EFT Into Schools

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Turning Students On to EFT
By Don A. Blackerby, PhD

Learn EFT Here

When I am telling another person about how I use NLP or Neuro-Linguistic Programming to help struggling students with school, I always mention how I am also increasingly using EFT (Emotional Freedom Techniques) to help them with stress, anxiety and other emotions and traumas. One of the distinctions of my work with students is my desire to teach them to use EFT on themselves without waiting for an “adult or counselor” to help them out of an emotional or stressful situation. I consider it as one of my personal gifts to a young student.

Many times, students are stressed out or overwhelmed by the demands of school, teachers, parents or life in general. This is particularly true since our “schools” do not seem to get around to teaching students HOW to learn the academic subjects. We leave it to the student to figure this out and the lack of effective learning strategies is one of the primary factors that leads to confusion, stress, anger and sometimes depression in our students in school. Teaching students how to learn the different academic subjects alleviates much of this emotional wear and tear, but there are many other factors that create emotional stress that are “just part of the growing up process.”

Two of the many questions I am frequently asked are “How do you turn students on to EFT, especially younger children?” And, “After you teach them EFT, how do you get them to use it on themselves?”

The short answer is: Very tentatively. The long answer is: I carefully break the process down into sub-lessons or very short segments that are fun in and of themselves and then I chain the sub-lessons all together and show them how to do it to themselves until they can see and feel the difference. Only after they are turned on to it and what it can do for them do I label it “EFT” or try to partially explain it.

The specific sub-lessons mentioned above happen ONLY after I have solid rapport and credibility with the student. This “student” can be a person of practically any age—very young to very old. The approach will vary to fit the age and life experiences of the student.

First sub-lesson—I introduce them to the concept of body energy without naming it or explaining it. I like to give them an experience of body energy and I do this with “muscle testing.” There are many, many ways to muscle test but I find that the more physical it is, the better it works with youth—especially if the student has been diagnosed with Attention Deficit Disorder (ADD) or ADHD. So, while I do this, we are standing and moving around in my office. My only criteria is that it fits the age of the student and the affect of it needs to be dramatic enough to get the attention of the students. They also need to be able to duplicate what I do and see and feel the differences when certain internal states are compared, as explained later.

One of the most common muscle testing techniques is as follows:

A. Stand slightly to the side of the student, looking over their arm as the arm is extended horizontally —either left or right arm.

B. Place one hand lightly on their wrist. Place your other hand on their shoulder for stability.

C. Have them keep their body relaxed and their eyes closed while focusing on their arm and shoulder strength.

D. Whisper to them to “Be strong.”

E. Briefly apply gentle downward pressure on their wrist for about 1-2 seconds or until you feel the muscle either “let go” or “lock in place”. (Avoid “bouncing” or “playing war” with the arm pressure). You are looking/feeling for a benchmark “neutral” strength for when they “feel strong” without something specific to think about.

F. Internally note the strength of the arm (or lack of).

G. Demonstrate the difference in muscle strength when they access and compare some of the following different states:

Like or dislike (eg, think of: person, food, subject in school, chore, hobby, sport, etc),

True or false (eg, “My name is true name or “My name is false name”, etc.)

Yes or No (eg, “I like ice cream” or “I like vegetables”, etc)

Positive or negative situation (last week “when I was sad” or “yesterday when I was happy”, etc).

Zip or un-zip central meridian energy line (with their eyes closed and with your fingers about 2-3 inches from their body, rapidly lower (unzip) your fingers from their chin down to their knees—test muscle strength. Then rapidly raise your fingers from their knees up to their chin (zip)— test again. There should be a significant difference in strength).

Interrupt central energy line(trace an X in the air about 2-3 inches from their belly button—test muscle strength. Then in the same position, trace a figure 8 about 2-3 inches from their belly button—test again. There should be a significant difference in muscle strength).

Etc.

After they have noticed differences, comment and elaborate on various possible learnings, like:

a. Everybody has an energy field;

b. Everybody’s energy is affected by emotions;

c. What do they think happens to them when they become–angry, have their feelings hurt, feel sad, are bullied, etc?;

d. Are they more resourceful when they are in a “negative” emotional state or a “positive” one?;

e. Getting into a “negative” state is a fact of life (ie, it is going to happen);

f. Getting out of it is their choice– “WOULD THEY LIKE TO KNOW HOW TO CHANGE IT WHENEVER THEY WANTED?

Get a “yes” to this question. If you do not get a “yes”, you will have to do more on the first sub-lesson to convince them of the existence of body energy and it’s effect.

Second Sub-lesson—have them try it on somebody else (parent, friend, etc—be careful NOT to set up a competitive situation) and have BOTH notice the differences. (Personal note: With a student 18 years of age or younger, I always have at least one of the parents sit in the sessions with us. They make a perfect candidate for the student to practice on.)

Third Sub-lesson—Introduce the idea of energy meridians as the pathways through which positive energy flows through their body. Also, when they are in a positive state–energy is flowing; when they are in a negative state–energy is blocked.

Fourth Sub-lesson–tapping on energy meridians releases the block. Demonstrate what tapping is and how to do it on some of the easier meridian points.

Fifth Sub-lesson—teach and demonstrate the EFT tapping sequence or procedure.

Basic and Whole Lesson— Throughout the whole process, I attempt to be humorous and light hearted and give lots of examples of how I use it personally and how I have helped others, like them, use it. I treat it as one of the important lessons to be learned in life—how not to be trapped by unwanted emotions; and I give them lots of examples of when we can be. I then label the EFT tapping protocol and name it as “EFT” and explain it according to their age and ability to understand (sometimes I don’t even attempt to explain—I let them become convinced by the experience). I demonstrate it on several current emotional issues that they have. I then future pace how to use it on emotional issues that might come up in the next few weeks. I teach and demonstrate how to do EFT privately; when and where to use it in public and when not to and why; and how to use it covertly. I also treat it as a secret that they and very few others know. If they will share it only with those who they REALLY want to know about it, it will remain their secret to use when they think they need it.

Note: The fact that they know something that very few others know helps them “buy into the aspect of using it on themselves”—particularly if they have been led by you to use it and notice a positive difference. Also, the fact that they tried it out on a parent or a readily accessible friend AND shared it as a secret, gives them great ownership and a sense of “belonging” to something outside themselves. This is a deep-seated need in most of us and is the primary reason kids join gangs and have secret handshakes, language, symbols, etc. The more you can get them to talk about this and to “invest emotionally into the shared secret” the more they will buy into using it on their self when they need it.

Summary

“Negative emotions” come with living life. Human beings of all ages experience them. Young students, though, are particularly susceptible to being pulled down by their emotional hits. It is often said that young people can be so cruel to each other—sometimes because they intend to be but most of the time because of the way the receiving child takes the offending remark or incident. The negative meaning they assign to it can make it very personal and can affect their self esteem. It is a part of growing up. Learning to deal with these emotional hits, it seems to me, is a valuable lesson to teach our children.

My goal for teaching EFT to students is to empower them to take charge of their own life. This is a paradigm shift for many. And to have it so easily available is even further mind-boggling—especially to their parents. The notion of emotions as something to control is, for some parents, a sacred area and borders on mind manipulation. I like to explain it in a different way. That is, that negative and stuck emotions keep us from being as resourceful as we can possibly be. When we use EFT to un-block and release the negative emotions, it allows us to have access to our more positive and resourceful emotional states. Given the choice, who wouldn’t rather be positively resourceful than stuck in negative emotions? I have never had a student, young or old, choose negative emotions.

Besides, how many times have we, as parents, grandparents, family members, or friends or teachers watched and listened to our children and others around us get totally caught up in the emotions of some incident and “lose it!” Wouldn’t it be nice if we had already taught them EFT and could just quietly suggest to them that they might want to go “tap on it” for a while.

Don A. Blackerby, PhD

Courtesy of Emofree.com

As a teacher I am always curious to discover how EFT might work in new situations at school. It’s fun to try tapping on just about anything and notice the positive results that we get. Recently I had the opportunity to use EFT in two different ways with my class during a medical crisis.  

My students were in the gym playing floor hockey. During the game, Kevin raced in low toward the net to score and was accidentally struck with a hockey stick right above his eye. It was nobody’s fault, just a freak accident. 

Kevin was brought to the office and was attended to by one of my coworkers.  By the time I arrived, Kevin had a cloth and an ice pack over his wound.  He was obviously in pain and very upset. 

I immediately took his hand and began tapping on his karate chop point while he relayed the details of his accident to me. I asked if I could see his cut and was shocked to notice a deep, significant flap of skin come away from his forehead. 

Keeping my own feelings to myself, I asked how he was feeling and he answered quietly, “Sick, I am going to throw up.”  He was in shock: white, clammy and shaking. I thought that he was going to faint so I continued to tap on his karate chop point while someone brought him a bowl.  

While I continued to tap I asked, “Do you want me to say the words for you?” He nodded, so I added, “I’ll just tap on your finger points though, and leave your face alone.” 

By the time his mom arrived to take him to the hospital he was calm enough to walk to the car with our help.

After Kevin left I returned to my class and attempted to teach a lesson, however all of my kids wanted to talk about the accident. There had been a lot of blood on the gym floor, and they were very upset about the whole thing.  The boy who had been in net called out, “I can’t get that visual image out of my head. I was the goalie and saw everything, even the flap of skin with all that blood. It was awful!” 

So we applied EFT in an entirely new way. We called it the “Yuck Factor”. Together we tapped on the blood and all the gory details of the accident until we were ready to create new images of Kevin’s wound being healed with stitches. That helped everyone to calm down so that we could resume our day with some semblance of normalcy. No one mentioned Kevin’s accident again until he returned later from the hospital to show us his scar and seven stitches.  

Kevin’s scar has healed remarkably well. Now that he is over the shock, he has a story that he may enjoy telling for the rest of his life.  

Feeling curious about how effective EFT had been for Kevin during the aftermath of his accident, I recently asked him if he thought the tapping had helped him at all.  He responded with a big smile.

“Yes! he said, “If we hadn’t have tapped I would have thrown up for sure!”

Thank goodness for EFT!

After using EFT for over two years on a variety of school related issues, I decided to gather and record data to show how effective EFT can be for relieving anxieties in children and thereby improving academic performance and test results.

Each week my grade three and four students are given a math test in which they strive to complete 100 basic multiplication or division facts in ten minutes.

A few months ago, I told my class that because they were getting so quick at multiplication, I was going to reduce their time from ten minutes to eight. I knew this would create some anxiety.

Before the first test my students recorded and measured their level of anxiety on a scale from 0 – 10.  They completed that test without using EFT.

The second test was taken a few days later, after we used EFT to address their fears.  Before the test we tapped as a group about their worries, as well as on their stress-related physical symptoms, such as rapid heartbeat, dry throat, mind blocks, churning stomach, etc.

Here are the results of the two tests: (Student names have been changed.)

These results show a significant increase in many students’ test scores.  It is evident that once test related anxiety is addressed and released through the use of EFT, students are capable of reaching their potential in exam situations.

One of the many benefits of teaching EFT to your students is that they are able to quickly and quietly show you by tapping that they are feeling anxious or frustrated or in need of some assistance. 

I realized this shortly after I introduced EFT to my class. I had just completed a lesson on equivalent fractions and saw that I had done a poor job of it because many of my students were struggling with their work.  When I attempted to re-teach the concept I noticed several students tapping on their karate chop points. I smiled and asked, “Do equivalent fractions make you feel that anxious?” One girl grinned right back at me while continuing to tap and announced, “Yep!”

I realized then what a wonderful teaching tool EFT is. Not only does it enable children to relieve anxieties and improve test scores, it can also alert us to their need for assistance. Often the children who are the least vocal are the ones who experience the most anxiety, and tapping is a polite way for them to make us aware that they need some help or compassion.

Not long after that occasion, I noticed a boy quietly tapping while working at his seat.  This immediately made me aware of his need for some assistance, but when I asked if I could help him he responded, “No, I’m just tapping because I’m worried about the District Bike Race this afternoon.”  I invited him to do some tapping with me, but by this time the whole class was listening in. Everyone else wanted to tap as well! They all opened up about their worries and we tapped as a group to alleviate their fears.

Once we arrived at the bike race I was intrigued to notice many of my students tapping on the start line. Later, I was excited to see several of them complete the race so well. But I was especially delighted to notice the boy who had expressed the most anxiety before the race (and had incidentally taken a bad tumble off his bike while riding) come in last with a huge smile on his face.

The most important lesson for me on this day was that because I had noticed just one of my students attempting to tap away his worries, I was able to give everyone in my class the encouragement and understanding they needed, enable them to enjoy the bike race with a worry free attitude, and allow them to affirm that they were awesome kids whether they won or lost this race or finished somewhere in between.

Since then, whenever I have seen children tapping quietly their own, I have tried my best to give them the help and compassion they need and deserve.

I just concluded my first long-term supply in a local elementary school after graduating with my Education Degree. During this time I had a student that suffered from anxiety. Since I used EFT throughout by university years to reduce my own stress and anxiety, it seemed quite natural to me to want to give the benefit of EFT to my students as well. As a result of seeing Mary Stafford’s “EFT Shortcut for Children” and owning a Tappy Bear myself, doing so was quite easy. I just brought Tappy Bear into my class and did regular tapping with my students, which I called the silly dance. The silly dance was using Mary’s simple points and doing it in a fun and entertaining way. We used the silly dance before our Friday Tests and when I just felt that some of the students needed to have the benefit of tapping.
In my class, there was a student that suffered from severe anxiety. She participated in our regular class tapping and I even sent home a package to her mom about the benefits of EFT and how it can be used in so many ways. I am not sure if it was used at home but there was a noticeable difference in her anxiety levels . Until…
During the last two weeks she appeared to be really anxious and cried a lot. No one really understood why, but on the last day of school she told me she was really upset about me leaving. So right there as she hugged me, I gently tapped on the top of her head as she sobbed and told me that she was going to miss me. We tapped and did a few breathing exercises while she was totally in her sad feelings. In a very few minutes (it did feel like forever though) she told me she felt much better and was still a little sad but she knew that everything was going to be okay.
We cried together! During our sobbing, I told her that crying was sometimes a good thing and this is one of those times. She agreed!
I still spend a few minutes each day tapping her in my own mind. I believe its good for her and I know its good for me.

MKW
First Year Elementary School Teacher