Guest Article Written by Certified Health Coach Wendy Fisher

How long can you talk without breathing and stay standing?  I was fortunate to have a teacher who prompted me to breathe as I gave my speech to the class.  Terror overwhelmed me.  My hands were sweaty, my heart was racing, my throat was dry and my mind was almost blank.  Sheer terror.  Luckily I didn’t have to give any more speeches before graduation!

Fast forward 40 years I’m standing in front of 19 people giving my first free public talk on how to make Kombucha.  I was demonstrating as I spoke and I was able to speak of my own experiences off the cuff and get the crowd laughing, smiling and connecting with me.  Nobody in the crowd had to remind me to breathe, nobody could feel my terror.

THERE WAS NO TERROR!  

Sure, I was a bit nervous, but I successfully spoke with grace and ease!  Nineteen people left the library with the knowledge of Kombucha making, and I left with a sense of accomplishment and joy that I had just accomplished this tremendous feat (at least for me)!

What happened in those 40 years?  Personally, there were lots of life changing events – marriage, kids, pets, jobs, friends, etc.  

And I had spoken briefly at the local school board meeting just months earlier — with the terror!

Yet, I wanted to overcome this.  There was a desire in me to be able to speak in public and not be terrified.  

And, yes, I accomplished it!

But how?

Enter Emotional Freedom Techniques or EFT, a.k.a. ‘Tapping’.  A friend in health coaching school was studying this relatively new technique and needed a guinea pig.  I agreed, not really knowing what I was getting into.  But, BOY, was it worth it.

Learning the technique is easy.  All you need is your fingertips and a little knowledge about acupressure.  

This cross between modern psychology and acupressure produces amazing results – like me overcoming my fear of public speaking.   Current clients have felt lightness and peace after 10 minutes of tapping.  One man, who had woken up with anxiety EVERY day, is now waking up peaceful EVERY day, after just one session of tapping.  Another client quieted her nausea in minutes without ever tapping before.

This technique was developed about 30 years ago by Dr. Roger Callahan and carried on by one of his students, Gary Craig.  Dr. Callahan had a client, ‘Mary’, who had a lifelong phobia of water.   After 18 months of psychotherapy, she was able to sit out by the pool, but not face it.  Dr. Callahan was studying ancient Chinese medicine at the time and decided to combine his knowledge of psychology with the energy meridians and the acupressure points.  He had ‘Mary’ tap on one of these meridian points and within minutes she got up and ran to the pool, splashing water on her face with much joy.  The tapping had freed her from this phobia!  And she was relieved of it for good.

There are many ‘one minute miracles’ with Tapping, and there are many times when you have to work at something for much longer before getting the desired results.  Either way, it is an amazing technique.

Thousands of personal stories testify to its efficacy.  And now there are more than one hundred papers published in the peer-reviewed scientific literature that show why and how it works.  The American Psychological Association has shaped the criteria for these studies and many are quite striking.  The conditions that have been studied include anxiety, athletic performance, depression, pain and physical symptoms, phobias, PTSD and weight loss (including cravings and addiction).

In one of my favorite studies, 83 non-clinical subjects received different treatments.  All had their cortisol levels tested before and after treatment.  One group received EFT for an hour, one group had regular talk therapy for an hour and another no treatment.  The EFT group had a greater reduction in perceived symptoms and a much lower cortisol level – a whopping 24%!

Church, D., Yount, G., & Brooks, A. J. (2012). The effect of Emotional Freedom Techniques (EFT) on stress biochemistry: A randomized controlled trial. Journal of Nervous and Mental Disease, 200(10), 891-896. doi:10.1097/NMD.0b013e31826b9fc1

Social workers, massage therapists, psychologists and even medical doctors are now recognizing and using this technique in their practices.

As this gains momentum, I want to personally invite you to join me.

Visit www.wendyfisherhealthcoach.com to set up your free Discovery Session today!