Introduction
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Emotional Freedom TechniquesWhere emotional relief brings physical health
Self help method often works where nothing else will No Drugs Involved ~ High Success Rate
Testing your EFT work - The “End at the Start” Test
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,
Testing our EFT work as it unfolds is vital because it lets both the EFT'er and the client know how the work is progressing. Thanks to Gwyneth Moss from the UK for her important views on this.
Hugs, Gary
Traditionally it has been the expectation of therapy that it will be long, drawn out and painful and that results will emerge slowly and delicately. Well EFT changes all of that: we soon learn to expect results in each session and results that are robust and lasting. So unlike conventional therapy, testing and verifying results is central to our use of EFT and key to developing our skill and craft.
Watching Gary at work on his excellent DVDs you see how he tests and tests and tests using anything he can find to check progress whether it be a thought, a pain, a movement or a memory. I have developed a three step testing process: Tapping then Test, Rehearse, Reality or T-T-R-R. This article is about step one, testing and subsequent articles will cover rehearsal and reality.
Right from the start when someone is first describing the problem or their reasons for seeking help, I am looking for how we will test our success.
Sometimes we get a feeling that doesn’t help us and doesn’t want to go away. For example, Susan came to me saying “I keep getting this feeling of dread in my stomach”. Now she had already told me where she felt the feeling, otherwise that would have been my first question. The feeling was not present in the quiet comfort of my consulting room so I asked her “What would you have to think about to feel that feeling now?” She replied that thinking about her new boss at work would bring on the feeling. So I asked her to think about the boss and tell me how strong the feeling became – she reached a 7 easily. I ask her to save the picture and soundtrack of what she thought about as we would be coming back to it later.
Now what we have done here is to set up a ready made test that we can return to after doing EFT so that both of us can know that something has changed. We have these elements:
- What she has to think about
- The feeling that those thoughts generate
- Where she feels it
- And how strong it is before EFT
So we then get to tapping and our session uncovers various specific aspects which clear one by one; her boss’s condescending tone; her intense eyes and habit of drumming her finger nails on the desk. After a few rounds of tapping I ask what the dread reminds her of and a core issue emerges of “Its got to be now” and a memory of demands made by an unkindly senior nurse who unfairly blamed her for a delay that cost a life when she was a teenage trainee. We used the Movie Technique on the events of that day and Susan found a more balanced perspective, realising that she herself was not at fault.
But this article is not about the use of the EFT techniques - it’s about testing. So having outlined how we start I will skip to how we end which is by going back to where we started. We have a ready made test because we set it up at the beginning. I ask her to think about what she thought about when I first asked her to feel the dread, the exact pictures and sound track. As she does I point to her stomach and ask “what’s happening there now when you think about that?” She smiles and tells me that her new boss has really useful and relevant experience in areas where she is keen to learn. Oh and yes her stomach is calm now, there is no dread, it’s a zero and has been replaced by a keen curiosity.
I then get a little provocative by mentioning her boss’s need for urgency and “Its got to be now!” trying to push the buttons of her old response but all I get is “I can do what I can do and if she’s putting pressure on herself then that’s her stuff.” Susan has passed the “End at the Start” test with flying colours.
With a physical symptom tests are generally obvious: the intensity of pain; or the degree of physical movement; or the appearance of a symptom. The principle is the same though, find your test at the start and wherever your tapping session leads you, return to where you started and notice what has changed.
Gwyneth Moss
