Emotional Freedom Techniques
In the 1980’s, American psychologist Roger Callahan was working with a patient with an extreme phobia to water. After many sessions of little progress using other methods, the patient mentioned she felt the fear sitting in her stomach. Callahan, who had a strong knowledge of acupuncture, asked her to tap on an acupressure point underneath the eye - one that connects to the health of the stomach. To Callahan’s surprise, the patient responded that her fear was noticeably subsiding, and she later self-reported it ‘went away’ after just a few minutes of tapping! From this experience, the technique was further refined and tested, and thus EFT was born!
How often do old stories keep us from living the life we want? “I jump to anger any time I’m feeling insecure; I can’t seem to manage my diet; I keep dating the wrong kind of person; I feel panic before any interview.” The pattern comes up again and again. It’s not what we want for ourselves, but it seems to be a fact of life. We notice the pattern, yet we feel at a loss of how we can break free of it and move on.
This is because we hold tightly to memories with a strong emotional charge - times we felt abandoned, criticized, unsafe, or helpless. When this happens, the natural response to these kinds of events is to commit ourselves to avoiding that same threat in the future. The more afraid we are to repeat those events, the tighter we hold onto our patterns and the smaller our life becomes.
Perhaps, you date unkind people because you were shamed in the past for asking for respect. You fear flying because your mom had a panic attack on a plane once and you felt unequipped to deal with the situation. You jump to anger because vulnerability was ridiculed in your family.
Emotional Freedom Techniques, or “EFT” allows users to release the emotional memory attached to those events so we can start fresh. You keep the memory, but lose the fear attached to it.
EFT is an evidence-based technique that trains the mind to stay calm in response to whatever is stressing you out. While it is a relatively new practice developed in the 1980’s and 90’s, its roots are based in acupuncture, which has been around in some from for thousands of years (check out my entry on acupuncture here).
Check out this excellent local news clip to see EFT in use.
How does it work?
Part exposure therapy and part acupressure, EFT starts with being mindfully present to a difficult emotional belief (i.e. I’m anxious and fearful whenever I fly) while simultaneously sending calming signals to your body by tapping on acupressure points. Studies show that this technique quickly rewires the brain, separating circumstance from the paired emotional response (taking the fear out of flying).
Did you know?
In a set of studies, EFT performed better than cognitive behavioral therapy (CBT) (talk therapy)! With 5,000 patients monitored over 5.5 years, 90% saw reduced anxiety levels and 76% had complete relief of their anxiety symptoms using only EFT. For those in the group receiving CBT (and medication if needed), those percentages dropped to 63% and 51%, respectively. Furthermore, only 3 EFT tapping sessions were needed before positive results started to show, compared to 15 sessions, on average, for CBT to show results.
EFT draws on acupuncture, a Traditional Chinese Medicine practice. Instead of needles though, EFT targets a specific set of acu-points that sit just under the skin. Because they are so close to the skin’s surface, a simple light tapping can stimulate these high-energy points and send calming signals to the body. Check out the image to learn about the Traditional Chinese Medicine take on each acu-point.
EFT works by calming your fight-or-flight structure (the amygdala) and rewires neural pathways in your brain (your patterns of thought, your reactions). Studies using data from neural imaging report that rewiring neural pathways occur almost instantaneously, which correlate well with the noted decreases in heart rate, blood pressure, and cortisol levels as a result of tapping.
While all EFT practices follow the same basic structure of sitting with the unpleasant pattern and tapping on meridian points, the technique varies as practitioners add other helpful techniques to it. These can include positive affirmations, pattern interrupts, physical movement, and more. Faster EFT, for example, is a popular variation that adds Neuro Linguistic Programming techniques to speed up the healing process even further.
How EFT can help you
EFT is a technique with wide open applications, able to be used for anything from mild but repeated annoyances to the intense, long-held sufferings we carry. This review found that just 4 - 10 sessions is effective in treating PTSD and that the methodology is safe to use with no reported adverse effects in both a self-help or professionally administered environment. This is a huge win for our wellness journey as an excellently effective, forgiving, and accessible treatment!
EFT has been named to treat the below conditions:
Anxiety
Depression
Phobias
PTSD
OCD
ADHD-related struggles
Eating disorders
Chronic pain
Many users of the technique, however, claim that you don’t need a diagnosis to get a massive life upgrade from EFT! Some use it as a manifestation practice, to assist relationship hiccups, to bolster their own self-expression, or to simply experience more joy in their everyday life.
Let’s give it a try!
Research has shown that practicing EFT in a group setting (or watching someone tap along with you) adds to your own results, but there are many ways to tap! Find a practitioner to help you 1:1 with the major shifts, look for recorded or live group sessions online, or simply watch free videos on YouTube. I’ve included my personal favorites for EFT content below. Enjoy!
Play this popular Releasing Anxiety audio.
Find a large collection of Brad Yates videos for free on YouTube.
There are many great EFT guides out there (find them on socials), but I have repeatedly purchased EFT “slingshot-sessions” from Haley Hoffman-Smith, and I love them! In the video below, she walks you through her experience with Faster EFT as well as how she structures her sessions (and how you can do it yourself)!
