By Inna Alper,
One afternoon, my friend and I were relaxing in the jacuzzi of a Korean sauna when she suddenly broke down in tears, sharing her deep frustrations. She had been living in the U.S. for five years since moving from Azerbaijan but still struggled with English. Despite all her efforts, she had been unable to attend any ESL classes or even book private lessons. This language barrier held her back in many areas of her life—she couldn’t pass her driving test, engage in meaningful conversations, or move freely on her own. The weight of these frustrations left her feeling stuck, and right there, surrounded by steam and the comforting warmth of the jacuzzi, she cried. I felt her pain, and knowing EFT’s power, I asked if she would be willing to try Tapping. She agreed, desperate for a way out of her emotional block. We turned her back to the others in the sauna, and I began leading her through a round of tapping. It was an unplanned, spur-of-the-moment session that would change everything for her. Tapping has been my self-help tool since 2010, and I became an EFT Practitioner certified through EFT Universe in 2022. I’ve worked with many people over the years, but this was a case close to my heart. We’d been friends for a long time, and I had seen her struggle. What followed was one of the most transformative EFT journeys I’ve ever witnessed, and it’s a story I have to share. After just 4 or 5 tapping sessions, her entire life shifted dramatically. We began with the basic EFT recipe, focusing on her present emotional struggles. I mirrored her words, addressing the feelings and physical sensations in her body. As we tapped, she acknowledged the trembling in her knees and legs, which had been present for years. Our Setup Statement was simple but powerful: “Even though I feel my knees and legs trembling and twisting, I love, accept, and forgive myself.” Her SUD (Subjective Units of Distress) dropped to 6.Then, I asked her to recall an earlier time when she felt these same sensations. This led us to a memory from her first day of school, when her mother had left her alone in a classroom full of unfamiliar faces. Her knees and legs trembled just as they did now, and she had wanted to run away but couldn’t. We tapped on the emotions and sensations tied to this event: “Even though I was left alone and wanted to run, but couldn’t, I choose to honor and accept myself and how I feel.” Her SUD dropped to 5.As we worked through this memory, I improvised, though now I know it’s one of the energy psychology techniques, but back then, I simply followed my intuition, and it worked beautifully. I invited her to imagine her adult self stepping into the scene, offering comfort to her younger self. They had a conversation, and her adult self reassured her little self that she loves her; providing comfort, and even materializing her favorite toy and candies. This playful and healing exchange was incredibly empowering. We closed the session with the affirmation: “Even though I still have some remaining emotions, I have enough time, tools, and space to work on them later.” By the end of the session, her SUD had dropped to 2.That was just the beginning. Over the next few sessions, we addressed other painful memories from her school days, including being labeled an “F” student, feelings of shame, bullying from teachers, and unresolved family dynamics. Each time, we tapped away the emotional charge attached to these events, replacing fear with confidence, shame with self-acceptance. The results were nothing short of extraordinary. Within a year, she passed her driving test and earned her first U.S. driver’s license. She enrolled in ESL classes and began attending live yoga sessions. By 2015, she had even started college to study English. To my amazement, she began tutoring other students in English shortly after! This was the same woman who had struggled for five years to communicate. But the story doesn’t end there. She continued working on her emotional growth with EFT and therapy, and in 2018, she graduated from college with an AA degree. In every class she took, she was an “A” student. She once told me, “All my life, I was a bad, shameful ‘F’ student, but in the U.S., I became an ‘A’ student, and now I won’t settle for anything less. “Her transformation was even more remarkable considering that she had struggled academically in her home country, even in her native language. Here, in a foreign land, mastering a foreign language, she not only succeeded but thrived. She earned two AA degrees—one in Liberal Arts and Communications and another in Psychology Transfer. And she’s still going strong! Today, she is an Honor student at UC Davis, working towards her next big academic goal of becoming a psychologist! EFT was the catalyst that helped her break through emotional blocks that had limited her for years. Now, she’s living life fully, setting new goals, and achieving them with confidence and joy .It has been a privilege to witness this incredible transformation, and I am grateful to share it with the EFT community. May her story inspire others to embrace the power of EFT and open the door to their own limitless possibilities.