I've spent the last few years learning about and experimenting with a body/mind healing tool called EFT (Emotional Freedom Technique). EFT is derived from a centuries-old Chinese acupuncture meridian tapping practice called Neigong. The founder of EFT, an engineer called Gary Craig, used the principles of Neigong, but adapted it for the western mind.
EFT works by tapping on a series of acupuncture (meridian) points whilst a) talking out loud about the problem, b) re-framing the problem in a way that sets you up for a positive or alternate experience concerning the problem and c) choosing or affirming that you’re willing to move into a new reality with this issue. Tapping on the acupuncture points whilst talking frees or releases the problem/negativity/trauma etc. from your energy body and your physical body. In this way it is a healing therapy that effectively integrates and effects change in the mind, body and spirit.
EFT works extremely well when applied correctly. The key is being able to figure out what is at the root of your problem/issue/symptom and then tapping effectively on that. In certain circumstances, there can be a number of roots, or layers to the problem, which all have to be addressed to see resolution in your physical body. EFT is my favorite body/mind healing tool for the simple reason that once you learn how to do it effectively, you can do it yourself and take it with you anywhere. You may need a therapist initially, to guide you through your complicated, many-layered issues, but thereafter you’ll probably be able to address most problems on your own. Some people are able to reach this level of proficiency on their own, without any outside help, but others need several sessions with a skilled therapist to become fluent in the technique. Alternatively, you can purchase instructional videos from Gary Craig’s website to help you (they’re very reasonably priced). You can find out all about EFT, sign up for his free newsletter (which is excellent) and download a Basic Training Manual for free by going to Gary’s website: www.emofree.com. Gary Craig makes all this information available without charge because his ultimate vision is to have one person in every family trained in EFT and thus able to alleviate so much avoidable suffering.
For myself, I downloaded the basic, free training manual, read the newsletter regularly and had a mild degree of success using EFT on my own, but nothing noteworthy. However, I kept at it since it really 'clicked' in my gut that this should work really well, and I just hadn't figured it out yet. Then I tried a very expensive PhD Psychotherapist who was EFT certified, but again, $400 later I can't say a whole lot had changed. I must point out though, that I didn’t really ‘click’ with this therapist. Although he was a nice enough fellow, I found him to be quite egotistical and at one point he even said, “You’re going to think that I’m God.” Uhh…I don’t think so, buddy! Yes, I know, I should have listened to my gut and walked out right then.
Despite my disappointing experience with this high-profile therapist, my gut kept urging me not to give up and a year later I found a really good EFT Therapist named Andy Bryce. I have had excellent results from my sessions with Andy - with clear, measurable results. And not just for me, but there's been a domino-effect for my husband and kids too – as we heal ourselves, the people connected with us shift and are healed too, if they’re open to it. I had many sessions with Andy and worked mostly on money, career, issues with my mother, and my own parenting. Andy started off as a massage therapist, then moved into energy (pranic) healing and became a Reiki Master, hence his intuitive abilities are quite high and this really helps in being able to get to the root of an issue.
When I began my sessions with Andy I was at a very low point, feeling absolutely swamped and in serious financial debt. In fact, after the first two sessions I didn’t re-book, because I couldn’t afford it. But Andy, bless him, said to me, “No, Jini, I see who you are and you are so close. Just pay me whatever you can afford, and if you can’t pay me anything, then no problem, we’re going to keep going. Because once we get you free of this stuff, money is not going to be an issue for you.” So I worked out what I could afford, and we kept going. Things kept improving with each session, and I actually kept a written record of the all the positive financial events and shifts that occurred (and continue to occur!) By the fifth session, I sent Andy a cheque for the balance owing on all my discounted sessions.
EFT is such a wonderful therapy because it illustrates so perfectly (and quickly) that when you change energy/thought/feeling, you change reality. I’ll just give you one example of how this works. Andy and I worked directly with my money issues for three sessions. When I first went to see him, we were absolutely bottomed out financially from raising our children ourselves (no daycare), and funding the growth of a new business. We had no assets left, were deeply in debt and it looked like we would have to sell our house in the next two months. During the sessions, I discovered that my money issues were also linked into parenting issues – prior to having children I’d had no trouble making money and could make things happen very quickly. After our kids were born, both my husband, Ian, and I felt like we were moving through mud, trying to make things happen. Every day, every project, was such a struggle - with none of the ease and flow we’d both experienced before having children. During my sessions with Andy, I discovered clear psychological/emotional blocks I had to becoming wealthy, and I also realized that my extreme love for my children combined with my fear that I “must not screw them up” caused my energy to seize up (as fear usually does). Energetically, I was contracting and stagnating, rather than expanding, flowing, and opening.
As I cleared these blocks using EFT, everything started to shift financially, for both myself and Ian. Previously, we had applied to every bank we could think of for some sort of financing, re-mortgage, second mortgage, line of credit, etc. - anything that we could use to fund us until our new business was generating sufficient revenue. Every financial institution, including aggressive banks like ING Direct, turned us down. Your debt ratio is too high, they all said. Well, after my third session with Andy, tapping away on money issues, Ian phoned up our bank manager again – and the bank agreed to re-mortgage our house for another $50,000! Now, you see, this is the beauty of EFT - absolutely nothing had changed with our physical situation. We still had the exact same debt ratio. Our bank manager had refused to loan, re-finance, or re-mortgage our house only six weeks prior. The only thing that had changed was the energy. Our physical reality was the same, but our energy reality had changed completely. So we got the money we needed to fund the next stage of the business, and we didn’t have to sell our house! As I continued to work with Andy on my financial issues, things like this happened one after the other.
I’ve included this financial example of EFT’s effectiveness because sometimes with ‘miraculous’ physical healings, people will come up with all kinds of reasons to explain it away, or they’ll attribute the healing to some other factor. However, with a hard topic like money, where all the factors have stayed the same, it’s pretty hard to dismiss the evidence. It may take some time to work through all the layers of an issue (or illness), and it may take some experimenting to find the right practitioner, but EFT definitely works very well – and it works long-term.
I then felt my gut urging me to contact another EFT therapist named Aileen Nobles (I had read an article she’d written for the EFT newsletter). Aileen has been a psychic hypnotherapist for the past 28 years and her clientele is extensive, including celebrities and political figures. She has her own cable television show called Light Transformation, where she will often do EFT sessions on air. She was also Psychic to the Stars on Leeza Gibbon’s Top 25 Countdown Show - a syndicated weekly music radio show. She was filmed having a session with a client for The Learning Channel’s All About Angels, and she gave predictions on NBC's The Other Side. Aileen also talked about her experience working with angels on the Susan Powter Show, and consulted for CBS’ Angels Among Us. In spite of being a well-known psychic in the U.S., Aileen is so gentle, friendly and caring, I felt immediately safe and relaxed with her.
My gut was telling me that Aileen was the person to work with on long-standing physical problems I’d had with choking and an extremely tight internal anal sphincter muscle. I’d had choking problems since birth, and my internal anal sphincter had been malfunctioning ever since I had rectal surgery to remove some perianal skin tags in 1988. As I’ve written throughout this book, physical problems are rarely (if ever) just physical problems. And with chronic issues/symptoms you can be sure there are multiple layers and many causative events involved. This is why it is so helpful to find a therapist who is also highly spiritually intuitive, psychic, etc. Not only will they come up with things that instantly ‘hit home’ with you, but they will ask you the right questions to stimulate buried memories, forgotten hurts or vows, and make connections between separate events that you may have missed. Needless to say, my sessions with Aileen were profound, healing, and transformative. I highly recommend both Aileen and Andy to anyone doing this program.
You can find a complete listing of EFT therapists in your area by going to: www.emofree.com (click on ‘EFT at Work’). You can also have EFT sessions by phone and this is equally effective (all my sessions with Aileen were by phone and some of my sessions with Andy). Before you book an EFT session, I recommend you go to Gary Craig’s website (www.emofree.com) to download the free Basic Training Manual and learn the EFT tapping points first. This will save you some money, as you won’t have to spend your session time learning which points to tap on. For your first few sessions, it’s also handy to keep the diagram of meridian tapping points in front of you, in case you can’t remember exactly where they are. It’s also useful (but not necessary) to have a speaker-phone for phone sessions, so you can have your hands free and really relax.

Author's Bio: 

Jini Patel Thompson is a natural health writer and consumer advocate. She has had numerous books published on natural healing for digestive diseases and a DVD on natural healing for Colic in babies. Her holistic health articles have appeared in publications in the U.S., Australia and U.K. She lives in White Rock, Canada with her husband and three children.
www.ListenToYourGut.com