As an EFTUniverse Trainer/Instructor, one of the most
frequently asked question revolves around tapping with children and exactly how
to do just that.
To give you 2 examples of how quickly children clear their
emotional issues using tapping, I will tell you 2 different stories I received
recently from an EFTUniverse Level 2 student who I have taught here in
Milwaukee, and from a Christian gal who is a member of my EFT for Christians
Discussion Group Facebook page found here:
https://www.facebook.com/groups/352652964926202/
.
Annie texted me to tell me this story about her 6 year old
daughter Brandy:
It was lunch time and Annie was preparing what usually is
one of Brandy’s favorite lunches – toasted cheese sandwich and tomato soup. For
whatever reason, Brandy decided that she wanted something else to eat, promptly
and loudly proclaiming this fact with an all-out tantrum.
Brandy began crying and stomping through the house when
Annie explained to her that the food was almost ready and she could have her
second choice for lunch tomorrow.
After listening to these loud protests for a minute or two,
Annie gently settled the wiggly Brandy onto her lap and began tapping on her
face points. As Annie did this, all she kept saying was, “I’m angry, I’m angry,
I’m angry. I want hotdogs for lunch today.”
To Annie’s surprise in about 2 minutes of tapping, Brandy
went from a stomping, crabby, irritable 6 year old back to her usual happy,
singing self!
Annie had never tried tapping with her daughter while she
was in “one of her moods.” The text I received simply stated at the end, “I’m
thrilled this worked!”
Tapping in the moment is a great way to short circuit the “fight,
flight, and freeze” mechanism that was probably triggered by some sensory input
in young Brandy’s mind – nothing she would recognize as a trigger. By tapping
in the full emotional moment with her daughter, Annie soothed Brandy’s
amygdala, the part of the brain where emotions are felt. She was down-regulating her daughter’s fear
center (who knows what Brandy’s subconscious was really thinking, and it didn’t
matter in the moment), quieting the response and teaching her daughter to
self-regulate her emotions. Annie’s words were what she knew her daughter was
feeling, but she could have simply tapped, saying nothing at all, and still
Brandy would have quieted. It’s the tapping itself that does all the work of
down-regulating behavior.
Crying and tantrums are ok for children, but we adults find
them unacceptable later in life. Tapping is a great self-help tool to keep our
“nerve” and stress under control.
My second example comes from an R.N. friend who has a
N.A.E.T practice here in the Midwest. To that practice, Sara is now adding EFT
to facilitate even more healing for her patients.
Sara related this story to me after her first Level 1 &
2 EFTUniverse Training here in Milwaukee last April.
Jake’s father came in for his EFT headache tapping session
with Sara. Quite quickly it became evident that 12 year old Jake was pretty
unhappy. As he sat in a chair in the waiting room, pouting, Sara inquired of
the father what was going on with him.
The dad related that Jake was pretty upset that his mother
had just given birth to the 5th child in the family and Jake really
wanted a baby brother. Instead a 4th daughter had been born, and
Jake had been acting out his anger ever since the baby’s birth a week ago.
Before Sara began the father’s tapping session, she asked
Jake to come into the office to talk with her.
As soon as Sara inquired what was going on, Jake burst into
tears. He sobbed and sobbed, but allowed Sara to gently tap on the top of his
head. When he quieted a bit with the tapping, Sara began questioning him as to
how he was feeling.
“I’m so mad, I wanted a baby brother, and all I got was
another dumb sister. I hate girls,” he told Sara.
Again, Sara gently encouraged Jake to tap along with her,
covering all the face & body points, as she repeated his own words, “I hate
girls, I hate my sisters, I wanted a baby brother, I’m so mad.”
Once again Jake’s emotions began to rise as Sara asked him
again about what he was thinking about his “dumb sisters.” As he cried, Jake told her, “I want to throw
a brick at them. I hate my sisters.”
Again, without any judgment on Sara’s part, she repeated
Jake’s own words to him about what he wanted to do to his sisters.
Jake just continued getting more hostile as he tapped,
apparently accessing even deeper feelings about how much he hated his sisters
because out of his mouth came, “I want to kill my sisters!”
Sara continued to tap with him for another minute or two
until Jake calmed down, finally smiling at Sara as he hopped off the exam table
he had been sitting on. Quietly, he returned to the waiting room to wait for
his dad. When Jake left the office with his dad, he appeared to be back to his
usual good-natured self.
Sara was anxiously waiting until Jake’s mom came in a week
later for her appointment when she could inquire about how Jake was now feeling
about living with all these girls!
The story the mom told Sara astounded her!
Mom said she watched Jake’s behavior closely the past week,
since her husband had relayed the whole “I hate my sisters” tapping episode to
her.
The mom caught Jake with his arm around the sister who was
next in birth order to him, explaining something she didn’t understand to her.
Later in the week, the mom observed Jake with the second to the youngest sister
sitting on his lap as he read to her. Never before had the mom ever seen Jake
interact like this previously with any of his sisters.
The icing on the Jake cake was mom noticing, very excitedly,
that Jake volunteered to change the baby’s diaper AND afterwards he held the
baby on his lap cooing to her.
The mother was simply elated seeing the change in Jake’s
attitude toward all his sisters, an attitude that appeared to change with a 6
or 7 minute tapping session in Sara’s office.
God bless Sara for noticing Jake’s belligerence that
afternoon in her office, and then bless her for taking a few minutes out of her
day to tap with that young man. From all the indications tapping that day
changed Jake’s life for the better, improving his relationship with his 4
younger sisters, helping peace reign in another household and teaching Jake a
self-help tool he can use for the rest of his life!
Remember EFT is not a substitute for medical or psychological care. If you need such care, please contact your own personal physician or psychologist.
Sherrie Rice Smith, R.N. (Retired)
Certified EFT Practitioner
