by Tam & Mair Llewellyn-Edwards

My client had suffered from eczema since early childhood. This article is about how EFT cured her itching which, in turn, allowed the eczema to clear completely.

The client, who we shall call Rachel, was a woman in middle age who had suffered from eczema practically all her life. She had received various treatments for it, but all to no avail. Rachel had presented for homeopathic treatment and, after I took the case, Natrum muriaticum at 30C potency was prescribed. No EFT was performed at this point.

The case went well and, after a week, she reported that the itching had stopped and she felt 'great'. Unfortunately, the cure did not hold and after a further week Rachel reported a full return of all the symptoms and a great depression. The depression was probably caused by the return of the symptoms which she had thought had gone forever. Further dosage with Naturum muriaticum failed to help the case further.

The depression deepened and after a day of tears and violent scratching Rachel rang me for an emergency appointment and was given one that day.

The homeopathic line to take was clear, but need not concern us here as it would not have offered relief from the scratching in the short term--which was Rachel's goal. EFT came to mind, of course, but I had no idea as to whether or not it would be effective on eczema. Mindful of Gary Craig's advice to "Try it on everything", however, I went ahead with EFT.

The obvious 'problem' to address was the itch, rather than the eczema, and with this in mind I discussed the problem aspects with the client. It was soon clear that Rachel understood the problem as the 'urge to scratch' rather than the itch itself. Just two different sides of the same coin (or the same cycle in this case). So, since the Set Up Statement must be in the words of the client (not what the therapist feels it should be), I proceeded with EFT as follows:

"Even though I have this terrible urge to scratch, I fully and deeply accept myself....."

The initial SUDs (0-10 intensity) reading was 8 and, following the Set Up, a round of tapping was made on the face points only. This produced an immediate drop in SUDs to 4 (and a very surprised client!) A further round of tapping then took place (this time using face and hand points) and the SUDs fell to 0.

To test the result, I then asked Rachel to try a little scratch, but she politely declined. She said that scratching hurt her and that she did not need to scratch as the itching had gone away. Then Rachel burst out laughing, had a short cry, and then left the clinic giggling to herself.

Can EFT 'cure' eczema? We do not know but it can stop the itching and hence the itch/scratch/itch cycle. With the itch removed, eczema is of little import. And with the scratching removed the skin will not become infected, thus allowing the sores and weals to heal naturally.

A telephone follow-up after a month confirmed that the tapping had held and that there was no eczema and no itching, and a further contact after two months confirmed that Rachel had remained healthy with no re-occurrence of the problems.

Up until recently, Rachel was my only case with eczema. Just last week, however, another client came into my office with the same ailment. We applied EFT to it and the itching, once again, subsided and hasn't come back.

Regards,

Tam & Mair Llewellyn-Edwards