What is "Emotional Freedom Techniques" (EFT), also known as Tapping?
When emotions show up, they are meant to move through us and guide us to something we need. For example, grief may show up when we have been disconnected from someone or something, and it guides us to let go. Anger may show up when a boundary has been violated, guiding us to self-protect.
But most of us don't allow emotions to do their job. One reason for this is that we are not taught how to listen to and process them. As a result, we often resort to strategies to avoid emotions, such as numbing, distracting our feelings or projecting them onto others. To make things more complicated, when we have an emotion, our mind spins a narrative to perpetuate the emotion.
It is never what happens to you in your life, but what you tell yourself about what happens that can paralyze us and keeps us trapped in a trauma or undermining pattern.
What we go searching for with EFT is limiting beliefs: the narratives/personas we form based on the messy things that happen to us in life.
Here is the thing about limiting beliefs. The more you replay them in your mind and body, the truer they sound.
And so the cycle continues…
In my opinion, emotions are really one's superpower, because they are the way our soul speaks to us: guiding us to our needs.
EFT, also known as tapping, is an alternative therapy that involves tapping with your fingertips on specific points on your body, called acupuncture points. This is done while focusing on distressing emotion or thought. Think of it as emotional acupuncture. It works by communicating directly with the amygdala which is a part of the brain that controls our stress response.
I am also certified in Hacking Reality which is an advanced therapeutic technique that builds upon EFT. Developed by Rob Nelson, it is a trauma-informed modality designed to help individuals safely revisit past stressful events, resolve emotional distress, and rewrite the foundational beliefs tied to those memories.
In my experience, the use of the gentlest modalities, moving into even the most painful parts, can provoke the most profound changes in one's life. I have seen it time and time again in my life and in the lives of my clients.