EFT has been effective and amazing since the beginning, when Dr. Roger Callahan first introduced it to Gary Craig. Gary made some changes and took it even further, making it more accessible to the general public.
That said, any truly effective method of treatment needs to expand its parameters as time goes on. EFT is a way of handling emotional problems that people may have had for their entire lives –– and can often do so quickly and permanently.
Dr. Patricia Carrington has been using EFT for more than a decade with her clients in her psychotherapy practice. From the moment she found it she felt that a whole new world had opened up for her and her clients.
In EFT, it's very important that the person believes, at least somewhat, in the Setup and Reminder Phrases. The basic EFT Setup statement always begins with the words, “Even though....” and always ends with the affirmation, "I deeply and completely accept myself". This will often be meaningful to the person, but not always.
This default phrase is a way for the person to absolutely affirm where they are right now in their process, and as such can be very powerful. Such an important part of healing for anyone is their coming into a loving acceptance of themselves and their present reality. However, there are situations and people for whom the default phrase "I deeply and completely accept myself" doesn't work.
If a person finds it impossible to even begin to 'love and accept' himself, then saying those words is not going to be very effective for him.
Also, sometimes this self-acceptance phrase does not make sense to a person who's just being introduced to EFT. Some of these instances are when the session is about a physical pain, and it just doesn't make sense to a new EFTer to say the words, "Even though my back is killing me, I deeply and completely love and accept myself. " And if it really doesn't make any sense to them, then they may resist the process and it may not have the results that everyone is hoping for.
So, in Carrington's Choices method we may suggest to the 'back pain' person the Set-Up phrase, "Even though my back is killing me, I choose to have my back be comfortable and pain-free."
Carrington basically came to this variation by beginning to use it with her own clients, and she found that it often worked when the usual default phrasing didn't work.
In the Choices Method the person identifies the outcome that they would truly like to have for the problem at hand, and then puts this desired outcome into a sentence which starts with the words “I choose…”
It’s important to note that “I choose” is not used in a traditional affirmation. Tradition affirmations often employ a technique in which the person deliberately says a sentence that is contrary to fact. For example, if a person is making 25k a year in their current employment, and they start saying the affirmation "I am currently making 120k a year," they are using the traditional practice of affirmations. They are hoping to re-program their subconscious mind. (I will write more about this in this blog soon).
The only problem with doing this is that it is often the case that the person will have energetic resistance to the affirmation since they know full-well that it is not currently true in their life experience.
The cool thing about the Choices Method is that, when you place “I choose…” at the beginning of your affirmation statement, it makes total sense to the person who's saying it! This is immediately believable because anyone has the right to make a “choice” and this doesn’t contradict the situation they are now in.
EFT practitioners have been using the Choices Method now for a few years, and they are experiencing wonderful results. Doing EFT can be a very free-flowing and creative process. It's nearly impossible to hurt yourself doing it. This is one of the reasons that I write about it so freely! I can ALWAYS feel good about it, because there are no side-effects! Except perhaps, Emotional Freedom.
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