When EFT Is Not Working: Order & Sequence In EFT Treatments

In general, when confronted with a problem that won’t budge, it is always useful to ask firstly, “What would happen if this problem wasn’t there anymore?” This brings up, as it did with Jerry, most likely two further or deeper problems to which the original problem may well have been the solution so far, namely:

1. What you HAVE or what has happened to make it impossible to NOT have the problem. This includes bad memories, traumatic events and decisions, negative emotions such as fear, terror; expectations of failure and of bad outcomes, bad things you were told and you remember always, beliefs about genetic or character defects, etc.

2. What you DON’T have but you need in order to be able to deal with these situations. This usually includes all kinds of attributes such as strength and courage, talent, creativity, intelligence, good looks, the right ethnic origin, the right gender, the right connections, luck, God’ s support or even a shining track record of previous successful attempts.

In Jerry’s case, what he did have was a number of very traumatic school experiences that had taught him it simply wasn’t safe to make contact with people in public situations, and life long beliefs about himself resulting from this.

We began tapping on these and once in a while, I would ask him about the wall and it was getting a little smaller but showed no sign of disappearing altogether. So we went to what he didn’t have but needed profoundly to make it be safe for him to face a group of people and feel safe and confident in doing so.

He said that he didn’t have the strength and courage necessary to face the criticism and not to fall apart. We tapped on these separately: “Even though I don’t have the strength to face angry people.” which led straight into watching his father beat his mother and being too afraid to come to her aid. And then, “I don’t have the courage to stand up to bullies.” It was a very emotional round of tapping and when that was done, the wall had gone.

All that was now left was insecurity and a feeling that he just didn’t have any experience with public speaking – it had all stopped when the wall had been built all those years ago. Jerry went on to take part in a public speaking course to get some experience now in a safe environment to make up for this lost “practise time” and the wall never came back.

The two questions of “What do I have that makes this happen?” and “What don’t I have but is needed to end this problem/situation?” are very useful when a problem seems to be stuck.

If you consider the Order and Sequence of the overall problem and it's own ecology, there are sometimes other questions to help discover what needs to be done first before this can happen, such as: "What do we need to do BEFORE you can release this problem?" This question gets some very interesting answers from different people.

One lady said, "I would have to promise to take care of myself much better if I was ever allowed to be in that situation again." This led to a sub-set problem group with it's own aspects, and as in the example with Jerry, once THIS was "out of the way", the previously unmovable problem could be tapped away with total ease.

I find it fascinating how our mind-body systems can "switch off" the effectiveness of the EFT treatment if it's deemed that by taking something away - a problem or more likely, a protective device - the person will be worse off than they were before.

It can, however, "switch them back on" just as astonishingly quickly again when these very real reservations have been laid to rest.

Silvia Hartmann

Author, Adventures In EFT