Emotional Freedom Technique
Emotional Freedom Technique, Tapping, also known as EFT is a powerful holistic healing technique that has been proven to effectively resolve a range of issues, including stress, anxiety, phobias, emotional disorders, chronic pain, addiction, weight control and limiting beliefs, to name a few.
Emotional Freedom Technique is a healing art that draws upon ancient wisdom based on the combined principles of ancient Chinese acupressure and modern psychology. Tapping with the fingertips on specific meridian endpoints of the body while focusing on negative emotions or physical sensations helps to calm the nervous system, rewire the brain to respond in healthier ways and restore the body's balance of energy
So How Does It All Work?
Emotional Freedom Technique, makes full use of the mind-body connection, acknowledging and integrating the concepts that physical pain, disease, and mental well-being are intricately connected to our emotional states.
The body is equipped with an energy system that travels along meridian pathways. Tapping on these meridian endpoints helps to stimulate this system. For example, when verbally or mentally addressing the root causes of distress, the areas of blocked energy can release and flow naturally.
The basic EFT technique requires you to focus on the negative emotion at hand - a fear, a worry, a bad memory, an unresolved problem, or anything that's bothering you. Then, while maintaining your mental focus on this issue, you use your fingertips to tap 5-7 times on each of the nine specific meridian points of the body.
Tapping on these meridian points in sequence while concentrating on the negative emotions engages both the brain's limbic system and the body's energy system, encouraging a sense of safety and resolution. And as the scientific field of epigenetics is proving, when you change your internal environment - your emotions and beliefs - external changes in your mental & physical health will follow.
In some ways, Emotional Freedom Technique is similar to acupuncture. Like Tapping, acupuncture achieves healing by stimulating the body's meridians and energy flow. However, unlike Tapping, acupuncture involves needles! "No needles" is one of the advantages of Tapping!
Tapping is simple and painless. Anyone can learn it, and you can apply it to yourself whenever you want, wherever you are. It can be used with a specific emotional intent towards your unique life challenges and experiences. Most importantly, tapping gives you the power to heal yourself.
Scientific Evidence of Tapping's Effectiveness
The scientific basis for Tapping therapy revolves around the functions of a specific almond-shaped part of your brain called the amygdala. It is part of the body's limbic system, the source of emotions and long-term memory. The amygdala is the brain's fear centre, from which the "flight or fight" response originates, alerting other parts of the brain that it senses danger. This, in turn, initiates the firing of other brain receptors and the release of specific hormones that allow the body to respond to the perceived threat.
This process is beneficial when faced with a natural survival or threat. Still, it can be detrimental when developed into an "irrational fear" such as public speaking or a fear of rejection.
Tapping has been shown to literally "turn off" the amygdala, disrupting the stress response and allowing the brain synapses to be rewired for a more appropriate emotional reaction to a given situation.
Julia has been a practicing EFT Master Practitioner since 2015.