Emotional Freedom Techniques or EFT is an energy therapy that is bringing together ancient wisdom and 21 st Century advances in our understanding of consciousness to rewrite conventional therapy textbooks.
Until now, psychologists and psychotherapists have believed that we needed changes in the way we think or behave, or on a chemical level or in our neurology to be able to change the way we feel and how we relate to ourselves and others. That, however, is changing rapidly.
New understandings of consciousness and of the nature of emotional healing, and growing evidence of rapid and amazing change, are building towards a tipping point. We are on the edge of a paradigm shift. The 21 st century will be the century when mind and body are no longer seen as connected but as a single system, it will also be the century of a new understanding of how that system works.
Nowhere is this already more easily evident than in meridian tapping therapies like EFT. which work on the understanding that our thoughts about ourselves and our experiences and circumstances can disrupt the energy system in our bodies and that this disruption can cause negative feelings. Rebalance the energy system and the feelings change, often dramatically. Frequently when the feelings are different we spontaneously think about things differently as well.
EFT’s basic premise is that the cause of all negative emotion is a disruption in the body’s energy system and that therefore the appropriate point of intervention is on the body’s energy system. It has been described as a kind of psychological acupressure without needles. It involves focussing on the feeling we want to change while tapping on specific points on the meridians.
It is simple and easy to learn and to use to release negative feelings whether they are emotional or physical, and whether they refer to the past, the present or the future. It has been used successfully on a whole range of conditions including pain control, panic/anxiety, depression, stress, addictive behaviours, PTSD, weight control, performance enhancement and many more. It is particularly effective with negative memories. Typically, the memory remains but all the negative emotional charge that was stored with it evaporates. Once this has been done, it becomes difficult to access the old emotions again, even when someone tries really hard. The effect is usually permanent.
EFT can and sometimes does produce instant successes or one-shot wonders. Mostly it does not. Long-standing and major physical or emotional problems usually require depth, skill and persistence in the work needed to resolve them. Even so, EFT is always, in my experience, much faster than any other therapy would be in the same circumstances.
