From Diane Kendrick of Dorset

Three years ago a colleague told me about a system of tapping on acupuncture points and gave me a sheet of paper with tapping points marked on it, taken from Gary Craig’s EFT manual.   It seemed very weird to me but I thought I’d give it a try.

I had a client coming to see me the next day for hypnotherapy and proposed, with her permission, to try an experiment.  She was suffering from panic attacks when travelling and was due to fly out on holiday the next day.  During hypnosis, we established that her problem had started when she had fainted in a hot place and that it’s when she gets hot, away from home, that she has a panic attack. 

Curing panic attacks usually takes a number of hypnotherapy sessions, with the client using relaxation and desensitisation techniques in between sessions.  Even then, the duration is unpredictable.  We began by tapping for ‘even though I’m afraid of having an attack in hot places, I deeply and completely accept myself’, and, ‘even though I fainted when I was I was on holiday, and I’m afraid of fainting again, I deeply and completely accept myself’.  As I had no experience of the system, I couldn’t explain much about it, but she was very open minded and desperate to get better. 

I could hardly believe how quickly she became comfortable with the idea of going away, but then she started to look for other situations – this often happens in this situation.  We dealt with trains and buses and anything else that may be connected.  She called me the next day and said she was really looking forward to the holiday and that she had just been behaving a ‘bit silly’.  Gary Craig calls this the ‘Apex’ effect’, when the client doesn’t acknowledge that EFT has helped, often saying ‘oh well, it wasn’t really a big deal, I was just being silly’.  Do I care?  Not at all.  I will use anything in my tool-box which may help and EFT is, in my opinion, the most useful tool I have. 

I now introduce EFT to all my hypnotherapy clients and find that the combination of hypnotherapy and EFT is wonderful.  I introduce it by explaining about the mind/body connection and the links with Chinese medicine and NLP.  I also show Garry Craig’s introductory video, which is truly impressive.  The effect on my success with all kinds of conditions has been staggering.  These include habit disorders, weight control, emotional problems, physical problems… the list goes on.  We may never truly be sure of how EFT works, but I rather like it like that!  

[Diane Kendrick, Dip Hyp, PsyV, may be contacted  by email: diane.kendrick@bigfoot.com, or by telephone at 01202 740392] 

From Michael Carr-Jones of Dorset

I first came across EFT when I was visiting a friend in Montreal who showed me Gary Craig’s EFT training videos.

 In the beginning I was somewhat sceptical. Being a practising hypnotherapist I thought I had all the answers!

When I did start to use Energy Tapping (EFT) I was amazed at the results and the ease with which I was able to help clients and friends to help themselves; to change things in their lives that they had been struggling with for years. After four or five years the list is almost endless, fears and phobias that have bugged them for what seems like forever resolved often in a matter of moments. I now work one to one, or over the telephone, and in groups. Just imagine how good it is to be able to help an agoraphobic leave the house for the first time in twenty years, or a sufferer from claustrophobia to use a lift when they have never been able to use one before; for someone to overcome their fear of driving on a motorway, to pass an exam, overcome your dread of flying, cats, dogs, snakes.  As I said, the list is endless.

 The discovery that psychological change can occur in such a simple way is a breakthrough in mental health.  It’s a radical departure from talk therapy, which dominated psychology in the twentieth century.  Many people still believe that the most effective and healthy method of emotional change occurs through talk therapy, in which new knowledge is learned or new life skills are developed through verbal communication.  Although it may not seem realistic that tapping on meridian points located on your face and hands can change how you think or feel, we have not found another treatment that is as fast or as effective as energy psychology. 

[ For more information about Energy Psychology and Workshops, Michael Carr-Jones may be contacted  by email: michaelcarrjones@aol.com, or write to him at 7, Church Mews, Church Road, Poole, Dorset BH14 8UF.] 

Both these therapists, Michael Carr-Jones and Diane Kendrick are members of the Dorset Association of Complementary Practitioners (DACP), whose website may be found at http://www.dacp.org.uk