.: Case studies

I am including these case studies because I think will show why EFT is so effective at finding what the actual problem is. It can be that often we only look at what we see on the surface and so we miss the point of what the particular problem is really trying to tell us.

Case #1 Back pain

Mrs T came to me because she had lower back pain.  She had been suffering from this pain for 25 years and sometimes when the pain got so bad she would have to take time off from work.  The pain was located in her lower back but occasionally it also spread to her neck and down her right arm.
This pain was constant and when we initially scored her pain before starting our session she said that it was an “eight” but that it would decrease to a “four” depending on her mood and how she felt at the time.

We started tapping on the pain in her back and after doing one round of EFT I asked her if her score was any less than it had been at the start of the session. She said it had gone down to about a “seven”.  I didn’t feel that her score had lowered sufficiently and so I asked her if she knew what had caused her back pain the first place.

She told me that she had been in a shop years ago and whilst standing in a queue she had felt someone’s hand in her bag. She had turned round to see who it was and was met by a man staring at her with a strange smile on his face which had greatly unsettled her.  She shouted at him to get his hand out of her bag and as she did so he pushed her to the floor and ran off. Although her bag and possessions were still in her bag she had fallen to the ground and hurt her back slightly.

She went to the doctors who put her on medication for the pain and they advised her to take it easy for a while which she did. The pain did go initially but it would come back from time to time and eventually it just got steadily worse.
She went to see an osteopath and although she had several appointments she just could not get the relief she needed.  After several years of trying to sort the problem with different alternative remedies, she finally resorted to taking pills.

After listening to her story I decided to “tap” on events surrounding the man in the shop.  It went as follows:-
“Even though that man found it funny and pushed me to the floor and hurt me, I completely love and accept myself”
Following this, we did another round of “tapping” and I then asked her how her pain was.  She said to me,” WOW!”  It’s gone down to about a two and I feel so much lighter and I am able to move my neck and head now”.

In those 25 years of having this back pain, it had been the negative emotion of the attack that had held the pain in her body.  She was angry and upset and that negative feeling was being held in her lower back until she had dealt with it.  As soon as she did deal with it the pain immediately went away because the body had no reason to hang on to it for any longer.

The body uses pain to draw your attention to a problem that you need to work on. It could be because of a situation that happened years ago or a few months ago.  However it is because we have these negative emotions which will then turn into pain and disease, it has nothing to do with the fact that we are unfortunate or in the wrong place at the wrong time

Case #2 RSI

Mr L was a keen fisherman and his pain was starting to impact on his hobby, to such a degree that he really didn't feel like going as often as he used to.

When he came to see me he said it was a good day and that his shoulder wasn't hurting him very much. So we decided that we would reschedule his  appointment for a day when it was hurting him more so that we had something to work with.

Five days later I got a telephone call from him while he was away on holiday.  He was in a great deal of  pain and he asked me if there was anything I could do to try and help him. I said we could try working on it over the telephone because he already knew the tapping points and the technique from when I had seen him at our first session.

We tapped on the pain in his shoulder, first by scoring the pain. He said it was a "seven" and we said:

"Even though the pain in my shoulder is spoiling my holiday I completely and utterly accept myself".

We scored the pain again and it had fallen to a score of "four".  So we then did two more rounds of tapping and the pain was gone.

He never did come back to see me but he called a month later to say that neither the pain or the RSI had  returned.

There is no reason why the body should not be able to heal itself, but sometimes it just needs a little help. In this case the problem was treated in twenty minutes and it has never returned.

Case #3 Fear of needles

One of the effects I find so incredible about EFT is how it can stop phobias. Phobias are something which can cause misery to the many people who suffer from them and laughter to those who don’t.  Phobias can have such a huge impact on the way in which a person lives their lives however by using EFT this will no longer the case.

OCDs can also be treated successfully by using EFT.  OCDs are actually phobias in reverse and yet again EFT can take them away and leave you feeling free once we have worked on them for a very short time.

Miss J had a tremendous fear of needles, and so great was her fear, that it actually stopped her from receiving treatment or even going on holiday.  When she was child she had to be restrained by doctors so they could give her an injection. So each time this happened it just reinforced her phobia and made it more and more difficult for her to face going the next time.

It was the same for going on holiday; if she needed a jab to travel then she would be filled with a deep fear for weeks before having to make the appointment.  You will see how EFT took a very short time to diminish what had been her fear for eighteen years of her life.
I asked Miss J to look at a sewing needle and to score from zero to ten the feeling that she got from just looking at it. She said it was a much higher score than ten, so great was her fear that she scored it as a fifteen.  So we started tapping on:

“Even though I have a fear of needles I completely love and accept myself”.

Then I asked her to score it again and she said “3” and we continued tapping until we finally got it down to a zero.

I then asked her to pick the needle up and just place the point on her skin on her arm; she picked it up but hesitated to put the needle to her skin.

We then did one more round of tapping but this time we said:

“Even though I am afraid of needles going into my skin, I completely love and accept myself”.

She tried putting the needle to her skin and was able to do it this time and with a really big smile she said to me, “That is amazing I really am not scared of needles anymore”.  Time taken 30 minutes.

Note that with this case there were two issues, there was an issue with the needle itself and also an issue with the needle going into her skin.

Sometimes a problem will have more than one core issue, and so we need to keep going until we find them all, which is why it is so important to test as we go.

Case #4 Exam stress

Mrs P-G was about to take an exam and the customary worry of doing well and succeeding because she had been studying for over a year was taking its toll on her as the exam approached.

The dread of turning over the exam paper at the start of the exam and the worry about the final result will distract the mind from the “doing part”, so that all of your energy is then used up in the worrying, to the detriment of answering the exam questions.

This EFT session was conducted over the telephone which was initiated with a quick call the night before the exam, during which we tapped on:

Even though I think I will fail I completely love and accept myself

Even thought I don’t think I have done enough to pass.....................

Even though I will look silly for not passing.................

Even though I am too hard on myself.....................

Notice that we find a negative thought or feeling to work on. This is because we are saying to the brain I have this problem but I acknowledge this problem and I accept myself because of it.  This is a very powerful way to get the mind to let go of thoughts and feelings which is one of the core strengths of EFT.

In the morning when Mrs P-G arrived at the venue where the exam was being held she called me as we had arranged the night before.  I asked her how she felt and she said she felt remarkably calm still and that she had taken many exams in the past and she had never felt so calm. She told me that she was actually looking forward to the exam now because she knew she had worked hard and was prepared for it.

We did one or two more rounds of tapping just to settle her slight nervousness and with that she then went in to take the exam. 

After she had finished the exam she called me back to say that she had felt relaxed and confident throughout the exam and that she was pleased with how things had gone. She thanked me for my help and told me that she had taken many exams as part of her profession but that this was the first time she had felt this way.

Case #5 Post Natal Depression

Post Natal depression can be caused by the worry or pressure of having to be a super human mum! What should be a wonderful experience filled with joy and anticipation has been turned into a worry for the health of the baby as well as all the usual concerns of new mothers to be.

The inevitable tiredness associated with carrying a baby for months, the preparation for the big day, and the nagging fears for the baby’s health, in addition to personal fears of will my partner still love me and am I going to be a good mum? 

So, is it any wonder that some new mums feel overwhelmed, frightened, inadequate and ultimately depressed?

Mrs D had post natal depression for seven months starting a week after her little girl was born.  She started with her crying for most of the day and with the worry and responsibility which came with her vulnerable baby in the cot beside her, she felt overwhelmed and consumed with worry.
The only advice given to her was that she needed to get on with it and sort it out as she wasn’t the only one in her life now.

After talking to her for a while we settled on the thought that she was really worried about not being a good parent. This was also compounded by the fact that she wasn’t producing enough milk to feed her baby, and the lack of milk was making the baby cry more and so the feeling of being inadequate was very strong.

We started tapping on:

“Even though I am inadequate I completely love and accept myself”.

As she was saying this she had a picture pop up in her mind of when she was a very young girl and of a doll she was given by her grandmother. While she was playing with the doll the arm of the doll fell off, her grandmother was so cross and told her that if she ever had a real baby she would kill it because she didn’t know how to look after anything.

Note how something said almost 22 years before is still held in the mind and affecting this person. Although you can’t blame her grandmother for what she said as she never thought at the time of the impact her words would have. Although obviously it did have a tremendous impact in Mrs D’s life.

So we said:
“Even though I mess things up and never look after anything..............”

“Even though my grandmother thought I wouldn’t look after a baby very well............”

“Even though I fear I will hurt the baby.............”

We continued tapping until we got all these issues down to a score of zero and she felt much better.

I am still seeing this client from time to time but I wanted to mention that within a couple of days her milk flow had returned to normal and she was satisfying her baby. She now feels very much better about herself and the thought of looking after her baby and is back in control of her life.

Thoughts about ourselves by us or generated by others and told to us, are very powerful indeed.  If these thoughts then turn into beliefs they can affect many aspects of our lives even if that belief was many years ago and forgotten about in adult life. The seed has been planted and all it needs is the right conditions to grow later.