Dear EFT Community,
EFT practitioner, Michel Guindon, shares his technique for finding core issues or unresolved emotions to tap on by having clients listen to music that will prompt an emotional response. He calls his method the “Audio Technique.”
-EFTUniverse
By Michel Guindon, EFT-CC, NLP, C
In addition to doing EFT workshops and seeing clients in private sessions, I also work in the field of addictions. This population has its own unique set of problems and challenges, one of them being the reluctance to look at all the things they’ve done while under the influence–not to mention what caused their addiction in the first place. I am talking here of issues such as trauma, abuse, neglect, abandonment, and so on, and the resulting toxic shame that ends up affecting almost every relationship they have, on both a professional and personal level.
While this technique has proven highly successful with this population, anyone will benefit from using it, mainly due to its uncanny ability to bring up repressed emotions related to events that are partially or totally out of conscious awareness–the “fine print” on our walls. I simply call them “blind spots.”
In a nutshell, the Audio Technique consists of using music (songs) as a way to connect with past or present negative experiences and then using the EFT tapping points to remove the charge. It is amazingly easy to learn and most people are eager to do some work on themselves afterward.
Although we rarely think about it, music has always had a powerful influence on our lives and most of our significant life experiences are linked to it in one form or another. We hear couples referring to a certain song as “their song” while others remember “the good old times” when a tune is played on the radio. Those same songs also take on different meanings depending on our life events. Following the break-up of a relationship or other painful experience such as the death of a loved one, those very same songs often become painful reminders, restimulating us instantly.
Most of us know of some people who have a tendency to isolate themselves and listen to music that matches their state of mind at the time. It seems to provide comfort to know that someone else (the artist, singer) has gone through something similar and makes them feel understood and validated in some way.
What follows is not the way but only one way of doing it. This is how I usually do it with someone who has had no prior experience with EFT, so feel free to personalize.
After asking about what the presenting issues are, I casually get a brief relationship history of the client (just the headlines), to get a sense of what the family dynamics were (it usually sets the stage for whatever comes next), then move on to friendships, work, and romantic relationships. This is not really necessary, but it helps the client to connect with his/her issues (and also helps to bring out any Psychological Reversals that may be present).
I select an appropriate compilation CD to play (e.g., abandonment, betrayal, or mix) and give them headphones to wear. I then ask them to get into the songs as much as they can, listen closely to the lyrics, and feel what they feel while I do the tapping. The more they feel the better the results!
I then pay close attention to body language, particularly breathing and facial expression. Often, the first thing I notice are the eyebrows. This tells me that they are connected to an issue and they are feeling discomfort of some kind (e.g., fear or anger). This is usually short lived and they start feeling the pain almost immediately.
Tears roll down their faces at times and they often display that classic staccato breathing pattern as the charge dissipates.
At times, I will stop the CD after a track or two and ask for a guesstimate on the intensity they felt (0-10), but most of the time I just let them go on uninterupted. Afterward, I give them a CD copy and a chart with the tapping points to use at home.
The results speak for themselves. So far, all have reported significant reduction levels in stress, anxiety, and, particularly, anger. Most have reported an increased level of peace of mind, self-confidence, and focus.
Here are client comments on this technique:
This is like moving through the 5 Stages of Grief at Warp Speed!
On a personal level, I’ve had a powerful issue come up (fear of being used) while listening to Heart’s “All I Wanna Do.” The story is about a married woman who picks up a man on the road, brings him to a motel, and makes love to him. The real story is that she wants a child, something her husband cannot give her, so she goes to plan B–namely, this man she picked up. While listening to it, I associated with the man in question and the charge went up to a “10+.” I felt shocked, angry, worthless, used, sad–the works! And what amazes me is that I still cannot relate this experience to any particular event in my life. After playing it several times while tapping, the charge went down to “0.” Now when I listen to it, it is just another song–nothing more–and I feel great.
There are no right or wrong soundtracks; they either bring up a charge or they don’t. I always suggest to clients that they go through their collection. Just reading the titles will often point to tracks that have some meaning for them. There are also music charts on the Internet that can help us to remember tracks we used to listen to when we were younger, and these can often be downloaded with appropriate software.
