What is EFT?
Can you guess…?
EFT stands for Emotional Freedom Techniques. It’s often called ‘Tapping’ or Emotional or Psychological Acupuncture.
What is EFT?
EFT is a scientifically validated relaxation and stress reduction technique.
You might hear EFT also referred to as acupuncture without the needles! Instead of needles, it involves the light stimulation (or tapping) of certain acupressure points on your face, hand and upper body with two fingers. The acupressure points used in Evidence Based EFT™ are the side of the hand, start of the eyebrow, side of the eye, under the eye, under the nose, under the mouth, collarbone, under the arm, and top of the head.
You use two fingers to tap each acupressure point about seven times, while saying statements about the issue you’re working on with a practitioner, until you become more confident in using the technique yourself. You can use either hand or both to tap through the points. You start off with what is called a ‘set-up statement,’ followed by reminder statements.
Where does it come from?
EFT comes under the field of Energy Psychology. There are many methods of Energy Psychology but EFT is the most widely used. It was developed by Gary Craig, a Stanford-trained engineer and performance coach.
What can it help with?
EFT can help with a broad range of conditions and any emotion. It can also help with performance and achieving your goals.
Stress (daily stressors - work, finances, the busyness of the festive season, challenging family dynamics)
Overwhelm or any intense emotion
Anxiety (general or more specific like social anxiety, post pandemic anxiety)
Depression and low mood
Particular limiting beliefs that are holding you back (feeling not good enough, fear of failure)
Poor sleep or insomnia
Pain
Phobias and fears
Fatigue and more!
The EFT process
You have an issue, memory/event, limiting belief or uncomfortable feeling.
Rate the intensity of emotion, distress or discomfort on a scale from 0 to 10 (0 = no distress or intensity at all, 10 = complete distress)
Say a negative statement related to the specific emotional event or thought, and then match this with a self-acceptance statement. This is called the ‘set up statement.’
E.g. “Even though I feel anxious about going to the party, I choose to accept myself and how I feel.” As you say the set up statement, start tapping on the side of the hand three times before moving around the other EFT points on the body.
Tap around the other points using reminder statements linked to the inital emotion, memory/event, limiting belief or uncomfortable feeling.
E.g. “I feel so anxious. About going to the party. So much anxiety. In my body.”
Repeat the process until the discomfort score is ideally 0 out of 10.
The evidence
EFT has been widely researched in over 10 countries, by more than 60 researchers. The results have been published in more than 20 different peer-reviewed journals. The body of research on EFT and its benefits continues to grow.
EFT provides a calming effect. It impacts the stress centre (the amygdala) and the memory centre (the hippocampus) in the brain. Both of these areas of the brain help decide whether something is a threat and whether the stress response is elicited or not. When the fight or flight stress response is elicited, stress hormones like cortisol are released. Too much cortisol leads to lowered immune function and affects our physical health. EFT has been shown to lower cortisol.
Like the other tools and techniques I use with clients, I love that Evidence Based EFT™ is a validated scientific technique. It means it works! The method I have trained in is the specific technique used in the research literature.
Curious about EFT and would like to see how it can work for you? Book a discovery session to discuss your unique situation.