Tapping Anxiety Away: How to Use Emotional Freedom Techniques (EFT) for Anxiety, OCD & Trauma

The traditional treatment for OCD is typically some form of Exposure and Response Prevention.

Exposure therapy is where the patient is exposed to some stimulus that creates a strong urge to perform whatever obsessive/compulsive action (ritual) they are working on.

For example, a person's compulsive behavior is washing their hands repeatedly, believing they are dirty; with Exposure and Response Prevention, they would expose themselves to something that makes them feel dirty or contaminated, such as rooting through a trash can, then work to prevent the compulsive response of washing your hands by not allowing themselves to follow through.

This treatment has worked for many people in the past but is often an extremely difficult and uncomfortable process.

With EFT, the treatment is to soften the compulsive urge by tapping on the impulse in the present moment and (more powerfully) uncovering core events from the past that likely instigated the compulsive behaviors in the first place.

OCD is very much a control issue. A person struggles to control an otherwise out-of-control situation or the "chaotic" world outside.

Repeating specific actions or behaviors is one way a person gains some semblance of control or organization.

As with anxiety, finding the core events isn't always easy, so if you are starting out, you can begin by tapping on the present urge.

A present urge, impulse, or compulsion could be the urge to wash your hands, check the locks, tie and untie your shoes, etc.

Tapping on obsessive/compulsive urges can help soften the urge and relieve the tension around it.

However, it is usually a temporary solution.

Getting to the core events, as I have mentioned over and over again in this article, is the key to more permanent changes.

For mild to moderate OCD, EFT/Tapping can help significantly, if done correctly and you continue to go deeper with the practice.

For moderate to severe OCD, I highly recommend seeing a professional or looking into an intensive treatment program. With severe OCD, medication can also be highly beneficial or even necessary.

Severe OCD can often be debilitating and difficult to treat.

As a fellow OCD sufferer, you do not have to deal with it alone.

There are great programs and organizations out there that can help.

If you suffer from moderate to severe OCD, check out the International OCD Foundation (IOCDF): iocdf.org

Nearly everyone will experience some form of trauma in their lives.

No one goes through life without facing at least some significant difficulty, loss, pain, or other experience that can be difficult to process and cope with.

When people think of trauma, they often think of extremes like war, rape, abuse, or other forms of violence.

While these experiences can indeed cause Trauma, trauma is essentially any adverse event where the energy of the situation is beyond what a person's internal resources can handle.

In many forms of therapy, traumatic events are often described in two different ways:

Little "t" traumas include many common experiences nearly all of us will face at some point in our lives: divorce or breakup, death of a loved one, loss of a job, financial difficulties, broken trust, etc.

Big "T" Traumas; are more severe Traumas like what we mentioned above; war, rape, abuse, incest, domestic violence, etc.

The truth is that your sensitivity and inner resources determine the level of the trauma more so than labels.

For one person, a divorce may very well be a big "T" trauma, while for another, it may not.

While losing a job may not be traumatic initially, if you go months without finding another job, your car gets repossessed, and you end up losing your house, it may become a traumatic experience.

Don't allow others to label trauma for you.

For best results, you need to break the event down into particular aspects and work on the specific emotions surrounding that aspect, one at a time.

For example, suppose you were working on when your boyfriend/girlfriend left you for another person. In that case, the first emotion that comes up when you think about it may be anger.

So you could begin working on the anger around it.

As you work on the anger, other emotions may arise: sadness and loss, abandonment, betrayal, etc.

It's important to work on these emotions one at a time.

If you want to work on traumatic memories on your own, I sincerely recommend sticking to small "t" traumas.

Even though EFT tends to be one of the most gentle approaches to dealing with trauma, diving headfirst into big "T" Traumas like rape or years of abuse as a child without proper guidance can bring up more than you may be able to deal with.

This can end up having the reverse effect and make matters worse.

Even if the event was a long time ago or doesn't feel "too bad" in the present, it can be surprising how much unresolved shit we are holding onto and how truly intense it can be when it floods our awareness.

Just be smart and go slowly. If you're dealing with severe Trauma, reach out to a professional.

Tapping for pain is not much different than tapping for anxiety or any other issue.

You may wonder if you need to uncover past events or specific aspects of the pain for it to work, and the answer is yes.

An underlying emotional aspect to pain applies to nearly any type of pain you can think of, with the exception of pain caused by actual physical injury.

EFT operates under the tenet that unresolved emotional issues cause ALL physical and emotional problems (which include pain).

I also agree with this based on my own experiences and training.

So, to work on pain, you proceed in the same way that I outlined above for anxiety - identifying the issue and then breaking it down into specific aspects.

Again, if you can uncover the past events or emotions behind the pain, you can reach more significant and permanent results.

But as I mentioned, if you are new to EFT and can't pinpoint the events right away, begin by focusing on the pain in your present experience and then break it down into specifics.

Where is it located specifically?

What does it feel like?

What characteristics does it have?

Is it hot? Cold?

Is it sharp like a stab or dull like an ache?

Be as specific as possible.

For example, don't work on "my back pain," be specific, "this dull ache in the lower right side of my back," etc.

By being specific, you can determine if the pain has changed in any way after each round. People often notice that the pain will move or change in intensity. You must readjust and focus on the new experience for each round until it is gone.

Again, as you go through and continue working on the pain, past events (memories) or emotions may come to the surface - this is what you want to work on.

For actual physical pain caused by injury, you will focus on the pain.

Often, negative emotions can worsen the pain and keep a person from healing in a typical time frame.

By tapping on the pain or any negative emotions, you can not only reduce pain but assist your body in healing faster.