By Lindsay Kenny

Hi Gary,

I wanted to tell you about an interesting session I had in a workshop this week at a drug and alcohol rehab center for women. I do pro-bono work there for groups of women every week or two. This week I had 8 new outpatients and only had an hour to work with them (they had already gone through the 30-day detox program).

I usually start workshops with some muscle testing to demonstrate the power that negative emotions have on our body's energy system. It's then usually an easy bridge to EFT and how it works. But with so little time and with such seemingly depressed, skeptical, addictive-type women I wanted to try something different, but it felt very risky.

I asked how many smoked, and seven of the eight did. All seven said they wanted to quit smoking and all had tried but had failed. The non-smoker wanted to get rid of her craving for chocolate, so I used the Borrowing Benefits technique and had her tap along with the rest of us while saying the same phrases with us. Their 0-10 intensity levels ranged from 6 to 10. I had the "10" stand up front with me as a 'demo' while the rest tapped along from their seats.

Since addicts are usually Psychologically Reversed I wanted to demonstrate that with muscle testing by having my 'demo lady' state that she very much wanted to stop smoking. Not surprisingly, she tested weak on that statement, which surprised them all. I then had them all do the karate chop while saying:

"Even though I really don't want to stop smoking, I deeply love and accept myself". They all chuckled at this.

Now the demo lady tested strong. I explained reversals, which they seemed to like as an explanation for why they seemed to keep reverting back to their 'bad' habits.

Next we all did the Set-up Statement three times of;

Even though I really want to smoke this cigarette right now, I deeply and completely accept myself."

For the reminder statements we used;

"This craving to smoke" and "I really want this cigarette" while doing the tapping points twice from the eyebrows to under the arms.

That's it. I then asked the demo lady what her desire to smoke was and she said "Zero".

That was a surprise for me. "OK," I said, "take a dry drag on this ciggie then". But she said she couldn't and wouldn't. She said just the thought of it made her sick. I admit I was a bit skeptical. But then all of the rest of them said the same thing. They were all at a zero! I tried to get them to smell a cigarette or take a dry drag, but none wanted to do it. The most skeptical lady said "Hand me that lighter and that cig and I'll light it up". Her pals passed them down to her but she just couldn't do it. She admitted that she really wanted to make me wrong and show that EFT didn't work, but she couldn't make herself light up. She just couldn't stand the thought of smoking.

Frankly, I was astounded and still skeptical that they all got such quick and drastic results. So I took the cigarette around and tried to hold it under their noses and almost got punched out. One even said "Why don't you believe us when we're telling you we don't want to smoke?" I didn't tell them that I was amazed by their results. But I did explain that they weren't over the addiction to nicotine yet and that we'd only dealt with the craving. I told them they could now use this tool for their cravings, of all kinds, until their bodies let go of the physical addictions. They were thrilled. It was as if they had just received the Christmas present of their dreams. It was a nice present for me too, to see these formally unhappy, negative, down-trodden women with a glint of hope in their eyes and smiles on their faces.

I encourage all of you reading this to volunteer at a non-profit agency in your area to teach EFT. I guarantee the person who gets the most out of it will be you. And you'll be spreading the word about EFT in a generous, effective, and most loving manner.

My regards,

Lindsay Kenny

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