What to Expect Before, During, and After an EFT Session

It is very common to experience some anxiety prior to your TAPPING session. The unknowns about “how it works, will it work for me, what will happen during the session, what may come up, will I be able to do it, I don’t like feeling my emotions, will it last?” etc. The anxiety is your brain acitvating your nervous system to stay away from any change in your behaviour because “familiar” is “safety” to the brain. Take time to breathe deep and honour this step you are taking to support your health and wellness. After you do an EFT session, you will have learned a powerful self help technique you can use any time, anywhere to drop cortisol hormone by 42% in future situations just like this. Without using drugs!

When you start your tapping session, you’ll focus on difficult emotions and unresolved issues from your past. But as you tap through your acupoints, you will experience a shift in your thoughts and self perception and feel more calm, relaxed, liberated to show up in your life in a new empowered way.

The approach to using clinical EFT tapping for PTSD or other trauma looks a bit different.

For starters, you’ll be working with a certified clinical EFT practitioner. This person will likely ask you to recall brief details of a traumatizing event and have you pair this memory with a neutral statement. While you share the statement, you’ll tap specific acupoints.

According to the clinical guidelines, a typical SET UP statement might read: “Even though I see the car crashing into mine, right here, right now, I’m safe.” This statement is accompanied by a tap on the acupoint on the side of the hand.

From there, you’ll gently tap approx. 5-7x on the acupoints starting at the top of the head, eyebrow, side of the eye, under the eye, under the nose, under the lips, an inch under the collarbone, and under the arm, with two fingers, as the practitioner guides you. As you tap, you’ll say a shortened version of your earlier SET UP statement.

Your practitioner may ask you to rate the intensity of the traumatic event at various points during the session. These ratings help your practitioner determine the next step in your session.

EFT sessions are designed to work on all levels and layers of your energy system, bringing to the surface and transforming blocked energy, negative emotions, imprints, limiting beliefs, viruses, bacteria, ancestral issues, attachments, problematic patterns, toxins, and more. This process happens layer by layer - after the first layers are removed, deeper layers can surface and be transformed.

As with any energy psychology technique, EFT can have profound impacts on your physiology. You may feel tired, fuzzy, or unable to focus clearly after our session. This is GOOD! You are building new neural pathways, changing subconscious and conscious habits, looking at things a different way and healing on various levels. You may feel lighter, airier, or spacious in places that used to feel heavy. You may react differently to people and situations. Some people feel invigorated, and others don’t notice a difference even though their body is undergoing some readjustments. The treatment might stir up resistances, or new aspects of the same problem, which can provoke emotional or physical distress. Fortunately, the latter is rather rare and usually disappears with more tapping.

High vibrational energy is flowing through your system rejuvenating and reenergizing cells and tissues. Try to listen to and honor your body as it changes, regenerates, and reorganizes in profoundly positive ways.

At any rate, be gentle with yourself. Don’t plan anything strenuous or physically intense right after an EFT session. Get a lot of rest and drink plenty of water, your body needs it to function at its fullest potential and actualize the change brought forth by EFT. An Epsom salt bath is wonderful and helps to detoxify the body. Pamper yourself, journal, do something pleasurable and low-key.

How many sessions you’ll need may vary depending on the severity of your condition. However, clinical guidelines recommend 10 sessions for people with big “T” traumas.

There are online, app, and telemedicine options for clinical EFT. However, in-person sessions are found to reduce PTSD symptoms 91 percent versus telephone sessions that reduced symptoms by 67 percent, according to a review and survey published in 2017 in The Permanente Journal.