EFT Professionals Australia

Janet (name changed for privacy) attended my clinic to gain relief from an intense fear of snakes.

So intense was her phobia that Janet could not even bear to look at a picture of a snake and just the mention of the word “snake” would send her into fear mode with goose bumps.

What was interesting about Janet’s case was that she was visiting Perth from New Zealand which, to the best of my knowledge is snake free so my curiosity was aroused as to what could have caused such an intense emotional response.

After some questioning in an attempt to become as specific as possible Janet revealed that it was more the way that they move their head “cobra like” that struck fear into her.

So we started with a fairly global round of tapping on “…this fear of snakes” just to take the emotional edge off before proceeding further.

Further questioning revealed that Janet had spent a considerable amount of time as a child listening to her Father relate stories about his experiences during the second world war in the dense jungles of Malaya wherein he was required to stand sentry duty along with other soldiers during pitch black nights with the only allowable means of communication being to tap on the butt of his rifle.

These jungles were rife with venomous reptiles and guess what? He was intensly afraid of snakes.

Relating this story and it’s associated visual image sent Janet’s emotional intensity up to a 9 (on a 0 – 10 scale, with 10 representing maximum intensity) and after a further round of tapping this was reduced to a 5. Janet’s image then shifted to a barrier preventing further snake images and further tapping shifted this barrier to reveal a “huge eye” amongst trees.

These images seemed to me to replicate what a child’s imagination could easily create given the jungle stories, so we pressed on with “even though I took on Dad’s fear of snakes as a child when he told me those stories,…” and worked with some specific images which allowed the SUD (subjective units of distress) levels to reduce significantly whereat the fear was replaced with a deep sadness >10.

Intent on following the more intense emotion, we delved into the source of the sadness to find that – Janet was one of the few people to which her Father would relate any of his wartime experiences and clearly these intimate discussions were of a traumatic nature to him and being a sensitive child she recognized that relating the stories helped him to cope.

A few rounds of tapping bought the sadness down from 10 to 1 but the sadness was just as quickly replaced by a sense of guilt. Janet felt that she was abandoning her Father (long since passed) by letting go of the sadness that she had been carrying for him for his inability to cope with his wartime traumas. Further tapping bought the guilt from 6 to 0 after which further tapping on the snake fear reduced it from 5 to 0.

Some further work ensued on beliefs surrounding carrying burdens for others and the session wound up after some tapping on deserving to be happy.

Janet was due to return to New Zealand the following day and a week or so later I received the following email:

….you will be interested to know that while at the Airport in Perth I subjected myself to photos of snakes in a book. Not easy but did manage to do it and felt that was a real break through. Would normally head in the opposite direction.

Since then I have had one instance when there were some on TV and although I reacted instinctively(?) to start, I told (my husband) not to change the channel and I watched while a chap tried catching one and letting it bite him on the wrist. I have to admit that I didn’t enjoy it and after a time had to say I’d had enough. Gently, gently I think I will achieve. To have done that would not have been imaginable before. J.

A few weeks later the following email arrived:

I feel clever. There has just been a local news programme that had an item on people catching snakes. I knew it was going to be on and really ’in your face’ from the adverts but I made myself stay and watch and actually managed to watch most of it. After a couple of minutes I felt I had pushed it far enough but (my husband) commended me on what I achieved. How about that???

The more I think about it the more I think this is incredible. J.

What I think is most remarkable about this case is the way in which Janet “took on” her Father’s fear simply by listening to his stories and mentally re-living his traumatic experiences prompting intense phobia over snakes without ever having been any where near one.

Janet’s email comments reiterate the fact that while we don’t necessarily want to fall in love with creatures such as snakes, spiders etc. after having dealt with earlier fears of such creatures by the use of EFT, the emotional intensity is effectively removed allowing a rational approach with any subsequent creature confrontations.

Barry

By:  Barry H. James (EFT Adv.)

Barry James is an experienced Emotional Freedom Techniques (EFT) Practitioner (EFT Adv.) and proprietor of Tap Happy EFT in Hillarys, Western Australia.

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There are times when little or no progress is experienced when applying rounds of EFT to specific events, which begs to question why it should work so successfully in some instances and not in others. The answer can most likely be attributed to the presence of aspects.

So what are aspects? Aspects can be likened to puzzle pieces that make up an issue, different angles from which it is perceived, given shape and meaning. Now whilst you may be tapping on something specific but making little headway, it may pay to look for emerging aspects that are keeping your intensity high.

Let’s look at a ‘scary nightmare’ my son had as an example, and see how his emotional intensity dropped only once we had uncovered and neutralised vital clues/aspects that were playing a significant part.

To begin with (given that he was so troubled), we tapped on “This scary nightmare” to take the edge off his intensity. You’ve probably figured out by now that the issue was too global so he gave me a clue. There were “Scary pirates outside my school”. (Suddenly we were getting a nice specific picture, nice for the purposes of EFT but not nice in his book!).

After a few rounds of EFT I knew by his face that the intensity hadn’t diminished, so I said to him, “What was scary about the pirates?” He answered, “They looked mean and evil”. We tapped on this but still no relief. “What else was scary about the pirates?”.  “They had weapons”. We tapped on the weapons but his expression was still troubled. One by one with ‘what else’ questioning we uncovered various aspects that were holding his fear firmly in place; the pirates were going to hurt him with their weapons; they were going to kidnap him; he was going to be separated from his friends; he was going to be separated from his mum and dad.

Once we had tapped on all of the aspects (pirates, scary faces, weapons, do harm, kidnapping, separation), he yawned, smiled, said he was fine and that I could now go back to bed. And with that I did!

Caroline Crosbie

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