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Fears And Phobias

General

Fear of clowns and mimes

Important Note: This article was written prior to 2010 and is now outdated. Please use my newest advancement, Optimal EFT. It is more efficient, more powerful and clearly explained in my free e-book, The Unseen Therapist™.  Best wishes, Gary

Jo-Anne Eadie gave a group EFT presentation where she met a mid-20's lady with an EXTRAORDINARILY INTENSE phobia of clowns and mimes. Jo-Anne shares her insights, language and the use of humor in this detailed case. The article is very professionally done and the approaches are useful for a wide variety of issues (not just phobias).


By Jo-Anne Eadie, EFT-CC, EFT-ADV, C.Ht

Hi Gary:

I recently demonstrated EFT to a Government Sponsored Group. After one of the breaks, a mid 20's woman asked to clear a very severe phobia to "C". She could not say the word, or write the word and her friend told me that "C" stood for clowns.

She knew when the phobia had started, she was 5 years old and her father had put on a movie called "It" by Stephen King which has a very nasty clown in it. I have never seen the movie but, apparently, in the very first scene the clown kills a little boy. Her father immediately shut off the movie and tried to reassure her but the damage was done. She remembers thinking about it all day and had nightmares that night. No matter how old she got or how much her parents and other people reassured her, she was terrified of clowns. In college, her friends thought it would be funny on Halloween to have someone dress up as a clown. The clown came up behind her and tapped her on the shoulder. She turned around and had a panic attack and passed out. (It wasn't such a funny joke then).

On a scale of 1-10, she was a 100+

We began with "Even though I am terrified of clowns, I deeply love and accept myself" With small reminders of all the different things about clowns that she didn't like. Her intensity was now at a 9 1/2.

"Even though my father didn't mean to scare me with the movie"

"Even though my mother tried to reassure me"

"Even though I thought about it all day"

"Even though I had nightmares that wouldn't go away"

"Even though I think they will kill me" She was down to nine

"Even though other people think that C's are funny, I know they are going to get me"

"Even though I feel this fear in my solar plexis and my heart"

"Even though I get panic attacks if I am too close to a C"

"Even though people make fun of me and think this is all silly to be scared of C"

"Even though my friends in college played that cruel joke on me"

It was then she said that she was also terrified of Mimes, especially if they worked without make-up. They were even more dangerous because they were trying to fool her to get close. She can't say the word clowns but she can say mimes. She is down to an eight

"Even though I have to be on guard so the C's and mimes won't trick me"

"Even though I didn't believe my mom and dad when they told me the clowns won't hurt me"

"Even though I can't say the word clown"

"Even though I hate clowns, I choose to love clowns" Reminder phrase is "I hate clowns, I love clowns, I hate clowns, I love clowns" Three rounds of the flip back and forth and she is now saying the word clowns on the "I hate clowns" but is silent on the "I love clowns" and lets me say it for her. She is down to a seven

"Even though I don't want to let this go"

"Even though I don't want to let this go, because it is my safety and protection against clowns"

"Even though I am an adult now and the little girl doesn't need the protection anymore"

While tapping this, she sighed at the collarbone and stifled a yawn but then she gripped the chair and started to have a panic attack. Tapping on her made no difference.

I put my hands on her hands and asked her to tell me one thing in the room that she could see, one thing in the room that she could hear, one thing in the room that she could smell, could she feel the chair beneath her? Could she feel her feet in her shoes on the floor? Then went through it again and half way through she was back in her body, calm and ready to continue. We were only coming down slowly by ones but it was the best she had ever felt about clowns and could now say the word easily.

We took a short break and when we returned, she very much wanted to continue. We stayed on "Even though I don't want to let this go, because it is my safety and protection against clowns"

"Even though I don't want to give up my safety and protection, I choose to let it go" Small reminder phrase "I don't want to let this go, I choose to let this go" until I saw a sigh. She was down to a six

I was racking my brain trying to think of something that would ALLOW her to let it go. Laughter is always a wonderful release but I wanted to be careful not to make fun of her as so many others had done.

"Even though I might meet and start dating a man and fall in love with him and marry him and it turns out he is a clown and a mime, I deeply love and accept myself and my clown husband"

She kept tapping but couldn't say the words because she was laughing so hard and saying that she would dump him in a minute if he was a clown.

Magically, she was a zero. I did the floor to ceiling eye roll just to seal the deal (and also demonstrate it) and it ended when she shouted several times to the class "I LOVE CLOWNS AND MIMES" to their applause for her. I got a huge hug and she said she couldn't wait to phone her Mom and especially Dad who had always felt so guilty about causing this phobia.

Total time: 35 minutes

This session taught me that just because the numbers are coming down very slowly doesn't mean that you are not successful, keep working at it. Everything is not a one minute wonder. The second thing that I think was a key here was that we took a quick break. It gave her mind and body time to catch up with what we had been tapping. Time to sink in. Laughter is a good release and it is ok to use humour at times. Keep tapping - I LOVE EFT

Jo-Anne Eadie, EFT-CC, EFT-ADV, C.Ht

FOR MORE EFT HELP ...

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