Module 16 Flashcards
What do I do if I run out of time in a session and the story is not finished?
- Don’t postpone the tapping until there is only 20 minutes left. Get down to work early in the session.
- When you have about 10 minutes left get the client to a 3 or below and stop right there. Use the rest of the time to ground the client (palliative tapping, breathing and centering exercises).
- If there is no point where the intensity gets lower than a 3, you can do a reverse tearless trauma technique. Put the story in the box and keep it there until next time. Palliative tapping can reduce the intensity.
“Even though we haven’t finished working on “story x” and my intensity level is still high, I feel (add somatics) and think (add thoughts), we’re going to put it in the box for now and I accept myself…”
When a patient presents with a recent upsetting issue, do we still need to look for an event that occurred 5 years ago or in childhood instead of addressing the recent issue?
Ideally, we are working with older issues. In the interest of helping the patient to feel heard and attended to when they present with a recent upset, we can use palliative techniques to help reduce the activation of the recent event. After we’ve brought the intensity down, we look for an opening to ask the question, “What does this remind you of?” to find earlier events. You may need to remind your patient about “Table Tops” and “Table Legs” and how the energetic disruption associated with older events supports their reactions to the current event. This will help to enroll them in their own detective work to find earlier events.
Sometimes a person will present with a recent traumatic event, that is in fact traumatic. We treat that event like any other traumatic event. Once it has been treated, we can then also look for earlier events that may have set up the specific response the person had. Then we treat the earlier event as well.
When doing Tell The Story, do we tap on what is happening, in the moment (SUDS or somatics), as the patient tells the story or what the patient thinks was happening at the time event occurred?
EFT is a “here & now” modality. We tap on the thoughts, physical feelings, emotions and SUDS that they are experiencing now, as they tell the story, rather than what they remember was happening then.
What do I do if my patient is triggered and becomes highly emotionally activated?
Apply EFT First Aid: Stop talking and tap. The purpose of the Setup Statement and Reminder Phrases is to keep the patient focused on the emotions that are coming up in relation to that, particular, part of the story. If they are very emotional, they don’t need the words. Stay calm and centered. Instruct the patient to follow you through the tapping points as you assure them with calm, soothing language. Remind them to keep their breath moving and eyes open to decrease dissociation. This is a good time to include the finger points and 9-gamut series
What do I do if the patient cannot give a SUDS rating?
Explain that the “S” in SUDS stands for “subjective,” there is no right or wrong answer. Ask them to guess at a number so that you have a place to start, as a reference point, to determine how their intensity is changing as you move through rounds of tapping. They can always make changes to their guess if they determine that they are more or less activated than they thought they were. When working with children, we ask them to hold their hands wide apart to indicate high activation, bringing their hands closer together as the intensity comes down. If you have an adult with an aversion to committing to a number, you could use the same technique.
What do I do if, when tapping on one aspect in a story or crescendo, the patient identifies a second aspect within that story or crescendo?
Two ways to go:
1. Make a note of the second aspect and let the patient know that you will address
that when the first aspect is collapsed.
2. Ask, “Between the 2 aspects, which is the more intense?” and address that
one. After the more intense aspect is collapsed, go back and check in on the first aspect and address it, as needed.
What if a patient, who’s experienced ongoing trauma, can’t remember a specific event as they’ve all blended together?
Yes, this does happen. We can start by asking the patient to create a composite story that encompasses the details of the trauma. “What might one of these events have looked like?” This will help them elicit the emotion of the trauma. You may find that, as you clear some of the disruption of the trauma, other details and specific situations may arise.
What do you do when the SUD goes up when you start?
It might mean that they start to connect with what already was going on, this is a good thing.
This can especially happen when a person is not that connected to their feelings. EFT is working just fin. It might just go down after.
What is going on when someone is going from fear to anger?
That is switching aspects. You have 2 options here. You can stick with the new aspect and get that down to a 0 before getting back to the one you were working with. Or you continue with the first one and do the new aspect afterwards.
What can you do when a client speaks a native tongue you don’t speak?
This is not backed up by research, but what you could try is to have your clients translate the words for themselves in their own language.
What can you do when someone doesn’t remember their past?
There might be a defensive reason someone has no memory of their past. So the recommendation could be to start tapping on more recent memories which might loosen up the older ones. Or you can tap on the not remembering (“even though I can’t remember anything associated with this problem… I completely…’).
If that doesn’t work out one can also go back in time with their table tops. Like what happened a year ago that supports this problem/belief… what happened two years ago… what happened more than 5 years ago.
Just get to tapping.
