By Blair Hornbuckle
I learned EFT from a hypnotherapist who has attended EFT workshops. She also loaned me EFT tapes. I’m a layperson, not a therapist, and I’ve used EFT to help myself, family, and friends.
This example relates to stress and anxiety.
My friends “Gina” and her husband came over to take a walk in the woods. They were on child-care duty for a 3-year-old whose parents are both busy physicians. The child is with my friends a great deal, including some overnights. We’d finished our hike, with “Evan” in great spirits the whole way. He’d been very shy when they arrived at our house, turning away from my greeting, but had opened up a little along the nearby trail. Once back at the house we were sitting alongside our creek tossing rocks into the water.
When it was time to go, Evan began a violent temper tantrum. Gina carried him up the hill as he screamed and sobbed, struggling in her arms. She put him in his car seat and left the door open. He continued screaming as we moved away from the car to talk.
I asked what they usually do when he gets like this. “We can’t do anything,” she said. “He just has to have his way. If I talk to him it gets worse and we end up fighting, so I have to leave him alone.” She went on to tell me that Evan is seeing two therapists (speech and behavioral). I asked what the professionals suggest during this kind of episode. “Nothing. They just let him cry himself out.”
Not very elegant, I thought. Why not try EFT?
I asked her permission to “try something” and she agreed. I walked over to the still screaming child and said, “It’s okay. I know it’s hard for you right now.” I reached down, took his little hand, and started tapping on his Karate Chop point. “Even though you’re really upset right now, we all love you.” I tapped around his eyes: “Even though you’re really upset right now, you’re okay just the way you are.” I tapped on his face, then his chest, and the crying stopped. He began smiling, and wiped away his tears . I finished the round tapping the back of his hand, held it for a moment, then let go. He sat quietly. I turned to Gina and found her dumbstruck, her jaw dropped in awe.
“What did you do? He can’t listen to anything when he gets like that, and touching him makes him really mad! What did you do?”
I told her briefly about EFT, and suggested that it might be useful for his parents to learn. “His parents? What about me?” she said. “I need to know this.”
