A: Yawning, burping, and feeling tired during or after a tapping session can mean that the body’s energy is moving or being released. It can also mean that a new aspect or layer has evolved. Yawning or exhaustion signifies feeling “tired of” the issue. Burping signifies not being able to “stomach” the issue. It may be beneficial to tap on these aspects.
–Valerie Lis, Expert EFT Practitioner
Answer 1 from The EFT Manual, by Dawson Church:
1. Check for aspects you might have missed.
2. Describe additional details of the event.
3. Drink water. Our bodies are 70% water, and water is a primary conductor of electricity in the body. When we’re stressed, we can become dehydrated.
4. Dig for other events that resemble the presenting event. You or your client might tap on an event without the SUD rating dropping because the presenting event is a pale shadow of a much more troubling event or many similar events. The SUD level of the presenting event is propped up by all the other events behind the scenes. To uncover events that resemble the presenting event, ask questions like: “Was there a time it was worse?” or “Did it happen often?” Once you’ve found an event with bigger emotional impact, tap on that first.
5. Make the problem worse. Intensifying the problem can help you get in touch with the emotion. Your SUD levels may not be dropping because you haven’t really made visceral contact with the depths of raw emotion in the scene. You may have a degree of protective dissociation from the event. Making the problem worse can put you in touch with the emotion. The problem can be made worse in a variety of ways. You can take an argument and extend it to the point of absurdity. You can raise your voice, scream, swear, exaggerate, and catastrophize. You can rant and rave. All while tapping.
Answer 2 by Certified EFT Practitioner and Trainer Jan Watkins: If you aren’t getting results, consider the following:
1. Review the list on “EFT Tapping Basics Tutorials” (under Resources on this site) and consider what else you might try.
2. Address your emotions about your lack of success. Use EFT to problem-solve your lack of results. Tap on the emotion you are experiencing.
3. If you are a practitioner, make sure your client is ready to work on the problem. Back up and use a “stage-oriented process.” Have you completed an assessment of the client? Is the client ready to process this material? Do you need to establish rapport first or increase the client’s resources before addressing difficult material? Also, address any issues you have as a practitioner around feeling unsuccessful.
4. If you are working alone, consider getting some help with the problem. A trained professional can help by asking questions and suggesting different approaches.
5. Be specific. Give special attention to setting up the problem and setting a very specific target. For example, tapping on “my divorce” or “my partner’s affair” will probably not clear all emotions related to the problem. You may need to deal with numerous events and emotions around this unsettling life event and find related core events. For example, Bob wanted to use EFT for his wife’s affair. Before we started, we identified exactly what emotion he wanted to work on. He selected to work on his anger at the man, rather than the anger at Bob’s spouse. I asked him how he would know if this was clear. He said, “If I can laugh about him, I’ll know I’m over that part of the problem.” We tapped very specifically on the issues related to this man’s role in the affair. Before we finished, we were both laughing as he shifted to seeing the man as a “pathetic loser.” Bob reported, “I kind of feel sorry for him.” I asked Bob if he wanted to work on emotions around his wife’s actions next. He said, “No, I want to keep that anger for now.” If we had not been specific about the target, Bob might have reported that EFT didn’t work for this situation. It worked beautifully for the specific target he chose.
6. Address any resistance or blocks to change. You will need to clear away any blocks to change. Consider whether you are (or the client is) ready to resolve the issue. Explore whether there is any reason, conscious or subconscious, that you would want to hold on to an emotion. For example, people are sometimes slow to release grief because they believe letting that go will be letting go of the person they have lost. I remind them that we are simply trying to release old negative energy, not memories. I suggest that it is likely they can hold the memory of a lost loved one closer once they let go of unresolved grief. There are many reasons you might resist positive change. Some of these include: fear of losing your identity, belief than you do not deserve good things, fear that anything gained will ultimately be lost, belief that holding anger and resentment serves to punish another or keep them accountable, fear that it is unsafe to be different for many reasons, and unwillingness to take responsibility for your life. As a practitioner, it is not your job to analyze the client and uncover these blocks. Simply listen for these limiting beliefs as they surface. If you try to uncover them, you may miss what is actually operating. If you are working by yourself on your own issues, these blocks can be trickier to notice, but it is possible.
7. Here are some other possibilities and things to consider:
· There may be results and you aren’t seeing them. One aspect may have cleared and been forgotten and you are now noticing a new aspect.
· Tap and verbalize exactly what is going on, that is, being in the stuck place.
· Give special attention to setting up the problem: Set the goal precisely and, if necessary, change it to identify a clear, specific, and attainable goal.
· Be a creative problem solver. Trust that the process works when the target is set up correctly. Be persistent in finding the target to set up. Be a detective. Ask questions.
· Recognize that the client’s belief structure and experience is different from yours. Do not make assumptions. Ask questions. Be curious. Be creative.
· The problem may be rooted in a much earlier event, which needs to be cleared first. Always be on the lookout for specific childhood events.
A: If you have a feeling such as these (even if you don’t know where it comes from), first rate the feeling’s intensity on the 10-point SUD scale. Then try using a Setup Statement such as: “Even though I feel numb [resistant, indignant, disbelief], I accept this is how I feel right now.” The Reminder Phrase would be “numb.” Tap a few rounds with that Reminder Phrase and notice if anything else comes to mind that might be underneath this. Then you can start the process again with the new feeling.
If you don’t know why you feel a certain way, you can also say that in your Setup Statement: “Even though I feel resistant but I am not sure why, I accept myself.” Your Reminder Phrase might be “resistant” or even “don’t know why” or both. As you tap a few rounds, the underlying source of the resistance/numbness/indignance/disbelief might surface. If so, tap on what emerges. Periodically during this process, reassess your SUD level to check your progress.
–Peta Stapleton, PhD, Certified EFT Practitioner, Trainer, and Mentor
A: I always recommend attending a live workshop or training to learn EFT so you are in the hands of highly trained and experienced practitioners and presenters as you learn this wonderful tool. EFT Universe maintains a list of trainings and workshops around the world, and all trainers listed are approved.
Because we have such an amazing technological world now, many people come across videos teaching EFT on the Internet (e.g., YouTube). There are some excellent videos out there and some that are perhaps not so great. EFT works best when we are very specific about what we are tapping on; sometimes a video online does not allow you to do that. It is the difference between tapping on “I feel anxious” versus tapping on “I feel anxious because my boss just called me for a random meeting tomorrow and I don’t know what it is about.” The second statement is a lot more specific and tapping will work more effectively on this, as it is specific to the person and to the nature of the anxiousness.
When you learn how to use EFT, I recommend you begin using it regularly for the best effect. Like any habit, EFT builds over time and can have generalizing effects. It’s easiest to establish a routine if you associate tapping with something you do every day, like brushing your teeth or having your morning coffee. If you do just five minutes of tapping at the same time each day, over time you will have addressed many issues in your life. It might be that you just tap on a feeling from the day before, a feeling in the moment (e.g., feeling rushed in the morning!), or something you are working on over time (e.g., a pattern in your life such as why you procrastinate).
EFT Universe has a range of tutorial videos that have been created for the viewer to learn the skill as a newcomer.
It also has tap-along videos on different topics.
Join the mailing list for the weekly newsletters that offer tapping tips and cases from people telling how they used tapping for a wide range of problems and issues.
–Peta Stapleton, PhD, Certified EFT Practitioner, Trainer, and Mentor
A: EFT tapping is simple, but choosing tapping language or the most effective EFT technique for a particular problem can be complex. The best way to learn what to do, when to do it, and how to do it is to learn from professionals who have achieved certification in evidence-based Clinical EFT.
Trying to learn a new skill on your own can be challenging and may produce less than optimal results. If you’re a professional who wants to use EFT tapping to help others heal, achieving mastery as quickly as possible is vital for effective work with your clients. If you’re a coach, teacher, or parent, or looking to use EFT on yourself, expert instruction ensures you get the maximum benefit from this powerful healing method.
7 Reasons to Learn Tapping at an EFT Universe Workshop
1. Build your skills systematically.
2. Be guaranteed a standardized experience.
3. Accelerate your learning.
4. Ensure that you understand the principles.
5. Get hands-on practice under careful supervision.
6. Earn continuing education (CE) credit.
7. Learn from certified leaders in the field.
A: Now. You might remember a traumatic event like a car crash and recall that your SUD level was a 10 at the moment of impact. Perhaps that was seven years ago, and your SUD level when you now recall the event is a 5. Use your SUD level now, not your SUD level at the time of the event. The reason for this is that EFT works on your nervous system in present time. When you recall the crash and give it a SUD rating of 5, that indicates that the part of your neural network carrying the signals associated with the trauma is active. That’s the neural activity we target with EFT.
Some events may have been a 10 when they happened, but you’ve integrated them into your life story and they’re now 0, completely neutral. You’re at peace when you think of them, even though they were tragic at the time. Others may still be a 10 when you recall them decades later. Using your current SUD level allows you to focus on events that carry a lasting emotional charge.
This focus on the present level of distress, not the past level, also allows us to test the results we’re getting with EFT. If your SUD level around the accident goes down to a 1, you know you’ve discharged four fifths, or 80%, of the emotional intensity now associated with the accident. If instead you had tried to use your SUD level at the time of the accident, you’d then be comparing a SUD level in the distant past with one now, which would not give you an accurate barometer of progress.
–from The EFT Manual, by Dawson Church
A: You might have memories of events that were painful, but when you try and assign them a SUD score, your mind goes blank, or you don’t feel any strong feelings. There are several approaches you can use in such cases.
One is just to invent a SUD score. Perhaps a bully beat you up in second grade in school and you know it was a horrible experience, but you can’t figure out what your SUD number is. You can simply imagine a score, making it relative to other experiences in your life. If a happy memory is a 0 and the worst experience of your life is a 10, give the beating a number that seems logical even if you can’t come up with a SUD number based on your feelings.
Another is to tap without identifying a SUD score. You can formulate a Setup Statement and perform a whole round of EFT without any SUD rating at the beginning or end. Afterward, think of the problem and ask yourself, “Do I feel better now?” If you do, that’s an indication EFT has worked, even though you never assigned the problem a numerical score.
The SUD rating is a useful way to assess progress, but like any other part of the EFT routine, if it hangs you up, drop it and tap anyway. Don’t let the inability to come up with a SUD score serve as a block to starting a round of EFT.
–from The EFT Manual, by Dawson Church
A: Sometimes you’ll do EFT on a problem, but when you test your SUD levels before and after, they stay the same. You don’t feel your emotions or your body change.
That’s okay. There are many reasons why your SUD score might not change. You might need to tune in to the problem more strongly. Part of your psyche might be reluctant to confront the problem. Changes might be happening on a level too subtle for you to notice.
You might be dehydrated. Your mind might be convinced that EFT can’t work that fast, so it dismisses or minimizes real change. You might be tapping on an associated problem, skirting the real problem. You might be tapping on a surface issue, not yet having discovered a deeper issue that’s the real problem. Some issues, like compulsions and addictions, have many layers that can take a long time to reveal themselves. You might need the help of a practitioner or a workshop to address this particular issue. As you can see, there are a range of reasons why your SUD score might not go down.
If you finish a round of EFT and your SUD score hasn’t dropped at all, don’t be discouraged. Pick up the work later on, and you might find new insights and better progress. You might also discover that when you think about the problem a day or two later, your SUD score is now lower. EFT might have had a delayed effect. When your SUD doesn’t drop for a particular issue, don’t assume that EFT hasn’t worked or will never work. Sometimes it works in the background or has a delayed effect.
–from The EFT Manual, by Dawson Church
A: When SUD levels are low, you can ask yourself (or your client), “How do I (you) know that it’s not a 0?” Very often you (or your client) will realize that it really is a 0 after all. In this way, you don’t continue to work on an issue that isn’t there.
If you still identify a feeling in your body, it can often be quickly resolved by tapping on the physical symptoms of the feeling, such as “this anxious, butterflies feeling in my stomach.”
Adding the word “remaining” to your Reminder Phrase, as in “remaining anger,” “remaining sadness,” “remaining hurt,” can also help speed up the process.
The floor to ceiling eye roll is another excellent technique when the SUD level is low. Sneaking Away from the Problem and the 9 Gamut Procedure can also be used.
–Valerie Lis, Expert EFT Practitioner
A: There are many reasons why a SUD level might not drop to a zero, and this is not a problem with EFT.
One case is when you achieve slight progress. Perhaps your SUD rating goes from 9 to 7, or from 5 to 1, but won’t go down to 0, despite many rounds of EFT. Even a drop from 10 to 6 is a 40% drop, which represents enormous progress. Sometimes that’s enough.
If you’re working on a long-standing issue, it’s possible for your SUD level to drop to 0, but a drop even of 10% or 20% indicates a significant reduction in your degree of emotional suffering. That’s the goal of EFT. A reduction in suffering is good, even when we can’t completely eliminate that suffering.
Another reason your SUD level might not go to 0 is that EFT often has a delayed effect. You might have pain from a bone fracture, for instance, and tapping brings it from an 8 to a 3, but it won’t go down further, even after you’ve tapped several times. You might find it’s at 0 or 1 the day after.
Emotional problems often respond the same way. You might find that you’ve gone from an 8 to a 2 around some bad childhood event, but your intensity isn’t going lower. The next day, try thinking of the event again and assessing your SUD score. You’ll often find it’s now 0.
If you’re working with other people, ask them about their SUD levels frequently during a session. If their SUD levels don’t go to 0 for every issue, that’s okay. Some issues are easy and go to 0 after just one round of tapping. Others might drop gradually over time. Some might be very difficult and drop only slightly even after years of tapping. Whatever a client tells you, whatever your own body tells you, trust and accept it.
Another reason why a SUD level doesn’t go down to 0 is that it might take time for the reality of change to sink into our bodies and brains. I’ve often tapped with people and seen their pain or upset go away based on the expression on their faces or their body language. I witness clearly that they’re at or near 0. But then when I ask them for a SUD score, I can see the wheels turning in their heads. Their minds are saying, “Wait a moment! Where’s that pain? I can’t find it? Where did it go? It can’t really be gone.” They might get confused or panicked, as the mind searches for pain that’s no longer there. The mind is baffled by this sudden absence and can’t explain it. These individuals might give you a SUD above 0 simply because their minds can’t believe the pain could vanish so fast.
That’s okay. It can take us a while to adjust, especially if a longstanding problem simply vanishes. A big chunk of our inner story might be tied up with that problem, and its sudden absence produces a hole. It can take the mind a while to adjust to the absence of the problem. That’s a common reason why people report a high SUD even when it’s at 0.
If you believe that a client’s SUD is lower than the client’s last number, you can gently ask, “Are you sure it’s that number?” Sometimes, when you ask a second time, the client tunes in, and realizes the number has gone down further than first believed.
That might not happen, the SUD rating stays high, and that’s okay, too. In every case, you accept what your clients say and give them time to adjust. Love and patience provide fertile ground for healing, and a good practitioner accepts the pace of healing just the way it is.
– from The EFT Manual, by Dawson Church
Emotional Freedom Techniques or “EFT Tapping” is a powerful self-help method based on research showing that emotional trauma compromises both physical and emotional health.
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