EFT for Children and Teenagers
Emotional Freedom Technique or EFT is a very versatile empowering tool to help with all sorts of life’s challenges. It can be especially useful for the children or young people in your life. So whether you work professional with children and teenagers or simply want to help those in your family here are a few tips on how it could benefit them.
What is EFT first of all?
EFT involves light tapping on acupressure points of the face and hands while using words to focus on the issue which you wish to address. In scientific studies it has been shown to reduce stress hormones. It has been used for fears and phobias, to help improve performance and to change unwanted habits. See the mechanics of EFT on the right hand side of this post.
Using it with children
Being a child isn’t always joyful, sometimes it can be very challenging and EFT can certainly help with some of those challenges. It can be used when a child finds a particular lesson hard as when they are overwhelmed with stress it creates a block to learning and exploration. Using EFT on that can bring a more relaxed mindset where it is easier to absorb new information. It also helps with a child judging him or herself for how they perform either in the classroom or at sports or music. In that way it can really help with self-esteem.
It can help with issues of isolation, bullying, falling out with friends, losing a pet or a loved one. It is not a panacea but it can often allow things to be less overwhelming, to build resilience and self-esteem. It can be part of a wider solution and it can bring in hope that things can get better.
There are different ways of using EFT for children. One is tapping directly on the child if he/she is a son or daughter or close family member and happy to be tapped on. Another way is teaching them to tap and tapping alongside them. You can call the points their ‘magic buttons’. You can also use tapping bears or other soft toys and tap on them. You can draw on a sheet of paper and tap on the picture. I’m not going to go into the details here on what that looks like but I would be happy to show you.
Tapping for Teenagers
Many of the challenges described above still apply to teenagers but they have a lot of additional pressures such as teenage hormones, changing their bodies, sexual feelings, self-image and the pressures of choosing a career path and getting the right grades etc. There can be so much pressure and self-judgement. On social media there is so much pressure to look or act a particular way and it is common for teens to feel they are not enough in some way. A swirl of thoughts going round in the head such as… ‘I’m too fat’, ‘too thin’ ‘too stupid’ ‘too brainy’ ‘too geeky’ ‘weird’ ‘not as pretty/handsome as …’ ‘no boy/girl fancies me’ ‘am I normal?’ etc
One wonderful aspect of EFT is that it can be done privately without revealing the content of the issue. In this way we can help a teenager who may not want to disclose everything they are feeling, as long as they are able to tune in privately. It can also help them clarify what they are really feeling. And if we can teach EFT to our children and young people they have a tool for life.
Maggie offers on-line one-to-one EFT sessions worldwide or face-to-face in Sligo and also teaches EFT practitioner classes. See www.maggiepashley.com/eft-tapping.
You can also book a free 15minute consultation with her at www.calendly.com/maggiepashley/15min
The mechanics of EFT – in a nutshell
First decide what you want to focus your EFT tapping on: eg butterflies in my stomach, measure them on your own subjective scale 0-10. Maybe you decide it feels like an 8. You begin:
Tapping on the karate chop point on the side of the hand down from the little finger say the set up statement, naming the issue and ending with some acceptance phrase:
Even though I have these butterflies in my stomach, I love and accept myself/I’m OK and say this 3 times
Then tap using the reminder phrase ‘butterflies in my stomach’ as you tap:
On the top of the head
Eyebrow point (where the eyebrow meets the bridge of your nose)
Side of the eye (move your fingers to the bone at the outer edge of the eye)
Under the eye (tap on the bony ridge under your eye)
Upper lip
Chin (the groove in your chin just under your lower lip)
Collar bone point (easiest to tap with your whole hand across the centre of your collar bone)
Under arm (one hand’s width down from your armpit)
You can keep on tapping until the intensity of what you are feeling reduces. If you find the target issue changes tap on the new focus eg the butterflies in your stomach disappear but you now feel tightness in your shoulders. You are unravelling the issue. You should find that after a few minutes of tapping you begin to feel calmer or less bothered.
Obviously this is just a brief outline of the EFT process and there is much more you can learn about skillfully applying EFT on a practitioner training.
