A Preliminary Unconcealed, Illadvised Admission And Confession: In this follow-up to my last post about EFT (Emotional Freedom Techniques) I initially intended to describe my use of it in great detail with some of the developmentally disabled men I support. But as I go over in my mind what happened, I realize that there would be no way to do so at this point without revealing information that could put my current position in jeopardy. It's not a confidentiality issue - I could always use phony names or initials and cover myself that way. It's not due to any problem that might have been caused by EFT (none was), but, on the contrary, due to a minor paperwork issue and one issue that my use of EFT actually cleared up nicely. So I have to keep that story relatively close to the vest for now. I know, that is absolutely inconsistent with my stated mission as the Naked Ontologist. This whole blog is supposed to be my uncensored thoughts, "unconcealed" and "illadvised", expressed even in the teeth of prudence. And here I am, concealing, refusing to give up the goods. I was seriously reconsidering even writing this post. But then I considered the fact that that, too, would be a censorship, a concealing of naked truth, a denial of admission, a refusal to confess. It would just be sneakier. It would be an attempt to Get Away With Something - namely.not living up to the ideals of The Naked Ontologist. So decided that the next best thing would be to at least admit THAT. And while I am at it, I can also confess that I have held back other things before, just in that sneaky way that I mentioned earlier. The reader might notice that this blog is underused. So, while I am not going to necessarily go back and fill in the reader about other stuff I didn't post about, I can at least be up front about the fact that I have been the fig-leaf wearing ontologist for quite some time.
With the above out of the way, I will now give some general, undetailed information, no names or initials, and no hint about whether, if any, of what I am reveal in now in a brief way has anything to do with anyone I encounter at work, staff or persons supported.
I have used EFT to provide with at least some success to provde either partial or total relief of pain, discomfort, or emotional distress due to:
1. Laryngitis due to a bad cold (partial relief with only a single round of tapping)
2. Physical pain from a fall (total relief)
3. Emotional pain from a fall (total relief)
4. Traumatic fear from a previous fall awakened by the more recent one (total relief)
5. Constipation caused by the combination of trauma and physical pain (total relief)
6. Several anger issues, on several individuals, with varying degrees of partial relief, some total.
7. Headache pain (total relief)
8. Indigestion (partial relief)
9. Symptoms due to menstrual discomfort (partial relief with only a single round of tapping)
Also, I guided my mother through the process over the phone, and using what she learned from me, she later applied it to my cousin's headache, which, I am told, was very painful but, with one round of tapping was totally eliminated.
It should also be noted that, in most of the instances of partial relief recounted above I let time and convenience determine that I would not use EFT persistently, rith round after round of time consuming tapping of all the meridian points in the EFT Basic Recipe, collapsing aspect after apsect of the problem until it was completely eliminated. That would have been a little too time consuming, and it's not like I'm getting paid to do this. Not yet, anyway.
Gary Craig's Basic Recipe for EFT involves a set up procedure in which a sore spot on the chest is rubbed, or alternatively (but sometimes a bit less effectively), tapping the soft part on the side of the hand he calls the Karate Chop Point (the part of the hand that would hit the board to break it) while affirming out loud three times one's deep and complete acceptance of oneself in spite of the problem being addressed by the procedure (which is named as specifically as possible). The one taps about seven times on all the EFT points, naming the problem at every point: the inside tip of the eyebrow, i.e., the one close to the bridge of the nose (either eyebrow, or both at the same time), the outside of the side of the eye along the bone, under the eye along the bone, the moustache area right below the nose and above the top lip, the cleft of the chin below the bottom lip, either or both tips of the collar bone right near the throat, an often omitted point known as the liver meridian right below the nipple on men and under the breast on women, right under the arm pit, and along the sides of the tips of the fingers. Sandwiched between two rounds of tapping of all those points is something called the 9-Gamut procedure. I will save my description of that bizarre-looking procedure for my next post.
The points tapped are key points of connection that will activate the chi energy of all the meridians identified in traditional Chinese Medicine and used in Acupuncture. This procedure has therefore been described as an emotional form of acupuncture but without needles.
More to come in future posts...
Addendum: The first person I did EFT had a relapse of laryingitis, but not, evidently, because EFT didn't help him. Apparently, very recently, he felt sufficiently better (about how much the EFT had to do with that I make no claim) to sing with his band, and from what he told me, it wasn't some light and gentle James Taylor type singing either. He used the word "screaming". BUt he also said that he had been trying to do the EFT on himself, and expressed an interest in learning it for himself. I will be happy to teach him.
FURTHER ADDENDUM as of 2/12/11:
10. Chronic arthritic elbow pain - pain rating 5 before, pain rating 0 after, complete relief from one full round of the EFT Basic Recipe, five minutes.
