look!!! (as she drummed her nails on the desk) I haven’t bitten my nails from that day to this. I have had to learn how to file my nails now!!” The big grin on her face was priceless.

I love EFT.

With blessings and love

Philip Davis

A Solid Approach to Pain Management

Article published on Gary Craig Website.

Hi Gary,

I am an EFT practitioner who has been practicing for some years here in England. I would like to tell your readers about a case where I removed someone's shoulder pain with EFT. This is not an outstanding case in the EFT greater scheme of things as I am sure that many of your readers achieve such results with great regularity.

However, it once again underlines the fact that you can get to all kind of dis-eases by attacking the emotional roots and also it shows that when you are using EFT on a physical issue such as pain, seeing how fast the 0-10 intensity drops when using EFT on the pain issue alone, gives you a clue as to the way to proceed.

The lady in question was attending one of our seminars and complained of a pain on her right shoulder blade. She had had the pain for 18 months, and said the 0-10 intensity for the pain was about an 8 or 9.

So we did the straight-forward "Basic Recipe" type setup tapping on the KC point and saying "Even though I have this pain in my right shoulder blade... etc." and then tapped saying "Shoulder pain" (Note: The shortcut tapping sequence was used throughout)

Pain went to a 7.

I asked her to give the pain a colour. She said it was a black pain. I also asked her to be more specific about where the pain was. She described it as being under her shoulder blade and towards the bottom.

So we tapped on "Even though I have this black pain underneath the bottom of my right shoulder blade... etc." and then tapped on "This black pain underneath the bottom of my right shoulder blade"

GC COMMENT: Note how Philip gets very specific with the wording. This is usually helpful, especially when the pain doesn't resolve very quickly with EFT.

PHILIP CONTINUES: Pain went to a 6 or maybe 6 and a half.

GC COMMENT: Even the "more specific try" didn't work in this case. This is a clue that there may be emotional drivers involved.

PHILIP CONTINUES: At this point, I saw that we were not going to remove this pain quickly. I was sure that with persistence, we could have done it, but I wanted to be more elegant than that. The fact that the pain was only reducing by one point on each round told me that this issue had to be tackled in a different way. In my experience, it is also a strong indicator that the emotional problems causing the pain were most likely near the surface.

So, I said to her "IF there was an emotional cause for this pain, what would it be?" She replied "I have no idea" So I said "I know you have no idea what the emotional cause might be for this pain, but if you DID know, what would it be?" (I love this way of turning things around, sometimes it can pay big dividends) But this time, she looked blank again and said "No idea"

GC COMMENT: As you will see below, Philip asks her to bring ANY event to mind. As you will see, this was quite effective. Another way to go about is to ask the client to make up a SPECIFIC EVENT. I have found this very effective. Incidentally, the made up memory is not altogether made up. It comes from within the person and thus typically has many useful elements within it. Sometimes the made up issue is better than a real one.

PHILIP CONTINUES: So I asked her to think of ANY emotional event in her life. (I find that when the client is tuned into a problem, the chances are that they will guess at the right one) She said "Sending my mother into a home"

At this point I saw that there were tears in her eyes. I guessed she was at a 9 or 10 on that issue. So I tapped her without saying anything FOR 3 or 4 rounds of the shortcut sequence, to reduce the distress. This worked well and she was ready to continue. So I did one of Gary's Long rambling setups. Space or my memory doesn't permit me to say everything here that I included but I introduced the idea that the guilt she was feeling had manifested as pain in her shoulder blade.

We then tapped on...

"Guilt over sending my mother in to a home"
"Guilt"
"Guilt in my shoulder blade"
"Mother guilt in my shoulder blade"

Her intensity level over the guilt went straight down to a zero. She said "Actually, she does quite enjoy it there." Which made everyone laugh.

Her pain in the shoulder blade also went down to a zero at the same time, and she has been pain free ever since - 6 weeks now!

As I say, its not an outstanding case in EFT terms, but it shows how with a little ingenuity and by allowing the client to direct you, you can achieve some wonderful results by attacking the emotional roots of physical problems.

Blessing and love,
Philip Davis

Article written for the magazine “Tidings”

The following article was written and published in “Tidings” magazine.  A specialist magazine for patients who have had a Colostomy or an Ileostomy. 

Emotional Freedom Technique – Could It Help You Cope?

By Christine Sutton MIPTI MAAMET, EFT-ADV
and Philip Davis MIPTI MAAMET EFT-ADV

As we read the last edition of Tidings, we became interested in the emotional and psychological effects of having a Colostomy or Ileostomy. There is some fantastic work being done by people for the physical, down to earth aspects of coping with one of these operations, but not much emotional help and support except from the volunteer counsellors such as Joan West who have gone through the whole experience and have eventually come out still smiling.

The sad truth is, if people have a very strong emotional problem such as fear, resentment or depression there is very little help that friends or even doctors can give.  All too often someone suffering with these kinds of emotions would (at best)  be told to cheer up or maybe they would be given a bottle of pills or even perhaps (in the worst cases) they would be sent they see a psychologist or psychiatrist.

None of these methods, in our experience, are very helpful.  Being told to “pull yourself together” is alright if you are a pair of curtains, but is of little use to the sufferer.

Bottles of pills sometimes will work in the long term.  However, pills can have dangerous side effects and mostly they just dope you up, masking the problem, not removing it.

When someone has an operation like a colostomy, typically, it will trigger a number of strong emotions in them:  Anger, Denial, Resentment, Injustice, Bitterness, Apathy,  Depression, Alienation, Disgust, Anxiety, Loss of Confidence, Embarrassment, Hatred, Guilt…  to name but a few.  Typically people will suffer from a combination of most of these emotions, at some time.

Left unchecked, these emotions can lead to deep depressions, physical ill health or even thoughts of suicide.  These emotions will tend to alienate the sufferer from their friends and family at the very time they need these people the most.

Wouldn’t it be wonderful if there was a way of helping people with all this emotional turmoil going on inside them that was simple, practical, fast and cheap!!

Well, the good news is that there is a way, and it’s called “Emotional Freedom Technique” or EFT for short.

We can hear you thinking “Yes, yes, we have all heard it before. It’s the latest and greatest miracle cure that is the best thing since sliced bread and will solve all your problems and make a cup of tea while its doing it.”  Well, that’s what we thought too, until we started using this technique on ourselves and our friends.  The results were astonishing to say the least. 

Long held emotional problems such as guilt, anger, resentments and phobias just seemed to evaporate in minutes, never to return. For example, one of the first people  Philip tried EFT on was a friend that had not slept for nearly a month because she had been (sadly) beaten and raped in her own home.   He applied EFT to her feelings of fear and insecurity and anger etc.  The whole session took about 30 minutes.

Two days later, he rang her as he had not heard from her and was worried about her. She told him that after applying the EFT she slept right through the night and through the alarm and had to be woken by her children to take them to school.  When she got home, she went to bed again and slept again until late in the afternoon.  To date, several years on, she is still sleeping normally.

This kind of astonishing result is typical with EFT and we have seen it many times in our practices.

Where did EFT come from and what is it?

EFT was developed in the 1980’s by Dr Roger Callaghan in the USA, then refined by Gary Craig during the mid 1990’s.

EFT is a blend of ancient and modern medicine.  It is based on acupressure: This is like acupuncture but, instead of needles, you tap on the acupuncture points with your fingers, and kinesiology: The study of the anatomy, physiology, and mechanics of body movement. EFT is sometimes called “The Tapping Technique” because its basis is tapping on 12 places on the face, hands and chest.

What EFT can do:

The proper application of EFT by an experienced practitioner can remove most, if not all of the emotional angst people suffer from traumatic events such as those associated with Colostomies, Ileostomies, Cancer, etc.  

If a person with a Colostomy or Ileostomy is suffering with any of the emotions listed above (or typically a combination of these) EFT can remove the excess emotions without impairing the memory or the personality in any way.   Having said that, people who use EFT regularly tend to develop a brighter, more cheerful outlook on life. They seem to have a greater level of personal peace, too.

What EFT won’t do:

EFT will not remove the need for an operation.  It will not remove the need for a stoma or anything associated with it. It will not remove the memory of any event that has happened in your past.  It doesn’t make cups of tea, either.

How does EFT work?
The basic theory is that the cause of all negative emotions is a disruption in the body's energy system. EFT restores the body’s natural balance, removes the energy disruption and thereby removes the problem.

With remarkable consistency, EFT relieves symptoms by an unusual (but scientific) routine of tapping with the fingertips on specific points on the acupuncture energy meridians.  This process has been likened to someone sticking a screwdriver into the back of a television set. Naturally, you will get a “Zzzt..”  short-circuit and the television will malfunction. EFT removes the screwdriver, and restores the television’s correct operation.

Interestingly along with emotional healing there is often noticeable improvement in the physical symptoms which arise from the emotional disturbance such as headaches, migraines, IBS etc.

Do you have to believe in EFT for it to work?
Absolutely not. EFT works whether you believe in it or not. It doesn’t matter if the practitioner believes in it or not. It doesn’t rely on any set of beliefs, religion or voodoo magic. It is a scientifically based routine that works equally well on everyone.

Are there any side-effects?
EFT is very gentle and rarely has any side effects. It is often combined with or used instead of other psychological procedures, because of its gentle nature. In our experience, people often feel energised after an EFT session. The only other side effects are good ones, where treating one problem will cause another problem to heal, spontaneously.

How long do the results last?
EFT is almost always long lasting. Physical healings are often impressive and enduring as well but are more likely to re-emerge than emotional issues.

How long does it take me to heal?
Unfortunately there are no hard and fast rules that may be applied here, because every problem is different, and every person is different.

Deeply rooted behaviours or beliefs will necessarily take longer to eliminate than some more simple problems but usually a person with even the most deeply seated problems will start seeing real benefits within (at worst) a few weeks, and some people (at best) within a few minutes.

Ultimately this technique can rid us of the excess emotional baggage we all carry so that we are free to get on with our lives and realise the full range of our potential and freedom. This will give us plenty of time to make our own cups of tea!

Would you like to be free? EFT really can help you cope.

EFT can be applied by qualified therapist in a one to one session or by phone and can easily be learned for self-help purposes. If you would like more information on this powerful technique please feel free to call or email either of us. We also run training workshops to teach people how to use EFT for themselves and for friends and family.

Article written for the AAMET Buzz magazine.

Announcing a new tapping technique  -  The Picture Tapping Technique.

By Philip Davis and Christine Sutton.

The Picture Tapping Technique is a new technique that is very easy to use, gentle, and particularly useful for addressing “Global Issues”.  It requires an absolute minimum of practitioner input into the process, can  be used on any issues where other Meridian Tapping Techniques are used but is particularly useful when

working with clients who have difficulty getting specific, or clients who are jumping around from issue to issue, from aspect to aspect.

Over the past few years, a number of new Meridian Tapping Techniques have been introduced that have taken the Ground Floor approach introduced by Gary Craig with his EFT Protocol and have extended it to make something extraordinarily powerful.  

We use many of these different approaches on a daily basis in our practice and we get excellent results but over the last year, we have been developing and trialling a new way of using Meridian Tapping Techniques. We have found this technique to be so powerful that we use it with almost all of our clients now.  It has provided us with powerful insights into our clients` subconscious minds, the writing on their walls and their core issues.  Our clients love the process and as practitioners we find it can often give resolution to problems more effectively and less painfully than is possible with many other Meridian Tapping Techniques. Other practitioners and some of our students who have helped us to trial the technique have also been impressed with the ease of resolution for issues which had previously been difficult.

This is particularly true when the issue is “Global” or abstract in nature, or where the issue is known to have core events driving it, but those events are beyond memory.  Of course, the technique can also be used on specific issues like aches and pains, fears and phobias and so forth. 

We have used the words “practitioner” and “client” in this article to represent the person giving treatment and the person receiving treatment. However, please be aware that you can use the Picture Tapping Technique on yourself with excellent results.  In that case, the client and the practitioner are the same person.

What is the Picture Tapping Technique?

The Picture Tapping Technique is an add-on to conventional EFT or other Meridian Tapping Techniques.

It is a way of using Meridian Tapping along with the power of metaphor and the imagination, to release problems in a painless and indirect way.  Because the Picture Tapping Technique uses metaphor and symbols it often allows access to aspects, thoughts and memories that may be difficult to express either verbally or by using other modalities. Clients are frequently amazed and delighted at the way things are resolved and the connections between events and issues that are brought to light. 

This technique is not a way of using Meridian Tapping with different words or a different tapping order.  Instead, it uses a few well defined and simple phrases coupled with a very powerful concrete use of visual metaphor.

What can it be used on?

The Picture Tapping Technique is particularly useful where the problem is very non-specific or “Global” in nature. 

Frequently, the process will lead a client from a very global problem to the core event(s) that are driving that global problem.  It also frequently happens that the driving core events behind any global issue are healed without having to consciously work with those events.

Examples of global problems that have been successfully resolved are: 

• Low Self Esteem
• Depression
• Generalised anxiety
• “My family situation”
• “My Mother”
• “My money worries”
• “My blocks to success”
• “All the events that are behind this problem”
• “My resistance to letting go of the problem”
• “The Karma from my past lives”
• “Writers Block”
• “Not good enough”
• “Something terrible is going to happen”
• … and many more.

Picture Tapping Technique may also be used on: 

• Specific problems where the cause is known but the event is felt too keenly to be addressed directly.  In this way it can be used instead of other disassociative techniques. 
• Specific physical problems.  E.g.: this headache, this pain in my knee, etc.
• Specific emotional problems.  E.g.: Spider Phobia, Anger at my boss etc.
• Specific problems that appear to be blocked and are resisting clearance using other methods.
• … and so on.

The Picture Tapping Technique may be used on any issue where conventional Meridian Tapping Techniques are used.  However, we can envisage situations where other techniques may be more efficient than the Picture Tapping Technique.  Some examples are acute pain from a recent injury or where a client has already entered a state of emotional overwhelm. In both of these cases a very rapid intervention is needed.

The Picture Tapping Technique is simple to use.

“Things should be as simple as possible, but no simpler” – Albert Einstein.

If a healing technique requires the practitioner to have the mental agility of Albert Einstein and the deductive powers of Sherlock Holmes then it is not a lot of use to anyone but a minute fraction of the population.  Any healing modality must be simple and accessible to everyone if it is ever going to make an impact on the world.

This is why Gary Craig’s EFT has become such a worldwide phenomenon. The EFT Basic Recipe is so simple that it can be (and is) used by people from around the world of all ages from toddlers to the superannuated.  In developing the Picture Tapping Technique, we have followed this ethos as much as possible.

As we developed this technique, we wanted to simplify it as far as possible. We tried leaving out different parts of the technique to see if it still worked, and a strange thing happened.  We found that the more we took out, the more effective the technique became!

We found that when the practitioner had an absolute minimum of original input into a Picture Tapping Technique  session, the results were far better, far more long lasting and a lot gentler than when the practitioner was creating  reframes or trying to steer the session in a particular direction through use of techniques such as leading etc.

Testing is a large part of many traditional Meridian Tapping Techniques.  The Picture Tapping Technique has a very “User Friendly” way of testing.  The resolution of issues is usually very apparent to both the practitioner and the client.   Often, the only testing that is done, is to ask the client if the issue is resolved yet, at an appropriate point.   At the end of the session it is also a good idea to review the session to see if there is anything left of any of the issues, or if some new aspects have arisen.  

This minimalist form of testing rips up the rule-book as far as many other conventional tapping techniques go. However, we have found that searching for issues and aspects and testing for clearance is unnecessary most of the time when using this technique because the existence of these potential problems are apparent to both the practitioner and the client as a part of the process.

Often, the most challenging part of using the Picture Tapping Technique is to “get yourself out of the way” and allow the client to generate their own reframes, cognitive shifts, etc.  Most experienced EFT Practitioners are used to generating reframes on the fly, asking probing questions and searching for core issues, aspects, Writing on the Walls and so forth.  However, the rewards are very great when the client does this for themselves and makes the realisation that (for example) “Mummy was probably doing the only thing she could at that point” or that “yeah, it happened but its pointless letting it ruin the rest of my life”. 

It seems that the reframes, and cognitive shifts which the client generates spontaneously are far more profound than those suggested from elsewhere.

When using this technique it is not necessary for the practitioner to know any details of the issue being addressed. 

In fact, the process often works better if the practitioner does not know any details of the issue, because there is less likelihood of the practitioner getting themselves in the way of the process. 

 Also, it is frequently useful to change the focus from the specific to the “global”.  For example, to change the focus from “My arthritis pain in my knee” to “My resistance to letting go of this pain”, or “All the past events that have caused me to get this pain”.   This can lead the client from a specific pain, to the global and then from there to the specific events behind the problem. 

Why should I use the Picture Tapping Technique?

When an issue is being described verbally to another person (eg the practitioner), the client has to first of all put the feelings into words.  This process inevitably means that at least something (and often a lot!) is lost in the translation.  For an example of this, just try describing to someone what it feels like to be in love, or to feel depressed.

Once the description of the feeling has been given to the practitioner, the practitioner then filters that description through their own experience and judgements.   Sometimes, vital clues are overlooked because a practitioner has no experience of a particular situation or emotion.  Sometimes a practitioner will focus in on one aspect of a situation because something similar had happened to them, and that aspect was the most important for the practitioner.  In other words, the practitioner is “getting in the way”.

The Picture Tapping Technique overcomes this problem because it removes the need to verbalise problems at all and it takes the practitioner’s interpretation out of the process.

Does the process allow for complete clearance of an issue? 

Well, yes, it will usually clear all the aspects that are up and running at that time.  Of course there may be aspects and related issues that are not addressed.  However, once the running aspects and issues have been healed, any remaining aspects and/or related issues may then be brought to the surface to be dealt with in the same way.

What do others think of this technique?

“I am getting the most phenomenal results”

“I did another PTT on myself today. I'm so impressed with the method. There are, for me, 'aha' moments during the process… I find it amazing what the subconscious mind reveals along with the tapping. It's so gentle and safe.”

“I've been using the PTT to great outcomes. “

“Thanks again for this amazing technique. It's helping me so much!”

“I'm very impressed with the PTT.”

“The general problem I had is still 0/10. (It was 9/10 at the start of the PTT, and I can't thank you enough!).

In Summary:

The Picture Tapping Technique:

• Is very simple
• Can be used on a wide range of issues but is particularly useful when addressing global issues and/or  finding core issues that are driving the global issues.
• Is a very gentle technique.
• Does not rely on the practitioner to think up reframes, ask searching questions or perform mental gymnastics.
• Requires the practitioner to have the minimum of input into the process. (to get themselves out of the way!)
• Requires the practitioner to use a number of specific ‘clean language’ phrases and questions to the client.
• Allows reframes, cognitive shifts, finding aspects and related issues all to be carried out by the client.
• Minimises ‘leading’ or implanting of ideas from the practitioner into the clients mind. 
• Gives increased “stick” to the reframes and cognitive shifts that the client has generated simply because they come from within, and are not being imposed from outside the client’s model of the world.

Philip Davis and Christine Sutton will be giving a number of one-day training courses in this new technique starting early next year.  The details are not on our website yet (but we hope by the end of the week it will be done) , but if you want details of these courses then please eMail us or phone us and we will be happy to help.  www.phoenixeft.co.uk    eMail: philip@phoenixeft.co.uk