Eft

[skip]

This is a response by Gary Craig, the creator of EFT, to the question "Why doesnt EFT work on everything, everytime?"

I thought you guys might be interested in his reply.


> The following is quoted with permission from Gary Craig.
>
> "EFT is not perfect and doesn't generate 100%
> miracles for everyone who tries it. The "why" behind its
> ineffectiveness on a small percentage of people is a mystery that prods us
> to look deeper into the mechanism. This is healthy because it allows us
> to discover more about the healing process. Through such investigation we > have found that sometimes a person's problem (e.g. anxiety, panic attacks
> & depression) is due to an
> allergen (energy toxin) in their system. It is the allergen that is really
> causing the problem and, until it is removed from the person's environment
> or diet, the problem will persist no matter how much tapping we do. If
> someone drinks a gallon of gasoline, for example, their resultant ailment
> is best handled by a stomach pump and not the
> agile fingertips of a well meaning EFT'er. Similarly, wheat, sugar,
> pesticides and a long list of other substances can be allergens (gasoline,
> if you will) that literally cause the problem we are tapping for. Thus the
> difficult client--the one that makes no headway after repeated EFT'ing--is
> challenging us to look for other causes.
> Other possibilities behind "But it doesn't work for me...." are (1)
> stubborn psychological reversal, (2) lack of specificity in what one is
> tapping for and (3) core issues that haven't been discovered and thus
> aren't being addressed. These latter items, in my experience,
> are much more likely to be causative than allergens."

[Sky]

Personally have not had much luck with EFT on self or clients... :(

[JenniferB]

Skip,
Are you practicing EFT on yourself or clients? If so, are you finding it to be helpful? Aside from the benefit of tapping on the energy meridians, do you think that the tapping behaviour is an effective replacement behaviour for habits, in the short or long term?

[Cal Banyan]

IS EFT WAKING HYPNOSIS?

I have come to believe that EFT (the Emotional Freedom Technique developed by Gary H. Craig) is hypnosis. I first learned about the technique at the NGH Convention four years ago where it was presented as a form of meridian therapy. I did not care for it then, but I came across it again at the next NGH convention when it was presented by Marilyn Gordon. And, because I have such a high respect for her I decided to give it another look, and I attended the workshop she presented on it. She did a number of very impressive demonstrations using the technique and I was sold. I had to give it a try.

After the convention I went back to my office and set about “EFTing” everything and everyone in my office with some impressive results. I became convinced of the power of EFT and began introducing it to my clients who came in to work on all kinds of fears, anxieties and some other issues such as cravings. This is where a problem came up. The name of our office is the Banyan Hypnosis Center for Training & Services, Inc. and as a result we get clients who are interested in using hypnosis to overcome problems and for general self-improvement. When I introduced them to EFT “a meridian therapy” my clients often didn’t know what to think. Some were in fact disappointed and would even ask directly, “Aren’t we going to do hypnosis?”

For a while I persevered by responding that EFT was amazing and went on and sold them on the process. Then, after working with many clients using EFT, I changed my mind about what EFT is and now use a totally different approach. I now believe that EFT is more closely aligned with Mesmerism than with Classical Chinese Medicine. So I now introduce it to my clients as being a modern form of Mesmerism.

You are probably familiar with the history of hypnosis. You know of Mesmer and how he got the idea for using iron and magnets, and his theory about animal magnetism from watching Father Hell, a Jesuit Priest bring about cures by tapping people over the head with an iron crucifix. Later Mesmer’s ideas about animal magnetism fell out of favor and it was all written off by the scientists of the day as being a cure caused by imagination or suggestibility. Hence, Mesmer is called the father of hypnosis, since hypnosis can be defined as a state of heightened suggestibility.

Mesmer’s hypnosis did not look like what we call hypnosis today. His was a form of “waking hypnosis.” The state of heightened suggestibility or hypnosis was induced in an individual who appears to be in normal waking consciousness, which she is, except that she is highly suggestible. I believe that is exactly what we are doing when we are using EFT to help our clients.

In addition to my belief that EFT is Waking Hypnosis, I would like to add that it benefits hypnotherapists and our clients to present it in this manner, because our clients come to us expecting hypnosis not some other form of therapy, such as Energy Healing/Therapy.

Here are some reasons why I believe that EFT and similar techniques are Waking Hypnosis rather than a meridian or energy therapy:

1. Exciting mental expectancy of a successful outcome clearly has a positive effect. I highly recommend that when using EFT you take the time to excite the imagination of your clients before applying the technique. I will always tell a few stories about how I have used to help others using EFT. This creates a mental expectation of success.

2. I have done EFT with clients without explaining that the feeling should be reduced, and they have experienced the emotion or problem increase in intensity. If I fail to suggest what the outcome of the procedure should be then the results are not reliable. It was this discovery that lead be to always exciting the imagination, with an expectancy that the symptoms would be reduced when I applied the technique.

3. I always teach my clients how to do EFT on themselves and encourage them to continue to work on other issues. When my clients return for the next session they report all kinds of success using it on many different issues. But when I have them show me how they are doing EFT they are often doing it all wrong, saying the wrong things and tapping the wrong places. Clearly suggestion is the main factor at work here rather than tapping specific points.

4. I am not trained in Classical Chinese Medicine. However, I have had students go through my hypnotherapy certification courses who are trained in Classical Chinese Medicine and they tell me that the "meridian" points that are used in EFT are not associated with the results that are experienced for the wide variety of problems that it is effective for. The most compelling reason for such success is suggestion.

So, all in all, there seems to be some significant evidence to suggest that EFT is not meridian-based therapy. Or, at least if meridians are involved, they seem to be less significant than the power of suggestion or placebo effect.

This should all come as good news to the Hypnotherapist who would like to make this powerful technique into her practice. EFT can be introduced as what I believe it to be, a form of hypnosis in which your client does not need to undergo a formal hypnotic induction in the usual sense, nor does she need to reach some level of physical or mental relaxation. Rather she can spend just a few minutes, following the hypnotherapist’s instructions and experience almost instant success.

For more information on EFT and similar techniques and a different perspective than the one presented in this article, go to www.emofree.com.


I have never seen this process fail. Upon using this technique in my office I teach it to my clients and have them continue to use it, by trying to bring up the problem, and if they are able to, then they are to tap it away again, until they are certain that it is gone or that they can instantly eliminate it if it were to come back again.

[Jack]

Hello All,

I trained under a 'disciple' of Gary Craig's about 18 months ago, and met Gary last year in the US.

For me EFT has been a revelation. I use it for anything from headaches to complex issues and deeply buried psychoses. It works in around 60% of cases but there is a subjective parameter here which leads me to agree with Cal that EFT uses a trance state to effect change. From my own observations the depth of state is not great, not even somnambulism, but is nevertheless a state of heightened suggestibility. I have no doubt that some of the effect of EFT tapping is due to altered state suggestibility, but I suspect not all. How much is attributable to trance and how much to factor X I have no idea.

If we take on board the presupposition by EFT'ers that there is a life force, which we might call Chi; that this life force is circulating through the body in a particular direction and the LF may be affected by not only 'energy toxins' but also by emotional memories and current state conditions then factor X is explicable. If we also believe that by massaging or tapping meridian nexi on the physical body the direction and 'healthiness' of this LF can be affected then the whole shebang makes complete sense.

If we don't take all of this as read, then we are still left with factor X. EFT works ( I should add, it works for me, in my situation with my clients). So, unless we want to subscribe to mystical explanations there has to be a reason why it works.

Cal is quite right in that EFT has a credibility problem. I've had exactly the same client resistance in my own practice. The Set-Up and anti-reversal procedures are not what clients expect and they feel silly doing them. So what I do is tell them that the tapping is just another method of communicating with the subconscious, very much like hypnosis or NLP, but a 'sort of' physical reminder to the subsconscious that it has permission to come out to play. Without exception clients can take this as logical, but talk of 'Chi' and formless 'energy' only serves to make us both feel as if we are dabbling in the Black Arts and not in the art and science of hypnotherapy.

I believe that in EFT a trance state is accessed by the routine and the repeated affirmations. I don't believe in 'waking hypnosis' but rather believe that the trance state present in EFT is alpha state, and as such a suggestible state. This might be only semantics, but I might give it a whirl on the EEG at my local university for a little ad hoc information.

It could indeed be that EFT has little to do with actual meridian points, but I have found that the eyebrow, side of and under eye points are efficient in removing my own headaches and having spoken to a local acupuncturist he confirms that all are good for headache removal.

Whatever is actually going on (and it would be nice to know) EFT appears to work. I mentioned subjectivity at the start and I do know of several hypnotherapists who tried EFT and couldn't get it to work, or only to work spasmodically. It's only a guess but it may be that their own belief systems and preconceptions were getting in the way, much in the same manner that novice hypnotherapists have difficulty for the first year or so.

EFT is a useful tool for any hypnotherapist, as is Kinesiology, BSFF and all the other energy therapies. Perhaps it doesn't matter how it works, only that it does. Sometimes. For some people.

Jack

[Sky]

hmmmm I like what I'm hearing here.... I think I will go back and give it another chance. Thank you

[skip]

I use it personally.

I teach it to many of my clients. Takes about 5 min.

If I "explain" it works from an energy standpoint, its energy medicine. If I explain it from a hypnosis standpoint, its hypnosis, an NLP standpoint, its NLP etc.

It is both all of them and neither of them.

skip

[JenniferB]

I'm wondering if one of the reasons why it may be effective is that it is quite an active replacement, especially for a behaviour like smoking or nibbling on junk food. If, as the manual says, you repeat it up to 25 times a day, or just about every 30 minutes, (which is just short of the average smoking interval), it gives you something physically active to do instead of that which you are trying not to do. Since "cravings" for food or cigarettes don't normally last very long, by the time the EFT procedure is completed, the "craving" could have passed.

I'm with Jack when he says "Perhaps it doesn't matter how it works, only that it does. Sometimes. For some people."

[BarBrian]

Sorry to bring back a dormant thread, but there was an article in yesterday's paper here in which I heard of EFT for the first time..... and also found your very interesting views on it in the thread above. My question is though.... if you are having your client re-live the episode or experience as a "movie" and you are tapping on their face, chest etc, would this not anchor the feelings to the tapping....? Obviously it doesn't in practice, but it is contrary to the process of anchoring, isn't it?

Brian.

[Jack]

I agree, you would think so. In my practice I don't have clients re-living trauma during EFT, just ask for a positive affirmation concerning the problem, in their own words. It's true that the affirmation may bring on abreaction but the anchor is I believe to the affirmation and not the abreaction.

I personally don't use the movie technique for that reason. But as I mentioned above there may be more at work here than a mild trance state.

Jack

[GaryL]

I was wondering when you use EFT in your session. I've used it before a session with good results. If anyone is using it during a session it would be interesting to hear how you incorporate it.

Thanks