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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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Tightness, pain and palpitations
Dear Harry [Corsover],
Thanks so much for sharing your two recent successes with EFT and for allowing me to post them, together with my responses, to the EFT list.
Best, Gary
YOUR FIRST EXAMPLE: "A client was experiencing tightness and pain in her neck, shoulder, and down one arm. She had just been to a massage therapist who had worked on her without much help. We spent a couple of minutes doing the EFT treatment, and her discomfort vanished."
GC RESPONSE: I see this with great frequency. Some people go to massage therapists, chiropractors, rolfers, etc. and, despite the best efforts of the practitioner, the relief from their pain is only temporary at best. Then they try EFT and, BINGO!, they get instant relief. I've lost count of how many times I've seen this happen and still get a little awestruck every time it repeats.
I wish I knew for sure why this happens. I asked God about this and learned that He only dispenses this sort of wisdom to those who are pure of thought. I had an impure thought in 1978 so that leaves me out. Sorry.
But, if you will permit me a reasoned guess, I think it is because people hold their negative emotions and anxiety in their bodies. Negative emotions, anxiety and all its forms cause tension in the muscles which, in turn, abnormally push and pull on aggravated joints, sore areas, etc. EFT balances the energy system, reduces anxiety and relieves the abnormal push and pull of the muscles.
That's one part of the explanation. The other part is that I suspect we are, behind the scenes, giving relief to an unidentified negative emotion (grief, anger, fear, etc.) and the vanishing of its bodily symptom signals its neutralization. I can't tell you how many times people have come to me complaining of something like anger and, without ever addressing the anger per se, the anger issue vanishes. What I do is address their bodily pains (which are almost always there). When the pain subsides, I then test for the existence of the anger and get statements like, "Well, it doesn't to seem to be much of an issue now."
Also, it's really nice to use EFT on pain as the first thing you try with a new client. These processes appear weird and violate the beliefs of just about everyone, including clients. Relieving any existing pain is tangible evidence to the client that maybe you are less bananas than they thought.
YOUR SECOND EXAMPLE: "Last Thursday, I was at a meeting and a friend (I think she's about 72) was having heart palpitations and was dizzy (she gets these periodically, and they often last several hours). I had mentioned this TFT/EFT stuff to her previously, and asked if she was willing to see if it could help (I thought it might help with any anxiety she was having in response to the palpitations). She agreed, and we did just the first part of the [EFT] treatment protocol. She immediately started to feel better, and the palpitations were gone within 5 minutes and did not return."
MY RESPONSE: Adrienne and I have a phrase you will hear in the EFT course. That is, WE TRY IT ON EVERYTHING!!. Heart palpitations are not something you would normally address as a psychotherapist. In fact, your first inclination was to address her anxiety. The fact that her heart palpitations subsided after addressing anxiety is yet more evidence that emotional and physical problems are linked.
The next to last session on EFT videotape #5 (of Part II) shows a parallel session with a lady (Dorothy) gaining relief for heart arrhythmia. This was unique because her doctor was on stage with her to test the results. While the heart arrhythmia obviously subsided during the session and was still improved the next morning, I don't know if it was a lasting change. My experience with this type of physical problem (especially with someone in their 70's, like Dorothy) is that they are usually only temporarily relieved by EFT and may need to repeat the process over time. Consistent use of EFT for what is probably underlying emotional causes is likely to bring about more permanent improvement.
Finally, this case points to one of the distinguishing values of EFT. Its all-purpose algorithm was ready made for such unusual situations. Without EFT, you would have had to search through the individual algorithms to try and find one that might fit. This is cumbersome, of course, and you might never find it.
That's it for now, Harry. Hope this helps.
Gary
