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Using EFT for the Inner Child
Note: This article assumes you have a working knowledge of EFT. Newcomers can still learn from it but are advised to get our Free EFT Get Started Package or our Affordable DVDs for a more complete understanding. For more, read our EFT Info and Disclaimer Document
Hi Everyone,
Karl Dawson from the UK displays a useful approach for use with difficult traumas. He says, "I simply said to her, 'I'll tap through the points on you as you imagine tapping on the points on that little girl.' The effect was profound in collapsing the traumatic memory, as it has been in the numerous times I've used this technique since." You will get more out of this if you are already familiar with the Inner Child concept.
Hugs, Gary
In many branches of traditional talk therapy there is reference to the importance of the ‘inner child’; also known as ‘parts’ or ‘sub-personalities.’ The inner child phenomenon occurs when, energetically speaking, part of our neurology ‘splits off’ in order to isolate traumatic events that were unbearable to the conscious mind and emotional resources of the individual at that moment in time.
In my earlier days as an EFT practitioner these problems seemed a little too complex to understand and deal with using EFT, especially as I had no previous psychotherapeutic experience. But as I learned more about EFT and got to feel, see and hear the experiences of my clients I learned that these events were so crucial in relation to so many of the presenting problems that I went back to the drawing board and took another look over some of Gary’s EFT DVDs.
I heard on many of the DVDs what has become my favourite of Gary Craig’s reframes. A wonderful example of which can be seen on disc two of the Borrowing Benefits DVDs featuring Stacey and her ‘blocks to success.’ At a crucial moment in her ‘Rejection movie’ Gary uses the set-up phrase with Stacey, Even though I’m still listening to a sixteen year old boy’s advice… Why is this such an important reframe? Because that is exactly what we do - we spend our whole lives listening to these inner children and their often mistaken perceptions.
In the DVDs I also got a deeper understanding of the ‘Inner Child’ from Dr Stephen Daniel, who specialised in serious physical and psychological illness. One of his techniques involves getting the client to imagine the inner child tapping on itself inside the body as they tapped on themselves on the outside. Over a period of time I would occasionally try this method, but never got the feeling my clients really identified with the concept. However, as has often been the case, it was one of my trainees that finally produced a breakthrough for me when working with the inner child.
Several years ago I was teaching EFT in Asia. During training one of the participants had a memory surface. As we practiced the core EFT techniques (The Movie Technique, Chasing the Pain and the Tearless Trauma Technique) the same memory kept reappearing, even though for every technique she had started working on a different memory. As the course progressed she was becoming more and more agitated as she did not want to deal with this particular memory.
At the end of the second day I said I would be happy to work through the memory with her outside the class, as her subconscious obviously wanted her to deal with it. She was hesitant, as she knew the content of the memory, but agreed.
This childhood memory concerned an event she had refused to accept or acknowledge ever since. She was convinced that if she did face it, it would forever destroy her relationship with her father and the way she saw him, which had otherwise been wonderful throughout her life. My intention was to work with the memory using the standard Movie Technique, collapsing as much intensity as possible using the gentle techniques before going through the movie, but straight away she could remember and, importantly, see herself as a 5 year old sitting on a bed, looking distraught.
In one of those profound moments of learning as a therapist she said to me, “I can see her so clearly - I could tap on her.” So I asked her to go ahead and do just that. I simply said to her, “I’ll tap through the points on you as you imagine tapping on the points on that little girl.” The effect was profound in collapsing the traumatic memory, as it has been in the numerous times I’ve used this technique since.
Since discovering this technique it has become one of the most profound I use in EFT. It’s not a replacement for any of the existing EFT tools. Rather, it fits beautifully with the movie technique and, in keeping with the brilliance of Gary Craig’s EFT, it’s very simple to use.
Over the last few years I’ve developed this simple technique to help not only with clearing trauma but also with reintegrating parts, overcoming psychological reversal, gaining forgiveness, allowing wonderful client-driven reframes and, literally, rewriting the past.
The technique, which I have named ‘Matrix re-Imprinting’ also fits beautifully with recent scientific discoveries from cellular biology and quantum physics, as it affects cellular memory by changing morphic fields at a quantum level.
Karl Dawson
