Part 1 of 4

By Ryan Kurczak

Dear Gary,

First let me say since learning EFT I have nearly stopped practicing the techniques I'd learned earlier in my healing career, such as Reiki, CranioSacral Therapy and massage. I had never seen such rapid improvements in physical and mental health until I began implementing EFT as an adjunct to my other services. EFT quickly became my prime healing tool.

A few months after taking an EFT level 1 class I decided to try out the DVD courses and began to devour the knowledge presented in them, which greatly increased my delivery of the technique and success rates. After watching the "Steps Towards Becoming the Ultimate Therapist" DVDs I became enamored with the idea of applying EFT intentionally without tapping or making any outward movement.

The ability to facilitate healing from a distance was not a new concept to me, yet try as I might I just couldn't get the hang of how to do EFT without the physical movements of tapping either on myself or the client. After persistent experimentation I discovered a three stage process that allowed me to be able to practice EFT effectively, using only imagination and intention. The sessions recorded below illustrate the process for anyone looking for a spring board to develop their own intentional EFT abilities.

Note: I had been practicing EFT every day with clients for about two months when I realized that the exact moment they took a deep breath or showed some outward sign of relief, I too felt a subtle surge of relaxation in my body. It dawned on me that by tapping with them throughout the session, I was in a sense tapping for them too. It was almost like I was resonating with their energy system and so could feel when that energy system released a negative emotion. This realization is what I based my first steps to being able to practice EFT intentionally.

Step 1: Physical Surrogate Tapping
(other steps will be covered in future installments to this series)

The first helpful step I took on my way to practicing intentional EFT was learning and practicing surrogate tapping. Here is the method that worked for me.

Jack had called me one evening because of some weakness and pain in his knee. Jack is very athletic and a martial arts teacher. The pain in his knee would not allow him to squat very low in his stance, which from what I understand is essential in the martial arts. He knew all about EFT and practiced it often. When he called for help I asked him why he didn't try EFT on it himself. He said he had, coming at it from multiple angles, and could not make any improvement. So he wanted my thoughts on how to properly deliver EFT.

Jack is a friend of mine and an open minded guy, so I asked if I could experiment with him. He agreed. I asked him for the intensity of pain on a 1-10 scale. He told me it was between a 6 and a 7 when he attempted to move into his stance. Then, I asked him to hold on a moment. Jack was still on the line, although I put the phone down. I closed my eyes and imagined that Jack was sitting across from me, as in one of my normal EFT sessions, and I began the Basic Recipe. I rubbed the sore spot and mentally repeated, "Even though I have this painful weakness in my knee I deeply and completely accept myself." With my eyes closed I kept rubbing my own sore spot and mentally saw the imagined Jack rubbing the sore spot and repeating the same phrase. Then I went through the rest of the Basic Recipe in this way. I would tap a point and mentally say, "this knee pain". Then I would imagine him tapping the same point in the same way.

The process took less than a minute. When I was finished I picked up the phone and said, "How does your knee feel now?" There was a pause, and then he chuckled and said, "It is now a three." Then he asked, "What did you do?" I told him I'd explain when we finished. So I told him to hold on again. I once more put the phone down and went through the same process. This time I skipped the sore spot and used the reminder phrase, "This remaining pain." Thirty seconds later I picked up the phone again and said, "How about now?" He replied, "The pain is mostly gone. It is probably a one on the scale. Let me try to get in my stance and see what happens."

Jack then said, "When I get in my stance the pain goes back up to a five, and there is a stiffness that won't let me go any lower." I asked him to stay in his stance as low as he could without causing too much discomfort so that he could be aware subtly of what the knee felt like while in the stance. I then set the phone down again and repeated the previous procedure. I changed the setup phrase to, "Even though this position causes my knee pain, I deeply and completely accept myself." The reminder phrase I used was, "This positional knee pain." After I went through the Basic Recipe on myself while imagining him doing it do right across from me, I picked up the phone and said, "How does your knee feel?" He said it felt looser and was not hurting at the moment. So he told me to hold on as he lowered his stance. Jack then said that he could almost get as low as he would like in his stance, but there was some residual tightness at the level of a 2-3 on the intensity scale.

It occurred to me that maybe there was some fear of injury by getting lower in his stance. As a massage therapist I typically see tightness as a result of some part of the body protecting itself from injury. Without mentioning this I asked if he could stay in the stance at the 2-3 level he previously reported for about 30 seconds. He said he could. For the final time I set the phone down and repeated the entire Basic Recipe. The phrase I used this time was, "Even though I'm afraid I will injure myself if I go any lower in my stance, I deeply and completely accept myself." The reminder phrase I used was, "This fear of injury." At some point in the middle of this third run through I got a sense of my body relaxing and I took a deep breath. When I picked up the phone and asked how he felt at the moment, he immediately responded that during the thirty seconds I was not on the phone with him, he felt his body relax and his stance natural lower, pain free.

Happy with the results I explained to him what I was doing each time I put the phone down. He was very encouraging about the process and advised me to keep it up. Since that time I've done many surrogate sessions with him, and each time the process has become more elegant, effective and efficient.

Practicing the Basic Recipe, in its entirety on myself, while imagining the person I was working with doing the same thing allowed me to see that the power of my imagination could actually create results. After about two other successful surrogate tapping sessions in the manner described above, I then began pushing my limits and cut out the tapping on myself completely. This process, which effectively resolved anger over a problematic coworker, will be described in my next installment.

Ryan Kurczak

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Part 2 of 4

After I became comfortable and successful using the imaginary surrogate tapping, described in the first installment of this series, I found that fully engaging my imagination in the process allowed me to surrogately apply EFT hands free.

The next EFT application illustrates a method I found helpful for empowering the effectiveness of my "imaginary" EFT. After a few days of unsuccessful tries on friends and family, something clicked and this technique began to work like a charm. I had a similar experience when first learning to surrogately muscle test. After a week of consistent, yet failed, attempts to surrogately muscle test, one day it just started working. Consistent practice proved to be a necessary step for me in the process of finding a successful method of practicing intentional EFT.

Step 2: Hands Free Surrogate EFT

Sue came in for an EFT session clearly agitated about something. When asked what was bothering her, she immediately responded that one of her coworkers at the massage office she worked at was giving her a hard time.

She said, "I was scheduled to give Jan, my coworker, a massage. A client of mine had bought a gift certificate for her husband's birthday. The client's husband came in one day with the gift certificate and wanted a massage while I wasn't available. Jan agreed to give him the massage, assuming I would pay her for the work she did.

First, I am aggravated she would just assume this, rather than tell him to call and schedule an appointment when I am available. But that is not the point. She decided it would be ok if I just gave her a massage in exchange. So we set up an appointment.

I showed up right on time. Jan was nowhere to be found. I checked my messages and Jan was on my voice mail saying, 'I have been waiting for a half hour for you to show up. My time is important and you need to respect that. You can leave a check on my table to pay for the hour's worth of work you owe me.' Jan is impossible and a pain to deal with! It's almost like she is intentionally trying to take my clients and have me pay her for it in the process!"

I then began breaking down the components that needed to be addressed for Sue to get beyond this office environment trauma, which I expected to have many more facets than there really were. In response to her story I said, "It sounds like you are angry that Jan is trying to take your business and also your money." She emphatically replied, "Exactly! I can't get that voice mail message out of my head. The tone of her voice made it sound like this mess was entirely my fault!"

I then asked, "On a scale of 1-10, ten being as mad as you can get, how angry are you when you think about that phone message?" She said it was no less than a 9. This was affirmed by her facial expression. Since the phone message was most prominent in her awareness I decided to start with that.

Now that I had a measurement of her intensity and a key issue I decided to try out my latest technique. The days leading up to this session had been hit or miss with the technique, but I decided to trust the process and it worked beautifully. Here is what I did.

First, I told her to hold on a moment while I thought about a phrase to use for the Setup and Reminder Phrase. I immediately came up with a very simple phrase: "Even though that message infuriates me, I deeply and completely accept myself." The reminder phrase was simply, "That message."

So as I was "sitting there thinking" I began the process. First, I imagined a sensation of my own karate chop point being tapped. Then I imagined her tapping her karate chop point, while I mentally repeated the phrase, "Even though that message infuriates me, I deeply and completely accept myself." After the third repetition I felt a relaxation in my chest.

Second, I imagined a feeling of my eyebrow point being tapped while simultaneously imagining her tapping her own eyebrow point and mentally repeating, "that message." I repeated this second step for the following points: side of eye, under eye, under nose, under lip, under collarbone and under arm.

At each point I imagined I could feel the point being tapped on my own body around 5 or 6 times, while imagining her tapping about 5 or 6 times on each spot as well. After the under arm point I felt the need to take a deep breath. I noticed her shoulder relax down a bit and I asked her to check into her body. She said she felt more relaxed.

Note: Keep in mind, this sounds like a lot of sitting around doing nothing. It takes longer to read than it did to complete. The imagination works faster than actually performing an action. If I had to guess I would say it took no more than 20-30 seconds. On average it usually takes me about that time to come up with good delivery phrase.

Since I saw her relax, I asked her to think about the message one more time. She did and admitted, "It isn't as troublesome as before. Besides, what else should I expect from Jan?"

I said, "Has the intensity gone down any?" She said, "I'm more irritated with myself now than anything else. I'm more mad that I got pulled into her drama." She then asked what happened, since I was just "sitting there thinking". Jan is familiar with surrogate tapping as she too has seen theEFT DVDs. I told her I was practicing a method of surrogate tapping and asked if I could continue doing so for the duration of the session as long as it worked. She said that would be fine. She knows my policy is not to charge unless significant change is made during a session so she really had nothing to lose.

I then asked how mad she was at herself, and she replied, "about a three." To get more specific with this phrase I asked her to tell me what was most irritating about the part she played in the situation.

She told me she was upset with herself that she allowed Jan to make her mad, because that was probably Jan's intention. The phrase that immediately came to mind for the setup was, "Even though Jan tricked me again I deeply and completely accept myself." The reminder phrase was as follows, "That tricky b****." Having worked with Sue on issues dealing with Jan before I knew this was a common term Sue used when referring to Jan.

Again I imagined a sensation of my own karate chop point being tapped, imagined Sue tapping her own point, and mentally repeated the setup phrase three times. Then I went through the following points: eyebrow, side of eye, under eye, under nose, under lip, collarbone, and underarm. At each point I imagined a sensation of my own point being tapped, I imagined Sue tapping her points, while mentally reciting, "That tricky b****."

Just as in the first round, once I got to the underarm point I felt the need to take a deep breath, and noted Sue doing the same thing. Then she laughed and said, "The whole situation is really silly isn't it?"

I got the sense that these two rounds took care of the whole coworker situation, so I asked her to think about the whole thing and relate it to me as if she were telling me a story. I told her to close her eyes as she was thinking about it and really relive it.

She recited the whole situation and did not get any intensity on it. Even though Sue's core anger was directed at Jan trying to take her business and her money, all it took was a round of EFT on effects of the phone message and an affirmation about how Sue perceives Jan. The entire process took less than five minutes to complete. I feel this would have taken at least twice the time to go through all the physical motions involved in regular EFT.

The third installment of this series will address how to improve interpersonal communications that may be sabotaged by polarity reversal. This problem quickly disappears using a using an even more refined and elegant version of intentional EFT, which naturally evolved from the physical surrogate tapping described in part 1 and the hands free surrogate EFT described in part 2.

Ryan Kurczak

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Part 3 of 4

In the 5-star EFT DVDs the concept of polarity reversal is introduced. For those of you not familiar with the term, polarity reversal it is essentially an energetic phenomenon where a person may say one thing, but deep down inside not really mean it. For example, if Sally said she wanted to lose weight but then you muscle tested her to see if that statement was true you would get a weak response, indicating that on some level it is not true. In her head Sally may mentally know she wants to lose weight, but due to the polarity reversal phenomenon she will invariably sabotage all attempts to lose the weight and keep it off.

Polarity reversals also keep EFT procedures from working. If there is a polarity reversal, which I will abbreviate as PR from now on, to getting beyond the problem, EFT will not work until the PR is neutralized. That is the purposes of the setup phrase while either tapping the karate chop point or rubbing the sore spot. By starting all EFT procedures with the sore spot or karate chop point you are certain to get rid of the PR.

I spoke with a mentor of mine who is very proficient in Thought Field Therapy, a tapping therapy from which EFT was born, about the topic of PR. He gave me some very interesting information. He said that he always knows when his wife is suffering from PR because her conversations will always have an undercurrent of irritation and fault finding. He was speaking of when his wife was just "reversed" in general. This could be caused by a number of things.

It could be caused from eating a certain food, interacting with a certain person or even wearing an offensive chemical or piece of clothing. PR in general can be quite annoying when someone intends to carry on a meaningful or even benign conversation. It essentially sabotages the communication process from the very beginning.

One of the great things about doing EFT intentionally is that if you notice PR occurring either in yourself or in someone else you mean to have a pleasant conversation with, you can correct it immediately. I would not advise telling your mate that he or she needs to do some tapping for being reversed while in the middle of the conversation. If they are reversed it will just make communication more difficult, because more than likely tempers will flare. If they aren't reversed it will just make you look foolish. I've learned this from experience.

Luckily I have a very self-aware wife. I'm sure you can imagine how irritating it could be to have some say, "Maybe you should do some tapping. I think you are reversed." Especially when you really believe your aggression or frustration is valid as you try to communicate your point. At first she got irritated when I would ask if she was reversed, but when she saw that she was after doing a simple tapping procedure, we've learned to point it out gently to each other so we can make the most of our conversations without a PR getting in the way.

Learning how to correct this with just intention is a marvelous tool to bringing harmony to all your communicative endeavors.

Before learning the basic technique it is important to have a firm grasp on how PR can show up in conversations within the person you are talking to and within yourself. If you typically get along with the person you are speaking with and you find that everything you say is being taken as though you are attacking them or they are finding fault with just about everything you are saying, they might be reversed. If you find yourself getting easily irritated or frustrated with the person, you may be reversed as well. It takes a bit of detachment to see this clearly.

So if you are not easily able to look at things as objectively as possible I would recommend muscle testing. If the person you are with is open to this, you can practice muscle testing on each other to determine where the reversal lies.

Here is how we used to do it. I would put my arm out to pointing away from the midline of my body and say, "My name is Ryan." If it tested strong I knew I was not presently reversed. If it tested weak I would then say, "I'm a loaf of bread." If it tested strong I would know I am reversed, because I am obviously not a loaf of bread. To correct this, I would tap the karate chop point while repeating three times, "Even though I'm reversed, I deeply and completely accept myself." In most instances this would immediately correct the reversal.

When you are in a situation or with a person where this method is not possible I advise surrogate testing. I have found that sliding my index finger pad across my thumb nail works great. It is inconspicuous and no one ever knows that I am doing it. When I make a statement and it is true my finger pad slides easily across my thumbnail. When it is false it stops abruptly in the middle.

For example, if I find myself in a communication breakdown and I don't know if it is me or the other person that is reversed I first ask, "My name is Ryan." If my finger slides easily over my thumbnail (indicating the statement was true) then I ask, "So and so is reversed." If my finger stops dead in the middle of my thumbnail I have a fairly objective indication where the reversal lies. Sometimes to be safe I add another question: I'm deceiving myself." This helps me be certain about the surrogate testing.

Step 3: Flat Out Intentional EFT

Now to apply intentional EFT to correct a reversal requires a bit of concentration at first. If it is my own reversal I focus my attention on my karate chop point and feel it being tapped or I focus my attention on my sore spot area and feel it being rubbed. Then I mentally recite, "Even though I'm reversed I deeply and completely accept myself."

Then I either check in with my current state of mind in communicating with the person I am with or I muscle test myself again to see if I am myself and not a loaf of bread. I can usually tell immediately when the reversal passes, because I see the person I'm with in a less critical way. When in doubt I always use my thumbnail muscle testing technique.

If the other person is reversed based on observation and muscle testing they can be corrected in the same way. Give them your full attention. Either imagine a warm light pulsing on their karate chop point or imagine a warm light moving in a circular motion on their sore spot. Then mentally repeat, "Even though that person (or insert name) is reversed I deeply and completely accept them" three times. You can use any visualization you like.

A friend of mine imagines glowing flowers or crosses over the points as he recites the phrase and he admits this works just fine for him. Then, either watch their behavior for a shift or muscle test to see if that corrected the reversal. When you observe their behavior, you will know the reversal has passed when less of their "buttons are being pushed" for no reason.

Once reversals are corrected conversations usually flow a lot smoother. Again, it doesn't matter what caused the reversal to correct it. It may be helpful to muscle test later to find out. This way it can be avoided in the future. All that is required to correct it is identification and focused intentional EFT.

With practice this becomes easier and easier. You will be surprised at how much better conversations go for everyone when you are around. You will also gain a richer sensitivity to when reversals are present. When they are, you will either rub everyone the wrong way, or someone else will rub you the wrong way for no apparently good reason.

Example: I went to Office Max to get some booklets printed for a class I was going to teach. I was having a fine day and was in a good mood. I walked up to the copy center clerk and as soon as he opened his mouth it just made me cringe a little inside. He wasn't a bad guy, I just got the sense he was agitated at the world. So I tested to see who was reversed, and it wasn't me. Then as he was processing my order I began applying the technique described above. Minutes later he was smiling and joking with me. The atmosphere felt much more at ease and less tense. My second test indicated no one was reversed in the area.

The next and final installment will relate a fully intentional EFT session carried out on the phone. By using the technique described above, emotions from a painful break up were resolved quickly as the client was driving back to the apartment where the break up took place. By the end of the session, the client was walking through the apartment gathering up his things without the overwhelming sadness or grief that was initially present. Until next time!

Ryan Kurczak

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Part 4 of 4

In this final installment I will relate an EFT session with Bob that was performed over the phone using nothing but intentional EFT. Bob called me one evening as he was driving back to an apartment he had recently moved out of after a very emotional break up. He was clearly upset from his manner of speaking.

Since he was driving and had about 20 minutes until he arrived at his destination, he asked if there were any energetic corrections I could offer to help him get some relief from this overwhelming sadness and fear of getting even sadder when he arrived. I told him I could try out some intentional EFT I had been practicing if he was up for it. He said he was up for anything.

To get started I asked Bob what exactly was going on in his life to cause distress. He explained that after he broke up with his girlfriend he had moved out of his apartment in the city and moved back to his house in the country. When he left, he only took one car load of essentials and had quite a lot more of his belongings still at the apartment. He told me he was holding on to his apartment until the lease was up instead of going through the hassle of trying to get out of the lease. He mentioned he was now driving back to the apartment to get more of his belongings.

He felt confident about making the trip at first. As he got nearer to his destination, however, he said he started remembering the good times and was afraid he wouldn't be able to handle all the things that reminded him about the relationship when he arrived.

Specifically he was afraid of seeing the pictures on the wall. He felt they may bring up some very deep sadness. He was also afraid that his ex-girlfriend might have left a note or something near the entry way. Bob broke up with her because of her manipulative narcissism and he feared she might say just the right things in a note to try and get him back.

I asked Bob what part of his explanation was most prominent in his awareness. Bob replied, "I really hope she hasn't left a note. I know this was for the best, but I'm afraid an attempt to get me back might work." So I asked Bob, "What is the predominant emotion you feel in your body when you think about the possibility of her leaving a note, and on a scale from one to ten how intense is it?"

Bob replied, "It is mainly fear that I won't know how to respond. It is pretty high, about an 8 or 9. I can feel it all through my body." I then explained since he was driving all he needed to do was tune into the emotion anyway he could. He didn't need to tap on anything or distract himself in anyway from driving. Then I asked him to give me few seconds to apply the procedure.

Note: Here is the procedure I used for every issue of Bob's during this session.

First, I imagined a pulsing swirling light over where Bob's sore spot would be. (I've worked with Bob in person before, so I know what he looks like. I imagine if you were doing this on a person you don't know, you could just imagine the general body shape of a male or female and do the same.) Then I mentally recited, "Even though Bob is afraid of how he'll respond, I deeply and completely accept him" three times.

Second, I imagined his eyebrow, side of eye, under eye, under nose, under lip, collarbone, under arm and top of head point glowing with a warm light. I imagined these points of light simultaneously, not one at a time. Then I mentally repeated, "He doesn't know what he'll do." I repeated this about three to four times, at which point I felt some relaxation in my own body and heard Bob yawn. Basically I keep repeating the phrase while envisioning all the points glowing until I witness or intuit some kind of release.

Another Note: Myself and others have found that you can usually tell when something is being resolved when doing this manner of work when either the practitioner or the client yawns, takes a deep breath, coughs or sighs. It has been our experience that immediately after this type of release, the intensity of the issue will be lower.

I then asked Bob about his fear of the letter. He then said he felt his body relax a bit and he doesn't feel so much afraid as he does anger. I asked, "What is the anger from?" He replied, "That she may still be trying to manipulate me, that she could betray me like that and still try to control me." I asked what was most prominent the manipulation, the betrayal or the control? He said they were all rolled up in one. I asked for an intensity level of the anger. He said it was about a 9.

So I imagined the sore spot swirling with warm light and mentally repeated the first thing that came to mind, "Who does she think she is" three times. Then I visualized the points listed above glowing while mentally repeating the same phrase, "Who does she think she is?"

This took more repetitions than the first try. After 8 or so repetitions I yawned and he immediately reported the anger had lessened. I asked him what it was now on the 1-10 scale. He said, "About a 2. It is more of an annoyance than anything else." So I again visualized all the points lit up while mentally repeating, "this remaining anger." After 3 repetitions of this phrase I heard him sigh into the phone. He then said, "Well, the anger is gone, but now I just feel used." I made a mental note of this comment, but wanted to make sure all the anger and fear over the possible letter was resolved.

To check the work I asked him to think about entering his apartment and finding a note from her. He replied, "There is no intensity. I could just as easily toss it in the trash." I asked, "So no fear comes up from thinking about her manipulating you back into the relationship?" He said, "No." I further probed, "And no anger about her trying to control you or manipulate you after what she has done?" He again replied, "No." He again stated now he just felt "used".

So I asked him to describe the used feeling. I asked, "What images or bodily sensations do you get when you tune into this used feeling?" He said he got flashes of the pictures of the girl on the wall of his apartment and said they made him sad that all the good times felt empty. So I told him to tune into that used feeling as best he could while driving and give me a few moments.

Again, I went with the first thoughts that came into my head, "She was just using me. None of it was real." I decided to skip the Setup phrase this time and just jump right in to visualizing the points glowing while mentally repeating the phrase, "She was just using me. None of it was real."

This time a shift almost occurred instantly. I barely repeated the phrase one time to myself and I had a sense the issue was resolved. I immediately asked what he was experiencing now. He said, "Nothing." I inquired, "No used feeling? Think about those pictures and entering your apartment. Think about gathering up your belongings. No intensity?" He replied, "No. Now I just feel tired, like I'm tired of thinking about this. I guess I do feel sad that things turned out the way they did." He then told me he was pulling into the apartment complex and he would call me back once he got inside.

A few minutes later, Bob called back. He said there was no letter, so that was good, but he was still having this remaining sadness over the loss of the relationship as he gathered up his things. He sounded a little teary when he admitted this. I asked him what was most bothersome about it. He replied, "That the relationship didn't turn out as expected."

So I went through the same procedure of imagining the points glowing while mentally reciting, "This sadness. Things didn't turn out as I hoped." After 5-6 repetitions I felt more relaxation in my body and asked him how he was doing. He said, "Hmm. I'm fine now. It's not like this is the end of my life or anything." I probed further, "So as you walk around the apartment and look around, you are not struck by any particular emotional intensity?" He said, "No. I'm glad to be free of her. She was an energy drain."

So after confirming his emotional state was back to normal we ended the call.

Some Self EFT to Use to Break Through Blocks for Using Intentional EFT

Here is a list of EFT phrases I used on myself to help me move through any mental blocks that prevented me from doing intentional EFT successfully.

1) Even though I disbelieve this is possible....

2) Even though I'm afraid something will go wrong....

3) Even though my powers of visualization are weak....

4) Even though my imagination cannot affect reality....

5) Even though I am not able to do this ....

6) Even though I am not willing to bear this responsibility....

7) Even though I am not ready for this kind of work....

8) Even though I don't deserve to be able to do this....

9) Even though I don't have the proper neural association to do this....

10) Even though I don't welcome the permission to do this....

Closing Thoughts

More than anything, intentional EFT takes practice and diligence to do well. I do have a friend that seemed to catch on as if he'd been doing it all his life, but for me it took determination and commitment. It also took trust that I had the capability. The methods described in these articles are just what worked for me. Be creative and follow your own intuition. I wrote these articles just to give you some ideas and to see that it is possible. Don't let failure prevent you from trying. Nearly all true successes occur after a failure. If you are afraid of failing, use EFT to get over it! Good luck and have fun.

Ryan Kurczak