EFT Tapping Technique, Mental Health

Credent TV | Buddha says, “Life is dukkha.” But when you become aware, everything becomes joyous. You just have to trust yourself. Nothing is impossible if you trust yourself. Problems make us feel alive, but many times we lose ourselves while dealing with them. One-stop solution to all the problems is EFT Tapping Technique, which stands for Emotional Freedom Technique. The guest Credent TV has invited a mental health professional and expert in this technique, Ms. Puja Kanth in the show Shiksha Sarokar. The was hosted by Sunil Narnaulia, Chief Editor, Credent TV.

Puja Kanth is a counselling psychologist and EFT Master Trainer of Trainers and Practitioners. Puja Kanth has been practicing EFT and psychotherapy for the past 16 years. She has helped numerous clients around the globe to heal from trauma, anxiety, panic attacks, and other emotional issues. She specializes in gentle recovery from trauma and uses an evidence-based, cognitive-somatic technique called EFT (Emotional Freedom Techniques), also known as tapping. She has helped a lot of adult survivors of childhood sexual abuse to heal from the emotional consequences of trauma. 

She also uses REBT (Rational Emotive Behaviour Therapy) for transforming limiting and irrational beliefs. She’s an Accredited Advanced EFT practitioner and EFT Master Trainer of Trainers with EFT International. She’s been providing Internationally accredited EFT training and mentoring to trainees who want to become certified EFT practitioners & trainers, as well as learn EFT as a self-help tool. 

She also conducts emotional wellness workshops that focus on self-regulation skills and on embracing and learning from all emotions. 

Let’s get our life-changing solutions from her.

How has the importance of mental health increased rapidly?

When we talk about mental health, we refer to psychological, social, and emotional well-being. The pandemic has made us realize how important mental health is. Mental health is directly related to physical health. The connection between the mind and the body is very strong. Any disruption in one majorly affects another.

What is EFT Tapping Technique and how does it work?

EFT also known as Tapping emerged in the year 1990. Gary Craig, a Stanford Engineer is the founder of EFT. EFT is derived from Thought Field Therapy (TFT). EFT is an energy psychology technique. It is a combination of energy points that are near the surface of the skin and psychotherapeutic techniques like cognitive reframing and cognitive exposure. These acu-points are the endpoints of 14 meridians (energy pathways).

Let’s talk about how it works. These are some steps. You have to think about the problem because when you think about the problem, the body gets activated and goes into a stress response. You’re basically using cognitive exposure here. When you tap on the acu-points while thinking about the problem, they send a deactivating signal to the brain to calm down. So the stress associated with the problem starts easing up.

There are two parts: (a) the setup, where you say a phrase that acknowledges the problem and helps in accepting the “truth” of the situation. “Even though I have this problem, I accept myself /I acknowledge how I feel”

(b) Sequence of tapping points where you repeat the problem phrase while tapping on each acu-point.  You need to do a couple of rounds while addressing each part of the problem. It also involves proper measuring and testing of each piece of the issue at hand. In this way. the intensity of the emotional issue reduces and goes away, and the nervous system relaxes.

How effective is EFT Tapping Technique?

EFT is very popular nowadays and its popularity is increasing. A lot of research has been done that proves its efficacy. In one such research on stress biochemistry, it was found that the participants who did EFT for an hour had a 43% reduction in the cortisol level, which is the stress hormone. There’s also research in the following areas such as pain, anxiety, PTSD, etc. It is helpful for most mental and physical issues. 

Can EFT Tapping Technique get you out of traumas?

When your brain senses a life-threatening situation, the body gets into fight, flight or freeze response. In a life threatening situation, the body goes numb which helps in surviving the threat. The survival responses can get trapped or stuck in the body and give rise to all kinds of problems.

 Short-term consequences of trauma are shock, denial, shame, startle response, hypervigilance, etc. and the long-term consequences are self-worth issues, interpersonal issues. physical problems, emotional problems, digestive issues, sleeping problems, etc. Because of these consequences, we face difficulty in day to day functioning in some areas.  Proper application of EFT can help in dealing with these issues.

It works in the following manner on traumas.

1. Processing of traumatic memories.
2. Nervous system regulation
3. Releasing the stuck survival response from the body.
4. Humans tend to form limiting beliefs after going through trauma, so EFT works on that as well.

EFT can be learned easily with Puja Kanth if you are willing to learn it.