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Deepak Chopra, MD
"EFT offers great healing benefits."
Emotional Freedom Techniques® Where emotional relief brings physical health
Self help method often works where nothing else will No Drugs Involved ~ High Success Rate
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Taking the edge off of a molestation.
Hi Everyone,
About a week ago I gave an evening (3 hour) EFT workshop for a group of 15 people in a nearby community. As usual, the audience applied EFT to themselves for a variety of issues and, just as usual, we had many successes.
About half way through the workshop, "Ginger" asked a question which led to an important principle within EFT--namely, our ability to "take the edge off" of an emotional problem. This is how the conversation started....
Ginger: How do you use EFT when you don't remember the event?
GC: If you don't remember the event, how do you know you have a problem with it?
Ginger: Well--what I mean is--what if the event was so intense that you DON'T WANT TO REMEMBER IT? (she began crying)
GC: What was the event?
Ginger: (In tears) I was molested by a guy named "George."
A short public workshop is hardly the environment for addressing an intense issue like this--especially since it is likely to have many aspects. If it was a longer workshop, however, I might have invited her up on stage to work on the issue (assuming she was willing) in a more in-depth way. Under these circumstances, though, I found myself with a participant in emotional pain and limited time to assist her.
What to do?
Seasoned EFT'ers would start tapping immediately in an effort to "take the edge off." It's an obvious step and usually easy to do. It is also an ideal time to apply EFT because, under these circumstances, the client is clearly tuned into the problem.
So I said, "Tap with me" (as she sat crying in her chair)....
"Even though I have this emotion..."
Note that I was being very general here--and not specifically using the term 'molestation'. That's because she was already tuned into the problem and all I was trying to do was give her some immediate relief. We did 3 or 4 rounds on "this emotion" until the tears subsided. Then, to add a little more to it, I had her tap with a Setup that went....
"Even though I may not want to do so, I am open to the possibility that I can forgive George for his actions..."
She resisted this at first but, after a couple of rounds, she was smiling. Then, as a test, I asked her to say, "George molested me!" She said it calmly (to her surprise) without any unnecessary emotional response.
I then went on to other topics in our workshop while Ginger sat with her new found relief. Two more times in the last hour of the workshop I turned to her out of the blue and asked her to say, "George molested me!" Both times she said it very calmly. This was a dramatic difference from her original response and clear evidence that we had taken the edge off.
Is Ginger done with this issue? I doubt it. There are probably many more aspects kicking around under the surface. However, less than 10 minutes of tapping took the edge off for her. For many people, this provides a major chunk of emotional freedom. It is time well spent.
This procedure isn't just confined to cases where we have limited time, however. It also applies to anyone whose emotional issue is so intense that it's advisable to "sneak up on it" by "taking the edge off" first. You don't have to go for the bullseye right away. It's also very useful when dealing with group trauma such as occurs during hurricanes, earthquakes, civil disruptions, shootings and the like.
Hugs, Gary
