EFT (Emotional Freedom Technique) For The Military

Does EFT really work?

Yes It Does, and Here’s Why: Many of our brothers and sisters in arms have had success with EFT due to the foundational principles of acupressure that it’s based on.

This is an overview of emotional freedom techniques to help you understand what they are, how they are used, some background information about how EFTs have been used to help military personnel and the veteran community, along with a summary of the benefits of EFTs, along with how to get started, explaining some of the basic techniques that are used. 

It All Started With ACUPRESSURE

What Is EFT Tapping?

Emotional Freedom Techniques are a series of acupressure techniques that are used as a way to optimize your emotional health and wellbeing. Whatever your opinion on emotional well-being, there are unquestionable links between your physical and emotional well-being. Even with the most rigid of fitness regimes and healthy eating habit, you will not achieve your greatest potential without a sound and stable emotional balance. 

EFTs are founded on the same energy meridians that have been used in traditional acupuncture for many thousands of years in order to successfully treat both physical and emotional ailments. The core difference between acupuncture and acupressure is that there are no needles involved in the latter.

How Do EFTs Work?

Emotional Freedom Techniques use a very simple motion of tapping with the fingertips. Using positive voice affirmations alongside the tapping, you input kinetic energy on the various meridians of the chest or the head while you are thinking about the problems you wish to address. It might be a specific event, addiction, pain, or trauma.

EFTs, bring together elements of different types of therapies, the most well-known being CBT, which, when used with acupressure, a form of tapping with the fingertips of various acupuncture points, becomes a highly effective way to help treat a number of issues and concerns. It is sometimes referred to as EFT tapping because of the motion of fingertip tapping that occurs as part of the treatment.

It is this unique combination of positive voice affirmations alongside a gentle tapping on the different energy meridians that work to remove the emotional block from the bioenergy system of your body.

The act of doing this helps to restore the balance of both your body and your mind which is essential for the healing process.

Electromagnetic energy principals are not specifically an area that is commonly understood by the wider public population in the Western World. However, it has been understood and used in Eastern quarters for centuries. In fact, there are EFT specific medical practitioners that are now located all around the world.

The Benefits of EFT

EFTs are relatively straightforward to learn and can bring about a huge range of benefits for those who take the time to master them. They can help you:

• Eliminate cravings for food
• Reduce your negative emotions
• Significantly reduce pain
• Help you to implement your goals
• Overcoming fears and phobias

The History of EFTs and the Military

In 2017, the US Veterans Admission approved EFTs as ‘generally safe’ and a recommended treatment for Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD). This approval has meant that Veteran Association Therapists are now able to use EFT with ex-Military personnel who are suffering from PTSD, anxiety, pain, depression, and other related conditions.

Following a rigorous and extensive testing process that accounted for the efficacy and safety of EFTs, this review produced clear results. The resulting conclusion was that EFTs are effective in treating a range of physical and psychological conditions.

For many, this approval has been long awaited news. Therapists were known to have first raised the flag with the VA over a decade ago in 2004 when it was found to be successful in the treatment of veterans who returned home from Iraq. Despite various Members of Congress showing support for EFTs in the military, the VA had previously rejected its suitability for approval.

A group of therapists formed the Veterans Stress Project in order to fill the gap. They had a clear goal of connecting veterans with EFT practitioners. It was based on their experiences with EFTs and the military, along with other therapists that The Permanente Journal was published by Kaiser Permanente.

In this journal, there were specific guidelines that were issued around how to use EFTs with veterans who were suffering from PTSD. In summary, this journal recommends a minimum of ten EFT sessions. However, it is regarded that in many cases, fewer treatments can be highly effective in dealing with PTSD symptoms such as flashbacks, hypervigilance, and nightmares.

How to Get Started with EFT

If you want to get starting with EFTs, there are three main elements that you need to learn; these are, how to tap, where to tap, and the setup statement.

How EFT Tapping Works

If you are new to EFT, then you will welcome the news that learning EFT tapping is quite easy and relatively straightforward. For most people, it is something that can be taught and learned in a matter of minutes.

Where you tap is important, but for now, we are going to focus on the tapping technique, so tapping in the general area is fine for this purpose.

Focus on your Fingertips

If you wear glasses it will be helpful to remove your glasses.

Tapping with your fingertip is not exactly the same as tapping with your finger. Keep this in mind as you get started. A finger pad is not a fingertip! Make sure you know the difference and use your fingertip for the tapping.

On your fingertips, there are a number of different acupuncture meridians. So, when you tap with your fingertips, you will probably use the meridians on your fingers as well as your fingertips.

Traditionally, EFT will only use a single hand, and will explicitly be done with your index or middle finger. You can use any hand or both, and it doesn’t matter if you switch hands during the process.

Tapping solidly is important, but do not hurt yourself in the process.

There are different areas to tap, which I will talk about in the next section when you tap, you need to do so around 5-7 times for each specified area.

Where to Tap – The Tapping Locations

Each of the various tapping points is outlined for you below.

Tapping Location 1 – The Top of the Head

Raise your arms and bring your hands together on the top of your head.

Tap in the center of your head.

Tapping Location 2 – The Eye Brow

Place your fingers at the start of your eyebrow, nearest to your nose. Place your fingertips here.

Tapping Location 3 – The Side of your Eyes

There is a bone that is on the outer corner of your eye. Place your fingertips here.

Tapping Location 4 – The Underneath of your Eyes

Around an inch under your pupil, and on the bone that runs underneath your eye.

Tapping Location 5 – Underneath your Nose

On the area of skin between your upper lip and the bottom of your nose. Place your fingertips here.

Tapping Location 6 – The Chin

In the middle of your chin, halfway between the bottom of your face and your lip. Place your fingertips here.

Tapping Location 7 – The Collar Bone

This is where your breastbone and your sternum meet. In acupuncture, this important area is typically referred to as ‘K27’. 

Tapping Location 8 – The Underarm

This is actually around four inches below your armpits. For me, it should be at an even point with your nipple. For ladies, this will be in the middle of your bra strap.

EFT Affirmation Statements

Now that I have covered the process of EFT tapping and showed you where the different points are located on your body. The next element of understanding EFTs is knowing how to use the setup statements.

The key point to remember is that EFTs are all about tuning into your problems or stressors. There are many different variations of EFT setup statements, and every EFT therapist or practitioner may advise a slightly different way of saying particular statements. The below examples of EFT statements are just a few samples to give you a taste of what can be said while tapping.

While saying the setup statement we tap three times on the karate chop part of the hand.

Very Important: Before starting with the setup statement, locate a stress in your body. Pretend you are being scanned at the airport and find some stress. Give it a level on the scale of 1 to 10. Stress is just an example. Now that you know the level of the stress, pain negative feeling, proceed to the setup statement.

Example 1 For The Setup Statement

While tapping on the meaty part of the hand on could say, ‘Although I have this stress or fill in the blank ______, I truly and completely accept myself.’

The blank space can be used to describe a craving, fear, addiction, negative emotion or any other issue that want to address. The best results come from statements that are true to your life circumstances. 

Repeat this process three times then proceed to the other tapping points.

Example 2

Tap on the hand while saying ‘Although I have a headache, I truly and completely accept myself.’

‘Although I have a fear of the dark, I truly and completely accept myself.’

‘Although I have a fear of public speaking, I truly and completely accept myself.’

‘Although I have anger towards my mother/father, I truly and completely accept myself.’

‘Although I have this memory of war, I truly and completely accept myself.’

‘Although I have these nightmares, I truly and completely accept myself.’

‘Even though I have pain in my back, I truly and completely accept myself.’

Variations

There is also a range of variations you can use with EFTs. Because they all tend to follow the same format, they are each correct in that they acknowledge an issue while creating acceptance of the issue at the same time. This is essentially the formula that needs to be followed when creating any EFT setup statement.

Tap on the hand point while saying ‘Even though I am dealing with fill in the blank ______ I profoundly accept and love myself.’

OR

‘I accept myself, despite having _______.’

Tapping on the hand three times allows time for the feelings associated with the stressor to kick in. This means additional adrenalin should be going into the bloodstream. 

In the face of the stressor, visual image or feeling, calling for additional adrenalin, we now tap on the other points that send a signal to the limbic system that all is well.

So, even though the body felt the need for a stress response it now see and feel that it is safe so can relax in the face of the new information.

This wonderful intelligent design and how tapping works and is proven by Harvard fMRI studies.  https://treasuretapping.com/tapping-therapy/

The process that causes this to happen is tapping on the other points while saying a paraphrased version of the stup statement.

Go back to the images and follow the tapping sequence from the highest point to the lowest. Say a shorter version of the setup statement.

If you said, “even though I am stressed out over all the bill this month, I deeply and completely accept myself.”

Or “even though this upper back pain hurts more when I have to pay bill I deeply and completely accept myself.” You would now shorten the setup statement to be, “this stress” or “this pain.”

You say the shorter version while tapping on all the remaining points.

Go back to first image of the smiling supermodel and tap. Tap all the points while saying the shortened version of the setup statement.

This keeps the stressor in front of your face while experiencing peace and calm from tapping. The peace will neutralize the stress response.

It is at this point you should look at the level of stress before tapping and after.

If it has gone down but some remains then make another true statement about the stressor such as, “even though I can still feel some stress I deeply and completely accept myself.”

Follow the same path as the first tapping sequence.

EFT for the Military

Whether you believe the affirmation statement or not at this point is irrelevant; you just need to say it. It is much better to say it with feeling, but the routine act of saying that statement will normally be effective enough in order to get the job done.

Make sure you say these statements out loud. If you are in a public place or another form of social situation, it is fine to say it quietly or even think it. However, this should only be an exception rather than the norm.

Make sure you are free from any distractions and that you actually tune-in to the issues before starting the tapping process.

Remember, that any negative emotion is essentially a disrupting of the energy system of the body. If you are tuned into negative thoughts or issues, this will bring about a disruption.

A quick search online will reveal the extensive benefits of EFTs. People are using EFTs to overcome their fears, achieve their goals, and take back control of their negative thought patterns.

Having a health emotional wellbeing is just as important as maintaining good physical wellbeing. With more research being released on the benefits of EFTs, this guide has been produced in order to give you a little more information about the practical side of EFTs along with an overview of some of the reasons why more people are starting to use EFTs in their everyday lives to help them deal with stress, pain, and many other things.