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By Matt Sison; CHt.
EFT (Emotional Freedom Technique) is hitting main stream media with the momentum of a bull charging a red flag, and rightly so! It's extremely effective. As a hypnotist, would you like to make it even more effective? Add hypnosis (particularly Regression hypnosis) concepts to EFT!
With that said, I may become unpopular here with my explanation of EFT with the EFT fundamentalists, but if you ask a baker he will bake; ask a surgeon and he will want to cut; ask a hypnotist and you will get a hypnotic answer?. So sit back, relax and enjoy a different perspective.
If you don't know by now, EFT is based on the meridian concept. A concept popularized today via Traditional Chinese Medicine (TCM). In a nutshell TCM explains that we have lines of energy flowing through our body in certain directions and when these energies are flowing in natural harmony then we are healthy, feel good and whole. However, according to EFT, when we get a negative thought/s or feeling/s we are negatively impacted and these lines of energy become tangled or obstructed and eventually result toward an imbalance in these energy fields thus creating physical, mental, emotional and even spiritual dis-ease.
Well, I'm a TCM fan and I can flow (Pun intended) with that. However, the following I add to my conversations with my clients as to how EFT works and why, from a hypnotic standpoint.
To set this up keep in mind the following statement as I explain EFT from my perception and experience, "All feelings are generally short lived unless there's a resistance to feeling them."
EFT for me is a great way to get us to feel, and without getting too technical, let's remember that the conscious mind does not feel, it analyzes, rationalizes, contains short term memory and will power. The subconscious mind on the other hand does not think - it contains our feelings, habits and permanent memory. The only time the conscious mind feels and the subconscious mind thinks is when they are working as one, as a whole, which is one of our aims as Regression hypnotists.
Therefore, with feelings being stored in our subconscious mind, whenever we get a feeling we have access to the S.M., the feeling part of our mind... ala Hypnosis. Hypnosis for our purposes is simply the focus from our external environment to our internal environment.
That being said, the EFT catch phrase "Even though I have this 'feeling'... I deeply and completely accept myself" is in and of it-self brilliant. It helps us to focus from the outside to our feelings on the inside. Furthermore, this is healing in it's own right as it implies that it's ok to have any feeling, and remember "all feelings are generally short lived unless there' s a resistance to the feeling.."
Focusing on this EFT phrase gives us permission to know that it's ok to feel this feeling that they don't like. What a great way to start by having your clients learn how to feel again.
Those of you in certain popular hypnosis communities know that for about 10 years, I've mentioned many times that EFT is a great way to induce hypnosis. What's especially brilliant about this process is that they're saying the statement "Even though I have this 'Feeling', I deeply and completely accept myself" while doing a series of things. This becomes comparable to an overload or confusion induction and while all this is happening, the EFT catch phrase "even though I have this 'feeling'... I deeply and completely accept myself" bypasses the C.F., and slips into the S.M.
WOW! I hope no one is overlooking the significance of this part of the EFT process and the catch phrase.
As hypnotists you may have heard the govt. definition of hypnosis which includes "Establishment of accepted selective thinking" and by simply focusing on and feeling the feeling, we've got establishment of accepted selective thinking. Now, add to this the fact that you're doing several things at once, which can induce a trance state, and in that trance state you are focusing on the feeling, and as we know, what we focus intently on, expands!
Hmmm... anyone see the direct suggestions for the feeling we're giving ourselves being reinforced from the catch phrase as we continue to focus and tap on the feeling? By this time the feelings that have been trapped inside of us are coming out. If you are a regression hypnotherapist, then this should excite you! As it's another way of doing an affect bridge induction.
Remember, "All feelings are generally short lived, unless there's a resistance to feeling them," no matter how small or big the feeling. Even the smallest feelings get trapped inside of us for years and even our lifetime if we don't express those feelings, simply because we didn't take a short time out to feel those feelings when it first happened or shortly thereafter when you had a chance to work on releasing those feelings in a private setting.
Incredible, isn't it?
The 2nd part of the EFT process (the tapping on meridian points) allows us to bring the feelings up even more so, through the concept of hypnosis compounding. Again, if you are a regression hypnotherapist, this should make you excited!
Keep in mind that * * * * *many times we will even spontaneously regress to moments that have everything to do with the feeling we're tapping on,* * * * * * * * However, another topic for another time.
Wow, and all this not because of the points we are tapping on, but because the tapping is a great induction to keep the conscious mind busy while we focus on the catch phrase, thus allowing us to feel and release some pent up energy that was stored inside of us for days, weeks, months, or even years.
So in brief summary, I don't sense it is acupressure that is healing the issue; rather it's more the process of inducing hypnosis through the tapping and allowing the catch phrase to slip into the subconscious mind to pull the feeling up and out, causing healing through hypnotic release and not necessarily through Acupressure, or TCM.
Ever try playing around with the tapping points and having your clients tap on different spots and still get the same results? I have, and it works all the same. I'm not saying that acupressure is ineffective. I was a Traditional Chinese Medicine (TCM) student for 3 years before I left the school, so I understand and accept the whole meridian concept. However, I just feel that by consolidating it into these points for all ailments butchers Chinese Medicine.
As any TCM practitioner can tell you, TCM is more then just using the same meridian points over and over again for every issue.
Rather I feel, even though the proponents of EFT will say differently, that this is mainly a hypnotic process and not acupressure.
This is why a person can get away with just thinking about the process and not actually physically tapping.
Matt Sison, C.Ht.
Would you like more information? We have a very detailed "Hypnotic EFT" process outlined in our training program:
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