Page 32 - American Nurse Today January 2008

Mind/Body/Spirit —
Tap your way to fast relief
By Joan C. Borgatti, MEd, RN
CAN SYMPTOMATIC RELIEF from Using Emotional
fear, stress, anxiety, and a laundry Freedom Techniques to
list of other ailments really be at your fingertips? The many people who use Emotional Freedom Tech- niques (EFT) think so.
reduce psychological and physical distress
drug therapy. EFT practitioners be- lieve that tapping provides more immediate relief because it inter- rupts the energy of the negative emotions.
EFT has been called an emotional version of acupuncture because it stimulates energy meridians (or acupoints), using a simple tapping of the index and mid- dle fingers. No acupuncture needles required! EFT was developed about 20 years ago by Gary Craig, a student of psychologist Roger Callahan, who created Thought Field Therapy (TFT). Craig’s goal was to develop a sim- pler version of TFT that everyone could use.
The core principle of EFT is that negative emotions result from an imbalance in the body’s energy system. When you have a negative experience, you experience negative emotions that disrupt the body’s energy sys- tem. EFT addresses the energy imbalance and the neg- ative emotions.
Traditional treatment for psychological conditions— such as depression, phobias, stress, and posttraumatic stress—usually consists of long-term counseling and
How does EFT work?
Practitioners of EFT see tapping as a psychotherapeutic tool that provides relief from physical and psychologi- cal problems, including weight gain, high blood pres- sure, depression, and panic disorders.
Eastern medicine, which goes back thousands of years, operates on the principle that when energy fields are unbalanced, the result is distress in the body. And to restore equilibrium, you must manipulate the corre- sponding acupoints.
Western researchers believe that tapping causes a global, nonspecific release of serotonin and a release of gamma-aminobutyric acid, an inhibitory amino acid, re- sulting in decreased distress.
One-two-three-tap!
Nurses interested in learning how to perform EFT can download a free tutorial that explains the process in detail at www.emofree.com/home.htm. Here’s the basic process: • Setup. Begin by repeating a basic affirmation out
loud three times while vigorously tapping the karate chop point (located at the fleshy part of the outside of the hand). The affirmation is “Even though I have this ________ (fill in the blank; for example, fear of public speaking, headache, or stress), I deeply and completely accept myself.”
• Sequence. Repeat the reminder phrase (“this fear, this headache, or this stress”) and tap each energy point seven times. The energy points are:
✓ eyebrow (EB)—just above the nose where the
eyebrow begins
✓ eye bone (SE)—the bone outside the corner of
the eye
✓ under eye (UE)—about 1 inch below the pupil
✓ under nose (UN)—between the bottom of the
nose and the top of the upper lip
✓ chin (CH)—midway between the point of the
chin and the bottom of the lower lip
✓ collarbone (CB)—the junction where the sternum,
collarbone, and first rib meet
✓ underarm (UA)—about 4 inches below the armpit.
32 American Nurse Today
Volume 3, Issue 1