EmotionalBuzz

Effective, Efficient, Enlightening

Ranjana Appoo considers how to make Emotional Freedom Techniques Effective, Efficient and Enlightening Freedom Techniques – and asks whether at this point do they become Meridian Energy Therapies.

Quite simply, original EFT (will it be called traditional EFT one day) requires you to tune into your issue, break it down, pick a specific piece of the issue and then tap on the meridian stimulation points to release the disruption. Of course there is more to this process. There is the tuning in to the issue, breaking it down, targeting the crescendo emotion piece, phrasing a setup statement ending with the words I deeply and completely accept myself to correct psychological reversal, tapping with the reminder phrase on the meridian points, doing the gamut procedure and then another a round of tapping. This works very well most times, but then we are all unique and the way we respond to life, others, and ourselves is unique.

Some people hate saying: “I deeply and completely accept myself”, others find it very hard to break their issues/distress down into smaller parts. Some people find it very hard to be specific and some others do not like to tap. The more I work with a variety of people the more I find the need to customise EFT to the user. After all EFT is simply a tool and how you use it is really up to you. Isn’t it?

Doesn’t the healing actually happen because the tool (EFT) has helped the user create the required conditions for an opening so that the experience of healing takes place? The beauty of EFT is its flexibility and how, when used persistently, can unfold and lead to a myriad of healing paths, cognitive shifts, perceptions and empowering experiences.

What is truly astounding is how so many of us, from so many different parts of the globe, are experimenting along similar lines but not necessarily calling it the same thing. I remember well before the term Matrix Reimprinting was coined, clients of mine had already, during sessions, naturally opened the healing route of tapping directly on the hurt inner child. Before I heard of Imagineering, I was already working with helping my clients navigate through their inner visual environment and so bring healing to their physical projects with EFT, I have worked with the inner child, dropping through layers of pain, parts, inner conflict, used visualisation, role play, space, colour, frequencies, vibration, texture, taking an inner journey, used inquiry, metaphors, tapping focused on spiritual development, ancestral projects and so on all within the parameters of EFT. The question is: is it still EFT? Does it matter? Are we entering the psychotherapy arena? Do I need to call what I do something else? Has EFT become an umbrella term? I have to say that having the framework of Matrix Reimprinting, Imagineering, Deep state Repatterning, Inner Theatre and so forth provide great structure for my trainees and help explain what I have been doing eloquently.

Working with Energy therapy alongside shifts in understanding Consciousness, Awareness of our potential, and who we are, seems to be where many of us are heading.

Historically, it seems that every time a process is discovered and shared everyone does applaud the genius of its simplicity. And then it gets complicated...mainly because we begin to use it in so many different ways with different people, (rarely does one formula fit all, one shoe size rarely fits all) and most of all because so many of us are explorers and we like to see how far we can go with something. A bit like the theory of relativity...physicists are constantly challenging Einstein’s theories and I do believe that he would not want it any other way. Similarly, EFT is evolving and may be because there are now so many people using it and exploring it from so many angles, stretching its boundaries, so what now? Do we define or standardise EFT? What is it that would define EFT? Can one loosely describe it as the revolutionary talk and touch therapy? Will standardising EFT limit its potential? How do we get EFT to be consistently Effective Freedom Techniques? Has my effectiveness as an EFT practitioner increased just because of my experience with the original form of EFT or also because of the many ways I use it, customise it to my client?

There are others of course: openness, congruence, integrity, and more but for the purpose of this article I am going to focus on intuition.

For me EFT is about changing the way we see the world from a materialist point of view to an energetic one and, dare I say it, quantum point of view. It is much more than a technique; it is an art that gives the user permission to tune in to what is bothering them in an open and ‘accepting’ way. Then while stimulating the meridians and keeping the issue, emotion in the awareness, we literally see it transform, change state. I call this Emotional Alchemy (article in progress). What makes EFT become Effective Freedom Techniques is much more than our skill, our understanding or our study of its many uses; it is our intuition, our ability to listen to the client, to ourselves, to something which cannot be defined but which is at the heart of all inspiration. The intuition can open doors for both the practitioner and client, whereby new ways of tuning in, stimulating the meridians, undoing subconscious resistance and healing at a cellular level may become apparent. This may deviate quite dramatically from the original EFT, so how do you preframe this for the client, for scientific study? In my practice I know that intuition is what inspires me to love what I do and also makes EFT very effective. I have noticed that it is intuition that opens the doorways of working with moments in time, specific memories, stuck beliefs, the inner child, layers of pain, parts, inner conflict, visualisation, role play, inner space, taking an inner journey, inquiry, metaphors, spiritual quandary, and ancestral projects. I do not think it matters what you label it, if you follow the suffering, the emotion, the lack of emotion, the confusion, the fear, the resistance, the body sensation, the white rabbit all the way down the rabbit hole and let it be your guide you will get to a core that is ready for resolution. The good news is with practice, experience, getting yourself out of the way, and intuition you can do amazing things for yourself and your client with EFT or Meridian Energy Techniques.

Some of these tips come from what I teach as the art of unconditional listing:

• Get into the tapping/ holding the points in silence. Give yourself a moment to connect to the client within that silence
• In the middle of a session, you can tap silently while you wait for your client to articulate what they need at that moment...wait for your intuition to guide you...stillness is often the precursor to the eureka moment...
• To the often asked question, “How do I get the right setup?” Be willing to get it wrong. Try out different words and questions check in with your client as you dance between their words and your intuitive insights and then of course be as specific as possible
• Constantly check your own feelings, your personal response to the client’s feelings, words, and movements
• Be aware of your own body sensations, if they seem new to you, there may be clues to what is happening for your client
• See what happens when you repeat their story back to them with similar descriptive feelings and emotions paraphrasing as you go along
• Ask them to describe what happened and watch for the emotional moment, then you describe what happened in your words and see what happens
• Don’t worry about getting it wrong; if you are constantly checking in you can remedy as you go along. If you felt you got it wrong admitting it yourself with loving awareness is freeing
• If you do not know where to begin you can always ask your client what they want in life? In the session?
• Take your clients through a visualisation while tapping; imagine that you are with them on this inner journey, what images do you get? Check in with your client and see if they correlate
• Sometimes in a group, for borrowing benefits instead of asking about a past memory, I ask attendees to imagine a future nightmare situation the worst thing that can happen, ask them to rate/guess the fear intensity and then demonstrate with a willing volunteer the power of this tool
• About Universal Tapping Phrases: there are no Universal Tapping phrases, so it is not about the words, it is about how you have tuned in that makes EFT work. This may be one of the reasons why Borrowing Benefits work
• The more you listen to your intuition the more you begin to perceive how stored emotions and memories are locked or frozen in the energy system, how easily they can then be discharged. How the frequencies of hurt can be restored to balanced resonances. How suffering met with compassionate awareness and touch can dissolve. You notice you ask your clients questions like, “What do you suspect is at play here...how come...when did you first feel this way?” as if they are the most natural questions. You notice how illness is affecting your client in minute detail as your observational skills are now so honed by your intuition. You realise that the body and its expressions gives so much away with every breath. In effect now you can help your client become more aware of themselves and this is enlightening for them.

In recent years we are discovering more and more ways of using EFT – Emotional Freedom Techniques and how to make them EFT – Effective, Efficient, Enlightening Freedom Techniques, or at this stage do they become MET Meridian Energy Therapies? I love Gary Craig’s metaphor of the Healing High-rise...the question is, are we going up the EFT Healing High-rise or the MET Healing High-rise?

Ranjana Appoo is the co-founder of the Emotional Health Centre and the creator of the Emotional Toothbrush Series

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