- Fears And Phobias
- Agoraphobia
- Flying
- 57 year old fear of flying vanishes in one EFT session -- 3 month follow-up included
- EFT eliminates fear of flying--over the telephone
- Fear of flying and many aspects
- Getting behind a complicated Fear of Flying case
- Solid detective work finds the true cause of a Fear of Flying
- Treating "fear of flying" as a trauma case.
- A Fear of Flying turned out to be a metaphor for another life issue
- Surrogate tapping for the fear of flying
- Quality session for a fear of flying insects
- A good example of EFT's Generalization Effect with the fear of flying
- A fear of flying case with a unique twist
- Brad Reed helps with the fear of flying (followup at end)
- Do you want to skydive?
- Intense fear of flying eliminated with EFT -- with follow-up and interesting side benefits
- Fear of Flying, Public Speaking and All Phobias Gain Rapid Relief From New Meridian Based Procedure
- Turkish MD finds core issue for a flying phobia
- Eliminating a VERY intense fear of flying 6 weeks before getting on the plane
- Chrissie Hardisty's former fear of flying
- Simple EFT Basic Recipe collapses phobias regarding ladders, flying and cats.
- Fear of flying subsides--follow up included
- No Drugs Necessary to Reduce Fear of Flying, Jet Lag and Air Travel Health Risks
- EFT "on the fly"--the fear of flying
- Second hand tapping on the fear of flying
- EFT eliminates fear of flying--an excellent study in aspects
- How my computer helped clear a fear of flying
- Can we collapse the fear of flying even when there is no airplane around?
- Fear of flying, leaving home is dangerous, and you can never come back!
- Up, up and away--the fear of flying
- What was really behind Janice's fear of flying?
- Animals
- The bird fear that had an unusual aspect
- Ten year old boy uses EFT to rid his friend of a dog phobia
- A detailed "fear of dogs" case using SPECIFIC EVENTS
- Breaking down a phobia into many aspects
- Fear of birds is minimized in minutes
- A dog phobia case that required persistence
- Success using EFT while imagining a phobia
- A quality look at how to test your work
- Sarah's cat phobia and other newcomer issues
- Fear of dogs disappears as EFT is used on an "unremembered memory"
- An EFT one minute wonder for fear of dogs gets a nanny a new job in a home with a 90 lb. dog
- Was the fear of cats the real issue?
- Claustrophobia
- EFT newbie helps claustrophobic husband prepare for full body scan machine with great results
- The Skeptic & Claustrophobia (or how I was treated like a
- EFT for panic attacks and claustrophobia -- quality approaches
- Claustrophobia has traumatic birth memory as its core issue
- Claustrophobia relieved in one session
- A follow-up on claustrophobia
- Testing claustrophobia results.
- Driving
- Applying EFT remotely to a driving phobia in India
- Jack Foriska eliminates his own terror of highway driving
- Essential Tremor and a cliff-driving phobia
- A bridge-over-water phobic crosses the Golden Gate Bridge
- Resolving many aspects of Freeway and Bridge Fears
- Borrowing benefits brings a welcome side effect
- 40 year driving fear gone: "Now I drive that mountain like I own it!"
- Using the Movie Technique in client
- A skeptic, escalator & freeway phobias and converging lines (with a lead in discussion on "getting worse")
- Success with Fear of Bridges over Water -- with 7 month update
- Loren Fogelman collapses her own driving anxiety
- Driving fear in Louisiana
- EFT for motorway driving anxiety
- Heights
- A seemingly simple height phobia with underlying causes
- Successful surrogate EFT on Hiccups, Fear of Heights and a Sore Throat
- Surrogate mental tapping achieves success for a height phobic in a balcony
- Textbook height phobia case--two rounds of EFT and "Poof"
- EFT helps with fear of heights in the California Sierra Mountains
- A height phobia with traumatic roots
- The Fear of Heights was not really the Fear of Heights
- Movies and a fear of heights
- Newbie completely collapses a fear of heights
- Nate's fear of heights: From the Grand Canyon to a helicopter experience
- A phobia with an unusual cause
- The height phobia that wouldn't move
- A couple of one minute wonders - fear of heights and feeling dizzy
- A height phobia in Poland with a classic Apex response.
- Getting to specific events for resolving a height phobia
- Needles
- A Newbie overcomes her own needle phobia
- Client with two phobias: Fear of mice and needles.
- Challenging needle phobia is eliminated
- Fear of needles is cleared after addressing many aspects with EFT
- Using EFT when having blood taken - even if a vein collapses and you have a fear of needles
- Five sessions of EFT for a severe needle phobia - every detail needed tapping
- Getting beyond a 30 year fear of needles in 15 minutes
- Medical
- Being creative about a stubborn dental phobia
- EFT clears an obsessive dental phobia: Note the insightful questions involved
- Using EFT for the fear of dentists - including a several year follow-up
- EFT for obsessive health fear
- Client spontaneously recalls important core issue while tapping for Fear of Choking
- EFT for a fear of surgery
- Nurse had a fear of taking blood samples
- EFT for a fear of anesthesia allowed Mara's client to have a lung transplant
- John was paralyzed with fear over his wife's cancer
- Elimination of fear of death and loss of two children in 15 minutes
- EFT helps a 12 year old girl with a dentist fear go from screaming and crying to singing
- Success with infertility issues and "The Fear of the Fear."
- EFT newbie uses EFT successfully on a fear of roller coasters and high blood pressure (hypertension)
- Fear of Gynecological exams cured with EFT
- EFT Newcomer takes care of her own phobia of dead animals
- EFT eliminates a serious fear of vomiting
- EFT for fear of blood tests: Anorexia patient is able to receive hospital treatment
- Snakes
- Being Alone
- Water / Swimming
- Overcoming the fear of swimming in a lake--many aspects treated
- Anthony's water phobia--gone in an afternoon
- Atrial Fibrillation, EFT as a University Curriculum and a Water Phobia session saves lives
- Niki LaMont on a water phobia
- An intense test of a water phobia relief
- From extreme water phobia to swimmer with EFT ... "I wouldn
- A stubborn fear -- The importance of persistence and 'seemingly unrelated issues'
- Elevators
- Spiders
- EFT for different aspects of a tarantula scare
- Rapidly collapsing a complicated spider phobia
- Lainy Wells' first EFT test--spiders
- "I have a fear of spiders you can't begin to touch!!"
- Spider phobia relief as a side benefit
- Two at-risk teenagers simultaneously resolve severe phobias with EFT in one session
- EFT for a child
- High-fiving a spider - a skeptical newbie's first case
- General
- Helping a young girl ride her bike
- It seemed like a bus phobia
- EFT calms a little girl
- EFT for a core fear brings a useful side effect
- Professionally stepping through an intense phobia case
- From being "scared to death of math" to an A in Algebra for a 36 year old returning to school
- A model case for all complicated phobias
- EFT for musicians
- How EFT stopped 2 young boys from crying at the barbershop - a lesson in surrogate tapping
- EFT for fear of bees
- The impossible phobia--how did you do that?
- Tapping to release future fears
- Tapping on a single point brought fear and pain to a halt
- 10 year follow-up on multiple phobias and dependency issues
- Roseanna Ellis helps an 11 year old boy overcome phobias
- EFT's Peace Potential: Establishing rapport and trust with a wasp
- How tapping for a fear automatically brought up a core issue -- birth trauma
- Progress with a "Social Phobic"
- Cell phone phobia
- Fear of social occasions resolved despite not finding the cause
- MD introduces an innovative idea that brings relief for stubborn relationship issue
- Teenager
- Fear of worms points to critical "core issue"
- Mom uses EFT to help her fearful son ride a bike
- Creative EFT session brings up many specific events underlying a tunnel phobia
- EFT for getting over the fear of giving a teleclass
- Fear of clowns and mimes
- EFT for 7 year old Jasmine's stage fright
- Resolving fear of stepping out of the house brings improved blood pressure and cholesterol levels
- One brief EFT session releases a fear that originated at birth--Important for serious EFT students
- Tapping during a frightening movie to remove the fear
- Quick phobia work aims at specific events
- A birth trauma was the core issue behind this phobia
- Lifelong fear of "Screaming Sirens" fades after attention to many aspects
- Michelle LaPrise's email phobia
- Deborah Lindsey shares her opinion about three major fears and phobias
- Fear of small spaces...a case with many aspects
- Trouble with math clears up after doing EFT on a "ghost vision"
- EFT reduces test anxiety in moments
- Extreme phobia eliminated after finding the core issue
- EFT side effect -- Banishing a show jumper
- Fear of entrapment and a useful way to uncover core issues
- Finding the REAL issues behind two (presumed) phobias
- Stripe phobia
- Collapsing fears associated with a gay man
- Severe tunnel phobic goes through 42 tunnels with minimal anxiety
- Surrogate EFT calms a frightened boy at school - a pipe bomb scare
- An intense fear of choking on food was linked to stress at the dinner table and cleared with EFT
- Fear of riding on horseback disappears - but only after getting to the core issue
- Bonnie's fear of stairs
- Mandy Momberg's friend was afraid to be in her own home -- One month follow-up verifies EFT success
- An Intense fear of tunnels in Norway
- 21 year swallowing phobia clears after 2 simple rounds of basic EFT
- A very, very detailed look at undoing a fish phobia
- Some thoughts on EFT for fear
- EFT for the fear of failure/success -- this time with an actress
- Bathroom phobia
- Camera-shy problem disappears after getting to core issue
- Using EFT for the wedding day jitters
- 40 Years of Terror gone after 60 minutes with EFT--smoking addiction gone too.
- Tapping for fear of the
- Tunnel phobia--"oh that is so easy"
- EFT and gay issues - fear of men
- Using EFT for stage anxiety
- Very simple relief for an intense phobia. What is a phobia anyway?
- Young boy's eating phobia aided by a fascinating intuitive/surrogate session
- Virtual EFT on a motorbike in South Africa
- Young Debby enjoys her day -- no more fear of the Austrian Alps
- Young girl
Medical
EFT for obsessive health fear
Note: This is one of 3,000 articles written prior to the updated Gold Standard (Official) EFT Tapping Tutorial™. It provides practical uses for EFT Tapping and most EFT'ers should find it very helpful. However, if your benefits are temporary or a more in-depth approach is needed, you are urged to explore our newest advancement, Optimal EFT, by reading our free e-book, The Unseen Therapist, and/or (3) get help from a Certified EFT Practitioner.
Note: This article assumes you have a working knowledge of EFT. Newcomers can still learn from it but are advised to peruse our Free Gold Standard (Official) EFT Tutorial™ for a more complete understanding.
Hi Everyone,
Suzanne Lerner explores an interesting OCD type case, complete with insights and humor. A quality read.
Hugs, Gary
Hi Gary,
Here's a lovely session that really demonstrates the deep interconnectedness of our body and mind. It also demonstrates the Parts Model that I find so very effective, when combined with EFT.
It all started with a 42 year old male who approached me for help with anxiety, particularly around health issues. Apparently he had read some information on the Internet, 10 months before, and had become extremely obsessed about it. He had just graduated with a Masters degree, and was currently unemployed. I found him honest and engaging, yet also extremely distressed about his health. Because of his limited finances, he only had enough money for one session. Therefore the goal was both to help him lessen his anxiety, and also teach him how to begin to work on his own with EFT.
The issue at hand was an article that he had read about the possible correlation between creases in front of the ear, and a higher risk of having a heart attack. He had become obsessed with the fact that he had such creases, and he ruefully acknowledged that even though later intensive investigation had called into question the original study, this had done nothing to reduce his anxiety.
He also acknowledged that he had some other symptoms of being what he called "OCD'ish." (Obsessive Compulsive Disorder). Several years ago he was successfully treated for a "vomit phobia" (emetophobia). He also acknowledged that he had fears of germs, and washed his hands frequently, although not to the point of rawness.
Therefore, I spent some time looking for a general way that he could learn to work with his different fears, with the major focus being on the "creases," since that fear was by far the most prominent.
I explained to him how the part that was worrying, had a "positive intent" in that it wanted to protect his health. However, the way it was going about this protection, was actually getting in the way of his health. In a sense, it was like a sentry that was on duty far too long, who was getting "jumpy" at every single sound he heard.
I acknowledged how frustrating this could be to the more functional part of him, the part that wanted to accomplish things in the world. I then explained: "I imagine there's a part of you that would just like to get rid of this worrier, like if it could just go away, or you could learn to ignore it, or even surgically remove it, you would!" (He laughed in agreement.) "But actually, sometimes when we resist a part, it persists even more. What I have found, is that this worrying part of you probably feels like it's being ignored, and so it just keeps getting louder. So what we are going to do in this session is to let it know that its concerns are being heard, help calm and soothe it, and then help it find better ways to get its needs met."
It was clear from the way "Hal" talked about this issue, that he felt quite a bit of shame and embarrassment; like in his mind, he just couldn't understand why he was acting like such an "idiot." So we first addressed this in the tapping. He rated the embarrassment at 7-8 on a scale of 0 to 10 and his actual fear of dying due to the creases at a 9. Some of the phrases I used included:
Even though I feel so stupid that I keep worrying about this...
Even though a part of me feels like an idiot for worrying so much, I know it's not my fault, and I choose to...
Even though a part of my mind KNOWS that this study probably isn't accurate, but I still worry about it anyway, I choose to accept myself and ALL my emotions, including the part of me that worries, and the part of me that feels ashamed for worrying.
As his level of intensity began to come down around his embarrassment, I began to direct the phrases more specifically towards the creases. We did a few rounds of:
Even though I have these creases...
Even though I have these creases, and it may mean that I'm going to die...
NOTE: I always explain to my clients that we are working as "co-therapists" -after all, they can report what's going on inside of them better than I can. Therefore, I encourage them to feel free to interrupt me at any time. I want to know if something doesn't feel right, or if something suddenly comes to mind, even if it "doesn't make sense."
So at this point, Hal interrupted me, a bit sheepishly and reported that his "worrier" had just gotten scared. He explained that I had mentioned on my website that I work with my intuition, and his "worrier" was concerned over that last set-up phrase, that I might actually be "seeing" that he was going to die. I thanked him for speaking up and reassured him that I was just repeating what he had shared earlier about his fears, and that I didn't see anything of the sort.
His anxiety levels began to come down. He spoke gratefully about how good it felt to be able to finally name these fears out loud. I then was inspired to do a round:
Even though I DO have creases, they are not as deep as some peoples, and I choose to...
(He gave a real chuckle of appreciation, as his "observing therapist" saw how I was speaking the "worrier's language.")
He was starting to relax more, and what suddenly came to me was an improvisation from a phrase of a very popular childhood cartoon, that a cat used to say, and I sensed that he was of the age that he would likely relate. Trusting that we had rapport, I shared this rather strange phrase:
Eyebrow Point: "Meeces to pieces, I've got creases!" His delighted chuckle told me I had "hit home" and so I continued tapping around the points as he continued to laugh and repeat after me, SE: "meeces to pieces" UE: "I've got creases!" UN: "Yikes!" CH: "And they're on both sides!" CB: "Meeces to pieces!" UA: "Meeces to pieces!" Hal continued to chuckle and relax even more.
(Note: I am always careful about using humor in sessions, as I never want to risk having a client feel that I might be laughing AT THEM. Rather, it is crucial that humor only be used sympathetically, as was clear in this case, and also at the appropriate timing.)
We did a few more rounds, until his level of intensity was reduced, and then spent the rest of the session briefly addressing the downside of his getting over this obsession. Namely, now he would have to start looking for a job! We explored some phrases that he could tap on his own. I inquired about his internship, which had been a challenging one at the outpatient unit of a local hospital. He had really enjoyed his work there. I shared how I was sure, given what I had experienced of him, including his humor and authenticity, that he would have much to offer his future clients.
What was most interesting about this session was a completely unexpected side benefit. When I originally called Hal, he mentioned that he'd had a bad cold for a few days, and he was a little concerned that it might get in the way of our session. About a third of the way through, he reported:
"This is really weird, my nose has been completely congested, and after the work we just did, it's starting to feel much more clear!" And then, by the end of the session, he added, "I know you are going to think this is really strange, but my cold feels pretty much gone! I mean it! My congestion's gone and my throat feels just about clear!" This was even though we did absolutely no direct work on his cold, and I'm pretty sure neither of us expected anything to shift in his cold, as we were focusing so intently on helping his anxieties to reduce. Ah, the wonderful mysteries of Energy Psychology work!
PS. Two days after our session together, I received this spontaneous note from my client:
Thank you SO much for that wonderful and powerful EFT/therapy session, Suzanne. I feel like that ocean of anxiety, particularly around the ear crease issue, has significantly calmed. I'll continue to apply what I learned from you, and I hope to work again with you in the future.
Again, Thanks! "Hal" (name changed to respect confidentiality).
Warm Regards,
Suzanne ib Lerner, PhD
FOR MORE EFT HELP ... Explore our newest advancement, Optimal EFT, by reading our free e-book, The Unseen Therapist.
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