Emotional Freedom Technique Using Hypnosis
Emotional Freedom Technique Using Hypnosis
An email received after conducting an Emotional Freedom Technique Using Hypnosis workshop in Brisbane, Queensland. This is what a therapist said about it:
Quote”
I just wanted to say how much I enjoyed our “chat” at lunch time and your Emotional Freedom Technique Using Hypnosis presentation on Sunday!
I used the technique with 3 clients on Tuesday and had amazing results…I was already getting good results from EFT and Hypnotherapy as stand alone therapies but when I put the two together as you did – WOW what a blast!
From 8-0 in less than 10 minutes in each case….they were blown away and so was I. “Unquote
I am continually amazed at how powerful this therapy is when using it in the hypnosis trance state.
Many clients have tried for years to remove anxiety and depression without success. And then bang! 8-0 in less than 10 minutes. There is no Guarantee that this can happen so quickly for everyone one. However, why shouldn’t it be you? For this is more the norm than the exception for people who come to see me.
As a Counsellor when I discuss your issues with you, we may decide to use emotional freedom technique within the hypnotherapy trance state. This would be to release the dis-ease left in the memory of both past and present events.
As an ‘Emotional Freedom Technique Using Hypnosis’ practitioner, I formulate the wording we use to tap on. These words are based on our work that we did together prior to hypnosis (on a cognitive level). Through using our rational, analytical mind to discover the cause of your problem. Tapping on the original wording, leads to further wording based on how you are feeling on the outcome of that tapping and the feelings it leaves you.
As a Hypnotherapist I help you identify and get in touch with your feelings and emotions at the level that they have been imprinted, in your subconscious mind, and help you to tap and release these and imprint (record) what is appropriate for you today.
How Does EFT Work?
There are so many questions about exactly how EFT works and yet there are no definitive answers. However, the descriptions below give us a look into the the most accepted theories we have today.
Taken from: Energy Therapy Associates NewsletterJanuary 2011 http://www.eft4life.com/ETA/index.html – Dr. Catherine Saltzman, ND
EFT combines elements of cognitive therapy, somatic intervention, and brief exposure therapy. The tapping on the points on the body induces a mini-REM state in the brain. This re-organizes how we store and process information.
It can be shown with an EEG machine (which measures brainwaves) that brainwave patterns absolutely respond to the tapping. While the rapid therapeutic shifts observed have led clinicians to ascribe its effects to shifts in “energy,” the authors point out that there are biomedical and psychological processes that could explain the immediate relief of strong emotional memories.
EFT is an emotional version of acupuncture, except needles aren’t used. Instead, we stimulate the meridians by tapping on them with our fingertips. The basic premise of EFT is that “The cause of all negative emotions is a disruption in the body’s energy system”
When we stimulate specific meridian points, while being focused on the problem we experience, we clear out the imbalance in the energy system. By doing so, the negative emotion disappears as well.
… So how does EFT work if we explain energy scientifically?
Each of the body’s major energy pathways (meridians) is believed to be associated with specific emotions and themes.
A stimulus that brings a meridian out of harmony or balance (while this is a complex concept, terms such as under energy, over energy, and stagnant energy might each apply) also activates the emotion associated with that meridian.
The tapping treatment pairs the stimulus with an energy intervention that rebalances the meridian, bringing it back into coherence and harmony with the body’s overall energy system.
A disturbed meridian response is replaced by an undisturbed response.
Just as deep muscle relaxation can neutralize a specific fear in systematic desensitization, calming a disturbed meridian can disengage the emotional reaction associated with that meridian.
The most controversial idea that emerges from psychotherapy is that the body is surrounded and permeated by an energy field which carries information. Disturbances in this energy field are said to be reflected in emotional disturbances. Changes in the energy field are understood as having the power to shift the organization of electrochemical processes.
Many of the electrochemical processes that are probably involved have been mapped. When a person thinks about an emotional problem, activation signals can be registered by various brain-imaging techniques at the amygdala, hippocampus, orbital frontal cortex, and several other central nervous system structures. When tapping is simultaneously introduced, the receptors that are sensitive to pressure on the skin send an afferent signal, regulated by the calcium ion, through the medial lemniscus, that reaches the parietal cortex and from there is directed to other cortical and limbic regions. The interaction of these signals appears to cause a shift in the biochemical foundations of the problem. One hypothesis is that the signal sent by tapping collides with the signal produced by thinking about the problem, introducing noise into the emotional process, which alters its nature and its capacity to produce symptoms.
Another thought worth adding is from an article called ‘Resetting the Fear Switch in PTSD’ Lindenfeld and Bruursema say; “Recent advances in neuropsychology and brain imaging have opened new doors to our understanding of PTSD and other anxiety related disorders. We now know that the symptoms associated with this condition closely interweave with memory circuits in the limbic system of the brain. A working premise forthcoming from this body of research is that: although PTSD is triggered by trauma, it is really a disease of memory. The problem isn’t the trauma; it’s that the trauma can’t be forgotten! More specifically, the emotional charge of the memories remains hair-trigger and consequently intrudes into numerous activities of daily living.”
If you would like to read about a research analysis on EFT/TFT, There is a critical review of 51 peer-reviewed clinical outcome reports and systematic studies of EFT and TFT. This study was accepted to appear in one of the APA’s (American Psychological Association) most prestigious journals, Review of General Psychology click here
For a couple of explanations of how possibly EFT works – you will see both the Western Scientific explanation and the Energy explanation when you click on the underlined link.
If you click on the video testimonials, you can hear what clients have to say after releasing anxiety, fear and depression.