CreativeEFT

Published in the Rising Sun EFT Group Newsletter 12-17-09

I was speechless when I received the announcement of Gary Craig’s retirement a few days ago. This is truly earthshaking news for the EFT community. I’m sure we are all sending healing energy to Gary for the best recovery from his heart attack. Perhaps we can all tap healing energy towards him, as we know that surrogate tapping is powerful.

If anyone deserves all the rest, freedom and ease of retirement, it is Gary Craig. The immensity of the gift of EFT that he has given the world can never be acknowledged and appreciated enough. He has worked tirelessly on behalf of EFT for so long. During this time, we have been blessed with Gary’s gift of such an amazing wealth of free or low-cost EFT resources. For me, the DVDs and the website, especially the article archives on the website, have been like the backbone of EFT and I will miss them greatly. It is a huge loss that these resources will also be coming to a close. Many are suggesting that the article archive be maintained in some form, so I hope that will be considered.

I’ve been thinking a lot about Gary and would like to share with you my favorite story about him. I first met Gary in 2001 at a workshop he did in Flagstaff, Arizona. This is one of the workshops that is on the second DVD set, and it was a marvelous experience. At that time, there were about 180 of us in attendance and, being a little shy, I was of course lost in the crowd. But soon thereafter, Gary put out an invitation — he wanted to find 12-15 people to come out to his home at The Sea Ranch, CA, and spend a week training in EFT with him. I was on the phone with him in seconds! Thus, my dear friend Carolyn Lewis and I ended up in that small group training.

So my first real connection with Gary was this experience of his incredible generosity. I was so blown away, I was pinching myself, was it a dream? All we had to do was get there and pay for lodging in the several vacation houses he rented for the event, and he would give us a week of his time. Wow.

As plans were made, it appeared that we would have the option of doing our own cooking. My friend and I prefer vegetarian, so I found myself asking Gary Craig if there was anywhere we’d be able to get tofu! He didn’t know and of course that was fine. On the day we arrived, Gary met us and took Carolyn and me to the house where we would be staying. There was a beautiful bouquet of rhododendron on the table, picked from Gary’s own yard. The refrigerator was already stocked with supplies — including tofu! I will never forget that. How sweet and thoughtful. Gary Craig, who is really not a tofu kind of guy, had gone out of his way to make sure we had our tofu.

It has been quite a ride, as Gary said in his announcement. None of us knew in 2001 that EFT would grow to what it is today. This growth is a wonderful thing and, at the same time, it has presented huge challenges. I wish to honor Gary Craig and thank him from the bottom of my heart. While I am sad to reach the end of this era, I respect his decision to step down and wish him all good things in his well-deserved retirement. We must all do our best to be good stewards of EFT and carry it into the future with integrity, skill and love. I will always acknowledge where I come from as an EFT practitioner and will always appreciate Gary Craig.

Originally published in the Rising Sun EFT Newsletter, Nov. 19, 2009

Inner Theater is a visual approach with EFT that has been developing in
my work in collaboration with Jade Barbee. One of the things that
has come out of our Inner Theater approach is a renewed awareness
of the value of staying very present and responding moment-by-moment
in an EFT session. For the client, this is an experience of being listened to
very deeply, and that alone is healing. For the one guiding the tapping,
it helps us to really trust the healing process that is unfolding and not to
miss any healing opportunities.

A simple technique that Jade & I call “the language of invitation”
is so effective that I now use it in almost every session. Here’s an
example.

Recently a man was tuning in to the look of annoyance on his
mother’s face whenever he, as a child, needed something. We
started tapping the Karate Chop spot:

“Even though I see my mother’s face… and she looks so annoyed…
and that makes me feel___ (what?)” (you simply leave a blank to be
filled in).

He said, “That makes me feel like I’m a bother to her, a pest.”

“And even though I feel like a pest, a bother and___ (what else?)”

He filled in, “Like my needs aren’t important, only her needs
matter, mine don’t… and she wishes she could brush me off like a
fly.”

“And even though she wants to brush me off like a fly, and that
makes me feel_______ (what?)”

“Ashamed. Embarrassed. Like I wish I could disappear.”

“Even though I see her annoyed expression and I have all those
feelings about it, I love and accept my young self… and it’s time
to bring some healing to this.”

You then tap the points for all the feelings that have come up,
“feeling like a pest, my needs aren’t important, feeling
embarrassed and ashamed,” etc. While going through the points,
you can use the invitation technique again:
“Ashamed… embarrassed… and ____ (what else?)”

This simple invitation to fill in the blanks allows us to pay
attention to many nuances that might have been missed. The
subconscious only has to be invited and it will bring up more
and more of what needs healing. Making the invitations while
tapping works especially well. As we’re opening the energy
system with tapping, we’re connecting very directly with the
feelings that have been held in the body and literally tapping
into the body’s healing wisdom.
For more on the Inner Theater approach, please visit www.innertheater.net

Originally published in the Rising Sun EFT Newsletter 10-18-09.

In two recent sessions, I was privileged to work with adults who still needed some healing for the loss of a parent in early childhood. In both cases, we used an Inner Theater approach (engaging the imagination) to create a safe place within, and then we went back in time to find the little girl or little boy they had been.

So much of this healing work was about presence and witnessing and being with the child. Bits and pieces came, such as the confusion and fear around the open coffin, the weirdness of being told, “just go out and play” or “don’t touch the flowers,” and the way no one really talked to the child about what had happened. In this part of the sessions, I found that the phrase, “It’s time to bring healing to this” really helped with the tapping.

“Even though I don’t understand… and I’m really scared…. it’s time to bring healing to this…”

“Even though I feel so confused… what does all this mean?…. it’s time to bring healing to this…”

“Even though no one’s paying attention to me… no one knows how lost and scared I feel… it’s time to bring healing to this.”

As we got further, feelings of loss and grief began to emerge. Especially in past generations, people haven’t realized that children have the full range of human emotions. It wasn’t recognized that even young children go through a grief process — children often got no support or help with grieving. So when we reach back in time to bring in healing, there will be grieving to do that couldn’t be done at the time.

What was most healing here was for the adult self to simply be with the child self and acknowledge the child’s feelings. In this case, the EFT phrase that helped the most was one I learned from my friend Jade Barbee: “I can let these feelings safely flow.”

“Even though there is so much sadness, I can let these feelings safely flow….”

“Even though I miss ______ so much, I can let these feelings safely flow…”

“Even though my heart is broken, that’s just how I feel… I can let this feeling flow…”

“Even though I could just cry and cry, I can let these feelings safely flow… it’s all for healing now.”

Grieving cannot be short-cut or short-changed. It is a process and in order to move through grief, we do need to let feelings flow. In these cases, it was moving to see how the adult self could reach out to the child self and give him or her what was needed — listening, presence, support and permission to feel. In both cases, we brought the child into the inner safe place. As we continued tapping, and the feelings did flow, there was a great sense of relief that the child was not alone anymore and that the loss could finally be expressed and have a chance to heal.

Very beautifully, in both cases, the parent who had died appeared in the safe place to join the adult and child parts and reassure them. An inner reconnection took place that felt very healing. I actually didn’t suggest this — it happened spontaneously. And since what happens in the inner world is very real on the feeling level, these reconnections brought a new sense of completion and peace. I held these sessions with care and I feel honored to have been a part of these very tender healing journeys.

from the Rising Sun EFT Group Newsletter, August 29, 2009

This is a fascinating article from Anita Colucci of Italy. It is a beautiful example of how combining EFT with the imagination (visualization) can be so very effective. Thanks so much for sharing this, Anita.

VISUALIZATION BRINGS THE SWEET SMELL OF SUCCESS

Italian EFT practitioner Anita Colucci describes how a client combined EFT with a strong visualisation of sunflower scent and avoided a surgical procedure.

by Anita Colucci, info@eftitaly.it

One day the client, Anna, came to me very scared and almost in tears. Her left nostril was noticeably closed as it had been for months. She had adhesions to the bone of the nose and the air could not go through.

The doctor had just informed her that in order to re-establish correct breathing she had to be operated on very soon.

Anna was terrified.

We immediately started a tapping session with visualisation.

I asked the name of her favourite flower and told her to try to see it by imaging of full-throated smelling it and repeat:

“I feel the smell…I can smell it all the way…the smell comes into my lungs…I can feel the smell coming up my nose…”

Since we only had 20 minutes, I told her to repeat this exercise at home 3-4 times a day.

The following day, Anna informed me that a drop of blood had painlessly come out from her nose.

Anna continued to repeat the exercise for a week before meeting with me again. The nostril was noticeably open and she could breathe almost completely.

After a few days, everything was back to normal!

We went to see her doctor together to show him the *miracle* achieved through EFT…the surgery was no longer necessary!

I learned afterward that the flower chosen by Anna was the sunflower. When she realised that this flower in reality has a very bad smell, it was already all over!

Later still Anna told me that her left nostril had started to close with the beginning of disagreements regarding the moral behaviour of a woman in her family…(something smells fishy…)

Perhaps Anna wanted to smell it no more…

In response, Anna said: “Thanks Anita for having released me from this problem and from the risk of a surgery. I have learnt EFT and now I practise it daily for any circumstance and my life has clearly improved.”

Anita Colucci 3 Level EFT & MATRIX REIMPRINTING certified Practitioner
www.eftitaly.it

published in the Rising Sun EFT Group Newsletter, August 2009
sign up at www.CreativeEFT.com

This guest article is by Carna Zacharias-Miller. Carna is one of the most skilled and sensitive EFTers I know when it comes to working with the Inner Child. She and I both value this work very much, as a matter of fact we have a Facebook group called Healing The Inner Child with EFT. If you’re on FB, just search for that and join us! Carna has also developed a wonderful new approach called Magical EFT, which I love. More on Magical EFT soon.

Thanks so much, Carna, for this moving article.

From Carna Zacharias Miller
www.missingmother.com & www.MagicalEFT.com

Hi Betty,
 
I have been working with lots of inner babies lately, so I wrote this up. Thank you!
 
HEALING THE INNER BABY WITH EFT
 
While I am always focused on the young self when I am working on childhood trauma with EFT, I recently realized that I am very much tuned in to the baby self. It is absolutely amazing how alive these inner babies are, how this very early time can influence a whole life, and how EFT can heal a bad start into life in a profound way.
 

When I inquire about their childhood, clients often start talking about the time when they were toddlers. However, I like to guide them back right to the early stages of their existence. If there was a disconnection from the mother, it almost always started right in the beginning. I call this timeframe “Conception/Pregnancy/Birth”. Of course, there are usually no conscious memories, but there are always powerful emotions – often triggered by the things our parents told us.

 
Conception issues are not so much sexual (although they can be), but circumstances around that moment in time, like illness of the mother, or absence of the father. In my experience, the two most painful  and far-reaching issues are: “I was not wanted”, and “I was just a girl, they really wanted a boy”. The knowledge or just the inner knowing (parents don’t always tell us directly) of not being wanted always brings up intense emotional pain.
 
Even though my mother thought of abortion when she was pregnant with me, and that makes me feel devastated in the pit of my stomach…
 
Even though I was the 6th child that my father forced on my mother, and she just did her catholic duty, and that makes me feel sad and angry…
 
Being of the “wrong” gender is not really a gender issue. It installs a self-destructive belief system in a girl that often taints her whole life:
 
Even though I am worthless, and there is nothing I can do about that…
Even though I am never good enough, whatever I do
Even though I was a mistake, I was not supposed to be here, and I still don’t know what I am doing here…
 
Moving on to pregnancy and birth, we deal with specific shocking experiences, like dangerous health complications, being pulled out with forceps, or left behind in an incubator. Often, the physical and/or emotional separation from the mother happens right after birth. It is always perceived as heartbreaking abandonment by the mother even if there were rational reasons for it (for example, in my own case it was the outbreak of her schizophrenia).
 
Then we spend loving, caring time with “Baby Anna”, “Baby Molly”, or “Baby Sam” (not real names). That is where the pain, and the hurt, and the desperation, and the anger often come to a peak. Intense loneliness, feeling powerless, hopeless, and a deep yearning for being held and touched are big issues. I believe that it is important to give these babies who were severely emotionally neglected a voice that they did not have when they were actually going through the experience. Once they are allowed to speak their truth through the now adult self, they are ready to be comforted and healed by this adult self.
 
Sometimes I use a little guided imagery to connect to a specific visual and emotional “snapshot” of the baby, and then we tap on every detail that comes up:
 
Even though nobody touches Baby Anne, and she feels desperately lonely in her crib, I am treating this baby with kindness and compassion.
 
Even though nobody even looks at Baby Molly, and nobody picks her up when she is left alone in the bedroom, I give this baby all the love she needs.
 
Even though Baby Sam’s mother yelled at him in the kitchen when he was hungry and crying, I am healing this baby now.
 
One session of EFT (not always tearless…) focused on the inner baby can make a big difference. Usually it is not as dramatic as it was with “Kathy”: After just one session spent with her baby self, she felt great, lost the 10 lbs she always wanted to lose, and found the love of her life. However, most clients feel relief when the baby self has been acknowledged in a loving way, and the adult self is ready to support this tender part with love and compassion.
 
Sometimes, there is a spiritual aspect to this work: Some people have a strong feeling of the radiance, beauty, joy, and unconditional love they experienced before their incarnation. If they find themselves in an environment that is loveless or even hostile, they go through intense, very painful feelings of being trapped in the womb, of fear and regret about coming into the physical world. To lighten up the heavy mood, I sometimes let them tap on: “What was I thinking!”
 
Ultimately, EFT shapes and illuminates our spiritual quest.
 
Carna Zacharias-Miller is a certified EFT practitioner in Tallahassee, Florida.
 
 
——————————————————————————
CARNA ZACHARIAS-MILLER
Certified EFT practitioner
www.missingmother.com
www.magicaleft.com
****************************

I recently received a newsletter from my friend & fellow EFTer Paul Zelizer in which he talked about the great value of supportive relationships. Paul is great at creating connections through social media, etc. As Paul was working on his new website, he already had a web of professional connections so that all the support, skills and help he needed just flowed. This rang a bell for me because of something that we just went through in our family. While my husband and I were still on vacation, our 22-year-old daughter had a car accident. Thank goodness, both she and the other driver were uninjured. But we weren’t there to help her, and it was amazing to see the web of connection that smoothed the way. The mechanic we’ve worked with for years arranged for the towing, etc., “Don’t worry about a thing, I’ll take care of it all.” The insurance we’ve had for years took our daughter under their wing and helped with all the paperwork and a rental car. When it was clear that the car was totaled and a new (used) car had to be found, our mechanic found one for us that day — and my husband knew the owner! Another professional connection. The owner was so supportive — “This happened to my daughter too!” — and even gave us a good deal! Within just a few days, everything was done and all was well.

I’ve thought a lot about how valuable those professional relationships were at that moment. People we’ve done business with for years were really there for us. There was a web of connection and support already in place. It’s the relationships and trust that we build over time that make all the difference.

By the way, Paul’s newsletters are always thoughtful and I get a lot out of them. Find out more at www.paulzelizer.com. I appreciate Paul’s integrity and authenticity and value his work. He has helped me quite a lot with my own business.

formerly published in the Rising Sun EFT Newsletter, July 2009

This personal EFT story of mine is a good example of 1) an inner theater session showing the value of the visual approach and 2) a sensitive inner child session showing that even a baby has the full range of human emotion. What I love the most about this session is the amazing healing image that comes at the end. My subconscious did something my conscious mind never could have figured out, and it completely transformed the issue.

Some weeks ago, I shared that I’ve had issues with sleep most of my life and that EFT had not seemed to touch this. I had started using Jade Barbee’s EFT 3 process before bed and finally something was making a difference. (Jade’s free EFT 3 e-book is available at www.emotionalengine.com -in downloads). I’ve had an intuition for a long time that my sleep difficulties are rooted in infancy. During my first 9 months of life, I had severe colic and cried a great deal, was in pain every time I was fed, and never slept long stretches. So I was tapping for the “baby in pain” with the EFT 3 process — and this was improving my sleep. A clue!

So then I did a full session on this issue, with Jade’s guidance. I wanted to go into the Inner Theater (visual approach) and so I began by imagining my healing place. For me, this is a place in the woods with a pond, some deer and a blue heron. When asked to get in touch with the problem, I found, under the roots of a tree, a treasure chest that held this whole issue. I felt like there was an immense amount of sadness in that chest, so I saw myself holding the chest as we tapped for “this sadness.” I began to get flashes of my mother holding a crying baby and she was crying too. I started to feel my mother’s sadness that, despite her best efforts, she couldn’t relieve this baby’s pain. Many tears as I tuned into her feelings of inadequacy:

“Even though she feels like it must be her fault… she’s not a good enough mother… it’s time to bring some healing to this.”

“this sadness… feeling inadequate… thinking it’s her fault… ”

I’ve heard stories about how my parents held and “bounced” me so much in a certain kitchen chair that they wore out a place on the kitchen floor! In the session, I was overwhelmed with the realization of how hard it all was for them. Hours of rocking and bouncing this crying baby. But they did that rather than leaving her to cry alone. I was moved with how much they had really showed up for me.

“Even though nothing seems to work… and the baby is still crying… it’s not your fault!… you’re doing an amazing job… you’re not leaving her alone… ”

“it’s not your fault… you’re doing an amazing job…”

I felt like I needed to go back in time and give my parents a medal! My baby self too. No one had slept much those first 9 months — it was hard for us all.

As I tuned in to the baby self, I had much emotion come up. I felt like the baby had tried desperately to help her mother feel better. She wanted to be a good baby and make it easier for her mother… but the crying kept getting in the way. Lots of tears and lots of tapping.

“Even though I really want to be a good baby… but the crying is in the way… I hate this crying! but I can’t make it stop… it’s time for healing now…”

I felt a lot of sadness for how much we had both felt like failures and how this had hurt the mother-baby bond.

By now, I was really in touch with the scene from the past and that damn crying that just wouldn’t stop! I said, “I need to get the crying out of the picture. That’s what’s in the way.”

Jade guided me then to give it form, give it an image, as we do in inner theater work. I felt the crying energy swoop over to the side of the scene and become birds, loud squawking birds, a whole flock of them in a tree, deafening. Then as this took further shape, I realized that the birds were all baby birds, a hundred of them in a big nest, with their mouths open, screaming for food. We kept tapping for the image:

“all these baby birds… needing to be fed… open mouths, screaming, squawking…”

Suddenly, I saw all the mother and father birds arriving and they did what many birds do to feed their babies — they brought up partially digested food from their crop. (I have a strong image of this in my mind because I have a lovebird who feeds my fingernails this way!– the fingernails are like baby bird beaks for him and trigger that instinctive response. It’s very sweet.)

This was amazing! Perfectly digestible food had so been what was needed. We tapped:

“Even though the baby birds were crying… now they’re getting perfectly digestible food… that will never make their tummies hurt… they can be fed and it won’t hurt…”

I saw the baby birds all calming down and settling into sleep. All those little round heads nestled together. Suddenly they seemed like the cells of my body, and I knew that this healing was reaching the cellular level.

“Even though nothing worked back then… now there is perfectly digestible food… hunger satisfied, no pain, back to sleep… all the cells of my body receiving this nourishment…”

I was feeling amazing. All the sadness was gone and I felt a tingling all through my body, great relief, as if a huge burden had lifted.

In the inner theater, I then went into the scene to give medals all around! Mother, father and baby all got medals for doing such a good job under such challenging circumstances. In a celebratory mood, I imagined us opening some champagne… and baby even got a sip! As I said, “her system is so healed now, she can digest anything!”

The result of that session has been — sleep! A truly vast improvement in my sleep. I can hardly believe it. When I wake up in the wee hours, I can usually just picture the baby birds getting fed and settling back down… and before I know it, I’m back asleep. This is truly amazing since in the past it could take me hours to get back to sleep and often the 4 am awakening was the end of the night’s sleep for me. I am now getting 7 and 8 hours of sleep on a regular basis for the first time in decades. It feels great!

I’d like to thank Jade Barbee for that amazing session. We’ve developed this Inner Theater work as a collaboration, learning from our session trades. But this time I was totally on the receiving end for life-changing benefits. Being listened to so deeply and guided so sensitively is healing in itself. And my subconscious was given the opportunity to create a profound healing resolution I never could have achieved consciously. I can feel that this is real, deep, and cellular-level. Something has shifted profoundly, as if past and present have healed in a way that allows my system to truly find rest.

I recommend Jade’s phone sessions to anyone who truly wants transformational healing.

Sweet dreams to all!

Originally published in the Rising Sun EFT Newsletter. Sign up for my free newsletter at www.CreativeEFT.com

I recently was in touch with Gary Craig in an attempt to get some clarity on his Open Hand Policy. Many rumors were flying around and there has been a lot of fear and confusion. After my first conversation with Gary, in which he clarified that we can of course continue to call ourselves “EFT Practitioners” (which some people had doubted), Jade Barbee and I decided to put some things into writing and ask Gary to discuss our concerns with us. He was very receptive to this discussion and I believe that a lot has been cleared up. I want to share with all of you what we found out. First, Jade’s report on our talk, then the clarifications that came from this.

From Jade:

As personal EFT friends and colleagues, I wanted to let you all know that Betty Moore-Hafter and I had the opportunity to speak with Gary Craig on Saturday for almost 2 hours.  Long story short, we went through the most worrisome language in the Open Hand Policy together in an attempt to clear up misconceptions and provide clarity for EFT practitioners in light all the big changes and events of late. The good news is that Gary voluntarily made improvements “on the spot”, specifically to what we felt to be the most troublesome language — most notably, the part where he continually said, in essence, *you may practice EFT, just let people know it’s not endorsed by EFT,* which was driving so many of us crazy and pushing everyone’s panic buttons.  This language, which was also communicated in his blogpost, implied a new proprietary level of ownership. If, as it appeared, Gary was claiming ownership of EFT so completely and in a new way, what was left for me as both an EFT practitioner and innovator?

I’ll be honest with you. The conversation was quite tough. We offered what we believed were some valuable creative solutions. Gary listened but, for his own reasons, pretty much resisted most of our creative ideas. However, in the course of our discussion, something very interesting and positive unfolded. Although at times the conversation felt difficult, we took from it an unexpected feeling of peace, not because we necessarily got “what we wanted”, but because he genuinely stood firm with levity and effectively communicated to us an important consistency in his message.  We also felt a degree of mutual understanding.

Our understanding from talking with Gary is that he is mainly concerned that we share our work ethically and honor the symbiotic relationship with Emofree.com. In other words, as long as I don’t pretend that EFT begins and ends with me and I point those I attract to Emofree for core EFT training, I can innovate to my heart’s desire and share my version of EFT in my own unique way — provided that I distinguish it from the standardized EFT training on the DVDs. This solid ground, which Gary is demonstrating his willingness to clarify, feels good to us. And since we’ve put quite a bit of equity into EFT, as many of you have, we have every reason to continue to identify as EFT practitioners.

In light of all the recent questions around the dissolution of the Masters program, the new certification and the Tapping World Summit, it was somehow heartening to know that his biggest concerns are literally incapsulated here. I was impressed that he literally jumped at the chance to change the wording in several parts of the policy.

When we approached Gary as not-yet-certified practitioners, it was from this position of wanting to certify, but unsure just what our common ground with him was. As Betty noted, and I too feel deeply “He gets it, Jade. He’s not going to pull the rug out from under us”.

From Jade & Betty:

Here are our concerns and, to the best of our understanding, the clarifications we received. Gary Craig’s complete Open Hand Policy is available at www.emofree.com/FAQ/open-hand-rights.htm.

1) There had been confusion concerning a part of the Open Hand Policy asking us not to use EFT as “letters behind someone’s name”. Some people were interpreting that to mean that we could no longer call ourselves EFT Practitioners. That is not the case. Gary added a new line to the policy to clarify:

“Non-certified EFT practitioners may use the term “EFT Practitioner” in their signature lines so long as it appears under your name and not after it as typical credentials might appear (e.g. Joseph Moore, PhD, MD, MFT, etc.). Thus an acceptable use of EFT Practitioner for a non-certified practitioner would look as follows…

Joseph Moore, PhD
EFT Practitioner”

2) The confusing language of *feel free to practice EFT but make it clear you don’t represent Gary Craig and EFT* has been changed all through the document. Now it reads as follows:

“ In essence, I wish to grant the freedom to ethically practice EFT, give workshops and create books, etc. so long as it is made clear to the public that your EFT activity represents YOUR own ideas, angles, versions etc. and not necessarily those of Gary Craig or www.emofree.com.”

3) The one reference to “official EFT” (which had been in quotes) has been changed to “all about EFT”

“The challenge is that the workshop students expect to learn all about EFT from you, even though you cannot realistically deliver it. Why not?”

[Gary goes on to say that this is because you can't cover all the material in the DVDs, etc.]

4) People have felt put off by the wording of the disclaimer Gary is requesting. We found out that we may be creative in how we word this. Personally we’re not fond of the negative language of “does not necessarily represent”. Well, we don’t have to use those words. When we ran Jade’s new disclaimer (below) past Gary, he said, “Beautiful.” He had no objections to either of these.

This is Jade’s: “My EFT approach is unique, yet draws heavily upon core EFT principles. For complete, standardized EFT training (including the free weekly EFT Newsletter, the free manual and inexpensive learning DVDs) visit Emofree.com”

This is Betty’s: ”Betty’s creative approach to EFT is her own, yet it is deeply grounded in the core EFT principles as taught by Gary Craig. For complete EFT training, including the free manual and low-cost DVD sets, please see www.emofree.com”.

5) Some people have been worried about their website names which include EFT — are they still okay? Yes. We are welcome to continue using EFT to designate our work as long as we include the disclaimer Gary is asking for. For instance, Betty’s www.CreativeEFT.com is fine, as is Carna Zacharias-Miller’s www.MagicalEFT.com

6) People have thought that Gary is restricting us to “basic EFT” or the “original version” with the 9 gamut and hand points, as if this were the only “real” EFT. This is not the case! On the contrary, creative work based on skillful EFT is encouraged. Anyone who leaves the core EFT principles behind and changes things beyond recognition would no longer be doing EFT, of course, but otherwise, we can practice EFT in our own way as freely as ever. For instance, we talked with Gary about our Inner Theater approach. We believe that the EFT we do within this approach is firmly grounded in the core principles we learned from the DVDs — yet Inner Theater is a unique and different way of applying EFT. Gary is fine with this. As you may have noticed, he featured Jade’s article on Inner Theater in a recent newsletter. Another example: Betty’s article on Creative Language was featured in the two new books Gary put out this year, EFT for PTSD and EFT for Back Pain. Our creative innovations are encouraged and valued.

7) We urged Gary to more clearly acknowledge the value of the symbiotic relationship that has always existed between the founder of EFT and the dedicated practitioners who have furthered the development of EFT. It has in so many ways been a co-creation with contributions from us all in the form of case histories, personal EFT stories, new ideas for the art of delivery, etc. These contributions have always been valued and they still are (as demonstrated in the EFT newsletter). We hope that this will be made more clear in the policy.

A rewriting of the Open Hand Policy is forthcoming and Gary will be considering our suggestions as well as those of others. Please do submit your constructive ideas and concerns to temp@emofree.com. Again, you can read through the existing policy at: www.emofree.com/FAQ/open-hand-rights.htm

We hope this information is helpful to you. Please pass it on. We’ve just wanted to have truth, clarity and real information. When we all have that, we can make our own decisions based on what is right for us.

love,
Betty

originally published in the Rising Sun EFT Group newsletter, 5-31-09

I’m a big fan of using creative language with EFT. My colleague and good friend Jade Barbee has put together a free e-book called EFT-3, and I think it is inspired. He presents EFT as a three-part process of 1) Acknowledge (Set-Up part one) 2) Accept (Set-Up part two) and 3) Allow (Sequence - tapping for “this ___feeling”). What I love about the EFT-3 e-book is that each of these has a full page of suggested tapping phrases — as you fill in the blanks for your issue, the language becomes very powerful.

A PERSONAL STORY - USING EFT 3 FOR MY SLEEP ISSUE

I’ve had problems with sleep all my life. And, yes, I’ve done tons of EFT on this, but that has been a frustrating experience. It is the one thing that, in the past, EFT wouldn’t touch for me. Even working with other practitioners, I never got any permanent improvement with this issue.

Because I often wake up around 4-5 am, around my birth time, I’ve wondered if the sleep disturbances are connected with my birth and possibly my first 8 months of life, during which I had a lot of colic and did not sleep well as a baby (poor parents). I happened to talk with my father recently about this and he told me about rocking and bouncing this little “baby in pain.” As he said, the colic must have been severely painful, like the worst gas pains. It’s so sad to think about, a little baby in pain and nothing that seemed to help (hmmm, sounds like me and sleep!)

So this was on my mind when I started experimenting with Jade Barbee’s EFT-3. I decided to go through the process before bed, tapping for “can’t sleep” and “this baby in pain.” Here are some of the sequences based on Jade’s e-book:

1) Acknowledge

Even though this feeling of “can’t sleep” makes me see “this baby in pain” and reminds me of “those difficult beginnings” and makes me feel “sad”…

Even though I carry this feeling of “can’t sleep” in “my belly”…

2) Accept

I want to make peace with where I am and who I am right now. This is how a part of me feels and I honor this part of me.

I want to transform this “baby in pain feeling” into deep trust and confidence and inner peace.

3) Allow - This ___ Feeling (tapping the points)

This “can’t sleep” feeling….

This “baby in pain” scene in front of me…

I want to fully express this and release this; it’s been exhausting.

All this old feeling of “can’t sleep” which reminds me of “the baby in pain”… that was then and this is now! I can release that old strategy!

There’s a wise part of me that knows… “I survived… I can sleep now, free of pain.”

The phrases above are just a sample, there is much more. I tapped through each page, adapting all of Jade’s language to my issue. One time through the three pages of EFT-3 before bed. And I had an amazingly good night! I did wake up, but I easily went back to sleep.

In the past week, the nights I’ve used EFT-3 before bed have all been nights of good sleep — amazing. One night I slept through, unheard of for me. Several nights, I didn’t do the process and they weren’t as good. So I’m going to make this my routine. What a godsend.

I’m wondering why this process is serving me better than directly working on the issue, which of course I have done (including sessions on the baby core issue.) It’s possible that this wonderful and comprehensive language is reaching the subconscious in a way that is deeply soothing. Tapping through all these phrases may be snagging some things on deep levels and bringing in those reassuring messages in ways that nothing else has. It’s been a fascinating experiment and truly gratifying to get results on such a tough and persistent problem.

I recommend that you pick up a copy of EFT-3 and print out the 8 pages. Especially keep the 3-page process nearby. There’s some great language to glean here for working with clients or yourself. And try the whole thing as a process on some issue. In ways the conscious mind doesn’t have to understand, this may reach deep aspects and roots and bring in healing and shift things powerfully .

Jade is offering this great resource for free. You’ll find the free EFT-3 e-book here:

www.emotionalengine.com

Thank you, Jade, for this great contribution to the tapping world.

On our recent trip to Tucson, Arizona to visit our daughter, my husband bought me a beautiful little wall hanging. It has a picture of the extraordinary Mexican artist Frida Kahlo and the words, “The soul thinks in images.”

I love this idea. It has been my experience that whenever we can allow ourselves to think in images, we are indeed closer to the soul level, or the deeper wise mind. One image can embody so much, and when our own images transform and change, things really shift within us.

The Inner Theater work with EFT that I’ve been developing with my friend and colleague Jade Barbee is exciting precisely because it brings EFT into that realm of imagery and inner life. I’ve been amazed at how easy it actually is to go there in an EFT session. And once you’re there, things unfold.

I was working with a woman who is seeking to follow her dreams, make some changes and move in a new direction that would be more authentic for her. But she has felt very blocked. We had talked about the situation and had done a little tapping when she suddenly told me that she was going to have to leave the session much earlier than planned. We only had 18 minutes left! I asked her if she would be willing to close her eyes and do some work through the imagination so that we could get the most out of the little time we had. I guided her into an inner healing room, a “room of possibilities,” we called it. Just being there brought tears.

Tapping: Even though there’s a lot of emotion about this, I can be with my feelings and just let them flow… even though this brings up deep emotion… it’s okay to feel this…

She didn’t know what the emotion was about. She said the room was still empty. I suggested that something might appear in the room, images, an object or symbol, something that was connected with those feelings.

Tapping: Even though nothing’s here yet, I’m open to seeing whatever I need to see…

Confused images came… .. then there was a tree… then her grandfather’s face… “Any feelings?”….. “Yes… missing them.” So we tapped for “this tree… my grandfather’s face… missing them” and as we tapped, other images from childhood arose, the places, the people… and feelings. I tapped to acknowledge the importance of what was arising, based on what I knew about her. This is someone who grew up in another country, a different culture and language, but had left that behind. “Even though I’ve moved on… my past is deep within me… these places, these people… my roots… missing them…”

I wondered out loud if this was connected with her desired new direction. I wondered if the child that she had been might hold the keys to her authenticity. She liked those thoughts, so I just tapped the points, “This deeper level of who I am … rooted in the past… who I was… that girl in that country… that culture… connecting with this part of me… ” This brought a wave of deep emotion and tears, which we tapped for.

Even though there’s so much deep feeling here, that’s okay… I can feel this now…

We had to end, but something so significant had happened. She felt like a channel into her deeper self had opened. She acknowledged that she had walked away from that past and had left it behind. But to be whole and authentic and move forward into more wholeness, she needed to reclaim that part of herself. Whatever that would mean. And she was open to that possibiiity.

Wow. I’d begun recording only when she’d found her healing room and gotten established there. I noticed that the actual work in the healing room had only been 12 minutes! And yet she had had a profound healing breakthrough.

I keep thinking about the tree and wondering if it was symbolic of those deep roots in her, as well as being a real tree. This is the power of imagery. An image can have many layers of meaning. I also think this story illustrates the new language that is emerging. It’s a language of allowing. “Even though….. I can be with this… that’s how I feel… I can let these feelings flow, etc.” This is now coming into all my sessions, language which helps us stay right in the moment, acknowledging and supporting in such a gentle way whatever is unfolding.
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For a free teleclass about Inner Theater and EFT and more resources, visit
www.creativeeft.com/Inner_Theater_Resource_Page.php