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A
"Typical" Day
Some part of my brain registered "new client at nine" before scooping up the insurance claimant folder and then trudging upstairs with pen in hand to the smells of freshly brewed coffee wafting from the kitchen. By 8:50am most of the paperwork was completed and I was ready for the day to unfold, each client spaced an or so apart throughout the day. The client "Sue" began talking as soon as she entered my office, and didn't miss a beat as she seated herself, retrieved her cell phone from her purse and (I assumed) shut it off. Sue was mentioning (I believe) her fifth story about what was wrong with her life when I glanced at the clock. She had been speaking non-stop for 25 minutes! As I began to speak, she caught the intent, and quickly made it clear that she didn't like interruptions.
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The
day started out with the usual automated processes; shutting off the
alarm, setting up the coffee maker, letting the dogs out, and then meandering
downstairs to check emails and the day's scheduled appointments.
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"Furthermore," she continued, "I have a great deal of time and money - over $4,000.00 invested in therapy and I haven't received 50 cents worth of satisfaction," she concluded, now settling back into the couch, an annoyed look on her face with arms crossed in front of her. "Were you looking for a diagnosis, a solution to some of the issues, or..." Before I could complete the sentence, Sue jumped in with another series of issues she needed to address, one description running into another, just like before. I decided to pace her some more, adjusting my body and breathing to match Sue's and tapped a finger gently on the arm of my chair each time she emphasized a word within her sentences. About ten minutes went by before I began to sense we were "in synch," and I shifted in my chair and spoke up. "You say you have used EFT without success and others have tried to use it with you and failed, so I'm always in a heightened state of curiosity whenever that occurs; tell me (Sue was a high auditory dominant) has anyone explained Psychological Reversal to you?" "What's that, a mental disease?" asked Sue, almost sneering. I offered several examples to Sue and one must have stuck a cord because she was now showing interest in verbal input (listening). We selected one of the issues presented, and applied the appropriate set-up phrases. As the round completed, I noted a slight colour improvement in Sue's face, indicating some movement towards relaxation. "How do you feel now?" I inquired as I sat down once again. "Well, almost better, I think," replied Sue, "but there's no change in everything else." "Were you thinking about all the things you need to deal with as we were tapping?" "Of course," she replied. "My mind acts like a wind through leaves; the leaves go everywhere at once." Filing the metaphor for possible future use, I then briefly explained Neurological Disorganization, suggesting it just gets in the way; and then applied the procedure on Sue. There were a few minutes of silence after we completed this round, then Sue looked up and said, "I don't know what you just did, or what exactly happened, but my mind seems more clear." Before I could comment, Sue added quickly, "I almost feel like I can focus my mind... will this last?" "Sometimes yes, sometimes no," I replied. "We can always do the technique again, whenever necessary." After some discussion, we agreed I would teach Sue the technique so she could use it on her own and that we would start each session with the Neurological Disorganization technique. "Boy, EFT has certainly come a long way since I first learned it," Sue stated on her way out. "I'm glad it's still expanding. See you next week," she said with a smile. As I trudged up the stairs once again for coffee number two, I couldn't help wondering where Sue had learned EFT - Psychological Reversal and Neurological Disorganization seemed so new to her, yet once again proved to be the difference that can make a difference in the outcome of an EFT application. Note: I was going through some notes from previous EFT Level 2 workshops and came across the feedback sheets. Several people from each of the last three workshops wrote about how useful and powerful the Neurological Disorganization tapping was for them, and it also helped them with insomnia... now that's a added bonus!
Upcoming Workshop EFT Level 2 Workshop Oct. 28 & 29, 2006 There's
much more to EFT than the basics!
What you will discover at this workshop:
Take your EFT skills to the next level with the individualized attention offered to each participant at this workshop. Here's what some people have said about our previous EFT Level 2 workshops:
Register
for this workshop today Register
online at:
You can contact
Rehana at webstar@ps.gen.nz
Meta Programs & EFT Part 2: In Part 1 of my article on the NLP technique called Meta Programs I explained how we could deal with what some people may call a "resistant" client. In this article (Part 2 learning about Meta Programs) I'd like to talk about one of the possible reasons why a person may "forget to use EFT" or doesn't do the "homework" I have asked them to do. Sometimes it's very useful to have the client do homework between their sessions as it speeds up the process of healing and also helps to integrate EFT into their daily lives, which is always a good thing! The Meta Program I want to introduce you to in this article is: Options/Procedures People who have the same language profile generally have the same behaviour patterns. Based on the words a person uses, we can make reasonable assumptions about their behaviour. Also, once we determine a person's behaviour patterns, we can choose specific words that will have the most influence on that person. This is especially true when assigning EFT "homework." The question to ask to determine whether a person is options or procedures oriented is: Does the person look for alternatives, like to keep their options open, or do they prefer to follow established procedures?
My client, I'll call her "Sally" is a strongly Options oriented person. I asked Sally to do some EFT homework before the next session and explained that, "I'd like you to do some regular tapping daily on your list of negative events. You can use the short cut method and please remember to record the 'rating' for each event before and after tapping."
People in the Options group need to explore, create and then have flexibility. This met with Sally's model of thinking and she was motivated to go away and do her homework in the manner that excited her most. She had choices! Now, let's contrast Sally with another client, a Procedures oriented typology. At the beginning of our session I asked "Jim" if he had been doing his "homework," that is tapping on issues as they presented themselves."
A little more questioning revealed he wasn't sure he was doing "it" right, and vague references to "getting the word patterns right" also came up.
By re-introducing EFT in this manner, Jim was motivated, as he now had a procedure to follow. He later reported great progress, and was now tapping daily between sessions. The point to remember
is the word patterns I recommended were generated by my listening to
Jim's description of different issues confronting him. The motivations
to self apply EFT came about by matching his mental strategies and processes,
that is matching his Meta Program. Quite often a little knowledge of
NLP can enhance the outcome of an EFT session tremendously, if for no
other reason than helping the client to "make sense" of how to proceed.
By matching Meta Programs, it is much easier to trigger motivation and
desire for the client, so the information now makes more sense! Berit's
Corner Our EFT Level 1 workshop last month was a lot of fun and we met lots of great new people who are now busy tapping away. Our Heart of Delivery - Adding NLP to EFT workshop was also a success. We want to thank everyone that attended, and especially those people that travelled a great distance (half the participants were from the US). And we offer a special "Thank You" to Rehana Webster for flying here all the way from New Zealand to present Meta Programs at the workshop. Poor Rehana, she sprained her ankle shortly before the workshop, plus contacted a really nasty flu, and was feeling very poorly (that's an old English expression Alex's mom used to use that I thought was quite applicable in this case). In spite of all that she did a great job and the feedback was that people really enjoyed Rehana's presentation. Speaking of feedback... people wrote terrific comments and said they "got it." "It" being that learning NLP to use with EFT will greatly enhance their EFT skills. So we will see what other NLP techniques we can teach people and hopefully do some more "Adding NLP to EFT" workshops next year. And... speaking
of NLP... Alex really enjoyed the International NLP Conference in San
Francisco. He met many new people and visited with some people he hadn't
spoken to in years. Alex was a speaker at the conference and he spoke
about EFT and what an excellent tool it is to add to a therapist's toolbox.
So, now there are NLPers wanting to learn EFT. Who knows... maybe we'll
end up creating a whole new therapeutic tool and come up with a new
name... combining the letters NLP & EFT is a mouthful, so we'll have
to be creative We haven't done any work on our house for the past couple of months (who had the time!) and I'm in no hurry to start any new projects. It's so nice to just sit back and enjoy what we have. There are some days where I don't even notice the blue (not my favourite colour) and white kitchen, or the dark green walls in the bedroom, but I'm sure the day will come soon enough, and I'll be grabbing a paint brush! Our new CD The Mental Edge for Performance Enhancement is being produced as I write this and will be shipped to us the last week of October... just in time for Christmas! If you have anyone on your Christmas list that's into enhancing their performance (golfer, dancer, soccer or tennis player, etc.) this is the CD for them. You will be able to purchase it from our website (complete with jewel case and all the pretty graphics on the inserts) or download it as an MP3. We will also have our other CDs available as MP3 downloads. Please check our website at the beginning of November. It sounds to me
like we're going high tech... a little while ago I had no idea what
"MP3" meant, and now I'm going to have some.
Take
care,
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Contributing
Columnist Rehana Webster (in New Zealand) is an EFT Master and NLP Master
Practitioner, and also conducts seminars/workshops internationally.
Two
workshops down and one to go (EFT Level 2 at the end of October)
before we get caught up in the excitement of Christmas. I can't believe
I just mentioned Christmas! As I sit and write this it is a beautiful,
sunny and warm day, and it's been like this for weeks now. We are experiencing
a wonderful Indian summer and it feels great!
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(C) 2005/2006 - Dr. Alexander R. Lees & Associates Inc.