EFT for Phobias
When a practitioner is training in EFT, the textbook case studies they’re given to work with are phobias, that’s how simple it can be to treat them with EFT. Well, I say ‘treat’ phobias, but that’s not actually what we’re doing; we’re clearing phobias. Or, at the very least we’re significantly reducing their intensity and therefore their hold over us.
Phobias are Not Irrational Fears
Phobias are no joke. Anyone who’s ever had one knows this, although too many of us exaggerate our strong fears by calling them ‘phobias’ which makes those of us who genuinely do have phobias sound like the boy who cried wolf. This is unfortunate because a genuine phobia seizes the nervous system and immediately elicits a survival response of fight/flight/freeze. Maybe the thought of boarding a flight makes you hyperventilate. Perhaps the sight of a needle makes you squirm. Or, maybe a dog getting too close makes you walk as far away as possible. These are all examples of survival responses when confronted with a phobia which can also include sweating; shortness of breath; vomiting; going to any length to avoid something; feeling ‘itchy’ all over or like our skin is crawling, etc.
Many people claim that phobias are irrational fears, but this is not true. In fact, most phobias are perfectly sensible.
A phobia is a type of long-term anxiety disorder that manifests as severe fear. There are multiple ways that phobias can develop including trauma (being bitten by a dog for example); conditioning (a mother terrified of flying might risk conditioning a child who flies with her); being taught to fear something (for example, a father who teaches their child to kill a spider immediately); or genetics (phobias aren’t always ours believe it or not, they can be inherited through our DNA). Some complex phobias can also have a strong link to unconscious benefits which are called secondary gains (but this isn’t to say all phobias are secretly benefiting us, it’s just something always worth exploring!)
How Does EFT Clear Phobias?
The reason EFT is usually effective in clearing phobias is due to how it works neurologically. When we think or talk about, or are exposed to an object or situation that we’re intensely afraid of, our amygdala (the survival center of the brain) kicks our nervous system into survival mode. By tapping on acupoints while engaging our phobia by talking about or imagining it, we’re sending messages back to the amygdala telling it not to switch into survival mode. Inherently, this process is pretty quick and simple. What can take more time to unravel are aspects.
Aspects are the various details or manifestations of a particular memory, fear, or issue. They need to be tapped on and cleared one by one. For example, there’s a great (albeit dated but no less useful) training video of EFT creator Gary Craig working through a water phobia with a client. In the session, Gary identifies what the client feels in his body as he looks at a swimming pool and taps that physiological response away completely. Aspect 1: seeing a body of water. Once in the pool, the client is feeling totally unbothered, so Gary challenges him to dunk his head under the surface. The client freezes. Aspect 2: putting his head under water.
Gary explains to the client that there may even be aspects he’s unaware of and it’s possible that he won’t know of them until he encounters them. For example, he suggests that the client may feel a fear response if he found himself in a murky lake instead of a clear swimming pool. The important thing to know is that if the fear returns, it’s not because the process failed; it’s because there are just remaining aspects that haven’t been cleared yet. This applies to any phobia ranging from spiders to dentists. Maybe a spider outside doesn’t induce panic anymore but a spider inside is enough to make us squirm!
Phobias Can be Simple or Complex
In addition to sensory aspects, phobias are sometimes linked to deep emotional wounds that are also aspects but can be more complex and require additional sessions. Another term for a complex phobia is ‘social phobia.’ I once worked with a client who had a flying phobia and fairly quickly it became evident that the phobia wasn’t about airplanes; the airplanes were merely a vessel that this person sat in each time they left their family and home, unsure of when they’d ever see their ageing parents again. Each flight they took became a period of time during which they were trapped in liminality. Each delay and every moment of turbulence was an unconscious reminder that they had no control over death, and the confines of the airplane left no place to escape these feelings of grief and anxiety that they could otherwise avoid. A phobia like this needs to be treated as anxiety, not strictly a set of physiological symptoms or triggers.
Using EFT to Clear Phobias
When we’re working through a phobia in EFT sessions, the process generally begins by investigating the following:
Name the aspects of the phobia that the client is aware of and test others to see if there are aspects they might not be conscious of;
What is the client feeling in their body when they think about or encounter the object of this phobia?
Does the client have an idea where this phobia originates or is there a specific memory?
Did a caretaker, sibling, or someone close to them also have this phobia?
Are they able to think and talk about the phobia? If it’s too intense to start with, assign a shape or color to it and start by tapping on what’s coming up. For example, ‘I can’t breathe when I think about tapping on this black thing that crawls;’ or even broader, ‘I feel nauseous even thinking about this square issue.’
Test how intense the fear response is to each aspect and tap it down to a 1 or 0, i.e. if the thought of feeling a spider on skin has an intensity level of 9 out of 10, tap it down until the thought is totally neutral.
Why Should I Try EFT When Nothing Else Has Worked?
EFT is one of the quickest and most effective techniques for reducing phobias that have affected our quality of life - in many cases - for decades. Simply speaking, EFT is more likely to effectively clear a phobia than other techniques because of how it works neurologically. It has the potential to reprogram the brain’s response to the object of a phobia.
When you speak with an EFT practitioner about your phobia, they’ll be able to estimate how many sessions the work may take. Usually simple phobias can be treated in between 1 - 3 sessions, but bear in mind it varies from person to person. A phobia can feel like it’s completely gone after one session only to discover it’s returned in six months (but remember it’s usually because another aspect has activated or it wasn’t completely cleared before finishing). Unexpected aspects can also surface during the process which can require another session to clear. Complex phobias are actually anxiety, so it will take more sessions to work through them.
Freedom from Phobias
There is absolutely no need to continue living with phobias that hold us back when techniques like EFT exist! The joy and freedom (it’s called Emotional Freedom Technique for a reason) that we experience when we’ve cleared a phobia is enormous. So enormous that some people then need to process the grief that comes up around how many experiences weren’t possible because of that phobia!
If you feel ready to clear a phobia once and for all, feel free to book a 20-minute Discovery Session during which we can have a chat about your goal and how EFT can serve you!