EFT (Emotional Freedom Tapping)

[Eyessoblue]

Hi everyone. This week I've been on an incredible healing journey through EFT. If you don't know what it is please look at it on YouTube or any other site ideally Karl Davis who pioneered it. The process involves tapping on points in your body whilst repeating a sentence on what you're feeling and where you can feel it in your body. I can honestly say it's the best thing I have ever done. It's basically acupuncture without the needles and you can do it yourself too. I hadn't cried in 25 years but this week has got me to let all my emotions out, I also had the rematrix tapping done which basically lets the trauma out of your body, your body let's go of the freeze mode and you can feel the trauma leaving your body through shaking and bodily sensations it does feel weird but you can actually feel the trauma escaping which is just amazing. For anyone on here who hasn't tried it please give it a go it's just incredible how you can feel all that build up leaving you. I did it within a group setting which was fantastic because we were all going through various traumas in our life and were all there to support each other which to have that sense of security as well just helped me so much.  Please please all of you try it.

[Blackbird]

Hey 

I actually tried it by myself once but it did nothing, I felt weird doing it, a bit pointless. Maybe done with a professional or in a group session, like you did, would be better. By myself it did absolutely nothing 

[Blueberry]

Blackbird, the way I learnt it is saying things to myself like: Even though I can't work full-time, I love and accept myself. What the "even though" is varies, I love and accept myself (or best version I can manage) remains. I may not be able to say "I love myself" maybe just "I accept myself". If I can't say it at all, then it's too early. Like with my experiences with the new job I tried out, I tried tapping through with "Even though I make mistakes..." but it doesn't work i.e. I can't utter these words. But there were some other sentences I managed to tap through like, "Even though I had trouble with the cash register...". I yawn so much tears come to my eyes, I yawn so much I can hardly speak, I end up thinking the words, but that works too. If there's no resonance I don't yawn at all. Or maybe if there's no need or use for this 'tool' in whatever situation I'm in, or the sentence is wrong for me (somebody else's opinion of what my problem is, is not necessarily my problem), then I won't yawn either.

First my trauma therapist taught me the method about 18 months ago and then later I learnt it in a non-therapeutic group session.

[Blueberry]

On one of the recent free conferences, I watched a session on Tapping and would like to write my notes on that here. If you don't want the notes here, Eyessoblue, just let me know and I'll move it to its own thread.

It was explained and demonstrated by Nick Ortner. I haven't looked at it but he mentioned his website called The Tapping Solution.
EFT is a type of Tapping. EFT sends a signal to the amygdala and rewires something. When you need to make a decision, then you need to turn off Fight-Flight (and Freeze of course.) When you're stuck in Fight-Flight, your blood and energy rush to your arms and legs and you can't think because the blood isn't going to your brain. When you are able to reduce stress, you can reach your creativity. EFT is not just used to get rid of things but also to reach your potential.

Nick Ortner suggests you can do an EFT session for one hour. There has been research done on EFT where the people's cortisol level went down by 60-odd-% which was really good compared to the two other control groups. When you feel stress, you feel a lack of control and uncertainty. When you do EFT, you own your feelings which makes you feel some control over them. You don't switch to positive the way some people may suggest. Instead you say "Even though I'm anxious, I accept myself."

Nick Ortner suggested other possible sentences as well, such as "Even though I'm anxious, I can choose to relax." That may work for some people, but I noticed I don't want to say that! As for the idea of doing EFT for an hour, I'm usually exhausted after about 5 minutes or less, yawning and with tears pouring down my face. It's one of these sessions where I think - hm - maybe it's not quite as easy as you're suggesting Mr. O. otoh he also said tapping 5-7 times per spot is recommended but there is no rule. And also that if you're working with a therapist rather than healing on your own then your T will probably not do a whole hour tapping non-stop with you.

[Bach]

I've been having a lot of trouble sleeping lately, and last night I tried tapping with Nick Ortner's app.  I did a meditation for releasing stress and anxiety around insomnia.  I felt sceptical but it did seem to help, and I'm looking forward to trying some of the other meditations.  Aside from sleep, I am particularly interested in addressing some stuff  I've been working on in therapy around which I feel I'm going in endless stressful circles.  Hopefully it will help me get somewhere.  I'm sure my therapist would be happy if I'd stop yelling at her.

[Bach]

I've been tapping with the Ortner app almost every day since I made my last post in this thread, and I'm finding it to be very helpful.  I've been seeing an acupuncturist for 15 years and acupressure is one of my self-treatment tools for my digestive dysfunction, so the concept of the meridians really resonates with me, and I really appreciate the aspect of acknowledging and not trying to suppress or talk myself out of the negative feelings.  I started by using the sleep meditations each night, but then I started to explore some of the emotional freedom ones.  I don't think it's coincidental that I've had some really heavy stuff come up in therapy, or that I've been coping with it pretty well even though it's hitting me really hard with flashbacks and resistance from compulsive self-traumatising behaviours.   Last night I did the Gut Healing meditation, and today I had some profound insights.  I have a lot of things I'd like to work on with the tapping, but I'm understanding that I have to be careful not to overdo it and blow myself out by getting too impatient and being in too much of a hurry to FIX EVERYTHING NOW.  I tend to do that when I find something that seems to promise relief.

[Snowdrop]

I find the app is one of the best things for helping me sleep. I get on well with the deep sleep tapping in the military and veteran support area. Not because I've been in the military, but because I wondered if it might be good for trauma responses.

[Bach]

Snowdrop, the military and veteran support sleep meditation is great!  It didn't occur to me to use that one since I'm not military either, but you're right about it speaking to trauma responses.  It's more resonant with the sleep problems I have than either the one for falling asleep faster, or the one for anxiety about insomnia.  I used it last night and will be using it again.

Meanwhile, I did the gut healing one again on Friday night.  It was very profound, and made me feel a lot better at first, but since then I've been kind of a nervous wreck with an upset stomach and all kinds of tension and anxiety running through my whole body.  When I say an upset stomach, I don't mean nausea or queasiness or obvious physical pain.  I mean upset more like emotionally upset.  Like a baby that needs to cry.  Like the baby I was, who didn't know if it was safe to cry, didn't know whether crying would bring help or whether it would bring more pain.  As for the tension and anxiety in my body, well, is that because if I let it go from my gut, it had to go somewhere else?  I'm not sure what to do now, because I think I'm really onto something with the gut healing meditation but I don't want to push myself too hard and have it end up being counterproductive. 

I like the Ortner app.  Some of it is a bit pat and oversimplified, but I suppose that's because it has to appeal to a broad audience with a wide range of levels of trauma.  I definitely would not be able to deal with it for an hour a day!  There are some days on which I have possibly done an hour in total, spread out over multiple sessions at different times of the day, but I'm pretty sure a whole hour at once would deplete me more than it would heal me.  I thought about checking out some of the other tapping techniques and resources, but that's another form of MUST FIX NOW problem I have that usually ends up burying me.  I think I have to learn how and when to sit with my bad feelings rather than scrambling to try to find something to DO about them.  That might be the hardest thing of all.

[Bach]

I've been tapping every day, and I'm finding it to be really powerful. Kind of too powerful, in fact. I overdid the gut healing and got ill, so now I'm going to stay away for a while from everything but tap and breathe, and deep sleep patterning. Although I'm distressed and very uncomfortable, I also feel hopeful. I feel that I have a good tool that I will be able  use to progress further as long as I do it more carefully.

[Blueberry]

  but I'm pretty sure a whole hour at once would deplete me more than it would heal me. 

Thanks Bach for giving me words for why I can only handle about 5 minutes at one go! It depletes me too much.

[Blueberry]

I took some notes on the Natural Vision Summit https://cptsd.org/forum/index.php?topic=14138.msg109257;topicseen#msg109257 in addition to the ones Snowdrop took, but since they all pertain to EFT, I'm going to put them here:

The speaker, Greg Marsh, mentioned the importance of noting your level of stress or discomfort or whatever before you do the tapping and afterwards. He mentioned that your score may go up after a successful round or two of tapping. This can happen if what you're tapping on is really your topic. It's OK if your score turns into a 14 (on a scale from 1-10) ;-) That means you didn't do anything wrong.

Rebounders / tail-enders (topics you thought you've dealt with/ recovered from) which return to be dealt with further are common, and not a thing to worry about.

When you're doing EFT, you're aiding yourself in relaxation. The speaker mentioned another important feature is subtracting tension, which is why you're meant to tap on the negative: "Even though I can't see properly...."  "Even though the eye chart makes me freak out..." etc. I understood that all to mean that if you can subtract tension on top of aiding relaxation, the process works more efficiently because you're working at both ends at the same time so to speak.

When you're doing EFT for yourself (as opposed to for a client), it's good to follow your whims. When you're running a topic through a second or third time, you can talk yourself through your observations on the process too e.g. "I feel more relaxed now" or "I can see better." But also go back to the negative "My vision is blurry". You can also put side topics that crop up onto the sideburner, though it's good to note their score on a scale of 1-10 first. After all the EFT you can check your sideburner topics. There may be a slight improvement in them too even though you didn't actually work on them. This is called 'borrowing benefit' which can also happen in Group EFT processes while everybody listens to one person working on his/her own specific topic.

Actually I have a few more notes but I can feel that typing them is turning into too much, so I'm going to be kind to myself and stop now.

[Blueberry]

ideally Karl Davis who pioneered it

I found Gary Craig as EFT founder on emofree.com     Just looking into it atm (1) because of writing about it elsewhere on the forum + other mbr's interest and (2) because of :lightbulb: realisations of my own implementation of it. See next para.

the way I learnt it is saying things to myself like: Even though I can't work full-time, I love and accept myself. What the "even though" is varies, I love and accept myself (or best version I can manage) remains. I may not be able to say "I love myself" maybe just "I accept myself".

This is what my old trauma therapist taught me. I've only just realised that what he taught me was very much adapted to my needs at the time!! That's why he taught me I love and accept myself (or best version I can manage) because raising my self-acceptance was really important at that time.

I feel a bit  to be realising now that EFT is much more versatile, especially the sentences or single words you tap on.