Top 10 EFT Therapy Mistakes
10. Feeling intimidated by the EFT process, or that you might be doing something “wrong.” Like any skill, some people start out with more natural skill and comfort with this stress relief technique than others. However, with time, most people can increase their skill level; Emotional Freedom Technique is the same. While EFT is easy to learn, it is still a skill that must be refined with patience, time, and practice. The more you do it, the easier and more effective you will be and the better you will feel about your stress relief. While you will certainly become more skillful with EFT over time, it does not mean that what you do during your learning phase is necessarily wrong – it is probably just not as good as your energy healing therapy technique will be a little later on. I feel that even poorly framed or off-target EFT is better than nothing; it just does a smaller amount of good than beautifully created statements that hit the center of the proverbial bulls-eye. Hang in there, and appreciate the good you are doing for yourself even with your early efforts.
9. Rushing and stressing yourself while learning EFT. Do not be a perfectionist at the beginning; it will only get in your way. Stay loose and relaxed as you learn the different acupressure points you will tap on; enjoy what you are doing.
8. Tapping too infrequently, and not doing follow-up tapping. In the beginning, if you do EFT just occasionally, you will have a more difficult time developing the refined skills you will need to gain spectacular results with your personal challenge. Along with that line of thinking, it is necessary to do daily “homework” EFT on major life challenges if you wish to see those same spectacular results you read about. Better to do several small easy fast sessions of EFT throughout the day than try to find a 20-30 minute block of time for doing EFT.
7. Forgetting to use EFT during an emotional emergency. High stress times are the perfect time for EFT therapy. This is just the time when it is easy to get in touch with the high level ‘zzzzzt” feeling, and while all the small aspects of a problem are fresh in your mind. Tapping results can be powerful and immediate at these times. If you do not tap during or immediately after a highly charged emotional situation, it is a message to your mind that you will tolerate and accept this stressed emotional state. Your sense of being powerless and a victim is only deepened and confirmed. Doing a few pointed rounds of EFT therapy at just this time sends the opposite message. It is very therapeutic to make it a practice to be in control and stay in control with EFT.
6. Making EFT complicated. Keep things simple. Be honest and sincere with yourself. Powerfully effective EFT – or as Gary Craig might say “elegant EFT” – is not complex, it is just beautiful in the ability to SIMPLY see and capture the truth of a problem. With practice and good focus, you will do that sooner than you think. Just like in sports, it all comes down to mastering the fundamentals. Fancy techniques usually just get in the way.
5. Working globally all the time. This is a huge mistake for many newbie tappers. Addressing an issue from a broad and general perspective will usually – but not always – miss the mark. Details are what the brain and memory deal in, and your EFT must get down to the nitty-gritty of some of these stressful issues. Do not be afraid to dig deep into the details of a situation, and tap on the minutiae. There is a correct time to work globally, and with practice you will know when that time arrives. Until then, burrow into the details and stay there.
4. Not knowing what issue you wish to tap on with EFT therapy. Deciding what you should be tapping on can be more difficult than it sounds. Take time before you start a session of EFT therapy to determine a much focused issue to address – the more focused the better. If you begin tapping on how your boss makes you angry with his arrogant attitude, then you tap on how you felt unappreciated by your previous boss, and then you tap about how you did not get full credit for your Boy Scout merit badge because you got lost in the woods, and then you tap on how you got frighten by a snake the last time you were in your back yard – you will not see much progress with any of these issues. Connecting from one problem of one boss, to another problem of another boss, from one emotion in one situation to the same emotion in another situation, and from the woods to the backyard – free associating while your mind chases problems – is ineffective. While each might be related to another in some small fashion, it is a beginner's mistake to jump around without seeing anything to completion. Energy psychology works best when it is specific. As I like to tell my clients, “For best results you need to drill down deep into a problem, and stay there for a while – until it gets boring.”
3. Quitting too soon. If you are stuck at a SUDS of 4 for several rounds of tapping, don’t give up; instead get creative and get stubborn. Modify your technique a little, or perhaps take a break and take a few sips of water (electrolytes assist movement of energy). Go into a few deeper aspects of the issue. Do a 9-Gamut technique. Look at the situation from an entirely different direction to see where that will lead you. Listen to your inner intuitive voice with more confidence. Hang in there and change a few small things, and you will do better, honest.
2. Paying more attention to the process of tapping than to the process of creating a set-up statement. Many newbie tappers think EFT is all about the act of tapping. They believe the power of EFT lies in the physical process. They do not understand that, by far, the power of EFT is found in the correct subject or “thing” to address in EFT as expressed by a nicely crafted set-up statement and reminder phrase that focuses to the source of the “zzzzzt.” Whether you are doing EFT in the office or EFT by phone, it is necessary to place a lot of attention to the details of the stressful memory and feelings.
1. Expecting each round of EFT to produce a “one-minute wonder.” The fact is, EFT one-minute wonders are not that common; that is why these flashy cases are written up in Gary Craig’s EFT Newsletter. They are so rare and so instructive, that they are the topics of discussion and instruction for us all. Most issues that are successfully addressed with EFT therapy are done so, in the EFT trenches with hard work, determination, persistence and just a little bit of luck. If you think about it, to use EFT to totally eliminate a life-long fear or a case of depression that defied 20 years of drugs and standard psychotherapy, and do with 10 EFT sessions over six weeks – that would be remarkably fast and profound improvement response. Perhaps not a one-minute wonder, but not too shabby at all; truly remarkable and clearly worthwhile to the person who would benefit from EFT in that way. Over time, skills develop to bring you closer to a true, one-minute wonder and that is great progress. Then, for some reason known only to God, you tap on someone just one time for some grievously terrible problem and it is gone. At that point you feel very humble, very happy for the person you are working with. After all that happens, then you try to figure out what the heck you just did, and how can you do it again and again. That is where the tapping gets to be real fun. Happy tapping to us all!
Bonus mistake: Not downloading The EFT Manual from the website of Gary Craig to learn Emotional Freedom Techniques. Do not try to learn EFT from other websites first; do not read second-hand information about EFT and think you understand how it works when all you have a series of short-cuts and silly opinions from people who do very little EFT. Learn from the “master” first, and then go out to learn what other people are doing.
