15 myths about EFT tapping, that’s what I’m going to go over in this video because there are a lot of misconceptions about EFT or Emotional Freedom Techniques, a scientifically proven to be an effective technique to release and process excessive stuck negative emotions. What it can do, what it can’t do. So, we’re going to go over that in rapid-fire.

My name is Sebastiaan van der Schrier, why am I talking to you about this? Because I’ve been practicing tapping for about 14 years, I’ve been working with clients since 2009. And I use tapping to overcome my own social anxiety disorder.

Here we go. We’re going to go through this on rapid-fire.

Myth #1: Tapping works because of the placebo effect.

All right, that’s a myth. Because the placebo effect basically means that you believe in something and because you believe in it, then it’s effective. They do scientific tests where they give people medicine, that’s a new medicine on the market that’s supposed to help. And they give the give that to one group, and then they give another group sugar pills. And they say that both are effective.

What they find is that people that get the sugar pills, sometimes get or often get the same kinds of results that people get, who get the actual medication. And that’s because of their belief in it. That’s called the placebo effect you can read a lot about That’s very interesting.

But that’s not with tapping, because a lot of people don’t believe in tapping before they try it. And then they do it. And they feel their emotions shift. And they’re like, “Holy shit! This does really work for me”. And this happens for many, many other people. So, it’s not a placebo.

Myth #2: Tapping is just a distraction technique.

No, it’s also not a distraction technique. In fact, it’s the opposite. Because with tapping, you focus on the emotions that you’re feeling, on the negative belief or limiting belief that you have, on the discomfort in your body while you do the tapping. So, it’s actually the opposite of a distraction technique. And because of the focus on the problem, the tapping begins to reduce and release the problem, the emotional problem.

Myth #3: Tapping is just a pattern interrupt.

Now in NLP (Neuro-linguistic programming), there’s such a thing as a pattern interrupt, which is when a client goes into their particular problem, you ask them a ridiculous question. Why is your hair on fire? And they’re like, what do you want about and that’s to stop them from going into that negative pattern. And it is said or thought, the myth is that people think that tapping is just a pattern interrupt.

Well, it actually is a bit of a pattern interrupt because you’re focusing on your problem and you’re interrupting that pattern by doing the tapping.

But that’s not the main thing. That’s just a small thing of it.

The bigger thing is that the stimulation of these acupressure points and studies have shown that it reduces the production of Cortisol (your stress hormone) goes down and your Serotonin levels (your happy hormones) go up. These biochemical responses create a sense of calm. So, something biologically really happens which is the bigger thing – your emotions start to release.

Myth #4: EFT is pseudoscience.

This is also a myth. But are you familiar with Wikipedia? I’m sure you are; I use it all the time. But it might not be as reliable as a resource as you think. Because they, for example, say that “EFT is a pseudoscience”, but that’s not true because there are over 100 scientific studies done on the power of EFT. And the American Psychological Association (APA) recognizes EFT as an evidence-based treatment for conditions like PTSD (post-traumatic stress disorder), test anxiety, public speaking, depression, and various others.

These 100 studies that I mentioned are peer-reviewed and published in prestigious scientific journals like the American Psychological Association, and more.

There are 5 meta-analyses done on the effectiveness of EFT tapping. 3 of them, for example, one on anxiety, one on depression, and one on PTSD show very large effect sizes. Meaning that the treatment shows or demonstrates that it’s a very effective treatment.

And meta-analyses are the highest level of scientific research even above randomized control trials. So, there’s lots and lots of research backing up EFT effectiveness. However, people from Wikipedia don’t like anything considered an alternative therapy.

So, when the actual facts are being put into the Wikipedia page, the Wikipedia page gets updated by the editors of Wikipedia, which could also be you, by the way. Because Wikipedia is something that’s edited by the crowd, anyone can go in there and start editing it.

But that’s a myth.

It’s not pseudoscience. It’s based on real science and real science; you can find it by going to this link.

Myth #5: You can expect a one-minute wonder and one session cures of your long-standing issues.

Alright, so even though it’s a scientifically proven and effective technique, that is not a placebo, that is not a distraction technique, and is amazingly effective. It still is not magical, be all end all solution for everything.

And when EFT just started in the ’90s, the founder of EFT Gary Craig, often reported on one-minute miracles, one-minute wonders. And these were basically when a client had a long-standing issue. And with tapping, the root of that issue was found. And when a few minutes of tapping, that long-standing issue was resolved. That’s kind of a broad EFT, a lot of its fame. But that has brought the misconception or the myth to people’s minds that that is supposed to happen with everything.

That’s totally not the case. It’s a rare scenario where you have these one-minute wonders.

The same thing goes for. “Okay, I’m going to have one EFT session with a therapist and I’m going to have my longstanding intimacy issues be resolved. Or I’m going to have my social anxiety resolved within one session.”

It doesn’t happen, okay?

It’s a complex issue. It takes work overtime, but you can speed up the progress significantly. And you’ll notice significant relief within just one session.

Myth #6: You can overcome your complex issues all by yourself.

Tapping is very effective. You can use it by yourself, you can be very creative with it. It is a super powerful self-help tool. Pretty much all of the personal development techniques and strategies that you know of, you can combine with tapping and it will speed up your progress.

You can get very good at it.

You can study it for yourself.

You can understand it really well.

But for your most complex issues, you’re likely going to need some outside help, because you have subconscious blind spots to some of your own issues. And it’s not safe for you, yourself to go there.

So, some of your most complex issues, you can’t resolve on your own and you’re going to need some outside assistance for that.

Myth #7: You need to have the perfect words to do your tapping.

Okay, that’s another myth.

There’s no such thing as the perfect words. You see these online scripts; you probably see some of my tip along videos. And if you’ve been doing this for quite a while, you become quite creative with the wording and it can seem like these words are magical and super powerful. And some of them are very powerful, and they are very productive.

But they’re often the icing on the cake.

What the real magic comes from, is the actual tapping, the actual stimulation of these acupressure points.

In the original EFT, the words are used to keep you focused on the problem. So super basic EFT is like “Even though I have this problem, I deeply and completely accept myself”. And then on the tapping point, you say “this problem, this problem, this problem”, “Even though I feel this shame, or deep-link, really accept myself this shame, this shame, the shame, the shame”, you can keep it as simple as that.

In fact, you can take that to the next level. And I often do this. And that is by simply focusing on the feeling in your body while you tap without any words.

And you’ll notice that it begins to reduce and release. Not always, sometimes there are other reasons for why it’s not releasing such as resistance, or you’re focusing on the wrong thing or something like that.

But usually, when you have a strong emotion, you begin to tap within just a round of tapping without any words whatsoever, you’ll notice that it begins to subside and reduce and release. And that’s to make the point that, “Hey, the magic isn’t in the wording. And you can be creative with these words. But you can be as basic as you can as well, you can even leave the words out altogether, there’s no perfect way.”

Just try it out and see what happens. You don’t have to do it perfectly in order for this to work.

Myth #8: Negative statements attract negative situations.

In EFT, we use a lot of the negative we focus on the negative. And if you studied the law of attraction, for example, by the way, that’s not directly connected to EFT at all, you don’t have to believe in the law of attraction at all in order to benefit from tapping. But some people have studied the law of attraction and they’re like, “I need to be positive all the time. And I need to think positive thoughts because positive thoughts attract positive people situations, circumstances, and events. So, if I focus on the negative, then I’m going to attract negative people, negative circumstances, negative events. So, we tap in we focus on the negative, so that’s a problem. I can’t do that. Ah!!“

Relax, okay?

So, we focus on the negative, because the negative is there already anyway. The negative is actually in the way of you naturally feeling more optimistic and positive. So, we focus on the emotional pain, briefly. And what the tapping does is it releases that emotional pain, and as you release that emotional pain, you feel relief, you feel more comfortable, you feel more at ease, you feel more confident, you have more energy, and so on.

So, we focus on the negative, but that doesn’t attract negative situations. It just helps resolve the negative so that you have a “higher vibration” if you will. If you want to look at it that way.  

Myth #9: All problems are addressed the same.

Okay, this is also a myth.

I specialize in social anxiety. That’s what I’ve been doing since 2009. Professionally, and I started working on my own social anxiety using tapping in 2006 and started working on it in 2001, but in 2006 – 2007 I started working on it on myself.

What I discovered was that anxiety is a bit of a different animal than your other typical problems. I can’t speak for all the other problems. I can just speak for social anxiety.

But in social anxiety, for example, one of the issues is that the anxiety itself, when it shows up when it comes up, it triggers an even stronger fight flight freeze response. And, and so there’s a fear of feeling anxious.

And if you do not address that fear, and you start working on memories and cause of anxiety, and so on, then every time you notice a bit of anxiety, and you still have that fear of it, it will trigger a stronger fight flight freeze response, and you stay within that loop.

That’s just one example of how you address social anxiety differently.

So not all problems follow the exact same approach, even though the most common recommended approach in EFT is to focus on the emotion and ask yourself, “Hey, what is this emotion remind me off and neutralize the memory?”

That is definitely one of the keys, what are the essential things that you do, but it’s not all there is to it. And it’s not that approach for all problems.

Myth #10: Tap along scripts will resolve your issue.

Alright, so I have quite a bit of tap alongs on my YouTube channel. And you’ll find lots of other people guiding you through tapping on YouTube. And it’s great and some of them are very helpful. And what they do is they provide some relief.

But the problem is that people start thinking that tap alongs are the ‘cure-all solution’ for the real problems that you’re having. But that’s not the case, there’s no tap along, it’s going to resolve your social anxiety ever.

And I always pre-phrase the tap alongs when I do them by saying, “Hey, this is just to give you a taster of what is possible”, because most people have never experienced actual releasing their emotions and feeling better after doing a little bit of tapping. So it’s to give you a taste of what’s possible. But it just works on the surface. It’s like cutting weeds in your garden, they usually grow back, you need to address the root cause of your problem, pull the weeds in your garden – out root and all before you actually get permanent results.

Now don’t get me wrong, some tap along can be really super powerful, but they’re not the end all be all solution for your problem, you need to address the core of the problem and resolve it completely.

Myth # 11: You should always get to the core of your issue.

Alright, looks like I’m contradicting myself, isn’t it? Well, let me talk about that.

Alright, so in a very, very simple case, which in most cases isn’t the scenario with social anxiety. But let’s say it’s a super simple case, you were 12 years old, you had a public speaking scenario in your class, you get laughed at by your teacher, you became embarrassed you flushed in your face blah, blah, blah. Since then, you felt uncomfortable whenever you were the center of attention.

In a super simple scenario, you go to that memory, you neutralize the memory and your public speaking problem is gone. Now, like I said, almost never happens, though that is the foundational approach.

That is getting to the core of the issue.

Often there is more course of an issue and there’s more going on. But the idea in tapping is often that you need to get to the core of the issue you need to work on the specific memory and so on.

But sometimes you don’t know what the core memory is, we can still work with it because you can work on the level of beliefs and you can work with your feelings. And in that way, you can sometimes still address the core of the issue.

Now, this is more advanced. But I just want to dispel a myth, right? This is a myth. So, me as a practitioner. This is what I’m sharing with you. To get to kind of open your perspective and broaden your horizons so to speak.

Myth #12: Someone who is calling himself an EFT practitioner is an expert at EFT who can help me.

There are 29 founding EFT masters in the world. These are EFT master therapists that have been appointed by the founder, Gary Craig, and they’re appointed a long time ago,

Since then, other certifications have come along and have started out, EFT master practitioners and so on. But you can get that in a couple of weeks. And so, there are now so-called EFT masters who have gone through like a week program through the basics that considered that are that call themselves EFT masters and they are in comparable with an actual EFT master who has gone through like 10,000 or 15,000 hours of coaching, studying and is a true expert in the field.

So, because of that unfortunate scenario, you’re not sure who is someone who calls himself an EFT expert really isn’t an EFT expert. So, when you’re looking to work with someone, you want to ask that person:

• How many clients if you work with?
• How long have you been doing this?
• What’s your success rate?
• Who have you been trained by?
• What training have you had?
• How much have you trained?
• Are you still training?
• Do you have a mentor?

And you will of course want to have an intro chat with this person to see if this is someone with who you have a click. So not everyone who practices EFT is an actual expert that can help you. And if you have that thinking, and you do get a session from someone who calls himself an EFT expert, and you have a not a satisfying experience that can give you the sense that EFT doesn’t work for me or you know, something like that. So there you go, next.

Myth #13: EFT can replace all Western medicine and psychotherapy.

This is another myth. So, my mentor is a psychotherapist who’s been practicing EFT tapping since 1998, Dr. David Lake. And I thought that EFT was the be all end all solution. Before I met him, and I’ve been re-schooled, shall we say?

What he says and I fully agree right now is that EFT or tapping is a tool. It’s a technique, it’s a strategy, it’s a very effective one to release negative emotions, to process stuck emotions in the body, to shift limiting beliefs. And it significantly improves the inner work that you do. But it’s not therapy in and of itself.

And some people simply need therapy.

And you can then use tapping during your therapy sessions, to put your therapy sessions on steroids and get a lot more out of it. But we don’t want either tapping or psychotherapy, we want the best of both worlds.

In my podcast, Social Anxiety Solutions, I interview a lot of Western-trained psychologists, psychotherapists, doctors, who have incorporated energy psychology, which tapping is one of the more well-known practices, who have incorporated tapping into their practice and have seen the results of their clients go through the roof. It used to take years. Now takes months. Without that, would you stick months now it takes weeks, and people just get a lot more relief a lot more quickly.

So we want the best of both worlds. What I want is, I’m in the process of contributing towards is a merging of the best of traditional Western approaches and energy psychology, because that, updating social anxiety treatment worldwide, so that the people that suffer the most get the best possible solutions.

That’s what we’re after.

Myth #14: All I have to do is tap. Never leave my house until one day supremely confident and walk out of the house. And I’m a social confidence master.

Yes, that’s also a myth.

At the beginning of my coaching career in 2009, I thought that it was like that, that you could stay at home that you can do your tapping, clear all of the issues, and then boom, you get out of your house and wah. And was I ever wrong?

That’s not how it works.

You do tapping from the comfort of your home for the most part, but you don’t stay at home and lock yourself in and avoid the whole world to go on this healing mission. Until you perfectly healed and then go out, that doesn’t work.

What you want to do is you want to use the tapping to get rid of the core of your issues and all the little side issues and continue to live your life.

And what will happen as a result of doing that is, you’ll begin to decrease the anxiety, you’ll begin to become more comfortable with yourself, your self-esteem begins to improve, you become more easygoing, you accept yourself more, and your comfort zone expands, which means what you’re comfortable with becomes bigger.

And so what used to be like 10 out of 10 fear for you, like, for example, going to a party might decrease to like a 3, then it’s doable to go in there and to experience that, from which you then get feedback, you might get triggered a little bit, but it won’t be anywhere near where it was. And then you can go back home and look at “Hey, what is it that got triggered”

Work through that, and so on and so forth.

You progressively become more comfortable with yourself, and you progressively feel more safe being you and you progressively start doing more things to expand your comfort zone. And tapping. tapping helps with that.

Myth # 15: Tapping works for others, but not for me.

This is such a common belief. And it’s often belief, because of some of the above myths that I mentioned. It’s just misconceptions. People thinking it should happen super-fast, it’s not a journey. Or they had some tap alongs that they thought were supposed to, you know, resolve their social anxiety completely, but it was just temporary and it came back because like I said, you just cut the weeds and you just have a taster, addressing the root issues, or to work they’ve worked with a couple You know, one or a couple of lets just say not so competent EFT practitioners.

And by the way, social anxiety is quite a special issue. And there, unfortunately not yet many experienced EFT tappers who specialize in social anxiety, though they are coming.

So that can give you the idea that “wow, tapping doesn’t work for me”. Well, it’s highly likely that it is going to work for you when you have a long term approach when you have the attitude of chipping away at the layers of your problem.

Social Anxiety is a complex issue consisting of a lot of little aspects. And going from social anxiety to effortless social ease, which is just being yourself is a journey of a lot of little steps, chipping away at the memories, chipping away your fears chipping away at your worries, chipping away the limiting beliefs in the way of you feeling safe to be yourself, that’s all like step by step little little bits of pieces, little little bits of time. And that journey can be sped up by working with competent practitioners.

And that is what you want to do.

So don’t give up just because it hasn’t worked for you yet. Or it hasn’t given you the results that you want just yet. Okay, it works.

However, some people might have social anxiety plus other issues, they might have some severe depression or personality disorder or borderline or any of the other kinds of conditions. And for that, you definitely need to work with a therapist as well.

Tapping by yourself to complete the severe complex issues like that is at the best going to give you a bit of relief, but it won’t resolve it. But when you start to work with a competent, professional – things are going to be very different.

And by the way, that those are not things that specialize in I only specialize in social anxiety, and none of the other things. So, what I’m saying applies to social anxiety.

or social anxiety, tapping is super effective when you’re just suffering from social anxiety. You don’t have any compounding issues like severe depression, bipolar, obsessive-compulsive disorder, you name it, tapping is going to be very effective.

But it’s a journey of a lot of little steps over time. And you want to get effective help in order to get to the other side.

So, these were the 15 myths that exist in the world about tapping hope has been helpful to you share this video with, with any skeptic you like, and help other people with this. The skeptics typically just dig in their heels, they don’t want to know anything about it, give them experience.

Experience is the thing that transforms I was a skeptic until I had the actual experience of tapping, working

Anyway, there’s a 30-day challenge coming up. A 30-day social confidence challenge completely free, where I share the best of what I’ve discovered in overcoming my own social anxiety starting in 2001, finding EFT in 2006 or 2007, and having worked with hundreds of clients allowed thousands of hours study the best investment of over $120,000 in training, my own therapy and so on. And I shared the best of all of that in bite-sized pieces, one email, and one quick video a day and it all builds on each other. It’s really amazing. I’ve run to back to back at the start of lockdown Coronavirus. You’re going to love this. It’s very, very powerful. It’s been life-transforming for many and I’m sharing the testimonials on Tuesday. Make sure you are part of this and you can register by going to bit.ly/socialconfidencechallenge

That is bit.ly/socialconfidencechallenge.

And for more science of EFT, you can check out this video and have a jolly good time.

Have a good week and I will connect with you very soon. Bye for now.

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Sebastiaan

Sebastiaan van der Schrier is a Social Confidence Coach and ex social anxiety sufferer. He helps socially anxious people become confident using a unique and painless approach. He is the host of the Social Anxiety Solutions podcast show and runs the first ever online Social Confidence Community.

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