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SUCCESS WITH EMOTIONAL FREEDOM TECHNIQUE™ DEPENDS ON IDENTIFYING CORE ISSUES!

By Damaris Drewry, Ph.D. Psychology

"Psychological problems are rooted in the neural structure of the brain. A neural pathway in the brain is like a groove in a record album or CD created by habitual thinking - If you keep thinking about the same old thing the same old way you will just get more of it because, by the Law of Attraction, what we focus on expands! EFT works by interrupting the way thoughts and emotions are chemically recorded in the brain while you are tapping on acupuncture meridians and speaking about core issues." - D. Drewry, Ph.D.

EFT effectively deals with many issues that traditionally fall into the realm of psychotherapy, and many psychologists object that something so simple could really be effective. They are not alone - many skeptics think EFT is nothing more than a new term for the power of suggestion or merely a distraction. But there are thousands of documented stories of relief from depression, anxiety, stress, PTSD, addictive cravings, and a host of other emotional and physical issues are available on emofree.com. You will find there endorsements from highly regarded medical doctors and psychotherapists - because IT WORKS! My own stories of amazing success with EFT are up there too - and I also dismissed EFT when I first heard of it in 2001. Now I use it in 100% of my private sessions. So here are a few facts; you decide!

Emotional Freedom Techniques™ (EFT) is a controversial mind-body self-help tool that brings rapid resolution to physical and emotional distress. It works by re-setting the body's electrical system much like re-setting a circuit breaker after an overloaded fuse blows in your house! You don't have to believe the theory (below), just as you don't need to know how a car works to drive one - you may be happy simply to have your problem resolved!

Developed by Gary Craig using Neurolinguistic Programming™ (NLP) and Callahan's method of finger-tapping on acupuncture meridian points to relieve emotional distress, EFT is an innovative, gentle method of reframing intense feelings about past events or traumas, and it's nothing short of AMAZING! It's a bit like clearing a logjam that's blocking a stream where the logs represent a stuck emotion in the energy streams of your body. It can be used by a highly skilled practitioner to help you resolve life-long and intense core issues, or it can be a user-friendly, self-help technique to quickly banish a headache.

EFT falls under the umbrella of Energy Psychology, which addresses the relationship of the human energy systems to emotion, cognition (how we make sense of our world), behavior, and health. These systems include electrical activity of the nervous system and heart, acupuncture meridians, chakras, and energy fields surrounding the body. Although not yet empirically proven or accepted by licensing boards, EP applications include psychotherapy, education, vocational guidance, physical health, pain management, sports and peak performance. (energypsych.org).

HOW DOES IT WORK?

With EFT you become your own therapist, and your EFT practitioner is your guide. Practitioners of basic EFT show you how to use the techniques so you can manage emotional distress and resolve your own problems and issues. Highly skilled practitioners help you resolve more complex issues.

Let's add several body-mind principles together to explain how EFT works (in the author's opinion):

Did you ever notice that you're not emotional about a past event unless you think about it? This is the window of opportunity for using EFT or other energy psychology modalities because, as Neurobiologist Candace Pert says, remembering a trauma or event triggers emotions that activate specific neural pathways and neural nets in the brain, releasing neuropeptides (chemical messengers) in the brain that instantaneously communicate new information to every cell in the body. This is a moment where true transformation can happen! How? Tiny electric signals go from your fingers through your acupuncture meridians straight to the area of the brain where the memory is stored, changes the chemical structure of the memory, and you immediately feel differently about a past event. Dr. Pert endorses EFT as being "at the forefront of the new healing movement."

The only way to change a neural pathway is to interrupt the electrical process in the brain that created it in the first place - and recreates it every time we think about the same event!

So now you're saying, "what the heck is a neural net?" A neural net is a web of neural pathways that "fire" together and "wire" together from a habitual way of thinking about a past event. That's taken from the "Bleep" movie, but it comes from Hebb's Law: if one neuron stimulates another neuron, the intensity of the connection between the two is strengthened. Example: let's say a parent hits or belittles a child. The child will associate her love for the parent with disappointment, fear of repeated hurts, and feelings of low self-esteem: all four of those emotions create a web of neural pathways = a neural net. Then, whenever the child thinks about love, all of the other emotions ride along with it creating future relationship problems until the pattern is broken. This is a complex core issue but can be reframed in 2 or 3 sessions!

(2) Core Beliefs: are basic assumptions upon which our everyday thoughts and actions are based. Our thoughts create reality: physics and metaphysics are now seamlessly and scientifically joined together by quantum theory: shamans, secret societies and Einstein know that all there is in the universe is energy and matter is NOT solid at the atomic level, our bodies ARE vibrating energy patterns, and what we focus on causes possibilities to 'collapse' from energy patterns into matter and experience. So, if your basic assumptions (even if unconscious) about yourself are negative, experiences and events you draw into your life will be negative too.

Affirmations are great, but if you do them while you are
tapping you will get much better results!

(3) EFT makes you responsible for your well-being: the way you see and talk to yourself, consciously and unconsciously, can make you sick or make you well; so when you are speaking during EFT, you speak words in the present tense and you emphasize self-acceptance. You cannot change anything about yourself until you first accept yourself the way you are. Disease isn't a thing that victimizes you, it's a way of acting out your life. You may not want to recognize yourself as the source of your ailments, but until you do you are not in the 'driver's seat' of your own vehicle. Remember: your body believes every word you say, positive or negative!

HOW IS IT DONE?

Core Issues + tapping on acupuncture meridians = dissolving old thinking patterns by changing the electrical wiring (neural pathways) in your brain! The result is freedom from emotional pain and physical stress!

EFT is versatile: There is a short form of EFT and a long form. People using EFT for self-help are not usually adept at diving in after their own complex core issues - but you can dissolve a fear of spiders in 15 minutes! I've done over 250 sessions with people and 90% of them get immediately relief using the short form. Here it is. Tapping specific acupressure points along your meridians will move stuck feelings and blocked energy. Use this technique to clear unwanted patterns, feelings, thoughts, cravings (addictions), phobias, physical pain, and anything that disrupts your life. Try EFT even on things that seem impossible - it may work! Be persistent! My clients have had success with allergies, asthma, impotence, frozen shoulder syndrome, freeway anxiety, incest, depression, grief, PTSD, career changes, and anger.
A unique thing about EFT is that you don't have to reveal the incident to speak out loud if it's embarrassing to you.

STEP 1. Sit in a straight-backed chair. Choose the SPECIFIC incident or issue for treatment.

STEP 2. Determine the intensity of the distress on a scale from 1 to 10 where 10 is the greatest amount of distress.

STEP 3. While tapping the outside edge of one hand with your other hand, repeat the following statement: "EVEN THOUGH I HAVE THIS (state the problem), I DEEPLY AND COMPLETELY LOVE MYSELF AND ACCEPT MY FEELINGS." Do this three times.
Examples of core issues are:

I have this headache...or back pain...etc.

I am extremely angry with...
I am profoundly sad about...
I am terrified of snakes...
I am allergic to cats...
I am STILL smoking...
I am overweight....

STEP 4. Look at the diagram and repeat the above phrase while tapping the following points with both hands:

• above the eyebrows near center of forehead
• the outside corners of your eyes
• under your nose
• in the middle of your chin
• just underneath your collarbone where the sensitive spots are
• underneath your arms (for women, under your bra)
• on the top of your head

STEP 5. Check the intensity of the feelings again. If some of it remains, create a short Reminder Phrase of the problem you want to work on, such as "this anxiety problem" or "my cigarette cravings."

STEP 6. If necessary, start over tapping the outside edge of your hand three times saying: "EVEN THOUGH I HAVE THIS REMAINING (PROBLEM), I LOVE AND ACCEPT MYSELF." Continue around all the tapping points again. Keep doing this until the intensity of distress is zero.

DISCLAIMER: EFT isn't used to diagnose or treat any physical, emotional, or mental condition or illness. It is used to reframe the way we feel and think about events in our lives, our relationship with ourselves, others, and the world around us. Sometimes EFT doesn't work. Scientific research is underway to measure how it works, but there is, as yet, no proof. (energypsych.org). Before you try to use EFT on yourself for a highly distressing problem, make sure that you understand the basic principles of how to do it. You can get this information for free on Gary Craig's website: emofree.com or take a class with Dr. Drewry in Tucson.