I have been reading the posts of a friend on Facebook who, following the loss of her daughter 8 years ago, has suffered from what she describes as "dizziness, panic & anxiety disorder, which has lead to agoraphobia" and I know it causes her great distress that it impacts so much on the the lives of her other little girls and not just herself.
I have done a little reading on the subject but I would like to ask some of you who are experienced in EFT whether this is something that could be of help to her? I haven't mentioned to her that I am asking this but will copy my post and any replies to her in an email.
My other query is if there is any other therapy that she could try (at home) that would help?
I don't want to give her false hope but just wondered if I could point her in the direction of something that may be beneficial.
Many thanks all - I await your replies with interest.
Celia
Most certainly, yes, EFT will work for dealing with panic, anxienty, agrophobia and many other conditions.
Some teachers of EFT say that EFT shouldn't be used to treat grief, and if grief is the underlying issue of these symptoms then care should be taken in such circumstances. I believe this is because a person can start to feel something e.g. like guilt, for not feeling grief for a person if the emotions around the memories of that person are lessened or removed using something like EFT. Of course such adverse reactions to treating the grief, if they occur for the individual, can be treated themselves, but again this would rely on the person having trust in EFT to do the job and be positive in attitude to go ahead and treat it when some may actually feel that the initial treatment has made them feel bad ("it made me feel worse, I don't want to do it any more" sort of concept). If the person understands the possibilities up-front before any treatment then they themeselves can make an informed decision as to whether they want to start dealing with the issue in the first place.
I personally, don't see a problem treating someone with grief issues, providing they have that up-front information and understanding about where it can lead and the desire to continue with the treatment should such "side effects" (for want of a better term) come up. Of course, the last thing we want is for someone to start a treatment, go through a patch where they feel worse (it's really a different issue, not necessarily worse), and then say they don't want to do any more; as we don't want to leave the person in a state where they feel the treatment hasn't worked or that it's made it worse, when in fact it's part of the process of making it better.
At the end of the day, it's the individuals choice to go ahead with it if they choose, but yes EFT can certainly help.
All Love and Reiki Hugs
Edit: p.s. I would suggest for such issues that the person seeks the assistance of an experienced practitioner as treating oneself for such issues can be tricky and a practitioner can look at the issues from the "outside" and offer best guidance for treatment. EFT is great for self treatement, but for the more complex things, a practitioner is always best IMO, even for practitioners wanting to treat themselves. 😉
Hi Celia and Energylz
Agreed that certainly EFT could help your friend, Celia. Grief is a process: sometimes people get stuck in the process and are unable to move through it to the other side.
Losing a child is desperately sad - it's not surprising your friend is suffering. However, there is an appropriate level of emotion and from what you say, she is overwhealmed by a level of emotion that is over and above what is appropriate. It's the extra - the overwhealm, if you like - that a good EFT practitioner can help her with. It's all about coming to terms with her loss, dealing with all the emotion and emerging into the light.
I disagree that EFT can make things feel worse, even for a little while - a really good EFT practitioner will not leave someone feeling worse after a session. Often the system recognises that EFT helps and "stacks up" everything in a bid to get relief. There are ways to deal with this, to support the system between sessions so that the client can feel able to cope - and cope well - until the subsequent sessions, if necessary. Sometimes the whole of the first session is taken up with addressing this.
I agree with Energylz that your friend, Celia, should not attempt to do this alone. Often, particularly when the issues are so big, the client can't see the wood for the trees, so making no progress on their own.
Many EFT practitioners can help over the phone or through Skype, so she wouldn't have to leave the house.
As Energylz says, it's delicate. It would certainly require the help of someone who knew what they were doing. Personally, I'd be recommending someone like Judy Byrne, Emma Roberts or Sue Beer - someone who is a qualified counsellor as well as being a great EFT practitioner.
Hope this helps.
Fx
EFT can certainly be very helpful with panic disorder/agoraphobia.
Your friend can also try some CBT self help materials, this is an excellent free self-help pack for panic:
In a typical example of panic disorder, the problem is maintained by the person misinterpreting normal bodily sensations as something frightening, which leads to increase in anxiety, which in turn leads to increase in bodily sensations and after a short time to a full blown panic attack. E.g. some people focus on their heartbeat and if they notice a slight variation in it (which is perfectly normal) they can misinterpret it "There is something wrong, am I having a heart attack?" Some other typical fears during panic are those of fainting, having a stroke, suffocating, vomiting, going mad/out of control, losing control of your bowels/bladder. From your description of your friend's panic, one of the main symptoms is dizziness, which makes me guess that her main fear may be of fainting/collapsing.
The fact is that it is very difficult to faint during a panic attack, because fainting occurs when blood pressure drops - whereas with anxiety rising in panic, our blood pressure does the opposite - it goes up! (Dizziness can have a number of innocent causes, such as hyperventilating, standing up suddenly - and the increase in anxiety itself may lead to increase in dizziness). There are some exceptions, such as in a blood/needle phobia when people do indeed faint sometimes even when anxious - but this is an evolutionary adaptation which has a purpose - if we see blood, it may mean that we are injured (from our "animal" brain's point of view) - in which case it is beneficial to "freeze" to reduce the chance of further attack by the predator and to slow down the metabolism to the minimum, to reduce blood loss.
Another problem is that our coping strategies that are designed to help with anxiety sometimes actually exacerbate the problem - e.g. if your friend was afraid of dizziness and used, perhaps, deep breathing as a coping strategy - this could actually lead to increase in dizziness. Or, if she holds or leans onto something when she feels dizzy this would lead her to believe that "the only reason I didn't faint is because I was leaning on that supermarket trolley", never giving herself a chance to find out that she probably wouldn't have fainted anyway.
Generally, panic attacks, though extremely distressing and frightening, are not dangerous, and do not lead to the catastrophic consequences that the misinterpreted body sensations may suggest. However, it is very hard for an individual who is suffering with panic to believe that it is "all in the mind" because the symptoms appear so real and intense. Sadly, this may well lead to agoraphobia and avoiding situations in which panic attacks may happen (typically places away from home from which escape is perceived to be difficult, though some people will experience panic at home or even in our sleep).
Your friend should be able to access free CBT treatment on the NHS - there may be a bit of a waiting list but not as long as it used to be in the past (many months or even years!).
Masha
To add to what others said about EFT for working with grief - I do believie that it is very useful and appropriate. In grief, EFT can be invaluable in balancing the excess guilt, anger, self-blame, frustration which can get in the way of the normal process of grieving and healing. Yes, emotions may well intensify during treatment but a skilled practitioner will be able to deal with this appropriately - in fact, EFT works best when the emotion is present and "live", but it is the therapist's job to make sure that the client feels safe and not too overwhelmed by the intensity of emotion.
Would agree with coerdelion that if your friend decides to see an EFT practitioner, they should also be a qualified psychotherapist or counsellor, who has experience of working in this area.
Masha
Hello all - thank you very much for taking the time to write such informative and detailed posts - it is much appreciated and I will pass this information on.
If anyone knows of an EFT therapist in the Kent area that they feel able to point us in the direction of then that would be very helpful.
Many thanks again - any other comments and ideas very welcome.
Have a good day
Celia
Celia, you can find AAMET qualified local EFT practitioners
Fx
I'll recommend Alison Munro, she was a tutor on a hypnotherapy course I did last year, and she taught me my eft level one and 2 in jan and feb this year.
[DLMURL] http://www.eftregister.com/search_register/detail/?lId=243&lat=51.427441&lng=0.377360 [/DLMURL]
Have a look at Resolutionmagic on the web
I have been reading the posts of a friend on Facebook who, following the loss of her daughter 8 years ago, has suffered from what she describes as "dizziness, panic & anxiety disorder, which has lead to agoraphobia" and I know it causes her great distress that it impacts so much on the the lives of her other little girls and not just herself.
I have done a little reading on the subject but I would like to ask some of you who are experienced in EFT whether this is something that could be of help to her? I haven't mentioned to her that I am asking this but will copy my post and any replies to her in an email.
My other query is if there is any other therapy that she could try (at home) that would help?
I don't want to give her false hope but just wondered if I could point her in the direction of something that may be beneficial.
Many thanks all - I await your replies with interest.
Celia
Olivia Roberts is the founder of Resolution Magic and has a new system of dealing with anything from panic attacks to migraine and many other things. She helped me after 30 years of pain and is my life saver.
Her website is
Highly recommended. Her book is being published sortly
HI
Hi, I'm Olivia, I'm the Friend Ceila is talking about.
I've never heard of EFT before, I used to have regular Reflexology last yr but some stuff happend and it wasn't so regular. It did however get me out of the house.
I'll look further into EFT, in it to win it as they say. I'll try anything. I just want to be a good mum and do what other mums take for granted
Thank you all
Olivia
Hi Olivia and welcome to Healthypages,
Glad you found your way here to talk to us. 🙂
Certainly do look into EFT, and if you have any questions, just ask on these forums and there's plenty of experienced practitioners who can offer advice.
All Love and Reiki Hugs
Hi Olivia - welcome to Healthy Pages 🙂
As Energlz said - there is much support and expertise here to help you.
If you are nervous about putting a toe in the EFT water, a quick search of YouTube ("EFT and grief") brought up several hundred videos that you could tap along with to see whether that helps.
It has to be said, however, that, although borrowing benefits through videos can be of great help, individual work with a really good EFT practitioner can facilitate dramatic and fast results face to face or by phone.
Qualified Local EFT practitioners can be found both here on HP and here on .
Hope this helps ... and that you feel better soon.
Fx
I've never heard of this before, as I said I've heard of Reflex and Kinesiology (my spelling sucks!) The Kinesiologist I know has said it is similar to what she does, and that it is very powerful. I'm not too sure how it works (altho I didnt know how Reflexology worked!) ahaha so any info would be brill, I've looked at the sites you have all put up, but there just doesnt seem to be alot of info, even Wiki let me down! lol
Thank you again
Olivia xx
Olivia, I don't think anyone could really explain how EFT works exactly - it just does.
It uses tapping on various points on the face, upper body and hands while the client is tuning in to the problem, to reduce excess emotional charge around specific events.
These excess emotional charges are stored in the body's energy system and what we do is access that through a portion of the meridian system.
The meridian system is a model developed over thousands of years in the East, on which acupuncture, acupressure, Traditional Chinese Medicine and various other modalities are based.
These Eastern modalities developed in a culture that views the body as a self balancing system, which, when its out of balance, requires action to help the body rebalance itself - it's all about pattern rather than the Western idea of pathology or disease.
Now, if you were to ask where the meridians are in the body, I could point you at a diagram. However, although acupuncture is offered for some conditions on the NHS, no one has ever been able to find the meridians. There are no little tubes through which the energy runs, like blood through veins. However, there is research that indicates a measureable change in electric charge on certain points on the body that correspond with the points mapped out on meridian diagrams. There is also research that measures surface conductivity on skin. But Western science doesn't understand the energy model of the body or a system that takes the body/mind/spirit as a whole and therefore tends to dismiss it as fantasy ... until nothing else will work - Lol!
The best way to find out about EFT is to experience it, which you can do in one of several ways. You can download a free manual . Or you can [url]find a practitioner[/url] to help you.
Hope this helps - at least a bit!
Fx
Great to see you on here Olivia - you will find some lovely people here who very generously share their expertise and experience with others.
Good luck in your exploring and hope it is successful for you.
Thank you everyone for the time and care you took to reply to this thread and to give such great detail as to how EFT might be beneficial - have learnt a lot myself as well 🙂
Celia x
PS - Olivia, if you look in the topics list you may find things of interest for Elly too.