Positive Health Online

Susan, age 34, a complementary therapist from Portsmouth, was diagnosed with Multiple Connective Tissue Disease (MCTD) three to four years ago by her Doctor. She was told this is a mix between arthritis and lupus symptoms. When she arrived to see Sandra Hillawi, EFT practitioner and trainer, she was taking several medications for pain in her muscles and joints, for her joint mobility as well as depression.

Understanding that our response to difficult life events is often behind the onset of physical symptoms, Sandra asked what was going on in her life when the pains started. Susan replied, “I was in an unhappy marriage”. Sandra explained how unresolved emotional issues are held in the body causing us pain and various other symptoms, and that this stress was possibly the cause of her physical problems. Sandra explained how Emotional Freedom Technique (EFT) could help to release this old stress quite easily. Susan was worried that she might get emotional and tearful talking about her painful memories. Sandra explained that this was not at all necessary if we also use the Tearless Trauma Movie Technique, which is a combination of dissociation techniques. This would allow her to tune into various memories with a lesser degree of emotional intensity, and it also made it possible to release all of her painful memories without the therapist knowing anything about what happened. An EFT appointment was scheduled. Sandra describes how the session progressed:

The Treatment Process

“Susan had six major traumatic or painful events in her previous marriage and divorce. Sandra guided Susan to focus on each painful memory, one by one, and by giving them code words, Susan did not have to explain the details. Whilst we were tuned in to each memory and, therefore, the energy disturbance which was causing it, we applied EFT to release the energy. This involved tapping 13 acupressure points on the face, body and hands while Susan was tuned in. It was interesting that the pains flared up in all the places Susan usually had her aches and pains as we tuned into each of the memories, and Susan was quite surprised by this. After all, the energy had been released from three of the six major distressing events, the emotional intensity was gone and the remaining three events did not seem to hold as much intensity as they did before. After a little more EFT, releasing remaining energy disturbances, Susan was totally pain free and very happy and not one tear was shed in the whole session. She literally skipped out of the consultation, which lasted only one hour. Susan remained completely pain free after this session and I recommended she return to her GP to discuss and revise her medication requirements.

The Theory

We have an energy body. What we hear, see, what happens to us, our life experiences, all enter our energy body first for processing. A healthy response to a life event would be to ‘digest it, become enriched by it in some way, and then to let it go’, similar to the way our physical body handles food; we digest and process food, become enriched by it, i.e. generate new cells, and then let go the wastes. As food is nutrition to the physical body, life is energy nutrition to the energy body. Health is about flow on both a physical and energetic level. When events happen that we have not developed the capability to handle yet, or so many things happen at once that we cannot process them, we get a build up of energy in our energy body. This energy build-up, or disturbance, is now known to be the real cause of our emotions, and many of our physical symptoms. Whenever we recall these painful events or think of similar events, we tune into these disturbances, and this re-triggers the symptoms emotionally and physically.

Emotional Freedom Technique

When using EFT we

• Tune the client into the memory and its energy disturbance; and
• Simultaneously, tap or hold acupressure or meridian points on the face, body and hands to release that specific energy. The process is repeated until the energy has released and the emotional intensity has gone.

EFT is very simple and extremely effective. Added to the skill set of any therapist, this enables the therapist to deal effectively with the client’s emotional issues, often also the cause of their physical symptoms. The simplicity of EFT allows the therapist to teach it to clients to use at home, thus empowering them to become more involved in their own healing process.