What Is EFT (Emotional Freedom Techniques)?

EFT is a gentle, yet powerful set of techniques that combines elements of traditional Chinese medicine with modern psychology. It involves tapping with your fingertips on specific acupressure points on your face and upper body while focusing on thoughts, emotions, or physical sensations related to the specific issue you are working on.

It might look or sound unusual at first, but it's very powerful and can create real and lasting shifts in how you feel, think, and respond to the issues you address with EFT Tapping. EFT is becoming more and more accepted as an evidenced based therapy.

EFT has been proven to help with all kinds of emotional, psychological and physical issues. I’ve helped clients to overcome a wide range of issues with EFT, as well as with the other therapies I use. Although EFT is highly effective in its own, I often use EFT in combination with other therapies and techniques for even more effective and lasting results. In my work with clients, EFT for anxiety and for other emotions often forms an important and effective part of the process.

How EFT Helps with Anxiety

EFT works directly with your body’s meridian system and the connection between your mind, body and emotions. It calms your overall stress response, and it releases your negative responses to specific issues and situations.

By stimulating acupressure points while addressing the underlying issues that lead you to feel anxious, EFT helps you to release the negative emotional charge and bodily responses to the specific issues and aspects that you are working on. EFT for anxiety can help you to release specific fears and other emotions driving your anxiety, and any perceived limitations, such as not feeling confident or capable in certain situations.

Sometimes the release happens quite quickly with a little tapping when working on a particular symptom or aspect, and sometimes it takes much more persistence and looking at various different aspects and underlying issues. Some quite simple issues can be resolved in one or two sessions while other issues can be more complex, requiring multiple sessions to get complete and lasting relief. Most issues do require a series of sessions, although resolution is usually much quicker, deeper and more lasting than with traditional counselling type therapies and CBT.

Benefits of EFT Tapping for Anxiety

EFT can be used for a wide range of issues, problems and challenges. Many of the problems we have in life can trigger feelings of anxiety, and many types of behavioural problems can stem from anxiety, such as emotional eating, drug and alcohol abuse, and many other major or minor problem behaviours. EFT can be highly effective for relieving anxiety in any area of your life.

Some of the benefits of EFT Tapping for anxiety include:

Calms the fight-or-flight response – When we’re anxious, our body goes into a state of stress and fight or flight. EFT helps to regulate your nervous system and reduce cortisol (the stress hormone). Many clients notice that even after just a few minutes of tapping, they feel a bit calmer and more centred.

Releases responses from negative past experiences and trauma safely – Sometimes our anxiety is linked to past events or traumas, even ones we think we’ve gotten over but still affect us in some way. With EFT Tapping, we can safely explore and release negative emotional responses to memories and events from your past, helping your subconscious mind let go of its need to stay on high alert.

Releases stuck emotions and emotional triggers – You may not always know why you feel anxious. It be may linked to earlier experiences or subconscious fears and other emotions. EFT allows you to gently bring those to the surface and to release the emotional charge you have to them without you needing to re-experience trauma.

Interrupts negative thinking, bringing Clarity and Calm  – Anxious thoughts can feel like a loop we can’t get out of.  With EFT Tapping, we can help to quiet racing thoughts by releasing the emotional charge you have on particular issues, and then you are able to think more clearly without your thinking being clouded with emotions. This helps you to shift out of fearful thoughts and to feel calm, happy and much more resourceful about situations that you previously felt anxious about.

Empowers You with a Self-Help Tool – One of the most empowering things about EFT is that you can use it anywhere, whether you’re on a stressful commute, about to give a presentation, or simply feeling overwhelmed at home. Using EFT for anxiety, or for any other issues you may be having, gives you back a sense of control.

The basic process is easy to learn and to apply on yourself for many aspects of your daily life. For more complex issues and for anything that might be a bit traumatic it’s important to work with a qualified and experienced practitioner.

EFT for Anxiety Disorders

We all have anxiety occasionally about specific issues and situations, such as relationship issues, financial concerns, or an upcoming event, and EFT Tapping works really well for giving you relief from anxiety for those kinds of issues.

Anxiety can become much more excessive, intense and interfere with your daily life. You may find yourself avoiding certain situations and places that trigger you to feel anxious and this can limit your life in many ways. EFT is an effective therapy for anxiety disorders when used by a qualified and experienced practitioner. It's one of the areas that I specialise in.

EFT can be effective for all kinds of anxiety issues, including:

• Social anxiety
• Generalised anxiety disorder (GAD)
• Health-related anxiety
• Panic attacks and panic disorder
• Obsessive compulsive disorder (OCD)
• Phobias or fears  (e.g. spiders, flying, public speaking, driving)
• Trauma related anxiety
• Anxiety around life changes and uncertainties

Through a series of EFT Tapping sessions you can gain relief from an anxiety disorder, start to gain back control of your life and become much more resourceful.  A simple phobia might take only one or two sessions, however other types of anxiety disorder would require more sessions, although with much quicker, deeper and lasting results than with traditional approaches.

What the Research Says

While EFT may look a little unconventional, it's backed by a growing body of research. Studies have found that EFT can significantly reduce anxiety levels, even after just one session, and then much deeper, lasting benefits are gained after more sessions. In clinical trials, participants using EFT showed lower cortisol levels, improved mood, and lasting emotional relief.

There are many research articles about EFT on the internet. This article on Webmd titled What is EFT Tapping? is a quick easy read about how EFT can help with a number of issues, including anxiety.

What happens in an EFT for Anxiety Session?

During an EFT session, whether it's EFT for anxiety, or for any other issue, we’ll start by talking through what you’re experiencing. Then you will be guided through the tapping process while working with specific aspects of the issues you want to resolve. We work together to gently explore your trigger situations and the underlying issues that are causing you to feel anxious.

You don’t need to relive traumatic events; we use gentle techniques to release emotions without you needing to feel at all overwhelmed with emotion or too much discomfort and we work at a pace that feels right and safe for you.

As we tap, you may notice physical sensations shifting, emotions releasing, and even new insights coming into your mind. Many clients are surprised at first at how quickly they can start to feel calm.

How I Use EFT in My Therapy Practice

As an advanced (Level 3) EFT practitioner, I’ve seen clients have many profound beneficial changes for many issues, including by using EFT for anxiety. EFT is gentle, yet powerful, and we can work with any area of your life and any kind of emotional, psychological and physical issues and challenges you may be having.

EFT gives you a tool you can take away and use on your own and so in an EFT session I teach clients how to use the basic EFT Tapping process on themselves.

You can find out more about EFT on my main EFT page.

I integrate EFT in my therapy practice with Matrix Reimprinting, which is a development of EFT, hypnotherapy, NLP and Time Line Therapy™. I tailor all therapies and techniques to you.

Whether we work in person in Luton, Bedfordhsire, Harpenden, Hertfordshire, or through online EFT sessions, EFT can help you to gain lasting relief from many anxiety issues.

 

Free 20-Minute Consultation
If you’d like to explore how EFT can help you with anxiety, I offer a free 20-minute telephone consultation. You’re welcome to ask questions and find out more about how I work.

Get in touch if you would like to arrange a chat

 

Disclaimer: This website does not provide medical advice. This blog post is intended for informational purposes only. Consult your GP or otherwise medically qualified health professional regarding any medical issues you have, changes to your treatment or medication.