Using EFT for a client who feels out of control.

By Angela Treat Lyon

Hi Gary,

I thought you'd like to hear about a session I had with a gal who called me about her persistent sense of feeling out of control. I'll call her "Micki." As it turns out, she was on a lot of medications and that may well have been why she had these difficult to control feelings.

Micki's a very together-looking 65 yr old, who looks like she's maybe in her early 50's - if that. When she called me, I could hear right off that here was a woman who was used to being strong and independent, and who wouldn't shy away from anything difficult.

She told me she was at wits' end, and wanted help with how crazy she felt. I told her right off I wasn't a physician, and wouldn't be diagnosing or prescribing, but that I could help her with how she felt.

Micki is one of those people who has tried virtually everything, so she was wide open to EFT. She has tried allopathic doctors to hypnosis, acupuncture at the local college, feng shui, and even stuff like Albanian folk healing tokens scattered around the house. Importantly, she has had single-minded intent for healing since the time of the problem, starting about 12 or 13 years ago. But - there was a major ingredient missing to her search, which I will get to; and, there was a possible session-derailer that almost got me: pills.

Here are some of the things she was having trouble with: hot and cold spells - she'd turn bright red and feel as if she was in an oven one minute, and the next would be shivering and freezing. Distinct hot and cold places on limbs. Her arms, hands and feet got prickly feeling, sometimes breaking out in rashes. She couldn't calm down after work unless she walked at least a mile with her headset on with music. Tremendous ear-ringing - even had surgery to cut the nerves to one ear. She felt crazy. Exhausted, and couldn't go on like she used to. She didn't sleep well. Wants to stop working 2 intense jobs but worried about finances. Felt stuck and unfulfilled. Anxiety attacks with accompanying dizziness, heart-pounding and disorientation.

I never, ever do any diagnosing or medication suggestions. Even as simple a thing as suggesting to drink more water can be a disaster for someone who has a hidden renal problem. Since she had such pronounced physical symptoms, some of which sounded extreme, the very first thing I did was suggest she see a friend of mine who uses acupuncture and Traditional Chinese Medicine herbs. I've seen Shereen*, my friend, use her acupuncture and herbs to get incredible results, and I knew she could handle Micki's conditions on levels that I cannot.

Then I introduced Micki to EFT. Her general intensity was so high that I got her tapping right away on the karate chop spot as she talked. I figured she could use the release of a little of the pent-up juice she was holding just so we could start. Within about 30 seconds, she heaved her first big sigh.

Her energy was scattered from here to the north pole and back. It was impossible for her to stay focused on any one thing for any longer than a minute. At first I thought she just had a lot going on and wanted to talk about it all and get it out in the open. We tapped the face and torso at places where she seemed really intense. It was impossible to settle on any one issue.

Even after 30 minutes of tapping, we didn't get much lower than a 7 on anything. She couldn't even feel any rating at all. As much as we tapped, she got very little relief other than a few sighs. As we tapped, old emotional issues came and went. She wouldn't stop on any one of them, and didn't have enough available energy to be able to understand the importance of getting clearance from old energetic entanglements. So I started looking for what was under the surface, and asking her pointed questions.

The clue came when she began ranting about how many pills she had taken, how they had affected her, how sensitive she was to them and how she wanted to "get done with all this" and "on with her life."

I realized that here were two major ingredients: no set goal other than "get done with this" and "on with her life;" and the effect of the pills on her mind.

Over all the years I've worked with people, I've noticed how they don't seem to realize how powerful the effects of medication are on their minds. I've experienced it for myself - the medication I took after a major surgery made me so depressed I had to seek help, and thankfully got to the source of the problem right away. When I stopped taking the meds, it all left.

Medication might be great to help with the symptoms or recovery from something, but the effect on the mind MUST be taken into account. The pills Micki was taking made it impossible for her thoughts to stay connected to anything for more than a minute, and it was literally making her feel nuts.

I couldn't tell her to stop taking the pills! I decided that just being on the EFT field, never mind getting up to bat, was most important. Home runs would come at a later time. So we did some simple rounds and variations on:

Even though I feel so scattered.
Even though I feel nuts
Even though I can't calm down

Thankfully, we got her feeling relaxed enough that now, instead of sitting on the edge of the couch, she was in her "favorite position" - legs draped over the end, back braced by big pillows.

We took a much-needed break, then resumed. She talked about how frustrated she was that she had a nice house, but here she was in her 60's and was still working 2 jobs to pay for it, and felt so locked down with it she didn't enjoy it. For a number of reasons she didn't want to sell it - all of which made sense, but it sounded and felt to me that she had created an energy whirlpool she couldn't get outside of enough to find other, more creative options.

We tapped on Even though I feel so stuck and many aspects of that.

Then I slipped this in: Even though I want to get on with my life, I don't know what I'd do if and when I did get on with it.

That stopped her cold. Her eyes opened wide and she gasped. "Omigod! You're right! I don't know where I'd go, or what I'd do!" The importance of having a light at the end of the tunnel got right in there and hit her square in the face. You can want to "get on with things" all you want, but if you don't have an idea, picture, or feeling of what that will be like, it's hard for your mind to create that for you. It's impossible to even take baby steps, because you don't know what they are! So you just keep going around in circles, being stuck and wanting out, being stuck and wanting out. Out, to WHERE? Out, to WHAT?

So then we talked (tapping the Karate Chop spot all the time) about what a fulfilling life would feel like to her. What kind of climate she preferred, what kind of friends she'd have and what they would all do together, what kind of things she'd love to do, what would she want to do in order to create income. What kind of house she'd want, car, yard, etc. I wanted her to start to create, in her mind, the results she wanted so she could start a new direction of thinking, rather than the endless loop of constant worry about being ill.

As she was speaking, a little town in California I know of popped into my mind, and I told her about it. I could just see her there, happy as a clam. She sat up again, her face was lit up, and her energy shot high - but this time it felt solid, without flying off into the four winds.

We discussed a couple of very easy, very simple steps she could take to start creating her new place: searching the internet for this little town, seeing if she was attracted to it; calling her realtor for creative brainstorming; discussing her situation with her family, etc. And making sure that she only took little tiny steps until she felt she had clarity and enough strength to make leaps.

It's pretty obvious that this was only the beginning. With a person as dynamic and determined to be healthy as she is, I don't think it will take her long to get real, gratifying results.

In future, I'll be sure to remember the effects of pills. Not remembering almost undermined the session. I was grateful that Micki had such high intent for healing, and that she took to the idea of creating her Dream as a way out of her struggles.

Thanks, Gary, one more time, and blessings to you -

Angela

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