EFT and TMS

There seems to be a lot of similarities between TMS and EFT. I have always had some doubts about it, but after reading the Hidden Psychology of Pain, I think I'm starting to change my views on it. It looks like it is really effective in calming the amygdala and counterbalancing the effects of trauma and stress on our lives.

One quote I liked from Dr. Alexander’s book is: “My initial personal view was the EFT was not as powerful tool as some preferred psychotherapies, however this perception was radically challenged when I viewed one of the EFT training videos. Vietnam veterans who had suffered extreme post-traumatic stress since their war experience, and had been in psychiatric hospitals ever since, were treated using a particular application of EFT. One such veteran reported that he had barely stopped shaking in the decades since the war, and had also suffered from chronic insomnia. This man’s post-traumatic stress had remained resistant to all of the treatment approaches which psychiatry and psychology had been able to throw at it over several decades. He was interviewed again the day after the EFT treatment, and was able to report that he’d had his first good night sleep in years. In addition, he had stopped shaking for the first time since the war. This is a remarkable outcome for any treatment approach.”

I'm curious, has anyone used EFT to recover from TMS before?

For more info, I created a page on it, at http://www.tmswiki.org/ppd/Emotion_Freedom_Technique_(EFT) .

 

Using but not yet recovered.
EFT does jolly the spirits though. I also like the way it seems vaguely ridiculous and includes elements of ritual. I know of folk who attribute a large part of their healing to eft.

 

Learned of Nick Ortner a few months back and listened to some talks and read his new book about tapping (EFT). So interesting to me how they delve into the emotional issues, especially childhood issues. Just like we need to do to fully recover from TMS issues.

 

EFT Demonstration:



A method for feeling deeply felt but repressed emotions?

 

I talked to a Faster EFT guy. What bothered me was he believed journaling was a bad thing because it brought up negative feelings/anger which he believed was a bad thing for the body potentially causung disease. So I couldn't reconcile the technique with the suggested TMS healing approach. But I remain open to knowing there are many paths to healing.

 

I guess there are different versions. When I listen to Nick or Jessica Ortner talk about tapping, it's about delving into issues that are causing is physical issues. I guess it could be called verbal journaling to some extent. It brings up what needs to be processed and out of us to resolve issues and be at peace. It's actually what turned me on to them--someone lent me The Tapping Solution dvd and when I saw how they processed things, I found it intriguing. I think I cried when I listened to what some of the people were bringing up and letting go.

 

My husband and I have used EFT quite a bit over the last five years. We love it and need to do it more! I don't see why journaling could be bad unless you bring up negative emotions and just hold onto them instead of tapping them away or clearing/reducing them in some other way. If it's in our subconscious it's in our body - period. And those of us TMSers know how much damage it can do if we try to keep it hidden. I recently heard one EFT practitioner say "what's buried alive will never die" and I believe that wholeheartedly. Just because we think we're "over it" doesn't mean we are. If the memory still has a "charge" on it, I'll tap on it until it doesn't. I've gotten rid of the worst of my past by tapping on those issues. My TMS education, though, is helping me realize that I'm more bothered by some things than I thought, so the journaling is helping me bring those things up (and out!)

I don't think EFT is for everyone, necessarily. If you don't like it don't do it, but I do think it's valuable and worth a try. Some people swear by the Sedona method, another releasing technique, but I've only had limited results with that. I prefer tapping.

 

Yes when I bring up past emotions that's bad ill tap them away, tapping is good to clear
built up negative energy- mixed with tms healing it works
but apart from the tms-nlp-eft approach, I get nothing alone
as in nothing along doing eft and not tms healing
or nlp and not doing tms healing
but I can do just tms healing since it has elements of it all
I have had much success tapping away negative emotions

 

I also think that just like accepting and believing in TMS, you need to believe in what you're doing when it comes to EFT, etc. If you don't believe in it, it definitely won't work!

 

Yes NolaGal most often after journaling and I have faced my emotions
instead of going all day with them, ill do as you said- Tap them away- AWESOME...
I have tapped pain out of my body on several occasions.
I combine tapping or fastereft with tms healing and nlp- get a great boost.
I love Gary Craig's Eft too. I say do what works for you, right.

Everything I do has to have the Faith element- its at the heart of all belief.

 

Stella Fastereft has journaling, its positive journaling, called a happy journal.
Since were tapping away bad emotions and repressions anyway
We don't have to journal on repression less your at the moment to tap
or your ready to experience the repression and journal then soothe or tap
Tapping is soothing.

I still journal about past events that need to be tapped away ya know
I meditate for any left over residue.

I usually journal and if an emotion doesn't want to release
by facing it as in tms healing, which I often sooth with meditation
Then ill just tap it away.

A good tool for free, it works great- A happy journal so after you face the bad
events you can transist and go to your happy place
or as I've heard it feel good journaling.

 

She's really good BruceMC - she knows her stuff.
Thanks

 

I found this website that has a lot of good information about EFT. There are videos as well as stuff to read. I have been reading through a lot of it. There are some videos that you need to buy a subscription to watch, but there is more than enough free information to learn it.
http://www.emofree.com/
It is by the person who founded it. (This is the same guy who does the first video in this thread.) He talks about some of the variations of it that have come up and why he does not agree with them.
He mentioned that the faster EFT is not as effective, so it takes more sessions and you are more likely to have to go back and revisit the issue. So in the long run it is not taking less time.
I was especially fascinated by the beyond the basics lessons. He has a pretty firm grasp of physical problems being related to emotional issues. He also talks about childhood issues often being a factor as well. This makes me think the compatibility is pretty good with TMS.
The bit about not bringing up negative emotions is contrary to what Gary, the founder, intended. The examples he gives are all about bringing up issues or memories that cause mental or emotional pain. The goal is to eventually reduce that pain to zero, but it has to be brought up and tapped out first. He specifically speaks against people who ignore the negative. He says it is like trying to clean by only focusing on the clean parts of floor and ignoring the parts that are dirty.

 

Kathy Bee I love Gary Craig but Robert smith goes right for the jugular when it comes to repression
and emotional pain.
Its very Intense to see how Robert Smith does his work.
He learned from Gary Craig and applied Nlp to his system.
I've helped lots of friends with Nlp alone.
Then to add Eft to it, Well you get Fastereft that does Go for the Trauma
and issues right from the start, that's the reason for a feel good journal
I like focusing then tapping that's how I do it now.

 

We had a bit of a barney over at tmshelp on the whole eft vs. fastereft issue a while back. I weighed in for team Robert Smith. Like Eric, I really appreciate the immediacy of his style. I know it's not to everyone's taste but I love the guy. He has a great spirit and big heart. More than that, after spending time in both camps, I naturally defer to his easy-peasy let it go.
What follows is a crude division but I'd say regular eft is best for those who like to cross the t's and dot the i's, whereas fastereft suits the more hands-on.

 

I am still trying different EFT "teachers". Nick, Robert, ... But I do enjoy it even though my back pain is still there. I know I have deeper issues I have to tap. I will keep trying it.

 

I like Robert Smith's "faster eft" style as well as the traditional method. I do a lot of both. My favorite EFT guy is Brad Yates: http://www.bradyates.net/

 

Cheers NolaGal, Brad Yates is great. I found his youtube channel by chance one day and the best thing is, you simply tap along. He does it with you and you happily parrot his words and you feel great after. He covers stacks of topics so everyone's issue us bound to be there in some form. Watching him helps you understand the whole business too.

 

For those who aren't familiar with tapping...


Tapping, another psychological tool for healing both physically and emotionally, has been known for centuries but has had a rebirth of popularity in recent years thanks to Robert G. Smith, Karl Dawson, and others. I’ll go into it deeper in a bit, but basically, it is a series of finger tappings on parts of the body that relate to meridian points in acupuncture. Tapping and telling yourself to let go of a bad emotion, or to tap into a positive thought or emotion, releases stress and trauma from the body’s energy system, allowing the body to return to a healthy physical and emotional state.

I’ve found that TMS, tapping, Matrix Reimprinting, and meditation work very well together because they basically do the same thing and that is to help you reveal and feel the cause of your pain which are repressed emotions, but adding Matrix Reimprinting focuses more on positive or happy emotions. Smith also calls Matrix Reimprinting “swishing,” changing our thoughts from bad to good or happy.

Tapping involves the ancient Chinese meridians of acupuncture together with affirmations. Affirmations are positive thoughts or words you tell yourself such as:

I feel calm and relaxed
I have no pain
I’m healthy
I am strong and healthy
I’m at peace with myself and everyone
I forgive myself and everyone
Every day, in every way, I’m getting better and better
I’m not worried about anything.
My mind is at peace.

You can watch free videos on how to tap and what to say while tapping if you go online to the YouTube web sites of Robert Smith. It’s free and from the tapes you’ll see, it has worked for thousands of people.

When and where do you tap and with what do you tap?

1. Think of a pain or repressed emotion such as a bad childhood memory or financial worries, something that causes anxiety, anger, fear, or any other negative feeling. Imagine that feeling on a scale of from 1 to 10, the higher the better.

2. Begin tapping over your eye five to seven times with your index finger and the finger next to it while saying out loud (not silently) some positive affirmations such as “Even though I feel this pain, I deeply and completely accept myself. I release and let it go. It’s okay to let it go. All sadness, fears, all emotional trauma, stress, anxiety.”

3. Tap at the side of the eye, and repeat step 3.

4. Tap below the eye, and repeat step 3.

5. Tap on the collar bone (where a necklace is worn)
and repeat step 3.

6. Squeeze a wrist, then repeat step 3

7. Take a deep breath, hold it a few seconds, then let it out, and say “Peace.”

Smith also suggests imagining a tree and you’re pulling it out by the roots. The tree represents the bad emotion in you and when you pull up its roots the tree does and so does the bad emotion – it goes away.

Feel the emotion, tap it, release it, let it go. Keep tapping until the pain or memory of a bad emotion is gone. Go back and imagine the scale of your anxiety, anger, fear or other negative emotion and see if it has gone down from 10.
If it has gone down but is not totally gone, repeat the tapping and affirmations until it is. This could take minutes or longer. If the bad feeling or pain goes away but comes back later, tap again.
Tapping tells the unconscious mind you are ridding yourself of the pain or bad emotion. It is another way to practice TMS but physically tapping helps many people to be pain free faster.
If you tap about the pain or other stress, the relief you feel may not be permanent. To be rid of the pain completely you must address the root cause of the pain or other problem. That involves the TMS approach to healing… discovering the repressed emotion and thinking of that as you tap each acupuncture meridian.
As I’ve said, there are several Internet sites on how tapping is done. My favorite is Robert G. Smith’s web site and viewing his free YouTube videos. He demonstrates how he taps volunteers with pain or other problems and many of them find relief within fifteen minutes.

Each meridian point is associated with a different part of the body.
Tapping on the forehead over the eye stimulates the acupuncture meridian related to the bladder.
Tapping to the outside of the eye is related to the gall bladder.
Tapping under the eye is related to the stomach.
Tapping the collar bone is related to the kidney.
Squeezing the wrist is related to the lungs and large and small intestines, heart and circulation.

Smith says lower back pain represents problems related to money and emotional support in life. Both of those go back to my boyhood which I’ve told you about earlier. And every time the postman delivers another bill, it is a trigger to remembering the financial problems.

If tapping doesn’t rid you of the pain or bad emotion, you may not be focusing on a specific issue. If you tell your unconscious mind to relieve you of stress or anxiety, it may not know what the specific cause is. Be as specific as possible, tapping away one problem at a time.
Thanks to TMS, tapping, and Matrix Reimprinting, I got over most of the pain from those repressed emotions. But reminding you, pain may go away only temporarily from TMS and/or tapping if you just tell your unconscious about the pain. To get rid of it permanently, you have to discover the root cause of the repressed emotion causing the pain.
Smith’s new approach to tapping, called Faster EFT (Emotional Freedom Technique) is offered as a free seven-day program on his web site, and I’ve found it to be very helpful, as many others have. It has you tell your unconscious mind you recall a happy time in your life, such as lying on a sunny beach or holding a baby or puppy in your arms. I’ve used the affirmations “I’m happy!” “I had lots of happy times in my boyhood and later life.”
Then I laugh. Laughter can heal a lot of pain.

 

Another eft practitioner I like is Rue Hass. Very gentle, and focuses on such things as soul gardening and dreamwork. I cherish the feminine, nurturing element of her contribution. She wrote an ebook on eft and chronic pain which if memory serves embraces sensitivity a lot. I can't recall much else but can furnish more info for the interested. Just say.

http://www.intuitivementoring.com/