This is a Emotional Freedom Techniques (EFT) case I tapped a couple of years ago. For all of you new to EFT, I have found that sometimes allergies, particularly seasonal ones, are based in grief. Clear the grief issue and the allergies may disappear, too. Other times, allergies are the body's way of being overly sensitized to the environment. I was taught an allergy clearing method that has worked well for multiple clients. It is easy to learn & easy to use.
Here is the EFT allergy case study I wrote up for my certification process:
Carol presented to me with “my horrible allergies. They are driving me totally nuts. I don’t know what else to do. I take so, so many antihistamines a day & still get no relief”. She knew I was “doing something new” & decided she’d ask me if I could use it on her. Prior to our meeting I gave her the EFTUniverse.com website & asked her to look at and/or print the mini manual, so she had some idea of what we would be doing in the session so we could get right to the heart of tapping, as I suspected this might turn out to be a longer session than I normally did. I’ve known Carol for years and her allergies were indeed out of control.
I asked Carol when her allergies started, as she has had allergies for the 25 years I have known her. She had to think awhile on this. Finally, she told me no allergies through college, meaning they had to have started in early adulthood after graduation.
On a SUDS level of 0-10, Carol was 8 or higher. I decided to tap generally on the allergies & see where EFT took us.
Set-up was:
Even though these allergies are driving me nuts, I completely & deeply accept myself.
Even though I eat a bottle of allergy pills a day and get no relief, I completely & deeply accept myself.
Even though I feel these allergies run my life and not the other way around, I deeply & completely accept me.
While tapping the head & body points I used:
These allergies.
I’m sick of all these allergies.
The allergies are running my life.
The allergies are ruining my life.
All I do is eat one pill after another & I still get absolutely no relief.
These allergies are maddening to me.
These allergies.
I hate these allergies.
I had informed Carol, as I do all my clients, that if my words do not ring true or do not touch them emotionally to either ignore them or change the words to make the session more meaningful to them. In order to make the EFT more effective, she needed to feel the emotion of the words. They needed to impact her. She agreed.
We tapped through the body & head points effectively twice with Carol following my lead. I stopped her & asked her to take a drink from the water provided for her, breathe deeply, and tell me what she was thinking and feeling.
Carol began telling me about her Mother’s death. Her Mom was diagnosed with breast cancer a year or two after college graduation. Carol seemed extremely dependent emotionally on her Mom. Mom had chosen Valley of the Good Shepherd as the hospice of choice. This was back in the decades when doctors told patients to smoke to “calm their nerves” & Carol’s Mom dutifully bought a pack of cigarettes to use to calm her anxiety. Carol hated the fact her Mom “took up smoking” while she was dying of cancer. The cigarette smoke smelled badly & irritated Carol’s eyes.
We tapped on the cigarette smoking while Mom was dying of breast cancer.
I hated that cigarette smoke.
It was bad enough Mom had cancer but now she was taking up smoking, too.
It smelled terrible.
That smoke made my eyes water.
All I can remember is the big cloud of smoke over Mom’s bed.
I hated that cigarette smoke.
My eyes burned like crazy.
I totally detested that damn cigarette smoke, stinking stuff.
Once again, I did 2 rounds of tapping over the smoking issue. I could see a shift of some kind in Carol’s eyes. She just looked like her thoughts were off in the distance. I stopped her, asking what just happened. I questioned her if the SUDS was down any at all on the smoking issue, as it, too, had begun at an 8. It had come down to a 4, but now Carol started to relate to me a smothering feeling she had a week or 2 after the smoking issue commenced when they were called back to the hospice about midnight because her Mom had “made a turn for the worse”. Asking her SUDS level on the smothering issue, she related it to be a 7. We started the tapping once again.
They called us back because Mom wasn’t doing too well.
She was moaning in pain.
Her breathing was awful.
She looked blue.
All I could smell was the cigarette smoke & suddenly I didn’t feel I could breathe either.
I felt like I was smothering just like Mom seemed to be.
Is this what it is like to die?
This is my Mom. This is terrible. She really is dying.
Again, we tapped 3 rounds on the breathing issues as Carol had tears running down her cheeks. I could see this obviously had an huge impact on her. We stopped to evaluate what was going on. The SUDS had come down to a 2 after being a 5 after 2 rounds. Tears stopped. I told her to take another drink & sit quietly for a few minutes. When I asked her overall how she felt, she told me she felt lighter. It simply “felt good to get this off my chest, but I remember Mom in the hospital after the cancer surgery hooked up to all those tubes with blood on the bandages. I just about fainted. I had to go outside the room to get some air. I was scared”.
On this issue Carol related that she was a 6. We once again began tapping. I didn’t do any further set-ups because Carol had an obvious emotional connection to these issues. In the cases & readings I have done, I have found that with an obvious emotional attachment to the issue there seemed to be no need to set up the tapping, so I went right back into this issue.
I was scared.
Mom was hooked up to all those tubes.
There were so many.
Oh my, and the blood is everywhere. Why hasn’t someone cleaned up this mess?
I can’t get my breathe.
I feel like I’m going to faint.
Why is no one doing anything for her?
I don’t know if I can stay here & look at this.
I’m so scared.
At this point I asked Carol if there was another time in her life when she felt like passing out. After thinking for a few minutes, Carol brought up another surgery of her Mom’s when she was 10 or 12. This was a hysterectomy at St. Luke’s . Her Mom didn’t want her home with her Dad & older brother because “they wouldn’t take good enough care for me. Who would have done my hair for school? So Mom sent me to Auntie Mabel’s & Uncle George’s for the 2 weeks. I didn’t really like it there even though Auntie Mabel took me everywhere on the street car.” Carol recalled nearly fainting at the sight of blood that time, too, when she went to visit her Mom in the hospital. The hysterectomy issue was another 6 on SUDS level.
We tapped:
There was too much blood for me to handle.
I was scared.
I was only 12. Why did they make me look at that?
I didn’t want to go to Auntie Mabel’s. She was a flighty old woman.
I wanted my Mom.
No one told me anything.
What was going on?
When was Mom coming home again?
Once again I noticed a shift. Asking Carol what she was thinking, she told me, “Mom didn’t come home that last time. She died.” And the crying started. “I miss her so much. No one could replace Mom. She was the center of our family.” I asked her if I could tap on her. She agreed; however, she managed to keep tapping around at my request while she related some of the following story:
I told Carol that she could tell me the story of her Mom’s death, but that I would stop her & tap whenever I felt the issue or particular detail was especially emotional for her. I also told her I would tap on her head/face if she could not continue at any point. She agreed.
Carol once again went back to being called back to the hospice the night her Mom died. They were bedded down in the waiting room, not being permitted to stay in the room with her dying Mom. Another aspect change happened here again.
We tapped:
We weren’t allowed to stay with Mom.
They made us go to another room.
I didn’t want to go to sleep, I wanted to be with Mother.
They gave us blankets & told us to stay in the waiting room.
The nurses would call us if they thought we were needed.
I wasn’t allowed in the room.
No one cared if we wanted to be in the room.
Mom was dying. I wanted to be with her for what time she had left and no one cared.
This issue had begun at an 8. It was down to a 4 after 2 rounds of tapping, so we did 2 more rounds to bring it down to a 2.
Carol never told me about the actual death, but went right to the funeral which obviously had a great impact on her. “Mom didn’t want a big get together, but there was anyway. I felt guilty about that, but it wasn’t under my control”. Carol felt this was a 5 on the SUDS scale of 0-10.
So we tapped:
Mom wanted a quiet funeral.
She didn’t want a big get together.
It was a closed casket. At least, they listened to that part.
The guilt that we didn’t listen. I tried to tell Dad.
Mom hated to be in the middle of things.
I feel badly we didn’t do as she asked.
I didn’t like this at all.
Everyone did as they wanted. No one listened to Mom.
With a quick water break, I ascertained this issue was now a 1 and Carol continued her story: “No one showed up from my work at all for the funeral. No one cared enough to come.” Carol related that this was a 6.
We tapped:
No one cared.
No one cared enough to show up.
Mom wanted to be insignificant.
I feel insignificant.
Where is everyone?
No one cares.
Can’t someone take some time.
No one cares.
This dropped to a 2 pretty easily with one round of tapping. And Carol continued by relating that in the procession to the front of the church just before the funeral service started, she was so upset that her older brother & sister were practically holding her up as she walked. “I was crying really hard,” she said, “then someone near the front leaned over and said to me, ‘Stop crying. You are acting like a heathen.’” I asked her what she then did. Carol said, “I sniffled a bit more. Stood up straight & bucked it up even though we were in the front row with everyone staring at us, listening to ‘Abide with Me’, which I can’t play on the organ for any funerals now without crying”.
We tapped. Carol was weeping again as this was a 9 on the heathen issue and an 8 on being in the front row getting stared at.
I was really crying hard.
Mom was dead.
This was it. Funeral was here.
I’d never see her again.
Arlene & Roger were holding me up as we walked.
I could barely stand this. What was I going to do without Mom here?
Stop crying, you heathen.
You’re weak.
Twice through with head & body tapping only brought this down to a 6, so we kept going:
You are acting like you have no hope.
Why are you crying?
Stop crying.
Are you a baby?
Everyone is staring at you.
Abide with me.
Stop crying.
Stop crying. You must be a heathen for crying.
We tapped on this for probably 10 minutes until her crying stopped and the SUDS came down to between a 1 & a 2. Carol remembered another person telling her, “You are now an orphan” after her Dad died a few years later. The orphan issue was a 6 SUDS. Aspect change after aspect change kept coming fairly quickly.
We tapped:
You are an orphan.
Everyone is now gone.
You are alone.
No one cares.
You are now an orphan.
Mom & Dad are dead.
I’m an orphan.
I’m an orphan.
Carol then changed the words for the next 2 rounds to:
“I am no longer an orphan, I’m adopted by God”. Her face changed to a slight smile and the enthusiasm that I know to be Carol slowly came back. I could see her demeanor lighten the more she said it. Finally, she broke out into a big grin, telling me, “Yeah, I’m adopted by God. He tells me so in His Word.” This issue melted away to a zero.
I wanted to get back to the initial issue of the allergies before this long session ended, so I asked Carol to take another drink, finishing off the glass of water, & think about her allergies once again by answering this question for me: “Did you cry again about your Mom after that person in church told you to ‘stop crying like a heathen’?” She thought awhile & told me, “not really”.
I then asked her if she thought the allergies and the grief were related in any way. She thought awhile & finally answered, “None that I can think of, although the timing is close”. I’ve known Carol for many, many years, so I felt enough of a rapport to help her out here a bit, something I may not do in other situations. I asked her to think about this, “Do you think it possible, knowing what I have told you about EFT & the articles you have read that I have given you, that the tears of grief were prematurely stopped, but your subconscious is still crying for your Mom in particular, Dad maybe, and it is coming out as a runny nose & eyes in the form of allergies”?
Her face looked puzzled and she answered with, “I never thought of that! Maybe it does have something to do with each other!” I told her I think it probably does have a lot to do with each other & we should meet again soon & work on her specific allergies if she wanted, or she could do the tapping on them herself, too.
I asked Carol just for good measure to relate once again to me before we quit the entire story regarding the funeral, starting at the point before the family was called to the hospice that last night. Carol did so without a tear shed & fairly matter of factly, telling me, “It was a bummer to me Mom died when I was so young, but the whole thing has helped me grow & I understand how others feel when they have a loved one die, too. I won’t be like that person who told me to quit crying. They had no clue.”
I was pleased with this session as it was pretty comprehensive. We started with one issue and ended up with her Mom’s death as the real core issue. As I stated before Carol & I have known each other for over 20 years, so rapport wasn’t an issue here. Prior to this session, Carol & I had discussed EFT as we discuss just about everything in life. If I said this would help her, Carol would just agree to try it because she trusts me after all these years.
I didn’t discuss confidentiality with Carol because it is implied in our relationship. It’s just the way it is. Our trust factor just handles all those things. I did use a bit of mirroring with Carol when she did change some of my wording or added a bit of her own during the session. I try to simply follow the client’s lead whenever possible. My intuition came in when I realized that her allergies now are possible repressed grief tears.
As a follow-up a month later, Carol continues to report to me that her spring allergies settled down immensely & she has stopped all Benadryl & Claritin without any more problems. She is extremely pleased! God be praised!
To schedule a free 15 minute consultation session, email me at EFTforChristians@gmail.com.
I also hold EFTUniverse classes Levels 1 & 2 twice a year in Milwaukee. If you have an interest in becoming an EFT practitioner or just learning more about EFT, visit my class page on my website:
Always remember to take complete responsibility for your own health and well-being. Consult a physician for any serious medical issues.
Sherrie Rice Smith, R.N. (Retired)
Certified EFT Practitioner
Author of EFT for Christians
EFTforChristians.com
