Using EFT for tinnitus

As with any issue, tune in to how you are feeling about having the condition or issue first. Usually quite easy with tinnitus! Are you frustrated, exasperated, stressed or feeling helpless? Look for the metaphors; not hearing, hearing too much! not wanting to hear what you're hearing, irritation and so on. Rule out any mechanical or medical causes by checking with your doctor.

If you have any questions you can email me at info@energyandintention.com

... and all that it represents

I have found inserting this sentence - and ALL that it represents - into the EFT set up statement is very powerful. If you're feeling overwhelmed or just don't know where to start with your issues, this can really help. For example:

Even though I have this lump in my throat and all that it represents, I deeply and completely love and accept myself anyway - repeat whatever reminder phrase on all the points - whatever has the most charge or meaning for you, i.e. 'lump in my throat' etc.

Even though I feel angry and all that it represents, I accept how I feel anyway.

Even though I have a knot in my stomach and all that it represents, I accept myself exactly as I am.

As you say the set up or tap through the points, things may pop up. Tap on whatever comes up, objections, feelings, smells, sounds, memories, anything and everything. You'll find that whatever comes up is coming up for resolution and healing in that moment. Trust yourself and keep tapping! EFT shortcut and basic recipe diagrams here.

Is it safe to change?

This is an excellent three part series by EFT master Carol Look.

Part 1 of 3

In the early days of EFT and TFT, the topic of “safety” was considered one of the subjects therapists would treat as a cause for “energy reversals.”  Being “reversed” meant that your energy system was temporarily upside down, confused, or not working efficiently, and either your system would not “take” the treatment to begin with or the treatment would not “stick.”  There were and still are many complicated ways to address and treat this problem.  However, treating the real issue --- being afraid to change --- with the basics of EFT has always worked in my practice.

If someone was apparently reversed --- meaning energy therapies weren’t working on them --- the conclusion was made that there were some emotional reasons for not wanting to change.  Safety, not deserving, being unwilling to do what it takes, not being able to accept yourself unless you change --- all of these conflicts were considered tappable issues using the standard reversal setups statements.

When my answer to numerous emails this week centered around encouraging clients to allow themselves to feel safe to change before forging ahead, it reminded me that feeling safe is the bottom line regardless of what technique you are using, whether traditional talk therapy or EFT.  If your body and mind are not congruent with the consequences of releasing the old patterns, you will not feel safe to change or stay changed and nothing permanent will come of the therapy.  In other words, if your energy system is “reversed” because it feels emotionally threatening on any level to make the changes, you will eventually regress to the original behavior, habit, or fear.  In some cases, you won’t regress, however, you will be left with an odd empty feeling, as you don’t feel quite right with the “new” you.

We often use our problems and conflicts to protect ourselves from something --- feelings, confrontations, truths --- it doesn’t matter what we feel the need to protect ourselves from, it only matters that we have developed these patterns because our mind is telling us we need to.

So you need to take a good honest look at what might not feel safe to you if you change in order to find the tappable issues.  By the way, this isn’t “bad” if you don’t feel safe, it is merely feedback from your organism.  We all feel unsafe to varying degrees about moving forward or releasing old habits and conflicts.  Sometimes the reasons are irrational and illogical because of what and how we learned certain lessons from our childhood.  Sometimes the reasons make perfect sense to us on a conscious level.  It doesn’t really matter.  The point is, if you don’t feel safe, you won’t change and stay changed.

The first clue that you may have this issue of SAFETY blocking your forward movement is that your treatment is neither working very well nor sticking in the long term.  Below are important questions, explanations, and suggested tapping sequences for possible reasons you might not feel entirely safe to move forward in your personal, professional, or physical life. Read on

Reframing

I find the best reframes always come from the client. When they have felt what they needed to feel, the reframes come naturally - usually from them, with some gentle questioning from you to draw out their core issues and beliefs. It is crucially important not to push people towards what you think they 'should' be feeling or experiencing. Listening to what the person says and feels in the moment is so important and is essential for building trust and rapport. Without these key ingredients the person will not feel safe enough to open up, which defeats the whole purpose of doing EFT effectively.

Read this article on reframing by EFT master Tania Prince.

Introduction 

Mastering the art of reframing is one more tool in your therapeutic arsenal that can help you become even more effective in gaining results using EFT. Reframing is also fun for both the therapist and client. With that in mind, this article contains information on a stunningly easy, fun reframe. It is one I commonly use.

What is Reframing?

Reframing is the art and skill of helping people change their perspective and view on their issues. Reframing is a powerful therapeutic tool that can create profound and fast change. EFT and reframing are commonly combined. There are many different types of reframes that can be used. The particular method highlighted in this article is a very simple and powerful method that I have used many times highly successfully. It is also easy to use and master. 

Example: Dealing with an Alcohol Addiction 

The following case was taken from the work I did with Carmen (not her real name), a client who had an alcohol addiction. At the point in the therapy where we talked about the below we had already made massive progress with the client’s drinking issue. She had stopped and was now only having an occasional rare binge.

Questioning her about the binges, Carmen said they only occurred when her boyfriend went out.  Whenever he left the house she had a sense fear that something dreadful would happen to him and that he wouldn’t come back. She went on to explain that this feeling had been something she had experienced throughout her life. (This statement implies that the causative event for this feeling was early in her life). Read on

EFT tips

1. Be specific – learn more about the importance of being specific here.

2. Treat different aspects – an aspect to a problem or issue is a feature or part of that issue, not necessarily the entire issue. For example, an aspect can be a shift in emotion from fear to anger to sadness or it can be something hurtful someone said to you (one part) the look on their face (second part) and maybe the tone of voice they used too (third part). Experience will reveal different aspects and you will start looking for them automatically to be really thorough in your tapping.

3. Say the 'unsayable' - even if just to yourself - your body knows you feel this way and is manifesting the symptoms – what you deny, disown or repress will show up in your body.

4. Tune in to how you are feeling – you can correct the short circuit in your energy system when you are actually feeling and experiencing it.

5. If you're feeling really upset, continuously tap until you feel calmer, you don't need to say anything as you are already tuned in.

6. Keep tapping on points that feel sore or tender until they feel better, stay on that one point before you move onto the next one.

7. Breathe deeply while tapping. Try the constricted breathing technique to help you do this, often our breathing is the first thing to be effected by stress.

8. Experiment with the karate chop point and the sore spot and see which is more effective at correcting psychological reversal (any objection, conscious or unconscious, that you may have to healing) for you.

9. Say the set up statement very emphatically or shout it if your intensity is not moving after a round or two.

10. The 'right' words are always your words, insert exactly how you feel into the set up statement and repeat the words/feelings that have the biggest charge for you as a reminder phrase.

11. You can use either hand or both hands to tap if you wish and you can switch sides during tapping, approximately 7 taps on each point is sufficient.

12. Tap on how you feel about having the issue/problem, very often this can be a block to making progress with the issue itself.

13. Identify the beliefs or conclusions you came to about yourself as a result of an event, tap on these beliefs too. You will most probably find a pattern between events and the beliefs you hold.

14. State what you really desire, if you hear any objections in your head, like for example "yes, but" these are your true affirmations. You can tap on these to dissolve them, Gary Craig calls these 'tailenders'.

15. Drink water - water conducts electricity so good hydration is important.

EFT script for guilt

You can modify the set up statements as you go through this script. Keep tapping until you reach zero, you may need to tap on some specific events if they pop up during tapping. See this as an opportunity to clear the events and related beliefs, not as something else to feel guilty about!

Even though I feel so guilty, I accept how I feel and choose not to fight it anymore

Even though this guilt is consuming me, I completely love and accept myself anyway

Even though I feel I am wrong, I completely love and accept myself anyway

TH: This guilt

EB: It feels hot

SE: It feels horrible

UE: I feel horrible

UN: There's something wrong with me

UC: I am wrong

CB: I don't want to feel this way

UA: I want it to go away

TH: Remaining guilt

EB: What did I do wrong?

SE: Me, I'm wrong

UE: Remaining horrible guilt

UN: Remaining guilt

UC: Remaining feeling of wrongness

CB: I hate the guilt

UA: It's horrible

TH: I can choose peace instead of this

EB: No I can't!

SE: Yes, I can

UE: I deserve to be punished!

UN: Because I did something wrong

UC: Maybe I can see it differently

CB: I choose to forgive myself

UA: But I didn't do anything wrong!

TH: I choose peace

EB: I deserve peace

SE: No, I don't

UE: Yes, I do

UN: I am a good person

UC: It's shifting

CB: It's lessening its hold on me

UA: I feel lighter

EFT and aspects

The definition of an aspect is 'a particular part or feature of a matter'. The relevance and significance of this to EFT is when we are tapping on an issue (particularly when we are beginning with EFT) we forget to look for or don't even see the various different parts or features of an issue and get frustrated that EFT is not working for us.

For example, if you have a charge on an issue and you rate your anger at 7 out of 10 and after 2 rounds the anger is 0 but you feel sad instead you may think EFT has not worked for you. What you have in fact done is shifted aspects, the emotion of sadness is a new part of the issue. Shifting emotions is a very important, and sometimes subtle part of learning and applying EFT.

Another example of aspects is a specific event where someone said something hurtful to you. You tap on your anger and hurt and after a few rounds it is 0. Then you remember the look on their face, and up the charge goes again and you're steaming mad, and you think "I thought EFT worked?!". You have shifted to another part or feature of the issue so you tap on how you feel about 'the look' and keep going until you have found all the aspects and there is no charge left on anything related to that specific event. This detective work will come naturally the more you tap and gain experience. So the next time you think EFT has not worked, take another look to see if it is in fact another part to the issue and tap on it. You can find out more about aspects here.

EFT script for working with intense memories

Even though my brain has the perception that this memory is dangerous and is a threat to my safety and survival, I choose to really appreciate and love my brain for trying to protect me and keep me safe

Even though my focus and energy is on avoiding feeling this memory at all costs and I don’t want to feel it in any shape or form, I just want it to go away and disappear, I accept exactly how I feel, at the moment it’s the only way I feel I can cope and live with this overwhelm and that’s okay

Even though my nerves go into overdrive whenever I even think of this memory, it scares the living daylights out of me, I choose to engage my ability to calm and comfort myself by tapping on all these feelings and breathing through them

Even though my brain did a great job of burying this memory for me so I wouldn’t have to experience or feel the hurt/pain, the truth is, the hurt is still there and I choose now to feel some of it, bit by bit, until all the hurt is gone and I know that during this I am safe and protected always

Even though it feels like this memory is in control of my peace of mind and body, I choose to know and believe that it won’t kill me or swallow me up, I can feel it little by little until all parts of me feel peaceful, safe and comforted

Even though I am afraid, I choose to know that I can handle it, I am getting stronger and stronger every day and tapping really helps!

Even though that little girl is still really frightened and these feelings/memory represent that frightened little girl, I now choose to hug her, comfort and soothe her and tell her she will always be loved and safe no matter what