EFT™ was the brainchild of Gary Craig, who went on a TFT™ (created by Roger Callahan) course and decided that there must be a simpler way to get results. That simpler way was EFT™ (or Emotional Freedom Technique) and it has since been modified and changed and added to by various practitioners. It is an ever-changing, ever-growing therapy that can have miraculous results on a wide range of disorders from phobias to backache. Gary Craig suggests that it should be tried on everything, and many people are doing just that and getting real breakthroughs.
Gary Craig retired in November, 2009. He was most unusual, to my mind, in that he was happy for changes to be made to "his" therapy. He did not feel the need to guard it and prevent anyone from altering it; quite the opposite. He was not only constantly finding new ways himself of doing EFT™, but also delighting in hearing about (and putting out to the world) new ways other people have found of using it.
I have made minor changes myself to the EFT™ which is shown in the training tapes, adding tapping on the Liver Meridian (just below the ribcage at the waist), and on the Thyroid (Triple Heater) Meridian (point 4 on the hand) when not doing the procedure known as the 9 gamut, so that all the meridians are touched during the tapping routine. This therapy is a very forgiving one, though, and you do not need to worry about getting it absolutely right. Just try it on anything and everything.
EFT™ is being used on animals quite extensively both by tapping directly on the animal and by using surrogate tapping; that is, tapping on a person in place of the animal. Sometimes the person will be touching the animal, sometimes the animal will not be in the room or could even be on the other side of the world.
The basis of EFT™ is to determine an emotional or physical problem (for example, being afraid of thunder or having a painful hip joint) and to make a statement about this problem when starting the tapping routine. The statement might be "Katie, even though you are terrified of thunder, you can fully and completely accept yourself" (when tapping on the animal or on another person as a surrogate), or "Katie, even though you are terrified of thunder, I fully and completely love and accept you" (when tapping on the animal, or another person or yourself as the animal) or "I am Katie and even though I am terrified of thunder, I fully and completely accept myself" (while tapping on yourself for the animal), and the reason for the tapping - the fear of thunder in this case - is held in mind or stated aloud as each point is tapped, so you could say "Fear of thunder" as you tap each point.
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| The circles on the drawing above denote the points to be tapped when using EFT™ directly on an animal. Touch the top of the skull or the point of the sternum (the front of the chest) while saying the set-up phrase (in the example given above this is Katie, even though you are terrified of thunder you can fully and completely accept yourself) Then as you tap each point say aloud a short form of the problem used in the set-up phrase (in this example it would be terrified of thunder) Start the tapping with the point between eye and ear, go on to the sternum, then in the angle at the back of the shoulder joint, on the ribcage, in the loin, and then to one side of the root of the tail. All but the point on the sternum are on both sides of the body. Many dogs actually prefer TAB (Touch and Breathe©), which entails holding a point while the dog breathes in and then out, and then moving on to the next point. |
It will be seen that the points for tapping on the dog do not correspond to the acupuncture points or the meridian system. This is because the energy system in the dog (and other animals) is different to that in humans, although the meridian system as it is in humans can be and is used in animals. This can be done because we create our own reality; in other words, what we believe is so, is so for us. An approximation of the energy system of animals is given below:
There are three energy webs (the lines coloured in green, brown, and purple) that join a number of energy centres (the circles which are the same colour as their webs). There are energy centres in each paw which are linked to the Thoracic Exit and Heart Exit. The Heart Thymus governs the energy to the whole immune system. The Heart Exit centre has a parallel to the Heart chakra in humans. The Back Spine centre has a parallel to the human Crown centre. There is no Pituitary centre in the horse, but there is in all other animals.
The blue around the body denotes the etheric body, which actually permeates
the physical body as well as moving outside of it. In a healthy animal it
reaches about an inch beyond the skin; in a sick animal it is tight to the
body. The area shown as pink is the mental/emotional body, and the others (gold
and blues) are the spiritual bodies, which stretch into infinity.
This information is channelled.
The tapping routine on a human for surrogate tapping for animals (or for working on themselves) is shown below:
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| There are different ways of doing surrogate tapping for an animal,
baby, or another person. For one way, you can be the animal/baby/person
by saying "I am [name of animal/baby/ person]" and then using the
set-up phrase, which in the example above was "Even though I am
terrified of thunder, I fully and completely accept myself" while
rubbing with the flat of your hand the area designated in the picture as for
the sore spot. The set-up phrase should be said three times. Then start
tapping on the designated points: 1 on the inner end of the eyebrow at the
bridge of the nose; 2 on the outer end of the eyebrow on the bone of the eye
socket; 3 under the eye on the cheekbone; 4 in the centre of the face between
the nose and upper lip; 5 in the centre of the face in the dip of the chin; 6
on the front of the collarbone point at the base of the throat; 7 under the
arm, about four inches down from the armpit and about in line with the bra
strap in women and the nipple in men; 8 under the ribcage to the front of the
body at the waistline. As you tap each point say (for this example)
"Terrified of thunder" and tap each point about seven times. Or you
can use Touch & Breathe and simply hold each point while taking a deep
breath in and releasing it. Then go on to the points of the hand (see
below). Or you can use as the set-up phrase "Even though Katie is terrified of thunder, I fully and completely love and accept her" and go on to do the tapping of the points in the same way as described for when you were being Katie. |
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| The first spot for tapping on the hand is on the side of the thumb
nearest to you, at the base of the nail. The second spot is the same place on
the first finger; the third the same place on the middle finger; the fourth the
opposite side of the ring finger (I put this in only when I am leaving out the
9 gamut procedure, as it taps on the same meridian [the Thyroid] as at the
gamut point); the fifth the side of the little finger nearest to you (the same
spot as on the thumb and first two fingers), and the sixth the side of the hand
below the base of the little finger - where you would make a karate chop with
the side of the hand. The gamut point shown in the picture is in the dip between the bones on the back of the hand that run into the ring and little fingers. This is tapped during a procedure which is called the nine gamut and which involves looking straight ahead, then close the eyes, open the eyes, look hard down right, look hard down left (while keeping the head still), roll the eyes round in a complete circle one way, then roll the eyes round in a complete circle the opposite way, then hum the first few bars of a tune such as "Happy birthday", count 1 to 5, then hum the first few bars of the tune again. That is the end of the nine gamut. So, having finished the nine gamut, you then do another round of tapping starting with the inner end of the eyebrow and ending up with the karate point. This is a complete round of tapping. When you have finished tapping, end by saying "I am no longer [name of animal, etc.]". |
However, you could try doing just the two sets of tapping (each from the inner end of eyebrow to karate point and putting in point 4 on the hand) and leave out the nine gamut and see how that works. If results are disappointing, then put in the nine gamut.
If you feel the need to do more than one round of tapping on a particular issue, start the second and subsequent rounds with a slight change to the set-up phrase and tapping statement, so that you say "Even though I still am terrified of thunder, I fully and completely accept myself." or "Even though Katie is still terrified of thunder, I fully and completely love and accept her", and "Remaining terror" or "Remaining fear" as you tap each point.
You can tap in the same way but on another person who is touching or holding the animal/baby/other person, but in this case you would say as the set-up phrase Even though Katie is terrified of thunder, she can love and accept herself, as you would do if tapping direct on the animal.
It's a good idea to learn the basic tapping sequence given above, but during 2004 a short form of EFT™ became more commonly used. This short form encompasses saying the set-up phrase three times while tapping on either the sore spot or the karate point and then tapping on the inner eyebrow, outer side of eye, under eye, under nose, chin, collarbone point, under arm, and then on the top of the head using the whole hand to cover as much of the top of the skull as possible. Sometimes this short form doesn't seem to work well enough and it is then a good idea to go back to the basic tapping sequence, including the 9 gamut. A free 60 page EFT Manual can be obtained from http://www.eftuniverse.com/.
One of our rescue wolfhounds, Flynn, when he first came to us would not come into the house last thing at night but we would have to follow him round and round the garden until we could catch him and bring him in. I tapped on myself as him and that evening he just walked into the house. Another hound was terrible in the car, howling and barking non-stop during a journey and pacing around all the time. I tapped on myself as him at a distance (I'd never met the dog) and his owners took him on a six hour car journey three days later and he never made a sound but just lay quietly.
EFT™ can work brilliantly on physical problems as well as on mental/emotional problems such as those mentioned above. For example, one person used it on herself for her dog that had paws swollen with arthritis, and the swelling went down. I used it on myself at a distance for an elderly dog that was crying in pain with what the vet said was a burst eye, with the eye having shrunk back in the head and pouring fluid. The dog stopped crying and went to sleep and the next morning the eye looked completely normal.
I used it on Sheba (our first rescue GSD) on issues to do with eating. She was very uninterested in food but it did seem to have a physical basis as she would be sick at least once a week and some days she would eat her meals (if reluctantly) and other days would refuse even to look at them. As she had no other symptoms of illness, I decided to use EFT™ first before taking her to the vet. I prefer tapping on myself as the patient, so I did several rounds of the short form tapping on various set-up phrases such as "I am Sheba and even though I have no interest in food...."/"...even though I don't want to eat....."/"....even though the sight of food makes me feel nauseous....."/"....even though I feel liverish...."/"..even though I am often sick...." It took perhaps a quarter of an hour in total and at her lunchtime about an hour later she was very keen to get to her bowl, ate every scrap, and was eager for all her meals afterwards. Also, she was not sick any more.
Often, tapping on the problem as it appears, whether emotional or physical (fear of thunder, arthritis in paws, for example) is all that is needed to remove it but sometimes either the problem will not resolve, or it will improve but not resolve completely, and in these cases it is not that EFT™ does not work but that there is something underlying the obvious problem that needs to be dealt with. This can be other aspects of the problem (see below), although this is less likely to happen with animals than with people, who are very likely to have all sorts of issues going on which may be manifesting, at least in part, as the problem. What can underlie a non-resolving problem in an animal is that the basic problem is the owner's, to which the animal is trying to draw the owner's attention. More on this is given later.
Regarding other aspects of a problem, an example might be that a fear of heights in a person may have several aspects, which could still be there when the actual fear of heights had been tapped on. These aspects could include fear of death, fear of being hurt or maimed, fear of being helpless, or even a traumatic memory from the past that had not been resolved. In the training tapes for EFT™ there is an example of a man who was afraid of water. Tapping allowed him to get into a swimming pool but he could not have the water very high. Further tapping on that allowed him to have water up to his chin but he could not bob under the water. At this point he remembered a group of boys, knowing of his fear, ducking him in a river and, once that was tapped on, he was able to splash about under water happily.
Another example could be a fear of spiders, where tapping on the fear of spiders may bring the fear right down, but a spider moving along a wall or the ground might still bring up the fear and, once that is brought down by tapping, a spider letting itself down through the air might be another aspect that requires tapping on.
Other reasons for EFT™ (and other therapies) not to work or to only work to some extent in humans can be what is known as psychological reversal (PR), switching, or energy toxins. These can be discovered by doing kinesiology (muscle) testing and PR will show up as getting a negative response when a positive response would be expected. For example, if a person is tested for I want to be healthy, they may test strong but when tested on I believe I can be healthy they will test weak. Or they may simply test weak on I want to be healthy, showing that subconsciously they do not. PR can be in effect on just one or two areas of the life, such as healing or abundance, or it may be in effect on just about every aspect of the life so that the person is creating struggle and difficulties all around them despite possibly working very hard to change. It seems very likely that PR (and possibly switching) is due to the energy field being out of balance, as described on the Energy Therapy page. For more detail on PR, and on switching and energy toxins, see some of the web sites given in the Links, and read some of the books on EFT and related therapies.
Back to EFT not seeming to work on animals and the underlying reason for this being something to do with the animal's person rather than the animal itself. This can be the person's desperate need to hold on to the animal, or to have control over the animal's health. In these instances, tapping on your own (or the animal's person's, if that is not you) feelings about the animal such as "Even though I need Katie to be well", or "Even though I am so anxious about Katie", or "Even though I am so afraid Katie is going to die", or whatever emotion can be found may be all that is needed to initiate results. However, animals are also often pointing us towards ways in which we need to heal ourselves in other aspects and working on your own problems may well allow the animal's problems to clear as well.
It can be helpful when tapping on yourself or helping another person to tap on themselves, to put a figure on the problem that is being tackled. Assign a number between 1 and 10 (with 10 being as awful as it could get and 0 being nothing) to the problem, do a full round of tapping and then have a look at the problem again to see what number you would now put on it. It is often sensible to keep tapping on one particular problem until the number is down to 0 (or as low as you are happy with; it may be something you are not wanting to rid yourself of completely) rather than going off on a tangent and starting to tap instead on something else that comes up.
There are a number of web sites with more information on EFT™ and related therapies. When he retired, Gary Craig entrusted the archives of EFT to EFTUniverse.com. You can download for free the EFT Manual from that site. There are several books that have been written about EFT™, some of which are listed below. There are also web sites giving information on using EFT for animals.
Freedom at Your Fingertips co-authored by 20 World-Class EFT practitioners. (http://www.eftzone.com/2011/05/24/bestselling-eft-book-now-in-paperback-kindle-nook-editions/)
Adventures in EFT™ by Silvia Hartmann-Kent (http://theamt.com/)
Healing Our Animal Friends with EFT by Andrea Christos, ISBN 978-1-4389-1470-1
Emotional Freedom by Garry A. Flint, NeoSolTerric Enterprises, ISBN 0-9685195-0-4
Medical Transformational Healing Manual (and other manuals) by Marilyn Gordon, WiseWord Publishing, 1998. Available through http://www.hypnotherapycenter.com/prod_manuals.html or (800) 398-0034.
New Energy Therapies: Rapid Change Techniques for Emotional Healing by David Lake and Steve Wells, 1999. Available through wells@iinet.net or http://www.eftdownunder.com/
Getting Through to Your Emotions with EFT by Philip Mountrose and Jane Mountrose, Holistic Communications, 2000.
Breakthrough: The Emotional Freedom Techniques by Katherine Zimmerman, available through www.trancetime.com, (916) 391-1734
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The EFT Universe website |
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The EFT for Animals with Gwyneth Moss, EFT Master |
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The animalEFT web site |
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The official blog for Andrea Christos' book Healing Our Animal Friends with EFT |
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Association for Comprehensive Energy Psychology (ACEP) |
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Association for Meridian and Energy Therapies |
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The Animal EFT Protocol by Silvia Hartmann |
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The Lightfoot Way - EFT for animals |
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Animal Healing with Emotional Freedom Techniques |
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YouTube Video of EFT tap-along for fear of fireworks |
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Updated 8/22/2015