In an EFT session you or your practitioner will tap on points on your face and body with fingertips while you are focussing on a memory or a feeling. It may be a memory of a traumatic experience, or it may be a symptom of PTSD or C-PTSD.
EFT for PTSD
Military personnel who experience PTSD may benefit from EFT, according to some studies. In a 2013 study, 30 veterans who received EFT treatment along with standard care had significantly less psychological distress and PTSD symptoms than those who were on a waiting list for treatment.
Social interaction with someone who cares about you is the most effective way to calm your nervous system, so it's important to find someone you can connect with face to face. You don't have to talk about the trauma if you don't want to, but the caring support and companionship of others is vital to your recovery.
Post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) is a mental health condition that's triggered by a terrifying event — either experiencing it or witnessing it. Symptoms may include flashbacks, nightmares and severe anxiety, as well as uncontrollable thoughts about the event.
One of the first steps in tapping is to identify a feeling or situation that's bothering you and create a statement that acknowledges the feeling or problem, followed by a phrase of acceptance. For example: “Even though I'm overwhelmed with work, I deeply and completely accept myself.”
Lower intensity issues may only require four or five rounds to provide relief, while more intense issues may take 10 or 12 rounds. Intense or chronic issues are best addressed through consistent tapping over time.
The Setup is a process we use to start each round of Tapping. By designing a simple phrase and saying it while continuously Tapping the KC point, you let your system know what you're trying to address. We do this by saying: “Even though I have this _______________, I deeply and completely accept myself”.
EFT tapping is a technique designed to help reduce the intensity and impact of prior traumatic events. EFT functions on the assumption that people can improve most areas of their lives by removing or releasing unresolved emotional barriers. Indeed, EFT is often described as emotional acupuncture without the needles.
“There are no known side effects or negatives of EFT tapping, and it really is a safe, effective and accessible therapy that can be used by children and adults,” says Capanna-Hodge.
Recently a client said to me, “Do I have to say things out loud while I am tapping on them?” I started to explain that no, you can always do EFT silently, in your head, or even just tap without words on the feelings you feel, and it is still as effective.
Tapping procedures can differ slightly, but most use these locations: the heel of the hand, three locations around the eye, the area below the nose, the area below the lips, the collarbone, the underarm, and the top of the head. From seven to nine taps are delivered on each spot.
To start out with, some people like to tap for a short period (a few rounds of tapping) of time 2-3 times a day, but there isn't a minimum requirement for this to work. If you tap once a week and it helps, great!
Most people use all five fingers on each hand, but depending on what part of the body you are tapping, there are times when it is easier to omit the thumb or little finger. I want to emphasize here that tapping should be very gentle.
In a nutshell, guitar tapping is easy enough to get the basics down. However, making it sound good is entirely up to you and depends on how much you practice. Just like any other aspect of guitar, it's as easy as the amount of time you put into it.
You tap along with the practitioner during the session, each of you tapping on yourself. We tap on the end points of the meridians on the face and torso. EFT sessions are relatively painless. You won't have to dwell on painful memories for tapping to work.
Some people may experience more pain or discomfort during a tapping session, and there is a risk that the technique could potentially exacerbate existing mental health problems or even lead to new ones. Given all of these concerns, it is clear that tapping should be avoided as a treatment for mental health problems.
On guitar, this is a tapping technique in which both the picking and fretting hands, either independently or in conjunction with one another, hammer-on or tap the fretboard in order to sound notes.
People with PTSD have intense, disturbing thoughts and feelings related to their experience that last long after the traumatic event has ended. They may relive the event through flashbacks or nightmares; they may feel sadness, fear or anger; and they may feel detached or estranged from other people.
Triggers can include sights, sounds, smells, or thoughts that remind you of the traumatic event in some way. Some PTSD triggers are obvious, such as seeing a news report of an assault. Others are less clear. For example, if you were attacked on a sunny day, seeing a bright blue sky might make you upset.
When EFT doesn't seem to be working at all or very well, it may be that you are not clearly enough in touch with the issue. One of the first things that I try when EFT doesn't seem to be working is to get even more specific about what I am tapping on. For example, I was helping a friend with her addiction to Coca Cola.