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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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Sneaking up on a snake phobia
Hi Everyone,
It's sometimes hard to convince a client of the relatively painless nature of EFT when s/he has experienced many conventional and painful healing techniques that didn't work, especially with phobias. Here are the details of an approach I have used successfully for phobias on several occasions, and I welcome anyone to try it.
It goes like this. Go into a pet store that carries snakes and locate the snake section. Then take the client to the pet store but don't go inside. At least not yet. Outside the pet store the client is relatively calm because s/he feels reasonably safe. Then use EFT for any anxiety s/he has for going through the door. Once s/he is ready to proceed then go inside the pet store (just inside the door). Then point out the location of the snake section (perhaps against a distant wall or in some corner). Then use EFT for any anxiety s/he feels for being this near a snake. Then go closer and tap again. Repeat this process until s/he gets closer, presses her nose against the glass cage and, with the cooperation of the pet store owner (they usually cooperate), she actually holds the snake. This is a relatively painless way to "sneak up on the phobia."
Below is a letter from the therapist that used this idea. Thought you might enjoy it.
LETTER: "Well I took my snake lady to the pet store and we did our stuff. I won't bore you with the details but at the end of about 45 mins she held a snake and she was euphoric. She called my machine that night and left an amazing testimonial. She wants to go back to the pet store and get herself a pet snake. (I have to admit he was pretty cute).
Just wanted you to know. Happy tapping."
In theory, a simple delimited phobia only requires a round or two of EFT and you are all done. I have had plenty of positive experiences with this. However, sometimes there is more to it than just a simple phobia. Some people with phobias, at least in my experience, also have a number of traumatic experiences regarding them (e.g. one snake phobic client of mine remembers someone throwing a snake in the bathtub while she was in it). To be thorough, one should also investigate such past traumas.
For example, I have found that addressing what seems like a simple height phobia can sometimes have misleading results. That is, they may be fine when looking over the third story balcony you were treating them for. But put them on a higher floor, or on a cliff, or someplace where there is no railing, or in a tree, or have them look off of a bridge, etc. (these are all possible aspects) and, in some cases, the phobia may "come back."
In fact, what you treated doesn't come back at all. Rather, what you are dealing with are new aspects that were previously unaddressed. They may be tuning into past "scary" incidences where there was trauma, guilt, anger, etc. and it can be pretty hard to know what you are dealing with. What the client may be calling fear may, in fact, be guilt, anger or something else. Whatever the client may call it, however, the comprehensive EFT algorithm will address what is really there. This is a major advantage of EFT.
Hugs, Gary
