To say Kath Temple is enthusiastic about EFT (Emotional Freedom Technique) would be an understatement. Kath, a presenter for the Happiness Hub on Goldster, Success and Happiness Psychologist and founder of the Happiness Foundation UK, is, as a highly experienced Master Trainer, positively glowing about it. “It’s a phenomenal technique,” she says.
You may have heard of it from watching I’m A Celebrity. Boy George – ever tapped into the zeitgeist for ageing well and holistically - was doing it in the jungle. And as a result it made the national press.
So what is it exactly? “It is acupuncture but without the needles and it weaves in aspects of psychotherapy and psychology too. EFT uses the stimulation of acupoints,” explains Kath. “You literally tap on them and it creates a piezoelectric effect,” ( which is, put simply, the generation of an electric charge. In the body this electric charge can occur in bone, DNA and proteins). “You tap on acupressure points – it’s the tapping technique. Acupoints are electrical points designed into our human system. The tapping acts like a recoder for the whole human system, physiologically and psychologically. It changes and re-regulates the nervous system. EFT will emotionally regulate people and give them a tool to continue to self-regulate.” Kath states that too many people are stuck in their ‘alarm system’, the SNS (the sympathetic nervous system) which floods them with the stress hormone cortisol. Cortisol is pro-cancer, pro-diabetes, pro-arthritis, pro-aging. It is inflammatory. EFT rapidly flips the switch on your nervous system, switching off the Sympathetic Nervous System, and switching on the PNS, the Parasympathetic Nervous System, which is the rest and digest, relax and rejuvenate system.
According to Kath – it’s not particularly new, it has been around since 1995. It was created initially by a man called Gary Craig. Gary asked Kath to be part of his team when he came to the Reebok Stadium in Bolton to run the conference ‘EFT For Serious Diseases’. “I’ve worked with the hypnotherapist Paul McKenna for many years, since 1999. It was Paul who first introduced me to tapping in the year 2000.”
It has been a clinically proven technique over many, many years. “The latest research, just out this year, shows it is highly effective for auto-immune disorders, inflammatory conditions such as arthritis, it makes a significant impact on pain, improves inflammatory markers, it improves heart rate variability and boosts immunity too. It reduces the stress hormone cortisol by up to 43% within one hour.” Kath says it’s also brilliant for depression and anxiety, PTSD and trauma. It’s been studied by Universities all over the world. Harvard researchers, Hui et al, in their many studies of acupoint stimulation found it soothed the amygdala, which is our alarm system, bringing rapid regulation to the body and mind.
EFT also performs significantly better than CBT (cognitive behavioural therapy) when it comes to psychological disorders. “In a double blind clinical study of 29,000 patients over a 14 year period, Dr Steve Andrade and Dr David Feinstein found that 56% of the CBT group were symptom free, whilst 76% of the EFT group were symptom free, 63% of the CBT group showed improvement, but 90% of the EFT group showed improvement” says Kath, “and that CBT involved six months of sessions and drugs too. Whereas the EFT was an average of just three sessions and it gave significantly better outcomes. What’s more NICE (National Institute for Health and Care Excellence) gave it the thumbs up for PTSD treatment.
Kath, who is a conventionally trained therapist with an MSC in Psychology and who is also an NLP Master and Trainer, and a Hypnotherapist, is an EFT Master Trainer. She has worked with the military, the police and emergency service workers, Olympians and Paralympians, and celebrities, as well as with children and teenagers and adults from all walks of life. “EFT makes a massive difference and is a truly empowering technique with an anti-depressant and an anti-anxiety treatment, as well as one for pain, inflammation and arthritis, literally at the tips of your fingers,” she says, “I’m definitely a convert.”
And you can’t get a much better endorsement than that.
To find out more and join one of Kath's EFT for inflammation, pain and arthritis classes then please click here
