EmotionalBuzz
the resource for meridian energy therapy
EFT isn’t the only EFT: shifting energy with and without tapping
by Steve Wells
EFT isn’t just EFT anymore. For me, even though EFT still signifies the elusive concept of emotional freedom, it no longer stands only for Emotional Freedom Techniques, meaning the specific approach to tapping developed by Gary Craig. Instead, for me, EFT is now an acronym I use to refer to Energy Flow Techniques.
Energy Flow Techniques are those approaches which promote the flow of life energy, approaches which release blockages to energy flow and restore this flow through direct intervention in the energy system. Obviously the original EFT is included in this list of approaches; however there are also a large number of other ways of shifting energy which do and don’t involve tapping. And there are also ways of combining tapping with other approaches to get better results.
Let’s begin with the fact that much of what is included in standard EFT is not required in order to get results in terms of emotional relief. We’ve shown this over many years with SET (Simple Energy Techniques), where we did away with set-up statements and reminder phrases and the need to tap in rounds, among other things, and achieved equivalent and often better results. SET is certainly more efficient than EFT and shows that the main component of EFT which seems to be necessary to achieve the results is simply the sheer amount of meridian point stimulation.
Now of course EFT and SET when they work both get the same profound results, but SET is more user-friendly, portable, and efficient.
Apart from the fact that tapping itself can be modified significantly, there is the fact that it can also be combined with various processes to enhance the results achieved.
Then there is the fact that different practitioners get different results. Those results can be enhanced not only by what Gary Craig called ‘The Art of Delivery’, but also by excellent rapport, openness, acceptance, the therapeutic alliance, connection, and, quite simply, love. Then there are skills such as matching and mirroring which can certainly be applied to the other person’s communicational style, and can also be applied to the other person’s energy and how they are expressing that energy.
Shifting energy with and without tapping
Here are just a few ways you can work with energy in sessions other than just using tapping:
- Witnessing: Often, simply observing or witnessing the energy disruption or emotional blockage can transform it. Putting your attention on it. The problem is transformed through the process of observation and witnessing.
- Visual Approach: Related to witnessing as an approach is the more visual approach of identifying the shape and colour of an energy disruption. This in itself frequently changes the nature of it. You can also use colour, shape and visualisation to alter an energy block.
There are a wide range of approaches to working on a visual level. One powerful approach is the Mace Method, outlined by John Mace, which involves going into the moment of trauma and identifying the image constructed in that moment, focusing on it, allowing it to expand (rather than resisting it), after which it inevitably transforms. This simple but profound approach has recently been adopted by many EFT practitioners who have given it different names of their own without acknowledging John Mace as the creator (is this where I mention that this unethical behaviour of not acknowledging your sources really irritates me. And yes, I have tapped on that!). However I will say that unlike the rigidity of John’s approach, which requires you to find a specific image at the moment of trauma, I and many others who have experimented with it have found that a range of different images can be used to represent the trauma and the trauma can be transformed through these simple visualisation processes which also shift energy (and which can also be combined with tapping for excellent results). - Auditory Approach: In a previous newsletter I provided details of Nick Kemp’s Voice Tempo Method, which focuses on the auditory representation of the problem and achieves profound shifts with anxiety-based problems in particular by altering the tempo of the anxious thoughts. I’ve also successfully used it to work on all different kinds of beliefs with clients. Again, this is an approach which can be used on its own or combined with tapping, and it is just one of a number of ways of treating problems by starting on the auditory level.
- Kinesthetic Approach: With clients who are very bodily aware, you can achieve great results staying focused in the body. Feelings don’t always have words or even shapes or colours, however they do often express themselves in specific sorts of ways, such as tightness, tension, heaviness, fuzziness, heat and cool, and so on. When you identify how the feeling is trying to express it can be powerful to allow that feeling to express in that way, even encouraging and exaggerating the effect. Typically, the acceptance approach, combined with tapping, leads to a rapid shift and transformation of the experience of the problem.
Focusing, developed by Eugene Gendlin is a powerful approach which shifts emotion through accessing the body-sense of a problem then proceeding through a series of steps through which your own bodily knowing is activated. Many tapping practitioners will be surprised to learn, as I was, that many of the brilliant ‘insights’ they are advancing about how problems shift in the body have already been explored by Gendlin in this powerful approach which does not require tapping to promote deep shifts in emotional experiencing and responding.
These are just a few of the many many techniques and options available.
I still like to combine tapping with some of these other techniques however it is wonderful to know that I don’t have to. So if someone comes to my office for whom tapping is just a little too far out of their comfort zone I have other options which can work just as profoundly. If you’d like to expand your options and learn more ways of moving energy and restoring energy flow I encourage you to attend our Advanced Energy Mdthods (AEM) Workshops.
Steve Wells and Associates Pty Ltd
Psychologists and Peak Performance Specialists
PO Box 54, Inglewood 6052, Western Australia
Phone: +61 (0)8 9271 9271
Fax: +61 (0)8 9271 2250
Visit our websites for information on SET, EFT, and PET and our corporate programmes.