EFT - Emotional Freedom Techniques

Emotional Freedom Techniques - commonly abbreviated to EFT - is a modern and growing form of personal development and therapy. EFT is one of a number of recent concepts increasingly used for improving and developing people. EFT can be effective for various purposes, including personal and self-development, attitude and behavior development, resolving personal problems, reducing stress, and restoring life balance.

Emotional Freedom Techniques - Introduction

EFT (Emotional Freedom Techniques) is about returning the mind, body and feelings to a state of balance and harmony so you are not limited by negative emotions.

Even though we are 'designed' to recover from unpleasant experiences or thought patterns, nevertheless we can be affected by recurring emotions from past events such as relationships, trauma or loss. We can also be affected by ongoing or future events such as work-related stress, interpersonal problems, depression and various kinds of anxieties.

In these examples, emotions can be stuck rather than dispersed. Even if we try to ignore them, they still affect our lives. If people decide to do something about the negative feelings or patterns they may try counseling, see their doctor, or compensate for their feelings in some way. Every approach has its merits, but many people will not have heard of Emotional Freedom Techniques (EFT) as an option for resolving their problem.

How does EFT work?

EFT is a very effective yet gentle method of directly balancing the body's energy system for the feelings that you want to change. It's a bit like clearing a log that's blocking a stream where the log represents a stuck emotion in your stream of energy. You don't have to believe in the theory though, just as you don't need to know how a car works under the bonnet to drive one. Some people do like to find out more about the theory, while others are happy simply to have their problem resolved.

What’s involved?

Using EFT involves 'tuning into' the issue and then tapping with your fingers on specific acupressure points with your fingers. For example if you still carry anger towards someone who has hurt you in the past, you would be asked to think about them, and notice how you feel. But you do not have to relive past events. You just have to be aware that the negative feeling is there. Having therefore 'tuned in' to it, you are shown which acupressure points to tap, and what words to say as you do so. (Saying a few things also helps to disperse the emotion from the system).

Having done that you are then asked to think about the person or situation again and check how you feel. Typically you will notice a significant reduction in the intensity of the feeling. If it's not completely gone then the EFT practitioner repeats the process, bringing the intensity down each time until full balance is restored.

All this is done while sitting normally in a chair.

After the Session

Following an EFT session, the dispelled feelings very rarely return. If they do this implies that there is a bit more work to do than the practitioner initially thought. Of course you can still feel angry, fearful or guilty about other things - and it might be appropriate to do so. But if you have thoroughly used EFT for a specific issue, the feeling will not return. Once you have deleted the problem for your system, it does not come back up. You will still retain the memory of the event you were working on but it will no longer have the emotional charge that it had before.

When was E.F.T. Developed?

EFT was developed earlier in the 1990's by Gary Craig, whose academic training includes a Stanford Engineering Degree. While personal healing has been his passion for over 30 years, Gary is neither a licensed therapist nor a trained psychologist. Many of the concepts underlying EFT came from Gary's training in Thought Field Therapy (TFT) under the tutor ship of Dr. Roger Callahan. TFT involves the use of 10 or 15 individualized tapping routines. EFT differs in that it employs only one comprehensive tapping routine which is used for all emotional and physical problems. Because of this, it is easy enough to be mastered by most people.