What if there was something that you could use to rapidly release negative emotions such as fear, anger, grief and guilt, help you to relax and de-stress quickly, put an end to your self-sabotage, assist you in gaining confidence, free you from specific phobias or past traumas and clear physically symptoms such as headaches, back pain and asthma? And what if it was easy to learn and you could do it yourself?

Happily there is such a thing. Emotional Freedom Techniques, commonly referred to as EFT, is a highly effective and powerful tool that you can learn for yourself as well as use with a practitioner. It’s a simple method of stimulating energy meridian points on your body by tapping them with your fingertips. You do this while focusing on a particular issue that you want to be free from. This issue can be a negative emotion, a physical symptom, a limiting belief or an unwanted behaviour. It’s rather like acupuncture but without the needles. A distinctive and very useful feature of EFT is that you can apply it to yourself and you can do it anywhere, at any time. EFT belongs to the field of energy therapies, or energy psychology, a rapidly developing field that is having wide ramifications in health and healing work by providing remarkably fast and effective treatments.

EFT works by balancing the body’s energy system as you tap with your fingers on certain points along the energy meridians. Negative emotions are quickly released, physical symptoms abate and, interestingly, cognitive shifts are created that bring new insight and hope. EFT is gentle and non-invasive. It doesn’t involve taking anything that might have side effects or react with other medications or supplements.

An unusual aspect of EFT is its universality. We are used to having certain remedies for certain problems but the range of what EFT can be used for is astonishing – you can use the same basic procedure to improve your relationships, eliminate your fear of public speaking and clear your chronic back pain. Use it to enhance study, before a trip to the dentist, on difficult relationships, past trauma and abuse, cancer, weight loss, addictions, fears and phobias, insomnia, grief, lack of self-esteem. It’s particularly useful for dealing with the stresses of every day living but as well as freeing you from what you don’t want you can also use it to enhance your performance and achieve your goals. It can be used not only to solve problems but also to create and manifest more happiness, joy and abundance in your life. If you go to see a practitioner you will be asked what problem or symptom you want to be free from, or what you want to achieve from the consultation. You’ll be shown how to tap - it’s very easy to learn, pain free and on the body points you tap over your clothes. You’ll then be asked to focus on a particular aspect of the problem, and you’ll do some rounds of tapping on the problem. You tap on yourself with the practitioner tapping along on themselves telling you what to say as you tap the various points. In some cases the practitioner may tap on you with your permission. You may find yourself yawning or feel slight tingling in your body and you might be surprised to find you suddenly feel more relaxed, while the upset or physical symptom has diminished or disappeared. You can continue in this way until all aspects of the problem have been resolved.

Margaret Munoz