EFT Tapping FAQ

For details on Fees, special package rates and services, please contact us.

Services we offer our clients:

• Free long distance calls for phone sessions. We’ll call you (within the Continental U.S.), thus saving you toll charges (Outside of the U.S. you call us at the specified time, or for overseas clients you might want to consider getting Skype).
• Skype Sessions

Yes, we do coaching or EFT by phone. Actually, most accomplished EFT practitioners work by phone as well, so the proximity to a practitioner should not really be a factor in making your selection. Some people, however, prefer in-person sessions, given a choice. It is, however, more important to find an accomplished practitioner with whom you resonate, than to find someone who is convenient.

EFT is actually highly effective over the phone, and only slightly less so than a face-to-face session. We can’t see the client on the phone, so we may miss subtle visual signals that might help reading what’s going on with the client. Nor can we use muscle testing on the phone, which is often helpful in demonstrating Reversals and “asking the subconscious” questions about what’s going on and other situations. Otherwise, in-person and phone sessions are pretty much the same.

When you book an appointment we will send you an Intake form, where you can describe in more detail the issues you’d like to work on.

Phone sessions are at the same rates as office visits. Your fee must be paid in advance, however. You can download the tapping points and instructions, in advance, on this web page.

If you want to learn more about EFT, we highly recommend Gary Craig’s videos or attending a live workshop.

This is indeed a frequently asked question and a valid one. By stating the problem (usually something negative) it brings to the surface feelings and emotions about an event or issue, alerting the body and our sensitive energy system where the blockage might be (remember, the cause of all negative emotions is a blockage in the body’s energy system). By saying the negative but true statement while stimulating the meridians, you are sending tiny vibrations or shock waves throughout your energy pathways. By doing so, you are gently nudging away the blockage or disruption that causes the negative emotion.

If you stated a positive affirmation instead, such as, “Even though I was just robbed and beaten, that’s OK, I feel safe and secure now” your system would surely rebel. There would be a giant “tail ender” saying “What?! Are you kidding me? I don’t feel secure or safe at all!” Your subconscious (or even conscious) would have the same reaction if you left off the negative occurrence as well and made only a positive statement.

Many have tried this approach to no avail. It’s true that when we tell ourselves “It’s OK, I’ll be alright” we can sometimes calm ourselves down. But calming ourselves is not the purpose of EFT. Using EFT can completely eliminate the negative emotion, pain or issue.

That said, however, once the intensity is at a lower SUDs level (3 or less; SUD stands for Subjective Unit of Distress) you can then switch to a more positive choice statement.

You may have already noticed that many practitioners do tapping differently. Based on what we were taught, we tap on both sides. Our belief is that you have a better chance of getting to the blockage and dislodging it quicker by bi-lateral tapping. If you use one hose to wash your car, you’ll still get it clean. But if a friend joins you with another hose on the other side, you’ll get the car cleaner faster (and probably have more fun). That said, probably half of the practitioners out there just use one side and get good results. Double-sided tapping seems to get better results. We suggest you do whatever works best for you.

Yes, EFT/Tapping can be used on virtually anyone (including pets) with good results. For babies, pets, the elderly, and those unable to tap themselves you can use surrogate tapping, which is tapping on yourself, for them. To learn more about this phenomenon search for articles on Gary Craig’s site for pets, children or the elderly. Here’s an example of how surrogate tapping is done:

When people first find out about Animal EFT, they immediately think that it is about tapping ON animals and ask where they should tap their animals. It works the same as with surrogate tapping on people. Therefore the below protocol applies whether it’s a child an infirm person or someone in another country.

Of course animals do have a meridian system, but many of the points are in places where animals truly do not like to be touched, never mind tapped. The wonderful thing about Animal EFT is that you DON’T tap on the animal directly, but you tap on yourself to make the changes happen.

Tapping on yourself on behalf of someone else or a pet is called Surrogate tapping and has lots of advantages::

You can do it at any time and even anywhere – you do not have to be in the same room with the animal or person.
You can do it much more often than an animal would generally permit.
You can help wild animals, animals that don’t belong to you, and animals that you can’t really touch much, such as birds and fish.
Once you have learned the simple technique, you can use it on any problem, on any animal and you don’t have to know anything at all about their various meridian systems or points.

The short answer is: Until you get the result you want. I want to expand on that a bit though. Normally you can resolve an issue in 3-4 rounds, which only takes a few minutes. Simple issues are particularly quick and easy to deal with. Sometimes, however, it may take 5-6 rounds, or even 10-12 to resolve a difficult issue. You may need to go through several “doors”, look at many different aspects, and dig for the core issue, to get the optimal end result of complete resolution. That takes time. But, that could be an hour, or two, or more, to completely resolve a painful, lifelong issue.

Traditional therapy could take months or years to resolve the same problem. We often get spoiled with “one-minute-miracles” getting impatient when something is taking too long. But we must keep it in perspective and realize that even the most difficult or complex cases can be resolved to completion in a fraction of the time any other therapy might hope to offer. Patience and persistence is the key to successfully resolving challenges issues. Time should not be a factor.

We want to point out that it’s also important to make sure an issue is completely resolved before leaving it. Some people say “Gee, I feel better now” and stop at that. Later when they feel a negative charge again about the same issue, they will think that EFT didn’t work. But, if you truly get all of the aspects resolved and get an issue to a zero on the SUDs scale, then it’s likely gone for good.

That’s not to say that at some point an aspect that was missed might not pop up for you. But resolving that should be very easy, since the bigger components have already been collapsed. So, stay with it until you’re sure an issue is completely resolved. Test yourself by trying to get upset about it again. If you just can’t find a charge, then you’re likely done. That’s how long it takes.

SUDs stands for Subjective Units of Distress (the ‘s’ at the end is superfluous, but is commonly used anyway). It’s important to know your intensity level so you’ll know where you are and where you need to go. If you simply say, “I’m really upset” that doesn’t give you much information. If you can put a number to it, say a 9, for instance, even if it’s subjective, you at least have a guesstimate of a starting point. Then as you tap and get in touch with your decreasing SUDs level on subsequent rounds, you’ll know you’re making progress. You’ll also have a handle on how far you still need to go to completely resolve an issue.

Conversely, if your number hasn’t changed after a couple of rounds, you know you’re missing something, and will need to make some changes (see the “9 Stumbling Blocks of EFT” to give you direction). Likewise, if you get down to a 2, you know you’re close, but not quite finished. You want to keep going until you can say for certain that you’re at a zero.

It’s important to remember that the objective of EFT isn’t just to “feel better” (although that’s certainly nice). The ultimate goal is to realize a complete cessation of a negative emotion or issue. So don’t stop just because you start to “feel better”. Keep tapping until you’re feeling great and the issue has been completely put to rest. If you truly get to a zero on the event, issue, pain or whatever, it’s unlikely it will return. To make sure that you’ve really neutralized the problem, test yourself by trying to get upset. Revisit the issue, even the formally painful aspects and see if the intensity rises at all. If it does, you still have some work left to do.

If the event, pain or issue seems ‘fuzzy’, hard to remember or difficult to grasp, and there’s no “charge” left, then you are likely done. When my clients get to a zero, I ask them how they know that. Often it’s the cessation of a physical manifestation, such as tightness in the shoulders or neck, or an upset stomach. Or, they might feel profound relaxation, feel lighter and experience renewed energy or peace of mind. I love using the SUDs rating and check it several times (usually after every 2 rounds of tapping) in the course of eliminating an issue.

There’s so much to EFT that you should take several routes. EFT is elegant in its simplicity, however, there is SO much more to it than meets the eye. EFT is effective for hundreds of simple issues and can be self-applied, however, for more complex issues you should see an experienced practitioner.

Start the learning process by downloading Gary’s 79-page manual at www.emofree.com. While there, consider purchasing Gary’s fabulous video programs on EFT.

Read the book “Freedom at your Fingertips” by 20 World Class EFT practitioners (including Lindsay Kenny).

Another way to learn EFT is by seeing a practitioner for your own issues and learn as you go.

When people try EFT for old problems, or complex issues, and aren’t getting the results they want, they may think EFT just isn’t working for them. Others think that maybe the testimonials they’ve heard aren’t real. Actually, neither is true.

As wonderful as EFT is, there are several impediments that can get in the way of its success. For one, beginners should only try using EFT/tapping on simple issues, leaving more complex problems to experienced practitioners.

This is a simple, yet complex question and one of the most frequently asked. The easy answer is this simple formula: Add an acceptance affirmation to your problem, such as, “Even though I have this __________(fill in your issue), I deeply and completely accept myself. However, there is a bit more to it than that. What’s important to remember is that you can’t do it wrong, but some phrases are more effective than others. Try it in different ways, until you get the result you want.

Being specific, finding the core issue, and getting rid of Reversals are imperative to successful EFTing.

Here are some examples of set-up statements. Remember, being specific is important.

“Even though I have this fear of speaking to groups over 5, I deeply and completely accept myself.”

“Even though a part of me doesn’t want to forgive my mother for hurting my feelings at Christmas, I accept who I am without judgment.”

“Even though I have this sinus headache above my eyes, I deeply love and accept who I am.”
“I deeply and completely accept myself, even though I have anger towards my father for yelling at me last night.”

“Even though I have this stiffness on the right side of my neck, I completely accept myself and love my body.”

“I deeply accept myself unconditionally, even though I have a killer craving for chocolate right now.”

“Even though I have this fear of snakes, I love and accept myself anyway.”

“I deeply and profoundly accept myself, even though I’m really sad over my breakup with ________.”

In EFT, stress and anxiety have the same cause as all other negative emotions…a disruption in the body’s energy system. Accordingly, they are addressed with The Basic Recipe the same as any other emotional issue. Anxiety has a specific meaning in clinical psychology. It refers to an intense fear or dread lacking an unambiguous cause or a specific threat. In EFT, however, we give it a much broader definition to include that general state of uneasiness which is more commonly known as anxiety. Under that definition stress and anxiety fall into the same category.

Stress and anxiety tend to be ongoing problems because the circumstances that create them are ongoing. An abusive family situation or a stressful job environment are but two of a long list of possibilities. EFT does not do away with the circumstances, of course, but it is an important aid to reducing your anxious responses. In most cases, EFT will need to be used persistently (most likely daily) because the stressful circumstances tend to show up every day.

After a while, you should notice that your responses to difficult events is much calmer. Things just don’t get to you like they used to. You smile more. Your health improves and life seems easier.

Ask any accomplished athlete and they will tell you emphatically that their mental set is critical to their performance. The difference between good days and bad days for the athlete is almost always due to emotional causes. Barring sickness, the athlete always brings the same highly skilled body into the field of battle. The only thing that changes is the effect that emotions have on the body.

Everyone, including athletes, has their share of negative thoughts and self doubt. By now, you are quite familiar with the fact that those negative states of mind disrupt the body’s energy system and cause negative emotions. These negative emotions show up in the body in a variety of ways (pounding heart, tears, sweat, etc.) and this includes some tension in the muscles.

In athletics, timing is everything and even the slightest tension in the muscles affects it. Hitting a baseball, tennis ball or golf ball requires perfect timing and being off by just 1/8 of an inch is the difference between hitting a home run and flying out…or…hitting a killer serve or one that hits the net…or…making or missing a putt. And so it goes.

Athletes are well aware of this problem and many hire sports psychologists to help them in this regard. Any negative emotion…even the mild ones and the subconscious ones…can be critical to an athlete’s performance.

EFT provides a remarkably effective solution to this problem. The purpose of The Basic Recipe is to neutralize negative emotions and their effects. One of the most common responses to it is that people feel relaxed which, by the way, is another way of saying that the tension has left their muscles. This is ideal for the athlete because it neutralizes any unnecessary emotional tension in the muscles without affecting the rest of their athletic ability. It allows their potential to flow through without being hindered by any resistance in the muscles.

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