Tapping into Health: Emotional Freedom Techniques (EFT) for Serious Physical Illnesses

By Larry Burk, MD, CEHP

Do you have an illness of mysterious origin that persists despite treatment?

Could there be an emotional component that is triggering your symptoms?

EFT is a mind-body-spirit self-care approach that involves tapping on acupuncture points while repeating emotionally-charged statements that relate to specific health issues, often referred to as acupressure for emotions. It is an evidence-based method shown in several dozen randomized controlled trials to be effective for various conditions, including anxiety, weight loss and food cravings, depression, PTSD, phobias, pain, and other physical symptoms. As a form of energy psychology, EFT addresses the root energetic imbalances that result from trauma and other emotional stressors.

Inflammatory, autoimmune, and pain disorders may be somatic metaphors for unresolved trauma.

Diseases such as sinusitis and post-nasal drip may be a sign of grief manifesting in the body as inner crying. Frozen shoulder may be triggered by anger trapped inside the joint. Sometimes the symptoms correlate with imbalances in the chakra and Chinese five-element systems. Interstitial cystitis can be related to trauma impacting the first and second chakras and the water element. Cardiac arrhythmias can represent a symbolic broken heart. Dermatological conditions such as chronic urticaria may reflect emotional issues stuck under your skin.

Adverse Childhood Experiences (ACE) are risk factors for chronic disease, as studied by the CDC.

Sometimes a current symptom may represent an echo of a past adverse childhood experience that has never been healed. The Centers for Disease Control has shown that your ACE score correlates with your chance of getting many illnesses, such as lung, heart, and liver disease. Autoimmune diseases may be related to disruptions in the first chakra at a young age, where the primary goal of safety in the world is never achieved, leading the body’s defense system to turn on itself. If you have a high ACE score, you may be able to decrease its impact on your health by tapping on past events.

Past trauma can act as a malware program stuck in your acupuncture meridians.

When a negative experience occurs, it is as if a program you don’t want is installed in your acupuncture meridian system. Tapping on the acupuncture points is like hitting the delete key, so you can uninstall the program. Once the program is gone and you resave the file, the memory will be altered forever. The next time you open the file, the pictures and story will still be there, but the program will be gone. Then your body will not respond negatively, so you will have emotional freedom.

Limiting beliefs often get in the way of healing physical illnesses

• “I need to find someone to fix me.”
• “I don’t have the ability to heal myself.”
• “I just want to suppress these symptoms.”
• “I don’t trust my body anymore as it has let me down.”

EFT can be easily combined with mindful body scanning for optimal results

Mindfulness meditation can assist us in becoming aware of limiting beliefs that are getting in our way. These beliefs often manifest as tail-enders or negative self-talk that come after our most enthusiastic affirmations, thus negating their positive effects. Mindful body scanning often reveals areas in the body where emotions are stuck, causing symptoms. EFT can be used to mobilize these emotions blocking the meridian system and allowing healing to happen.

Tapping with dreamwork, breathwork, and Imagery for performance anxiety and attracting abundance

Tapping can also be used for other life challenges that have emotional components. In the Tapping into Health: Emotional Freedom Techniques (EFT) for Self-Healing course, other uses, such as overcoming fears and phobias, will be discussed. Tapping is particularly useful for dealing with performance anxiety, fear of public speaking, and abundance issues related to past financial failures. Dreamwork, breathwork, and imagery can be combined with tapping to optimize your self-healing abilities.

Interested in learning more about EFT for Self-Healing?

Join us at Duke Integrative Medicine for Tapping into Health: Emotional Freedom Techniques (EFT) for Self-Healing. An intensive four-week experiential program featuring group tapping exercises and individual tapping demonstrations for various topics.

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