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Deepak Chopra, MD
"EFT offers great healing benefits."
EFT (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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Henry's phrase points to core issues
Hi Everyone,
The article below provides yet more evidence that the real skill in delivering EFT in difficult situations involves persisting until we find the core issue(s). Some newcomers to this fascinating process observe some "one minute wonders" and erroneously assume that EFT works this way all the time. Thus, when EFT doesn't produce rapid results it is assumed (1) that EFT is not effective on THAT problem or (2) that it "doesn't work for me" or (3) that it has somehow lost its effectiveness for all time (smile).
With this in mind, please study this case submitted by Silvia Hartmann-Kent, our ambassadress (new word?) from the UK. Follow along as she patiently and expertly works with "Henry" until the true contributor to his trembling issue is uncovered. Please observe the subtleties and skills involved. This level of mastery is within the grasp of everyone and comes with diligence, dedication and practice. The principles are quite simple. With practice they will be yours for a lifetime.
Hugs, Gary
It is interesting how things arise that you cannot predict when you are working with a client.
One day, I was doing my best to help a gentleman of around 70 years of age with his "trembling", i.e. his propensity to shake all over in moments of stress which caused a lot of problems in one way or another. He had "the trembling" all his life, as far as he knew, and it had severely restricted him in so many ways--from being unable to confront people to fear of authority figures, fear of speaking to ladies and fear of general social situations. He felt he had to avoid these and any manner of other situations for fear of the trembling arriving and making him feel out of control, a fool, silly, embarrassed and terribly ashamed of himself.
This gentleman, let's call him Henry, was there with me that day because he had tried to apply EFT in self help on the problem for six months or thereabouts and it had not impacted the trembling to any great degree. He also had problems finding opening statements (set ups) and most of all, to contact emotions. Henry would know that he was terribly ashamed of himself but it would not reflect in his eyes, or his face or his voice (which stayed entirely flat throughout recounting even the worst of incidents).
I spent some time just hearing how he had approached the problem, admiring his perseverance in the face of a lack of results, and basically sitting and waiting for something to reveal itself to me that could be used as a leverage point to get into the problem. I also asked him about the physical sensations that preceded a trembling attack, and he told me that he knew it was coming when there was a strange feeling in his spine, like it was getting sore.
On the Prime Directive that "only the client can ever know the right opening statement", I asked him to find a good way to describe this and he came up with "this inflammation in my spine".
He began to tap himself and I was somewhat taken aback about how hard he was hitting himself - if he'd tapped me like that, I would have been black and blue! So I went across, sat on the arm of his chair, held his right hand and took over the tapping as he said the words, "Even though I have this inflammation in my spine".
At the Under Nose point, I became aware with a start that the reminder phrase had changed, and what he was actually saying was, "This INFORMATION in my spine."
To make a long story short, I stopped before the 9 gamut and asked him what the opening statement had been. He blinked and rubbed his eyes and said tentatively that it was about an inflammation in his spine, and I put it to him that he had said information, instead. He was quite intrigued by this and admitted that "it was the perfect description".
So we set to work on "this information" with a variety of statements such as, "don't know where it came from", "don't know how to release it", and a few others until finally, he sat up with a start and remembered clearly what this information was and how he had acquired it.
It was one specific incident out of many, where his father had called him for punishment. He had to stand like a soldier and keep straight, although on this occasion he was shaking with fear. His father kept him standing and shaking until he had actually wet himself, upon which his father told him that he was "spineless" and then proceeded with the long awaited punishment.
He had been five years old at the time, and it seemed, it was only his spine that retained this information and kept it for all these years.
Henry was very ashamed of the memory and I offered him the thought that he might like to work on it by himself, and that we would restrict ourselves to doing a little more to release the information in the spine, instead (which he accepted with tremendous relief). I also wrote down a list of suggestions for his further self treatment.
This was about 5 months ago and, since then, Henry has been working on some related issues, such as the anger towards his father, loss of life that is impossible to regain now, and the intense shame and dislike for himself he has carried all his life.
The trembling has ceased.
Following this particular treatment, it occurred to me how useful it could be in many ways to use Henry's Phrase, not only in the treatment of the emotional root causes of physical symptoms - wherever the symptom lies, it might be really useful to tap a round for "I want to release this information in my (skin, liver, hands, joints, bones, stomach, etc. etc.)" or to use a phrase that makes sense in the context.
It might be useful to do such a thing following an accident or injury to stop a long term body memory from forming: "I want to release the memory of this pain/fear/burning/tearing from my ...".
Henry's Phrase goes directly to the understanding of how the body stores our memories. I am most grateful to Henry for having brought this simple yet profoundly useful approach to my conscious attention.
Silvia Hartmann-Kent
