Relaxation exercises and breathing exercises are well known to improve our health and well-being. They are important factors in the healing process and many clients and students have benefited from these proven techniques.

Over the years I have become increasingly aware of the importance of resolving past issues and pain (often unconscious) to really feel emotionally free and relaxed.

I understand now through my own personal experience that there is no quick fix or short cut to this goal. There is no substitute for a supportive therapeutic environment where we really are allowed to uncover the layers of our life and lay them to rest in the hope that we can move on with acceptance in our hearts.

Having said that EFT is a valuable tool that we can learn in supporting positive affirmations towards becoming more integrated people.

EFT continues to show me some amazing results with a whole range of physical and emotional problems and I will continue to use it when I intuitively feel appropriate as part of an holistic approach towards health.

What is EFT?

My understanding of emotional freedom includes the following:

• Freedom from anxiety, depression and fears
• Freedom from negative thoughts and limiting beliefs
• A sense of balance and well-being
• To have enough free attention and energy to focus on what you really want out of life
• To feel wonderfully well in all areas of your life

In utilising the holistic approach to health, every aspect of a person is taken into consideration. Diet, nutrition, water intake, relaxation, exercise, lifestyle and emotional wellbeing. Even down to the types of personal care and household products used at home.

All of these approaches are combined with what intuitively feels like the most appropriate treatment method (massage, aromatherapy, touch for health, pranayama yoga exercises, E.F.T, reflexology) usually I use a combination of two or more in any session.

What's involved in EFT?

Emotional Freedom Technique (E.F.T) is a wonderful tool that can easily be learned by anyone as part of that process to becoming emotionally free.

It uses light tapping of a few acupressure points on your face, upper body, and hands. It is something I use to help clients release themselves from negative thought patterns that may have held them in a negative state for a long period of time. It’s also useful for helping a person release emotional or mental blocks that may be preventing them from reaching their goals.

E.F.T theory states that “the cause of all negative emotions is a disruption of the body’s energy system” - a theory similar to that of which “touch for health” is based upon.

Western medicine seems to have overlooked so much. It has forgotten and dismissed so many wonderful ways at looking at health and the body. It has broken it down into various compartments, each area treated separately to the other. Physically, mentally and more often than not, chemically.

This doesn’t seem to work in the long run, how could it?

The pharmaceutical companies often focus on reproducing the chemicals involved in nature. They vigorously produce synthetically a reproduction of God given gifts that lie in natures grasp.

Eastern medicine has focused more on the energy in the body, such as acupuncture.

Acupuncture is based on the concept that the body encompasses energy or electrical systems known as meridians. Disruption of these energy systems can have an adverse effect on health. Hence, the correction of these disruptions can lead us back towards health.

E.F.T is a very simple combined physical and psychological technique which has been found to help with phobias, negative feelings, negative thoughts, fears, cravings and even physical ailments.

A brief History of EFT

In 1980, Dr Roger Callahan was working with a patient who suffered from an intense water phobia. She suffered from frequent headaches and terrifying nightmares, both of which were related to her fear of water. The patient sought help using conventional psychotherapy but had no improvement

Dr Callahan had tried to help using conventional psychotherapy but had made no improvement either. Until one day, he stepped outside the normal boundaries of psychotherapy.

He had been studying the body’s energy system and decided to tap under his patient’s eyes.

To his astonishment she announced that her phobia had gone.She raced to a nearby swimming pool and began throwing water into her face. No fear, no headaches, it all went away ... including the nightmares and it has never returned. Results like these are common place with EFT.

The forerunner in the field of Emotional Freedom Technique is an engineer called Gary Craig. He explains the background science of his theory on his website ..... HERE

I personally use a version developed by Dr Patricia Carrington, a clinical professor of psychiatry, author of over 35 research papers in professional journals and four leading books in stress management and the self development field.

Dr Carrington has taken E.F.T an interesting step further with a system she calls choices. Her approach customises EFT so that you can use it for your own personal growth in a much more targeted way and I would personally urge anyone to take a closer look at her work.

You can log onto her website…… HERE

Her videos and workbook can be ordered online. I think you will find her work fascinating and beneficial in your own life and the tools here will help you to become emotionally free.

My advice, try it and see.