Emotional Freedom Techniques
a Neuroscience based approach
EFT combines elements of mindful awareness with gentle, self-administered tapping on acupressure points. This gentle, rhythmic tapping facilitates a relaxation response that allows us to acknowledge and identify emotions that keep us stuck in patterns of the past.
When we remember events, we don’t simply recall them as we do multiplication facts or dates in history—we re-experience them.
Re-experiencing these events activates the amygdala, almond shaped areas located deep within the limbic regions on either side of the brain.
The amygdala alert us to incoming information, acting in concert with the hippocampus to catalogue our life experiences.
Working together, the amygdala and the hippocampus match our present experience with emotions and information associated with memories from the past; this is one of the ways we ascribe meaning to the events in our lives.
Simply naming our emotions has a calming effect on the amygdala, enhancing our ability to release patterns that no longer serve us. We can receive new experiences, as we “re-write” stories of the past through a process known as memory re-consolidation.
Like other mind-body tools, EFT enables us to re-pattern habitual reactions to situations that have triggered a stress response in the past, and respond in ways that are more consistent with the person we want to be.
As we become more receptive to new possibilities, we are empowered to leave old patterns behind and renew our relationships with ourselves and those we love.