4 Simple Tools to Boost Your Therapy Results
Are you a therapist who is always looking for tools that get great results? If you are already using energy psychology tools like EFT, TFT, AIT, or CEP, you know how powerful these approaches can be. And as great as they are, sometimes a little tweak can lead to big improvements, even in an already-fabulous therapeutic toolkit! Here are four often overlooked yet simple tools to boost your therapy results.
Tapping the finger points
The most popular form of energy psychology is EFT tapping. EFT stands for the Emotional Freedom Techniques. Plural. Yet we often think of it only as tapping the side of hand with the setup statement, then tapping the head and torso points while stating the problem. That is certainly the basic recipe for EFT. But there’s more!
Tapping the points at the base of the fingernail on the thumb, index finger, middle finger, and pinky finger allows us to access important meridians where energy can also be stuck. Try adding these points in your next EFT practice and see how it feels. You may be surprised at how powerful it is!
The 9-gamut
Another underutilized technique in EFT is what’s called the 9-Gamut. This term was coined by Roger Callahan, father of energy psychology tapping techniques and creator of Thought Field Therapy (TFT).
To do this, tap the back of your hand, between the bones leading up to the pinky and ring fingers. This is a treatment point for the very important Triple Warmer or thyroid meridian. This meridian is associated with a host of emotions. While steadily tapping this point, do the following nine things:
- Close your eyes
- Open your eyes
- Look sharply down to the left
- Look sharply down to the right
- Roll your eyes slowly in a big clockwise circle
- Roll your eyes slowly in a big counterclockwise circle
- Hum a little tune
- Count to five
- Hum a little tune
You will be amazed at how the distress level drops after doing this simple exercise. In fact, in online tapping groups, my group-members found that adding the finger points and 9-gamut reduced their SUDs (units of distress, on a 0-10 scale) by at least a point or two, and often more. Adding these techniques to a round of tapping, at least with these groups, seems more efficient than adding a new round of tapping.
The Brief Energy Correction
This is a simple tool that is taught in ACEP's comprehensive energy psychology training. It was designed to rebalance an energy field that had become scrambled, where the nerves are not sending the correct signals. A "tell" of this scrambling is homolateral walking (same arm and leg move forward together, rather than the opposite arm as normal). Confusion and clumsiness are also "tells".
Interestingly, Robin Bilazarian found that this simple exercise reduced workshop participants SUDs dramatically in just 90 seconds of practice. You can read more about Robin’s study here, and also view a video of the technique. Her article even has an image showing the hand placement!
To do this simple exercise, place one hand below your naval. Then place your other hand on the following areas, holding each for just one breath:
- Both sides of the collar bone, using thumb and index finger on either side
- Under the nose, using index and middle finger
- Under the mouth, using index and middle finger
- At the tailbone, with the back of the hand on your body and thumb facing upwards
The next time you need a quick fix for your energy or mood, give the brief energy correction a try. I recently guided a stressed-out client who was having therapy from his car in this subtle exercise. He dropped from a ten to a four after three rounds, and to a two after an additional three rounds. It was easier for him to do than a full tapping protocol because of logistics, and got him a dramatic reduction in just a couple of minutes.
Collar bone breathing
This is another simple tool that is part of the comprehensive energy psychology training but can be a fantastic standalone technique. It also was meant to help restore balance in a scrambled energy system and offered help for clumsiness and confusion.
To do this technique, cross your hands over your chest with your fingers resting just below your collar bones. You’ll do two sets: for the first, put your fingertips under your collar bones. For the second set, place your middle knuckle just under your collar bones. For each set, breathe as follows:
- Inhale and exhale completely
- Inhale halfway and hold
- Inhale the rest of the way and hold
- Breathe halfway out and hold
- Breathe the rest of the way out and hold
- Inhale and exhale completely
Give this simple technique a try and see how easy it is to come back into balance!
Simple tools to boost your therapy results.
These four simple tools will help you get great results, quickly and easily. Even better, they are free and have no side effects! Give them a try and see how you and your clients feel even better, even faster!
What are your favorite tools to use energy psychology in your teletherapy practice? We would love to hear from you, so leave a comment below. If you would like to learn more about these exciting techniques, check out our training calendar.
Author
Sarah Murphy, LPC, NCC, is a licensed and nationally certified professional counselor. She specializes in energy psychology, including EFT, as well as mindfulness and meditation. Sarah works with individuals seeking to find peace within themselves, people who have serious medical diagnoses, and couples who want to resolve conflict and live in harmony. Sarah is an ACEP Board member and chair of its communications committee; she has a private practice and serves as staff therapist with Unite for HER.
Photo by Jonathan Sebastiao on unsplash
