Dear EFT Community,
Here, David Lake, MD, from Australia shares his experience in getting better results by continual tapping of the EFT points. He notes that acupuncture involves continual stimulation of the acupoints (from needles inserted in the points and left there to work for a period of time), so perhaps the continual tapping is similar. The effects of continual tapping seem to last longer and may help the tapper reach “critical mass” in shifting an emotional problem.
-EFTUniverse
By David Lake, MD
This discussion is about a small discovery that may be of interest to users of EFT. It is based on a clinical observation, but since the essence of acupuncture is continual point stimulation, it may be a useful bridge between acupuncture and acupressure.
In the same way that the 7-point shortcut EFT sequence is generally useful, I have found that continual tapping on EFT points brings further benefits. I have a dream that one day all EFT sessions will engage the energy system continually, through touch, instruction, intention, or all three.
During several years of using EFT sequences to treat trauma clients, I noticed (in common with many other energy therapists) that their emotional responses were profound and also very significant in the subsequent healing.
As the technique involves a great deal of “pacing” of those experiences, and staying with the changes, I came to the idea that the more sequences you could initiate in a session, the more thorough the result–assuming, of course, that you are using such wonderful techniques as Tell-The-Story, and working with the body feelings as much as possible, in an appropriate framework of rapport, caring, and respect.
I thought: “Why stop when you’re on a good thing?”
From there it was a simple step to asking the client to tap on EFT points continually whenever they were telling me of their reactions to the EFT sequences, or when they felt intense or had insights spontaneously in the session.
In this way, the majority of the session was filled with point stimulation. Because a trauma treatment assumes that the problem is tuned in quite strongly, I think the good results I noticed right away were as a result of the opportunity to “do” more. So often in difficult work there is a temptation to process what has happened and to “think” more together.
Continual tapping bypasses this thinking to a degree, or postpones it to a later time.
Then I began to use it for everything, not just trauma. I found this addition to my technique quite naturalistic. “Just tap on the little finger point with your thumb while you tell me more about what you’re thinking now”. [Thanks to Larry Nims for the one-handed demonstration in February 1997.] And you can vary the points, except that clients tap for themselves. If you like, you can use points that you have noticed have a resonance for that person, or were the site of an emotional shift (sighing, yawning, relaxing) while working with formal EFT sequences.
I use it myself whenever I am below par, or in a contracted state, and can’t think clearly.
If there are two people working then the helper should tap too: passive practice. We do this because we want to stay relaxed, and to model and mirror the points for the receiver, and to avoid being hurt by the content of what may come up in the session. In that sense, we also do regular tapping. And I do a lot of continual tapping myself if I am hearing and resonating with upsetting material.
I have found too that the ongoing effect of continual EFT (like EFT itself) can last for many hours. Steve Wells and I encourage participants in our workshops to do continual tapping during live demonstrations, and over the two to three days generally.
We have found that the subtle and ongoing personal effects of EFT, like the “generalizing effect,” become apparent very quickly like this.
Now in my practice I use continual tapping for another reason.
Using EFT, we preach persistence, and for a good reason. It is likely to lead toward the point of “critical mass” for shifting the problem in emotional consciousness. I find that continual tapping facilitates the effort. You know you are doing good work.
I also teach focus. Additional tapping, when the problem is “attuned” by way of being intense, brings disproportional relief even if we don’t then know the exact nature of the foundations of the problem. Those insights come later, following the relief.
Continual tapping supports that focus in itself.
Some call this “awareness” in EFT that arises during healing “the wisdom of the body,” a nonconceptual awareness, just being. “The peace that passes all understanding.”
To tap or not to tap,
That is the question.
Whether ’tis nobler in the mind
To suffer the slings and arrows of outrageous fortune
Or to tap continually against a sea of troubles,
And by opposing–end them.
