By B. Appelgren
“Donna” had been doing very well for several months, but when she came into my office one day she said that things were falling apart in her life, that “everything was going wrong,” and she was worried about what was coming up for her next.
She described all of the events causing her to feel overwhelmed. She cried when she didn’t usually do so and she suggested that she needed to tap with me. Although she’d done EFT tapping on her own, she felt so overwhelmed that she didn’t know where to start so she wanted my help.
That’s where we started.
Tapping the Karate Chop point, the EFT Setup Statement:
Even though I have no idea where to start because I’m so overwhelmed, I deeply and completely accept myself.
We repeated the statement twice more.
Even though I have no idea where to start because I’m so overwhelmed, I deeply and completely accept myself.
Even though I have no idea where to start because I’m so overwhelmed, I deeply and completely accept myself.
Reminder re-frames – We repeated in a succinct fashion all the things that were overwhelming:
My ex is giving me a hard time.
My child is angry with me and doesn’t want to be with me.
I got ill and still can’t shake this cold.
My previously accommodating boss was angry at me for being sick.
My boyfriend went back on his word to help me with housework.
My boyfriend tried to blame me for his not having fun when he went out alone.
My boyfriend let his friends believe it was my fault that he didn’t call them back.
My court date is coming up and I’m afraid I’ll be too upset to make a good presentation.
We finished by repeating the full EFT Setup statement with a deep, relaxing breath.
We then did several EFT tapping rounds tapping the re-frames only, concentrating on all the problems when, in fact, earlier she had also told me how she handled each situation in as good a way as she could. But that hadn’t sunk in to her.
The next round of tapping, I alternated tapping at one point with the problem and at the next point with what she had done to address the problem.
She tapped:
Even though my ex tried to pick a fight, I didn’t get sucked in, because I deeply and completely accept myself.
Even though my child was angry with me, I gave recognition to the anger and offered something to do that appealed to him, because I deeply and completely accept myself.
Even though I was sick, I took care of myself by resting and eating nutritious food, because I deeply and completely accept myself.
Even though my boss acted mean, I talked with her in a good tone of voice and told her how I’d try to make it up to her, because I deeply and completely accept myself.
Even though my boyfriend went back on his word, I decided to stay home and do the housework on my own, because I deeply and completely accept myself.
Even though he went out, I made a game of the housework and combined it with a girlfriend visiting me, because I deeply and completely accept myself.
Even though my boyfriend blamed his lack of having fun on me, I didn’t let him suck me into an argument, because I deeply and completely accept myself.
Even though his friends blamed me for his not calling them back, I explained to them that I had given him the message, because I deeply and completely accept myself.
Even though I’m worried about the court date, I have prepared for it and see now that I’m pretty good at handling all these glitches, because I deeply and completely accept myself.
Even though I’ve had a number of problems come up, I handled them a lot differently than I used to, because I deeply and completely accept myself.
By this time, Donna was smiling and feeling proud of herself. EFT allowed her to take in the full measure of the situation–the problems, as well as her capacity to handle them.
In the face of problems like these, she used to become angry and feel helpless, but she was able to control her reactions and take responsibility for her participation in each event. She no longer allows other people’s inconsiderate behavior to make her feel overwhelmed and throw her off track.
EFT tapping has revolutionized her life and the way in which she approaches her anxiety.
