Case Studies

We constantly learn from each other. Leraning about other people's tapping experiences certainly halped me. Therefore I documented here a few of the cases I encountered.

We are sharing them so that you might learn from them as I do everyday, and find more ways to use EFT for yourself.

For the same reason, I also encourage your to surf the internet to learn about other EFT successes which might be more in line with your own issue, whatever it is.
I'd like to take this opportunity to thank all the people who accepted to have their stories published here. Without them, this website would not exist.
Please note that names and circumstances might have been changed to protect privacy.
If you don't find here what you're looking for, feel free to contact me and ask your specific question.

Basic Knowledge of EFT will help you fully benefit from theses stories.

This article is slightly different from others, since Liz chose to write it herself. Liz found that sharing her experience was a good way to consolidate and affirm her new life.

Suzie has been a close friend of mine for a very long time. She was right in the middle of a difficult divorce and depression, and when I phoned her just by chance (if such a thing as "chance" exists), she was crying uncontrollably.

Anna had heard of EFT in the past, and expressed her curiosity several times, nearly tried a few times, but still kept her distances from this weird method. However when she told me she was to have a minor surgery and I indicated that EFT might help there too, she took me on it and was happy she did.

Read more: Asthma and Phobia of Stairs

One attack is bad enough, but what can you say when it's 6 at the same time?

Hundreds of people left this life, thousands are left suffering. Some only ever knew this on television. For a lot of people, however, today's suffering echoes a suffering deeply rooted in distant, or recent past. Just consider current migrations, very large populations of refugees, and the memory of the January 2015 attacks in Paris.

I work with people who have been through war, and as the various attacks were announced, several of these people had to face the remaining suffering from their own experience. On November 14th, I gave a session in such a situation, and "Denise" (not her real name) authorised me to share most of it. We are hoping that other people whose old suffering has been triggered can benefit from it. May this article help you on your path towards your peace.

~~~~ DISCLAIMER ~~~~

- To understand this article, it is mandatory to have a basic understanding of EFT. If you are new to EFT, please click here.

- You might be shocked by some of the words and concepts in this article. Its aim is to help you to clear your own suffering, this is not in any case the place to discuss politics, religion or anything other than healing. More than ever, by reading this article, to are talking full responsibility for your well-being. You are choosing to read it, without judgement.

- I'm advising you to tap while reading. It is rather long, as I thought it was necessary to show the different steps that were addressed during that session.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Denise was born in a country that she had to flee because of war. Therefore, she reacts violently when she is forced by circumstances to be the witness of the attacks. This aim of this session is to help her to go through ordeal as peacefully as possible. She is already a client of mine, and we already addressed to a certain level an attack she was involved in in her youth.
When we're beginning the session, Denise is calm but deeply angry". Her words show how violent her feelings are, which obviously can be understood.

“I think we are at war. They should be tracked down without mercy, not even get them through justice." she says. "An eye for an eye. tooth for tooth. What is different from what terrorism used to be, is that they were planning attacks one by one, but now they have this network of people who are ready to sacrifice themselves, and they just throw them in every corner”.

It is important to let Denise express her feelings, however, it is also critical to keep in mind this session's objective. So I'm challenging her:
“This is no political discussion. The idea today is to work on what you are feeling. Let's breathe first”. Since Denise had already worked with me, I could afford to get straight to the point.

After a few deep breathing, we are beginning to tap from the top of the head down and back again and round again. Forget about a set-up statement or karate chop point here, we are right in the heart of the issue. I added below a few comments to explain why the tapping is progressing this way.

To begin with, Denise is quite irritated by the impact on her personal organisation that day. That kind of reaction is a really good recipe to avoid facing our real suffering, as you will see below. The best way with Denise in that situation is to take it lightly. "Light" can get a long way. So here we start.

I am in a hurry

this is really not a good time for attacks

I have too many things to do.

I didn't do what I had planned this morning.

This is really happening at a bad time for me.
And nobody quite knows what to do.

Another really good self-preservation strategy is to find somebody to blame. In the current situation, there is a large choice : the terrorists of course, and also the government, who is "not doing its job".

I know what's to be done

politics are not doing what needs to be done

they didn't go through the war I went through

Ask ME, I know you have to really track terrorists down.

I know what's to be done

Give me the country, and I will sort it out,

give me the country, and I will heal my own suffering

When mentioning her own suffering , the first barrier is falling down. Are we always reacting based on what we feel?

Up to then, Denise was in perfect "control" of her emotions, but in less than 3 minutes, by addressing the real issue, tears come out immediately. The memory of that attack she witnessed in her past comes right back up. We had already worked on it, not all of it obviously, we are now presented with an opportunity to peel down the onion a little further. I am focussing on keeping her in touch with her feelings as long as possible.

all this pain

Very fast however, Denise is getting back in control and tears stop. If your suffering is coming back up, don't try to control them, let them come up so you can tap them out of your life. Breathe and stop reading, keep tapping, while focussing on your breathing.

this little girl who was killed

and her mother I saw wandering,

looking for her child.

All this blood on my shoes

A new barrier is coming down, and the tears are coming back up. You probably have your own images coming up in your mind at this time. If it is too hard for you to keep reading, please stop, keep tapping and breathing to get back to a more calm feeling, and seek support form a trusted practitioner to help you.

Denise is now quickly putting her suffering "back in the box", and anger is coming back up, fast.

the hole in dad's hat

the piece of shrapnel in mummy's ankle

pieces of shrapnel everywhere

and this is all locked into my own cells.

What can I do with all this?

They have to be tracked down,

you can let this happen again and again

you have to deal with the root of the problem

and the best way is to go and track them down

It might be a good idea for you to pause here, and work more deeply on your own anger. As for Denise, I knew that the best way at this stage to unroot her anger and get to the next barrier is humour and lightness.

By the way, I am just going to pack and leave now

because I know what needs to be done

because I need to be doing something.

I can't just stay here and watch all that is happening

I can't be living through this suffering and know that I will be experiencing it again and again

I cant; get through this suffering again

and witness those who are living it for the first time

without doing anything,

I can't experience all this and remain indifferent.

I need to be heard

I need the culprits to be punished

I need the culprits to be killed

an eye for an eye, a tooth for a tooth

even if this isn't exactly in line with my religion,

this is MY suffering

this is my brothers' and sisters'

this is my whole family's

this is the suffering of all the people who had to live through this

this is the whole planet's suffering

you can't let this go unpunished.

If you punish the culprits,

there won't be any pain anymore

If you punish the culprits,

it will not happen again.

"Is this true?" I am now taking the opportunity to question this anger, to allow its energy to transform. I am provoking it intentionally, so Denise can get thinking, while still tapping. Observe how the mixed anger and powerlessness keep going back and forth, to eventually lead to another question.
"- Yes, I can see where you are heading to." is her answer.
"- My question is not about where I might want to get at, but to know what you are feeling right now? Our objective is to get you to feel peace. At this very minute, what are you feeling?

Anger is now coming back. This is perfect, now we can work on it.

I need the culprits to be killed.

I need to see them with my own eyes.

She reacts to this suggestion. "No, not necessarily, but I need to know that people's safety is taken care of."

I need that these bad people can't walk around in the subway with impunity
The army is doing this

Police forces are doing this

Counter-terrorism teams are doing that

but they are not doing their job

New reaction: "They do do their job insofar as they are allowed to do it."

and somebody is not letting them do their job

but I am going to go there

and the angrier I am the better!

It is now time to get back to the root of the issue:

the more anger I'm feeling

the more I'm suffering

the better
Is this really true??

Even though I'd like to be able to do something,

I wonder why my role is?

I my role to shout for revenge?

"Certainly not!" is her answer.

Can that bring me relief?

Is my role to tell the government what to do?

Probably ("after all, they are supposed to represent the people!")

Is my role to revive hostility?

Maybe

Will all this bring me relief?

Maybe

Even though I don't really know what to do with all this,

I know this is about my suffering

I know this is about my suffering being triggered

while I thought I had sorted it out.

Even though I thought is was gone,

this suffering is so deep

it will never disappear

Today however, I have a choice.

I know this suffering

I tried to bury it.

Did it work?

She reacts to this question: "I thought it had worked". This might be a good time to ask yourselves that question: what are you trying to bury... or to unearth, at this very minute?

Today, maybe I have another choice.

Maybe I can let it all out to transform it.

the suffering from all these wounds.

Once the anger is removed, the real suffering is beginning to flare again, and tears are coming back up.

They took my country away from me

they took my country away from me

they threw me out of it

there was all this blood and this terror

and I am still carrying it in me

Today, maybe I can honour all those who are suffering,

by clearing a little bit of my suffering

EFT usually is a gentle modality, and deep sobs don't really represent gentleness, but it is sometimes necessary to welcome these sobs to create the opportunity to get to the other side of them. After all this tapping, the final barrier collapses and Denise is eventually releasing her control of her feelings, accepting the tears, the freedom of them, while I'm keeping supporting her through tapping and voice. (All this is happening on Skype, by the way).

A little over one minute later, the crisis has already calmed down, and Denise comments:
“It actually feels good to let it out”.
this is a good time for re-testing, and I ask Denise to say again:

"They took my country away from me".

No tears. Anger and suffering are appearing to have cleared, we are left with powerlessness. We all have our ideals, our religion, our spirituality, our beliefs. Denise gets a lot of strength from her religious faith. What brings you strength? Adapt the next part to your own beliefs.

They took my country away from me, and I will never recover

They took my country away from me, I recreated my life away from my roots

They took my country away from me, and I will never forget it

Even though they took my country away from me, my faith tells me

that everything happens for a good reason

Even though this is a little hard to swallow

I am grateful that I am learning every single day

so many things my faith can teach me.

Denise's noticing one more time, surprised : "It really relieved me to burst out a little bit".

They took my country away from me,
Can you explain to me what good there is in this?

And the problem is, the people who threw me out of my country

not only did they take my country

but they made a mess of it.

I can't let this happen.

I shall keep on suffering

because I don't know any other way

I have no other possibility.

Even though I have all this suffering in me,

today I could choose.

Choose to clear all this suffering

and find peace within me.

This step could only happen after the rest was cleared, however it is a important step. At this stage, Denise is now exhausted. We are finishing the session tapping on the fingers only.

The emotional charge from the past is cleared, at least as far as we could access it, but after the session, Denise WILL be again at the core of a whorl of pain that has taken the country. She is now ready to face this future, and it is time to help her getting ready for it, with the past part of the session.

There are all this triggers around me,

"That's true", she remarks, thinking.

they will re-activate all this suffering

for me and for the whole world, and for all the people who experienced all this

I can hear all this suffering around me,

of course it's echoing in me

Today I wonder what I will choose.

Without EFT, it is quite difficult to conceive that such a choice might exist. Thanks to EFT, and thanks to Gary Craig, EFT founder, for giving it to the world.

I can choose to live through this suffering again and again,

or I can let it out and transform or through my faith.

You'd need a real strong faith to get there!

Maybe I'm not there yet.

You'd have to be God to get there!

Ridicule is no harm, and in this case, the absurdity of the idea is bringing laughter back in. When used at the proper time, laughter is a really good way to let go of unwanted feelings.

I will never be God. but I can do my best.

There are so many different advices around me.

There are so many different suffering around me

I wonder what I shall choose?

Do I want to feed all this suffering by adding my own?
Or do I want to take my suffering

and present it to God so He can help me transform it?

I already transformed a big part of it

Time for a check point: “Is that true?”. She answers “Absolutely"

I thought it was finished, but it is never finished.

I will not forget

and forgiveness is so hard

But I can learn

Even though I need to culprit to be tracked down

I also know there is another possible way to act.

New verification: “Is that true?” - “Well yes, you can bring love and peace into the world”, however...

Even though I don't see how I can

bring peace and love in the world

when I face such a situation

I can learn

I know the counter terrorists squads are doing their job. Thank you.

I know the police forces are doing their job.Thank you.

I know the health teams are doing their job.Thank you.

and today I present my participation to world peace

with love and compassion

for the part of me which is still suffering

and for all those who are still suffering around me.

Today, I'm letting the anti-terrorist squads act in the present to decrease the risks for all of us,with gratitude,

and I am choosing to build peace on the long term,

by transforming all my pains and sufferings

so I can better help others to transform theirs.

I am choosing to protect myself from their pain,

so I am more able to help them to let go of them.

I am grateful I am safe.

Thank you

Compassion literally means "suffering with", You might think then that to support someone you need to suffer with them. Denise has not chosen to add to the suffering. Instead she is choosing to add Light to help clear suffering.

Denise is now relieved but exhausted too. We are finishing with a discussion about our way of looking at others. I'd like to share this too.

“Others", are the people we meet on the street, in the bus, people whose eye we sometimes avoid, particularly in some cities. And true enough, sometimes, this is a safe way to behave, however this is not always the case.

I heard people say that these attacks would not happen if we were all aware and vigilant, if we did look at each other. The idea was to identify the risks and therefore prevent them, This is of course absolutely valid.

I would add another reason, perhaps a longer term one.

Someone told me about an interview of somebody who left a "normal life" to become potentially one of the attackers. They said that they were doing it because "before I was nobody". By changing to this other life, they became "someone".

What would have happened if that person had received the looks that would have told them they were "someone" without having to use violence?

What would happen if the people who committed these acts had received loving and caring looks from their childhood on?
What if the solution was available to each of us? Through our acts and looks?

Crisis situations always trigger amazing solidarity movements. What if the same feelings would nourish us every single day?

I hope this article helped you one way or another, to find more peace in you, or to identify areas of suffering that you can explore on your way to personal peace. May this peace spread from you towards the world.

Thank you.

Marguerite, aged 59, was suffering from respiratory and skin allergies since she was a teenager. Following her doctor's advice, she was on 2 antihistamines a day, one in the morning and one in the evening. The normal dose for these was one a day, and her chemist (or pharmacist, depending where you live!) was very reluctant to give her the prescribed dose, but there was no other solution. The medication relieved her from the allergy symptoms, but made her very tired.

When we first "met" (all sessions were on skype), she was so enthusiastic about EFT and its possibilities that she told me she'd stopped her treatment altogether that very morning!

My answer came in 2 steps :

1. I am NOT a doctor, therefore I don't qualify to comment on any medication.

2. This was her decision, however, it sounded a bit extreme to me, considering her medical history!

And indeed, 3 days later, her symptoms had come back full strength, and she was back on her treatment. But if the story stopped there... there would be no case study!

Besides her allergies, Marguerite had many other challenges with her physical health. To introduce her to the basics of EFT, we started dealing with arthritic pains she had been experiencing in her back since she was a teenager too. You can read the detail of that session here.

EFT is at its peak efficiency when you tap right in the middle of a crisis. I explained to Marguerite how to tap when she would next feel the usual allergy symptoms.

During the following weeks, we had 6 sessions together, dealing with different issues. She then felt confident enough to keep tapping on her own.

Six months later, Marguerite was only on one antihistamine in the evening... when she remembered about it. She tapped when symptoms came back, from time to time. Please note the we never once tapped together on this exact topic.

So how did she get these results? I assume it's a combination of these 2 points :

over the 6 sessions, Marguerite did clear a lot of old issues, including : feeling she'd had to take over her parents' hair-dressing salon, while is was not her preferred life choice (and with all the allergy-triggering products you can find in these salons), feeling the fear to be abandoned, as a baby, and then as a child, anger, feeling she could not say NO to anybody, and the effects it had on her own life, and remembering two episodes of "mild" sexual abuse she'd "forgotten about".
in between these session, and then after we stopped working together, Marguerite was eager to tap regularly, sometimes a few minutes, sometimes more, depending on the topic she was tapping on.

Two years later : Marguerite now was on only one antihistamine, maybe 2... A WEEK.

However, she was adamant she would keep clearing a long list of physical symptoms she believes are related to emotional causes, one at a time. So she's progressing on her list. She also decided to free herself from all the negative relationships she had encountered. So she made a list of all these people, and tapped them away, one by one. All was very well in her world, until she started tapping on her relationship with a previous boyfriend who cheated on her twice. Allergies came back full strength again. Feeling the wound was too deep and she couldn't deal with it on her own, she called me for that session. She cleared her anger, found and gave forgiveness, and eventually was able to talk about him with no intensity at all.

Since then, allergies come and go, more or less acting as an emotional barometer. She might use her medication again, maybe three or four times a month. Her doctor approves. She keeps working on her Personal Peace Procedure. The initial medication doses and side effects are long forgotten. And that's not even considering all the other symptoms she cleared on the way.

So, if you suffer from these kinds of allergies, maybe you could ask yourself which emotional root cause it could be related to? Louise Hay, in her book "You can heal your life", suggests that allergies are about "denying your own power". This is only one hypothesis, which incidentally did apply very well to Marguerite. What about your own situation? Do consult your medical doctor for any change of medication.

Hélène discovered EFT a few years before she retired. Her solitary life hadn't been particularly easy or joyous. She'd always been focussed on work and being of service to others. A conversation convinced her to try EFT. The first session, on skype like all the others, was quite a shock. An anger she'd had for several decades disappeared in just 2 rounds. She was quite surprised, even shocked by this sudden change in her. I explained it was quite normal (the change and the shock) and we tapped away the shock on that first session. After a few weeks reflecting on this unexpected turn of events, she came back for another session. Soon enough, she got onto the habit of tapping several times a week for herself. She explored all the areas where EFT could help her, on the physical side for back pain, head aches and others, or about her body image or to tap away worry for herself or for others, etc... She comes back once or twice a year, depending on her needs. With EFT and Matrix reimprinting, we worked togehter on the scars left by her childhood. Her family was led by the grandfather, an imposing and frightening figure to her. She would not speak unless invited to do so, but on the other hand, even though she was not the eldest child, she shoulder heavy responsibilities early. Two good examples are: aged 12, having to represent the family at the death bed of an aunt, whose face had been “eaten by the disease”. Then aged 15, she was the one who had to question doctors about their diagnosis of her dying father. She is now at peace with this and much more. After 3 years of discovery and of changes in herself, she leads a very active retirement and steps out of her shell. She also discovered Ho'oponopono and the law of attraction, both exploring how we impact the world around us. But as she's getting deeper into herself, she discovers many of her qualities she never acknowledged before and she feels ready to take a more active place in the world. Here are 2 “adventures” that showed her she was changing. They may seem minor, but not if you put them in the context of a person who never ever expressed her feelings or ideas. Both happen while shopping, The first is when the lady in front of her spills the contents of her basket. The lady starts moaning she definitely is useless. Hélène, typical her, moves forward to help the lady. That was normal. What was NOT normal to Hélène is that, even though nobody had asked her what she thought, she said to the lady that surely there were things she was really good at. The lady looked at her, quite unsettled by a comment that was probably true, but she'd never heard before. Result : the lady left the shop looking at Hélène as if she was an angel; Hélène barely recovered from the surprise of her own reaction, enjoyed the effect on the lady as well as the smiles on the onlookers. A few days later, in a different shop, she was looking for a present. All her life she had learnt to deal with things on her own, not asking for help, no matter how big the problem. She suddenly found herself calling a sales lady for help. Her requirement was a bit unusual, so the sales lady directed her to one area of the shop, but obviously kept thinking about it. Ten minutes later she appeared with THE present. Once again, Hélène had to admit that despite the fact that she had “disturbed” somebody, she indeed had offered that person an opportunity to feel happy. The sales lady was delighted she found THE right present and was grinning with pride while Hélène was delighted with THE present too. EFT can bring around incredible and immediate results, if we consider “minute-wonders”, such as the stories of Julia and her shoulder pain, Shirley's minute-headache, Natalie's Post Viral Fatigue Syndrom and many more you'll find on this website. In Hélène's case, Hélène didn't really tap to change her life, but simply to clear anything that had kept her stuck, mainly fears: fear that she might not know what to do or say, fear that she was not good enough, fear to act without being asked to, constant fear at every minute. She had been convinced that she didn't deserve anything, and that she could never truly be herself. She'd had a life of untold and mostly subconscious feelings, particularly anger, some of which she was barely aware of, and all of which she had kept deep down inside her. She now questioned all these values she'd learned in childhood. They may have been good originally, but she'd applied them with excess : so polite she'd never express anything, so giving she could not receive, living every day as a fight, so hard-working she found little pleasure, etc... This long introduction might allow you to understand why Hélène came back to try and find out how to deal with her “disconnect”, Outside of our work together, she doesn't feel she can talk about all this with people around her. Remember she lives in a small village. She feels as if she's got onto a train, leaving everybody else on the platform. She gets furious when she witnesses people who she feels are destroying themselves physically or emotionally, following a culture and ideas she'd been part of, without ever questioning it, nearly all of her life. Now she'd like to change the world, share her joy and her new hopes, but she just doesn't know how to deal with this. Here are a few ideas we tapped on:

Even though I'd like Mrs Durand to accept to consider EFT for her daily pain, I choose to accept that HER healing is HERS and not mine. Even though I cannot do anything for Mrs Durand, and it makes me so unhappy to see her suffering when I know that there are solutions, I am open to the possibility that I can help her in my own way, without stepping over her freedom, simply by accepting myself and my feelings. Even though the conversation between Mr X and Mrs G yesterday was so negative, I would like to be able to explain to them that it's not all that dark, but they will not listen, I choose to feel at peace with myself. I choose to let my serenity spread out so much that they will have to notice it and open up to a new world. Even though I cannot change the world instantly, I choose to appreciate every small positive change in my own life and I am open to the possibility that my changes are impacting my surroundings positively.

Hélène is very peaceful at the end of her session. 2 week follow-up Results are usually quite fast with Hélène, and once again, we didn't have to wait long for a few more changes. She feels much more at peace with herself even when she witnesses very strong negativity around her. She deals with her feelings daily, sometimes with interesting surprises. For example, Hèlène decided to tap on her own frustration about a person who was behaving in a negative and aggressive way, It had been going on for months. Two days later, the man sends out a constructive proposal to move forward a project in the village. Is this the result of Hélène's work? Who knows? But she sure enjoys all these little “coincidences” and develops her “force of the good” with delectation! Who knows where EFT will lead you?

We are worried for them but can't afford to show it or take time for ourselves. We want to always be at our top, always available for them. We want to find the energy to appear in control, even when we don't really feel like it.

But when it comes to Alzheimer's Disease (AD) patients, there are added complexities. We want to keep them happy and comfortable. This is not an easy task when they might panic with no "real" reason, fail to recognize us, repeatedly question everything we do, do something unexpected and possibly harmful to themselves, and of course forget whatever we told them, or whatever they've done within seconds. This is all very challenging, to say the least.

One of the most difficult aspects might be that WE know it is not going to get better. It's a long journey, and we know it will be difficult. But what can we do?

When I was asked to help "John", a family member who was in the early stages of Alzheimer's disease, I thought I couldn't do much about it. It IS a degenerative disease, and there IS no cure at this time. However, I hadn't foreseen all the positive ways that EFT can help with. We now had over 9 months of weekly sessions with John and his wife, Mary, the results have been noticeable. Even though EFT does not claim to cure Alzheimer's disease, it certainly relieves the burden on a daily basis both for this patient and for his wife/carer.

Here are but a few examples :

Reducing panic when John is left alone:

John used to be reasonably OK when Mary left him home alone for a short while. However, twice at that stage, even though he "knew" that Mary was not due to return before 3pm, he had started calling her mobile phone at 2:30 asking where she was. Worried that it might happen again, Mary decided to act preventatively for her next appointment at the hair dresser.
The day before the appointment, and again in the morning before going, she did some EFT with John to help him remember when and where she was going, and when she would be back. She focussed on reassuring him that he would be OK during that time. She went to the hair dresser, and returned to a happy John, waiting peacefully at home.

Letting go of an anger of several days:

John was very annoyed because he had had two Magnetic Resonance Imaging scans (MRI). He thought they were days apart (they were actually weeks apart and for different issues), and that the doctor was incompetent. He was in the medical world himself. He was talking about these MRIs again, and again, and again for hours and days. Mary had not addressed it with him because we were due for a session. At the next session, I got John to tell his story while I tapped on the points with him. We addressed his anger at the doctor's "incompetence," until I could talk about the MRI, and he did not feel it was an issue anymore. Mary was delighted!

From moody to peaceful:

John was moody. His wife did not know what was happening. I had a 20-minute session with John and found out that they went to a funeral the previous day. It brought John back to his dad's funeral and of course the end of his own life. By addressing the associated anger and fear, John was relaxed again. In the evening, Mary e-mailed to let me know that the day had gone by smoothly, to her delight.

John’s speech therapist and GP appreciated the changes they saw after a few weeks, but the best advocate is Mary. I continue to have weekly sessions with both of them. As Mary learns how to use EFT to defuse John’s anger, fear, and panic on a daily basis, her carer’s load is easier to cary, even while the disease is progressing.

I ought to mention that all this is happening on Skype (internet and webcam), Mary and John living in France while I live in Ireland.

I want to thank Deborah Mitnick, Sarajane Thomas and Virginia McDonnell who had written about their experience with Alzheimer's Disease patients on www.emofreecom (now www.eftuniverse.com) when I started researching it, and supported me back then. Sarajane put me in contact with Julian Dean, whose 12 years of experience with the American Alzheimer's Association as a program developer and trainer for caregivers and immense kindness are a great support. I would also be very interested if anybody wanted to share experience with EFT and Alzheimer's disease. The more people work on this, the more likely we are to find a better way to optimise the use of EFT with AD.

Christine Disant

Other experiences can be found on the following links :

"Tapping Brought Us Closer and Made Me Understand" by Deborah Mitnick
"Mourning the Mother She's Slowly Losing" by Deborah Mitnick
"Using EFT with a dementia patient: A touching story" by Sarajane Thomas
"Alzheimer's client remembers husband"by Virginia McConnell

and also:

"Using EFT for Alzheimer's disease" By Debra Trojan

"Advanced Alzheimer's patient shows temporary improvement with EFT" By Dr. Debra Lohri

then she explained to me that she was experiencing arthrosis since aged 15! How very unusual. Her pains are mainly in her jaws and back.

When I asked my favourite question "what was happening in your life when it begun?", Marguerite answers that she was very tall as a teenager (1m73/5 ft 8 aged 13). They called her all sort of names like "grande duduche", "lankey"... and she found it difficult to be accepted, because she was taller than the other girls. Now aged 59, Marguerite thinks of it with her reasoning mind : "well , this is all a very long time ago, it's in my past...."

Translation notes : I don't know of names calling in English for a very tall kid. If you have any great idea, by all means, let me know :-) Thanks.

However, she still felt like she was not accepted. Even if the adult was applying reason, in the unconscious mind, the child still suffers, and any social gathering is an opportunity for stress. She has a party planned for that same evening.

I choose to use the Matrix Reimprinting technique (Click here for more details about that technique)

Marguerite cannot remember any specific event related to her feeling of not being accepted. I suggest that she imagines a likely scene, which fits her memories, something that could have been happening when she was about 15.

So here is Marguerite aged 15 (we'll call her "the ECHO") in the playground at school, while her "friends" are calling her names like "la grande duduche" or lankey. Marguerite (59) describes the situation and enters the scene to go and help her ECHO.

Marguerite and her ECHO begin to talk. Marguerite introduces herself, explains to her ECHO that she is an older version of herself, that she knows she's suffering and that she came to help her. She asks her ECHO what she's feeling right now.

The ECHO answers that she feels she's never in the right place, she feels rejected. Marguerite suggests a new game (EFT) which might be helpful. The ECHO accepts to play, and we start tapping on :

"Even though I feel rejected, I know I'm a good girl".

Her rejection feeling goes from 10/10(very strong feeling) to 4-5/10 (we're aiming a 0!).

But then a new aspect comes up, as Marguerite can feel unidentified and deep sadness coming up. After a few questions to the Echo, she remembers that her boyfriend Aldo has just left to live abroad, and didn't get a chance to say good bye. He was the only one who accepted her without judgement. It's a very big loss for the Echo. "Aldo leaving" has indeed many aspects to it : besides losing a boyfriend, she also looses the possibility to be accepted by anybody. So we tap with Marguerite's Echo about :

Even though Aldo has gone and couldn't even let me know, I choose to feel good anyway

Marguerite had long forgotten that incident, so she's very surprised to feel this deep sadness coming up. It takes the best of 10 minutes to tap away all aspects of this sadness, which goes from 10 (deep deep sadness) to 2 (very light sadness). Marguerite's Echo is now feeling better.

The sadness is not totally gone, though, and when we ask the 15 years old why, she immediately answers : "I'll never find another Aldo". More tapping material.

"Even though I will NEVER find another Aldo, I choose to accept myself, at least, that will be one person accepting me!"

A little bit of humour never hurts, when you're ready for it. After this round, the Echo becomes much happier and comments "well, it feels good!"

Before we leave her, Marguerite asks her if we can help with anything else. The 15 years old Marguerite explains that she can't express her feelings. Her parents never consider her needs, and she finds it difficult to breathe with all these "don'ts" (don't speak, don't invite friends at home, don't make any noise, don't laugh, don't cry etc...)

"Even though I can't say what I need to say, I choose to breathe freely, and to safely understand my own needs."

We still can't reach 0. Marguerite tells me that perfection is just not possible in this world...

"Even though I CAN'T feel perfectly fine because nothing is ever perfect in life, I choose to breathe freely, because I am perfect in my imperfections!"

This time the 15 years old Marguerite feels really good and chooses to go for a walk. The 59 years old Marguerite explains that she can use EFT whenever she wants, and that she can call her older self whenever she feels like it. The 15 years old is very grateful and the pair get a big hug before the older Marguerite leaves.

Marguerite comes back to present time with a feeling of relief. I ask her is she still feels rejected. Actually, the rejection issue is gone, but instead, there's the fear that she's not in the right place, and she's afraid of her tendency to have a very sharp tongue.

As in any session, the idea is to deal with the problem at hand, but also to understand how to use EFT day in day out, depending of your own needs and expectations.

So I suggest that Marguerite prepares for her party by imagining the worst that can happen, and to tap each of these aspects away.

Even though I'm not where I should be....

Even though I don't know what I could say...

Regarding allergies, I show her how to tap every symptom away as they appear.

Next day:

I get an email from Marguerite : to her great surprise, 3 different people commented during the evening that she was far less aggressive than usual. A very welcome side effect!

3 months later

Regarding arthrosis, 3 months later, pains in the jaw and the back are nothing like what they used to be. When they used to be constantly at 10 , they are now about 1 or 2, and only when the weather is really bad. Maybe a few more little things to tap on?

Marguerite has many other worries, but this first session gave her a measurable benefit, and open doors towards many possibilities. A great support to face the event we choose to "forget" from our past, even our subconscious mind keeps remembering and suffering... until we release it!

Each session with me usually brings some sort of improvement in John's behaviour or morale. The improvement might or might not last, from one week to the next. However, John clearly continues to distance himself from our reality. It is obviously very difficult for Mary, but as she puts it "I don't know where I would be if I didn't have EFT!"

Mary uses EFT daily, according to crisis or needs. She uses it to calm her own feelings down, which might be anything, from discouragement to anger. And of course she also uses it to bring peace to John.

She particularly uses an EFT round she calls "one of my secret tools" : the "family round".

Mary taps with John going round on all points, (without starting with the KC point), while describing their family situation. Words and details may vary, but in essence, the round includes the following information :

We live together in our house in G. (with the address)

All the children live in their own homes, and all is well.

Our son Louis is 50; he lives in F. with his wife H, and their kids S., R. and V.

Our daughter etc...{she describes the situation of each child in the same way}

Our friends etc...

All is well, and it's really nice for us here.

Mary always finishes off with a positive touch, reinforcing as much as possible a feeling of security and well-being, an "all is in order" feeling.

Mary uses this round daily, usually to bring John back to physical reality when he asks questions about his children as if they were still living at home. His questions could be something like :

- Is Louis in bed?

- while having diner : "shall we leave some for the children?"

- before he sets the table for diner, nearly for each meal : "how many for lunch today?"

Even though the result is sometimes a bit unexpected, John still knows how to set the table.

Every single time, this short ritual brings John peace and clarity about the situation.

Does this help him in keeping these informations in his memory? It is impossible to say for sure. However, if you read this case by Debra Trojan, or Elaine's case by Virginia McConnell, it's quite possible.

And Mary adds : "As for me, it relaxes me to tap"

Sometimes, John would talk about his brothers and sisters, all passed away, asking for example if one of them would have called on the phone today. Maybe it would help to tap about this, but Mary is a human being, and there's only so much she can put her energy into. She'd rather focus on their own children and grand children, and she simply ignores the comments about the older generation.

Even though EFT is not a "miracle cure", neither is it a substitute for medical or psychological professional care, it seems to greatly help Mary and john on their path. If you have a loved one who suffers from Alzheimer's disease, or if you're working with Alzheimer's disease patients and you're using EFT, or if you are willing to use it, I'd really appreciate if you could contact me to share "good practices" that you might have identified, and see if Mary's secret tool is of any use to you.

Keep tapping!

Saoirse is in her early twenties. She's a very sweet person, very private, with a tiny voice. She contacted me because her mother had told her she was worried Saoirse was having depression bouts, and she should seek help. I had met her in several social situations and noticed she would avoid at all cost to step out. She was not a native English speaker, and used this as her reason, despite her English skills being excellent. The first time we met, Saoirse's main concern was to make a decision for herself, regarding studies. She had 3 lines of interest, but just couldn't figure out which one to take. The clock was ticking. It was early June. Decision needed to be taken NOW! We started talking about family issues. There were some issues with her father. Also, her family had had difficult times. We tapped around all of these. Her self esteem was very low. When asked what her qualities were, she couldn't find any. Then I asked if she had any friends. Yes she had. So, I asked why these people were her friends? Did they see any qualities in her by any chance? We tapped one round where I asked her to name some people who liked her and thought well of her. That's when she got "the look", the one which says "Mmm, hadn't thought of that this way, they can't all be wrong, maybe I am loveable after all....". By the end of the session, Saoirse's posture was straighter, her voice a bit more assured. We had definitely opened new doors and new awareness, but I had a feeling we were missing something big. The second session was a week later. She had felt better in between, but still no decision. So we started tapping around :

Even though I can't make a decision for myself, and I don't know why, I accept myself anyway.

Reminder phrases included statements like:

I don't trust myself,

can't get it right,

wonder why,

where did I learn that,

I'm open to the possibility that my mind knows,

I'm ready to find out safely...

As it happens so often with EFT, an old memory came up :

"It reminds me when I was in pre-school. I was about 5. We had to clean up some dishes. Among the dishes, there was a knife. I knew how to handle a knife already, so I took it, and started wiping it carefully. But then the teacher saw me. And she took away the knife".

As we tapped on the feelings brought back by this experience, the whole story unfold. Saoirse later found out that her mother had taught her from a very early age how to handle knives. So when the 5 years old saw the knife, she knew that she was able to wipe it, and took the decision all on her own to deal with this. All was well until the teacher came in. Imagine, as a responsible adult, seeing a 5 years old with a knife... The first thought is usually "danger!". So the teacher removed the knife, probably a bit panicked by what huge risk she must have thought she had taken. Now here is our 5 years old, utterly convinced of her own right to make that decision, and the teacher, the figure of authority, the one who knows it all much better than a 5 year old, telling her she really cannot make this kind of important decision for herself. Here is a "little t trauma", none the less a trauma. The 5 years old takes the message, doesn't question it, (remember, the teacher knows better than a 5 years old), and puts this new program or belief deep in her body and in her being : "I am NOT to be trusted with any decision for myself". The interesting part is that in her life, Saoirse had already made many decisions for herself, always supported by her parents. She had traveled on her own through Europe, lived in 3 different countries. Still, she now had reached a wall. Coming back to our session, by now, her posture and voice had definitely changed. Relief was obvious on all of her. She left with a bright smile. 3 days later, she had booked herself in a photography school. To be honest, I was a bit surprised, but that was her choice, so all was well. 3 Months follow-up I emailed Saoirse 3 months later to know how she was doing, and her answer just left me speechless. For a non-native English speaker, she came up with a very long message, in perfect English, of course. Then she told me about her summer trips, home and to other countries, about her helping her family. And she said :

"About the depression...... After our last EFT session, I never really got deep into a depression any more. Especially during the trip, I felt fantastic and very happy and relaxed. Just in the last 6 weeks or so, I feel a bit more moody and sometimes a bit down, but never really depressed. "

And here comes the icing on the cake :

"On the trip, I decided to study drama, instead of photography"

Now, THAT, was a total change! Here is a person who would not step out for all the gold in the world, now ready to stand in full view of everybody!!! She was ready for a new chapter in her life:

"Sometimes, it feels, like there is something blocking me from expressing myself and being light. I think, I am really self judgemental as well.

I did a little bit of tapping, but found to be very impatient with myself. And I feel that I don´t find the right things to say during tapping and put myself under pressure, which makes me feel uncomfortable."

So there is still work to be done, but then, don't we all have to work on ourselves, day in day out? One month again after that, I met a person I hadn't met for a long time. This person actually knew Saoirse, who had shared her work with me. they now told me about how amazing her transformation was. That was confirmation, if needed, that the new Saoirse was out there! Thank you for EFT, and may Saoirse's story help you to get on your own journey...

he was willing to seek help, which I found very courageous of him. I explained to him that it is not uncommon that you couldn't get any results when working on yourself, particularly for deep rooted issues, and with little or no experience to start with.

We met 3 times over 6 weeks.

On our first session, I asked him to describe his spelling problem with a little bit of detail. He called it his dyslexia, even though it had never been diagnosed, and said that he knew there were some self confidence issues, but that there might be physical things as well. The example he gave was a visual difficulty to "see words". He mentioned it was very embarrassing to him. We started on the broad issue.

"even though I can't spell properly, and that's embarrassing, I love and accept myself completely"

Trying to get to some sort of fact to work from, I asked him if he had a problem with one word specifically. He said "conscious" was one. I gave him a piece of paper and a pen, and he wrote it. I have to confess, I had a sudden doubt, and while he did misspell it, I thought it was correct (that's the risks you get when practising in a language which is not your native one!). I asked him for another word, he suggested that I'd give him a spelling test. I came up with "unbelievable", which he misspelled. That was something to work on!

even though I can't even spell "unbelievable", and that's really ridiculous, and I feel embarrassed and ashamed, I do love and accept myself, and I forgive myself for misspelling unbelievable.

The reminder phrases addressed various aspects, adding a bit of humour. Ger being a very good humoured person, it did help.
... Can't even spell "unbelievable" ... how unbelievable is that ... ridiculous ... I feel so embarrassed...

Given the chance to write "unbelievable" again, he spelled it correctly. However, that wasn't a very viable measure for our results, and I felt the problem was somewhere else. He couldn't say for sure when it started. But he could remember one embarrassing situation as a child. He was about 10 years old and had made a spelling mistake. The teacher showed it to him, which is normal behaviour for a teacher, but he managed to get all the kids aware of the mistake, and laughing at Ger, who was obviously extremely embarrassed. I asked him to visualise the classroom, and the other kids around him, and off we went:

"even though I was soooo embarrassed when the teacher made fun of me and all the other kids laughed at me, I do love and accept myself, and I forgive this teacher, because he had NO IDEA of what he was doing, and he was probably doing the best he could. I also forgive the kids for laughing at me, because they were kids, and I forgive myself for letting them make me feel so embarrassed"

Once the emotional charge was gone from that one, I asked for any other embarrassing situation he could remember. He did hesitate a lot before sharing that as he was 8, he saw a TV program about Houdini, the "escape artist". Next day at school, as any other 8 year old would be tempted to do, he tied himself to his chair, trying to demonstrate his own escape skills, and of course failing. That would have been a good laugh if it hadn't been for the teacher. Not only did he spot it and get the whole class to have a laugh at Ger's expenses, but he got the principal of the school in, and when you think it couldn't get worse, that man decided to take Ger still tied to his chair around the school for everybody to enjoy. All this happening in a small school, in a small village, we can only start to imagine what this single event would make any 8 year old feel like. We tapped that one away, until Ger was able to report it as if it was somebody else's story. I have to say that tapping along with Ger was good for me too, as I could feel anger in me for all those teachers who do so much life-long damage to so many kids, even though so many teachers do the exact reverse, bringing a lot of good in kids life!I'm sure you can remember one wonderful teacher from your childhood.

When that event was cleared, I started to poke Ger for information about his parents, and there was a bomb waiting to be uncovered. His dad has had an addiction to alcohol as long as Ger can remember. Ger recalled one event when his dad had told him after coming to watch a hurling game at school that Ger was useless. Of course that was more tapping material, one more reason to feel embarrassed all the time!

This first session was quite busy, and just showed the tip of the iceberg. To start our second meeting, Ger told me that again he tried EFT to prepare himself for social occasions when he knew he would feel embarrassed and didn't get any progress. And again, his statements had been too generic. We decided to focus on a similar issue. Ger had a business meeting planned, and even though it was due in a few weeks time, he was already a bit panicky about it. We used the movie technique on this one. I asked Ger to imagine himself getting into the office and seeing all these people to whom he was supposed to present his work. We imagined the worst case scenarios we could find and tapped each worry away :

Even though when I'm getting in the room, they're all looking at me with disdain....
Even though they are not interested in what I have to say...
Even though they're not listening and I feel embarrassed...
Even though I feel so embarrassed I'm starting stuttering...
Even though I make a spelling mistake on the flip chart...

And a few more... After about 30 minutes of that, Ger felt much more relaxed, ready to prepare his presentation with confidence.

When I met Ger again 2 weeks later, I had to look at him twice : something had changed in him. His face just looked clearer, more luminous. He looked like another man. He had used EFT again, this time on written reports he was asked to do for work. That didn't happen very often in his line of work, but he seemed to have quite a few at that time. Every time he felt uncomfortable writing one part of the report he was working on, he would stop, tap on what made him particularly uncomfortable, and move on. He said he had completed a couple of reports that way and felt great about it. He wanted to get back and focus on the spelling problem again. This time, I heard about yet another teacher, an English teacher when Ger was in 5th and 6th year (about 15 or 16 years of age). This time it's a woman. Again a sorry story unravelled as we tapped :

Even though she said I was lazy and she didn't understand me...
Even though she kept making remarks in front of the class about me being lazy...
Even though maybe I was a little bit lazy... (The really difficult thing about EFT is that you have to be honest to get results :-)
Even though I can still feel her looking over my shoulder as I'm writing my reports...
Even though she's still here making me feel embarrassed...

Gradually, while tapping the points, we started shifting Ger's feeling about that woman :

... I might one day be open to the possibility that I could think about forgiving her...
... she really had nothing in her life...
... she was not a good teacher...
... maybe one day I'll forgive her...
... she did the best way she could with what she'd been taught...
... she wasn't very clever, really...
... I might forgive her...
... she's not in my life anymore, still I'm carrying her around...
... I'm the one paying now for her being incompetent. Me suffering doesn't affect her...
... I'm keeping her with me, while I don't need her anymore...
... I feel sorry for her...
... she must have been very insecure to pick on a student like that...
... she doesn't serve me any purpose anymore...
... I choose to release her now...
... I forgive her...
... I let her go...
... I'm free now!

This took the best of 1/2 hour to review all the aspects, but at the end, Ger was ready to go and write as many reports as he needed to, make the presentations he choose to excel in...

We agreed to stop our collaboration at that point, since Ger was now perfectly able to use EFT for himself with success. The self confidence issue was nearly sorted. As for the spelling issue, it was also the results of years of not learning properly because of all this emotional baggage.

Ger was now well able to teach himself the proper spelling, and still accept himself if he did any mistake in the future.

Ger's story is just another example of how teachers can impact our lives for the better or the worse, and how a "ridiculous" issue (spelling) actually hides very deep hurt. I do hope that reading his story will give many people the hope to face their own demons and find the freedom they deserve.

Keep tapping!

Emma's breast cancer had been surgically removed 2 months before I met her. That cancer had been identified during a routine check, and then everything had gone very fast. She was now following a program of “safety chemotherapy”.

It was the first real physical health issue she'd encountered in her life, but going over her life revealed that she went through quite her share of emotional traumas. There were so many of them she really didn't know which one to begin with. So when I asked her what she wanted to work on, she declared : “I trust you”. Well. I did feel very honored, but I didn't have the answer! So I asked her to close her eyes, breathe in deeply, and tell me what came to her mind. A very different answer came out immediately : “relapse”. I asked her what feeling was attached to it. “I think I now understand how it works, so right now I am going to heal because I want to heal. But then, I'm afraid I won't be able to break the ancestral process.”.

Anybody could understand her fear, given the circumstances. Thanks to a very good medical team and a nice dose of EFT, she was now sure to heal form this occurrence, but what about the future? Time to tap!

Even though I am afraid I won't be strong enough to break this ancestral process, at least I know I am healing for this time, and I choose to accept my fear as easily as I accept my healing

Emma could visualise her fear as a black rock in her stomach. Still tapping, I guided her to visalise that balck rock disolving into a soft pink peace.

But she just couldn't continue beyond the 50/50 point, where she was still holding half of her fear while releasing half of it. She now measured it as a 4 on a 0-10 scale (0-no fear – 10 enormous fear), instead of the initial 7.

She explained with a lot of common sense that the fear went down because of the work we just did, but it couldn't go to 0 because it had been there for so long. A new tapping opportunity!

Even though I have had this fear for too long, and it's been in my family for even longer, I cannot be the one to clear all this in just a few seconds; one part of me really is wondering. What if I could?

After this second tapping, less than 15 minutes after we started the session, I did my best to revive her fear : “it's here in your genes, deep in you, you are programmed so this process keeps going. Proof is that you did get this first cancer. It's a really intense fear...” Incredulous, she said “I would say that I don't have it anymore, but that sounds quite impossible to me”.

Here is a completely different situation! We used the next 30 minutes to help Emma to accept the possibility of what she was actually feeling. Hopefully, Emma has a good sense of humour, which can be useful. Following rounds include:

Even though it's quite impossible that I don't have this fear anymore, it has to be a trick of my mind, it must have hidden it somewhere else, I'm sure it's going to show up again, still, one part of me is not sure at all, that part of me is positively ready to let go of this fear.

Even though it looks perfectly impossible to me to let go of all this in just 10 minutes, impossible is not French (Emma is French, so the whole session was actually in French)., and since I choose to heal anyway, I choose to heal for future generations.

Even though all this looks completely impossible, it's way too fast, who would I be without this fear? I lost part of me when I let go of that fear. I choose to learn to know myself, truly know myself, me, Emma, fearless and daring.

To help her to see her new self, I suggested that she stood “outside of her” to give a good look at herself. New obstacle : she does see a “light and smily” Emma. I thought to myself that was quite good. BUT, she immediately realised that this was the image she had always offered to the rest of the world, even when it was only an image, not her true feeling. Even though it was quite different now since she FELT “light and smily”, a little more tapping was required. So after a few more rounds, I let Emma go with a little homework until the next session.

One week later, Emma confirmed that her fear of relapse had completely subsided. She also mentioned she was not afraid to die from a cancer anymore. It could have been one of these “happy EFT side effects” from her previous session, but let's be honest, she had actually let go of that fear herself thanks to the French version of the Tapping Summit (Congrès Francophone d'EFT), and more specifically thanks to a script that Noëlle Cassan had shared there. All this improvement had also been validated at a different level by Emma's [surprised] osteopath a few days after our first session.

Obviously we cannot guarantee that Emma won't ever have a relapse. Let's meet in 50-60 years to know the answer for sure. However, if you could choose, would you rather live with or without constant conscious and subconscious fear?

Emma commented on the changes she experienced since her fears disappeared: “First of all, at a physical level, I don't have this ball in my throat . I used to feel it nearly every evening when I went to bed, since my mother's death [many years before]. Since I'm not afraid any more, I have more time... time to stop faking, time to be myself, and mostly time to live with others instead of living through them and through their eyes (I used to do this over 50 years to cover up my fear, fear of the disease, but also fear of loneliness, fear of being judged, fear of being criticised). Hence my new project to stop my job as an Account Manager in a big company so I could fulfill my teenage dream: help others!”

3 month follow-up

Emma keep tapping on her own. We did have a couple more sessions to go through more difficult issues, either physical or emotional.

Noticeably, she once suffered very severe belly pains. She asked me for advice on mail. After implementing my suggestions on her own, the pain completely subsided.

Chemotherapy is now finished. She is continuing on her healing path, relieved from the weight of her fear of relapse. Thank you Emma to share this. A lot of people who went through a cancer spend the rest of her life with this Damocles' sword above their head. How would their life be transformed if they could recycle the energy that their fear is pumping in them and use it to create and enjoy life's joys, day after day?

One year later

Emma sent in a testimonial you can read here. It is a lovely ending to that chapter of her life.

Anna had been in pain all day. She was on prescription pain killers, and had been for several years. However, the pain killers that morning provided relief for about 1 hour, and she could only have one every 4 hours. That was 3 hours too many every 4 hours for several days a month... She had tried several treatments over the years, and at this stage her doctor was only refraining from hormonal treatment due to her being so young.

I saw her mid afternoon, she had taken pain killers about 2hours before and they were still easing the pain, "the longest they did ever work" according to Anna's own words. This didn't make the use of EFT easy, since the pain was partly hidden. Yet, Anna could still feel it in her lower belly and she rated at it a 2 on her 0-10 SUDS.

Even though I have this 2 pain in my lower belly, I love and accept myself.

The pain didn't bulge much at first. So we had to go again "even though I still have this pain in my lower belly, I DO love and accept myself.".

After the second round, things started to happen, however very slowly. As we were talking and tapping, the pain started to move back and forth, so we started chasing the pain happily around : lower belly, lower back, side of the hips, middle belly, middle back just above the waist line, mostly staying around a 2 on the SUDS or even worsening to a 3 at some stage. Maybe it went to a 3 because the pain killers action was disappearing? And as Anna put it, maybe she couldn't feel the back pain or the "middle belly" pain at first because the lower belly pain was more important? We'll never know. But eventually, all pain subsided.

As we kept talking, it appeared that Anna also suffered from eczema. She had it as a very young child, so bad that when she was 4, she had to have her arms bandaged and wear mittens to prevent her from doing further damage. She got several treatments from skin specialists to healers or reflexology (for this and other issues). When she was 8, it completely went away, but then it came back as she was getting into secondary school. She did realise that her eczema was getting worse with stress. Nowadays, she only had a few spots on the back of her thighs, but she had scratched them during the previous night, and she could feel them right now, more as a discomfort, than a pain. As I wondered out loud if it made her feel angry or sad, she nodded knowingly on the anger. That was excellent since we knew immediately what to tap for :

Even though I'm so angry at this eczema, I love and accept myself, and I forgive the eczema for all the pain it gave me over the years, and I choose to release it now.
Even though I'm angry at myself for scratching last night and making it worse, I was half awake and couldn't control it, I love and accept myself, and I forgive myself.

Again, it did take a few rounds before Anna said she couldn't feel anything anymore.

And as I thought we were done, Anna confessed that the period pain, or maybe just discomfort, was "sort of coming up and down around" as we were talking.

Even though this pain keeps coming back and forth and I really don't need it any more, I love and accept myself, and I choose to release all pain right now.

As it appeared to go away again, we finished this session then.

Anna's case was definitely not a one minute wonder, and it took persistence to get some results. There is still a lot to do, since Anna is a worrier and stress is a big part of her life. But at least now she has a tool to address it whenever she feels it coming up, and for that I'm grateful to EFT.

Nearly 4 years after her first encounter with EFT, 4 years since that time when even pronouncing the word “Alzheimer” was not possible. Mary has faced nearly all the situations you could think of in that scenario. She went through each and every step. John is now in a specialised retirement home. She visits him twice a week.

Over these 4 years, Mary, on her own or during sessions used EFT to manage her life as a carer. By the same token, she eliminated a number of her own traumas, not necessarily linked to her current situation. She also changed a lot of her own limiting beliefs and old programs. One of these “programmes” was the “guilt programme”. She no longer feels guilty for having a husband with a disease. No longer guilty for not always reacting to the disease with love and a serene attitude. No longer guilty that she is in good health herself. The list is very long... However...

She keeps attending regular EFT sessions. During one of these, she tells me that during the previous week, she visited John as usual. But when she came home, the phone rang. It was a male nurse from the retirement home. John, usually very quiet, and physically “weak” (he had lost 20 kilos over the previous months), had such a violent fit that 5 people where not enough to restrain him. This is happening in France, and they followed the process Mary would have used at home if that had happened there. They called the fire brigade for help. The firemen came, and while John by then was much calmer, they followed regular procedures, called the SAMU (a medical emergency unit), which in turn got John transferred to the nearest hospital. I leave you to guess what your own reaction could be in that kind of a crisis!

But Mary is perfectly calm as she tells me the rest of the story : she called the hospital, where they were not aware of anything yet, then the retirement home again. Mary had been planning for a while to leave the next day to visit her son on the other side of the country. So, on receiving the phone call, she had immediately made the connection between her trip and John's reaction, and considered not going. But she eventually decided to go anyway. She had tapped and perfectly managed the situation on her own. I ask her if she'd had any guilt about leaving, and she said “No, I know there was nothing I could do, I was right to leave”. Since then everything came back to normal, John had been lovely with the firemen and the hospital staff. They actually wondered what he was doing there! The next day, he'd come back to the retirement home, and everything was fine. The day before that session, back form her trip, she'd visited John and they had a lovely afternoon in the sun.

So when I asked her is she wanted to tap on any potential guilt, just to be sure to be sure, she says “Do you think we should?”. The best way to decide was to ask her to think again about that phone call and assess her guilt on the 0-10 scale. She immediately answered “there and then, at least 8! But everything is fine now.” She trusts me though when I suggest that we tap anyway, “8” not being exactly “no guilt”.

Even though I still have this enormous guilt in me (“it's gone now you know” she says), I deeply and completely love and accept myself (biiig yawns!).

During that tapping, Mary keeps wondering out loud if really we should work on this. But her abundant and repetitive yawns, tell me something is happening.

Still, after the tapping, she comments : “Of course you think the guilt is still inside, but once I left for my trip, I didn't even think of it”. She was the one coming up with an “8” though, and I describe the phone call again for her, 5 people to restrain him, the firemen, the SAMU, the hospital, the violence. Since she finds it difficult to give her guilt any intensity. I ask her to close her eyes, feel the guilt in her body, and guess a number. “4” comes out immediately. I don't usually insist that much, but my intuition told me to keep going.

Even though I still have this remaining guilt in my heart and chest, I am grateful that John is well taken care of. And I am grateful for our lovely afternoon yesterday (the visit after the trip and before the session).
Even though I still have this remaining guilt in my heart and chest, I now choose to let it go with love and gratitude, and I am proud I dealt so well with the situation.

That's after this tapping that it becomes interesting. Again, Mary insists that once she was on her trip, she really enjoyed it. Once I describe the phone call for her again, she rates her guilt as 1-2. You, know, that guilt that “didn't exist” but was an “8” a few minutes ago?!?

I ask why it is suddenly so low : “well, because we just worked on it. Plus, it all worked out nicely, there are no remaining symptoms, they changed his medication, all is well.” None of this has changed in the last 20 minutes. We really are only talking about her perception of it all.

So, since all is well, why is the guilt not a 0? “Well, if you put me back in the chair by the phone, hearing all this, it could hardly be a 0. I did receive this guilt after all!”.That was calling for a last round!

Even though I did receive this guilt, it will NEVER be a 0, I completely love and accept myself.
Even though they sent me this guilt, I was FORCED to absorb it in every cell of my body, it could NEVER be a 0, 1-2 is already much better then 8!

We were finishing on :

Maybe I don't have any guilt left after all. Maybe I feel really well without guilt...

and before I could come up with the final “thank you”, Mary comments, still tapping “and maybe this round was required to finish it off!”. And after we stopped, she adds “It was good that we talked about it, it really is a 0 now” !

By the way, this last tapping round was the basis for a free tapping sheet you can get here.

In conclusion...

This session did not exactly provide an extra-ordinary transformation.

But isn't life made of ordinary moments?

Small joys and small hurts.. which in the end add up. Many small joys, that's very good, but many small hurts can add up into a big hurt! When you tap daily for yourself, if you feel that a negative feeling is cleared, but you find yourself thinking and talking about it, ask yourself “is it really solved?”.

This session also shows how useful it can be to work with another person, as they will see in us what we don't see in ourselves.

Any comments? Contact me there.

Louise defined herself as a worrier, from a worriers family. Pain was "normal"... After tapping, it appeared that pain might not be "normal" and mandatory after all.

Jessica tapped to be OK "While she was in the office" That's exactly what she got, the overwhelm returned as soon as she left the office!

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