What It Is and How It Works
I received my Advanced EFT Certification back in the early 2000’s through Gary Craig, the developer of EFT, and Pat Carrington, the innovator of the “Choices Method” (the former retired and latter now deceased). I used the technique starting with golfers when I offered a program I created for the mental aspect of their game.
While there are links to various research reports that give a more technical description of EFT on The Research section of this website, here is a page from my golf manual to explain in very simple terms how it works.
Based on the ancient principles of acupuncture, EFT (Emotional Freedom Technique) is a simple ‘tapping’ procedure that gently realigns the body’s energy system, without the use of needles. Unlike other energy healing methods, EFT incorporates an emotional element into the healing process, addressing unresolved emotional issues as a likely cause of physical disease, psychological dysfunction and personal performance limits.
Negative emotional experiences disrupt the energy meridians that run through our body. The physical changes we feel from those disruptions, like nausea or anxiety, become attached to the memory of that experience and affect the way we see the world…until we heal that disruption. Properly applied, EFT quickly realigns the energy meridians with respect to negative memories, disconnects the physical discomfort that we attached to it, and most often removes the resulting symptoms.
We used to think (no pun intended) that is was the mind that dictated and controlled the emotions we felt in our bodies although scientists have discovered that communication between them is actually a two-way circuit instead of one way; that feelings can and do give rise to thoughts. In fact, you demonstrate this to yourself every time you drive in the car and are abruptly cut off by another driver – you feel the fear and anger even before you have the chance to think you were in danger and the other driver is obviously in a hurry to some emergency or they wouldn’t be driving so carelessly (or something like that!)
Much like when you pull the cord on a lamp, when the flow of “negative” emotion in our bodies is disrupted the “negative” thoughts disappear as well. A perfect example of this is when you meet someone at a party or event for the first time and get the feeling they don’t like you. This is followed by many paranoid, upsetting, and sometimes angry thoughts while attempting to figure out what you may have done to generate their response to you. A friend comes along and introduces you to his other friend (the one you’ve convinced yourself dislikes you immensely) and he/she immediately brightens and becomes much more affable, explaining they were very nervous about not knowing anyone at the event and tend to clam up in uncomfortable social situations. Weeks or months down the road when you two are great friends the thoughts of them disliking you no longer even enter your mind. The friendly feelings are genuine as are the thoughts that accompany them.