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EFT (Emotional Freedom Techniques) is the new NLP. Emotional acupuncture (without needles) is used to relieve pain, phobias, physical problems, and traumatic memories, quickly and effortlessly.

EFT uses a SUDS scale (Subjective Units Of Distress) to subjectively measure how emotionally intense a memory or physical issue feels for the client. When working to relieve a specific memory, most Practitioners call it a day when their client reports an emotional intensity of zero. Not me. The thorough-ness of your work convinces the client both of your dedication as therapist, and the full clearance of their issue.

Here are the compulsory methods I use to test my work with EFT tapping.

1)Role play

When working through a specific memory that you've already tapped down to zero with EFT, thorough testing means actually trying to get the client intense about the issue. To do this, you as EFT Practitioner can take on the role of the perpetrator in the remembered scene, and have the client teach you how to accurately re-enact the scene. Obviously you will exaggerate the gestures, voice, etc to try to get your client intense. Rather than causing excess emotional discomfort, this is a great way to clear issues very thoroughly, and the re-enactment often offers a wonderful doorway to use humour in an otherwise intense discussion. Highly recommended.

2)Run the movie

Simply, have the client replay the movie of the event in question on the screen of their mind, several times. Have them ramp up the sights, sounds and feelings in an attempt to get some intensity out of the memory. Remember, this is an opportunity to clear emotions in the safety of the clinic environment, that would otherwise go untreated with a less experienced Practitioner. Instruct your client to tell you as soon as they feel any intensity about the memory and begin tapping together at that point. Repeat the process until the memory is completely clear.

3)Tell The Story

Similar to running the movie. But, having the client explain the story of the event, to you, out loud, engages different parts of the brain, language and speech centres etc. and therefore I find is often even *more* effective than running the movie at bringing up unresolved intensity. Clear the entire memory of any intensity as before.

4)Tell the future story

If the client is seeing you about a future fear, have them imagine the future scene, tell that story, and tap as normal on any intensity. This technique can be applied even just to simply test current results, perhaps by having the client imagine meeting the perpetrator again, and imagining the scene, or placing themselves at the scene of the incident again and tapping from there. Very useful.

5)Submodalities

Pictures of emotional trauma are literally stored in our unconscious mind as snapshot images, like on the hard drive of a computer. Our subconscious compares those pictures to the pictures and images you experience in everyday life to tell if there's anything important to flag up to your conscious mind. Usually, after applying EFT, the properties of these pictures ' sub modalities ' change considerably, i.e. a picture n our minds' eye which before EFT could have been still, Black & white, blurry, and very close to us. After EFT it might appear sharper, further away, in colour, moving, etc etc. Changes in these properties are a dead giveaway you've made substantial progress on releasing the underlying emotional issue at an unconscious level.

6)Decisions decisions'

Often after a quality EFT therapy session you might notice your client making statements indicating that they think differently about the issue now. Statements like 'it's just not relevant any more', 'it happened', 'it's like it's not me' are commonplace. But, for even greater precision, check your clients decision about the event before and after EFT. i.e. ask the client, before EFT, what decision they made about themselves and the world, as a result of the event you're about to work on. What generalization did they arrive at? Usually it'll be a belief statement. Like 'I'm_____' (e.g. not good enough, not lovable, too big/small/etc, I don't fit in, I'm not worthy of love, etc etc) . Now, re-check this belief or statement after EFT. Usually, it will have disappeared, or at least greatly diminished in 'truthfulness'. I ask clients to rate how true their beliefs *feels*, emotionally, on a scale of 0-10, where 0=not true and 10=true. Measuring the same belief again at the end of the session using this scale is a great way of reminding your client of the progress you've made with EFT.

Inexperienced Practitioners often look for the client's first indication of reduced intensity to SUDS zero and breathe a sigh of relief at that. The moment you commit to *properly* test your work, using the methods above, your results improve by magnitudes.