EFT or CBT for effectiveness?
This case history shows just how effective EFT can be. It is interesting to note that my client had had many sessions of CBT before the EFT session. No attempt however, is made to draw any comparisons or benefits of one therapy against the other. The above title may be considered provocative but any conclusions are the reader’s alone.
‘Julie’ began describing what had happened to her, saying she had had a problem for several months and was desperate to find a solution. She started talking about the ‘event’ before I could find out anything about her particular needs and she described how, with a fellow social worker, she had made a home visit to Mr X. They were early but thought nothing of it. Mr X however was unprepared and had left his illegally owned hand gun on the couch in the lounge. When Julie saw it she exclaimed very shocked, 'Oh my God, he's got a gun!'
As soon as she said that she had a violent reaction as she sat in front of me, putting her hand to her mouth and retching. Several rounds of silent EFT quickly calmed Julie down, but she managed to add that he had done something with the gun on the carpet. Then, pointing it at her, he pulled the trigger saying Bang! He was laughing as he saw her look of stunned horror as he knew he had just emptied the chamber. (He was later arrested by the police for illegal possession of a firearm.)
Julie, by this time needed another rescue round or two of tapping - which worked well - and when she was calmer I said that telling me all that wasn't doing her any good - in fact it was just re-traumatising her. I reassured her that she would not be re-exposed to the trauma as there is a gentle way of dealing with such events and she did not need to relive any of the negative experiences until she felt ready to do so. Her safety was of paramount importance and it was important that she understood that what we were about to do was not going to be a threat to her. Now that I knew the events (she confirmed there was nothing else which had shaken her) we started with a few rounds of Tearless Trauma to distance her from the feelings associated with what had happened:
Even though I think I would feel sick in my stomach if I thought about what he did...         
Even though I'm still not ready to look into that scene yet, it's too traumatic...                               
Even though I'm still a little apprehensive about revisiting that scene...                                   
She gave a little sigh and indicated she was now ready, her level of intensity of 10++ on a scale of 0 to 10 now feeling like a 6 out of 10. So I asked her to retell the story, but slowly this time, pausing at each step she took into Mr X's lounge. Everything was fine until she saw the gun so we tapped as follows:
Even though I was so shocked to see that gun. I couldn't believe it, this isn't real. I'm starting to feel uneasy in my stomach.
The 6 dropped to a 3 and she felt ok about proceeding to the next part.
Even though I froze like a rabbit in the headlights when he pointed it at me...
Even though I felt sick in my stomach when he pointed it at me...
Even though I felt like throwing up when he pulled the trigger, I was so afraid...
Even though I panicked when he said Bang! and almost jumped out of my skin...
She took a deep breath and letting it out with a big sigh said, 'Wow, that feels so much better!' I asked what she meant by 'better'. Was there anything left of the violence of the scene? Was she sure?
No, I'm fine she replied and gave a smile. Hmmm, maybe, I thought, and asked, ‘How would you feel if I tested you on this? I'll play the bad guy.’ No problem, she replied, again with a smile and her smile broadened when I said I would don my black hat for my part. I said I would do it in slow motion so that she would not be surprised by any sudden movements and she was ok with that.
I fiddled around for a few seconds at floor level with my pretend gun, and then slowly moved it round to her. No reaction. ‘I’m now going to point it at you,’ I said and did so watching carefully for any reaction. None, so I pointed it at her. Again, no reaction. Bang! I said. Instantly she retched and squirmed away with her hand to her mouth.
Now Gary Craig (developer of EFT) says, test to make the client's emotional knees buckle and this was certainly the case here as her emotional knees had just given way. Something big and negative was still lurking in her energy system, but what could it be?
After she had calmed down again with some silent tapping I asked what had provoked that reaction. Nothing to do with Mr X she said, that was indeed clear but a week after the incident she had gone to see a 3-D film in her local cinema. When a gun was pointed at the audience and fired, she felt that the bullet heading towards her was real and she immediately dived out of her seat on to the floor to get out of the way. This became a major aspect of the problem and firmly cemented the original trauma in place.
We tapped for her 10 out of 10 feeling for being petrified when she saw the bullet coming straight at her (hence her squirming reaction when I tested her). This reduced the cinema intensity directly to zero. I then mentioned the bullets being emptied on to the floor in her flat but she shrugged it off as unimportant and showed no reaction when I retested her with the Movie Technique, directing her to replay the scene in her imagination and telling her to stop if she felt any reaction to any part of what she was seeing. Nothing happened. Instead she was so relieved to have released the trauma that she laughed and giggled at her own reaction, saying it could have been straight out of a Bogart movie - minus the black hat of course!
Julie took her leave, one very relieved lady but just before she did so she revealed that she had had over 50 hours of Cognitive Behavioral Therapy (CBT) to help her cope with her trauma. She could scarcely believe that less than half an hour of regular textbook EFT could achieve what an orthodox therapy had seemingly not been able to do after many months of work.
Emotional Freedom Techniques UK