counselling

Why is the Emotional Freedom Technique so important for our well being?

Tapping is a technique that literally rewires the brain by sending calming signals to the amygdala (the fight or flight mechanism of the brain), releasing your deepest fears, limiting beliefs, negative emotions and much more, so that you can walk through life from a far calmer place.

EFT tapping can help you to

Improve your self-esteem
Overcome procrastination
Overcome fear or avoidance of conflict
Let go of anxiety and worry
Become more assertive
Improve negative or volatile relationships
Have the courage to pursue your dreams
Stop your attraction to the wrong people
Deal with difficult people
Change old patterns in relationships
Handle the stress of financial issues
Handle the stress of the legal system
Deal with chronic illness and pain
Loose weight
Overcome fear of dentist or other medical treatment
Improve determination and focus
Dissolve test and interview anxiety
Control your emotions as a parent
Turn around negative self-concepts
Change your belief that suffering is necessary
… and more!

EFT Tapping is used by psychotherapists all over the world, because it is:

Easily learned, very simple to use, unusually fast, often acts within minutes and almost always long lasting

In my practice my clients and I have experienced great results in overcoming many psychological and physical problems and challenges.

Can tension in the body simply be a sign of unhappiness?

The body is our most sacred messenger tool. I think that missing its ‘please-help-me’ sign or simply ignoring them is the biggest mistake we can make. We can ponder about what we all truly want in life. What it comes down to is simply being happy. Happiness is what we all want.

Our environment may teach us different ways of retrieving this happiness. Funny enough, in western society we believe that happiness is a goal. Perhaps a goal we need to work hard for, something we have to achieve. In ancient teachings we learn that happiness can only be in the moment. It is not a goal we have to work hard for. It simply is in the moment. As babies we live in the moment. We do not live in the future or past. A baby simply ‘is’. When it is hungry it cries, when it needs milk it cries, when it needs nurturing it cries, when it needs a diaper change it cries. The baby’s body communicates its message to the parents.

When we grow up we often learn to suppress to communicate what we truly need. Not a lot of people will say out loud that they need nurturing. Instead we learn to negotiate, and often even how to manipulate to get what we want. We forget that what we truly want is satisfaction of our simple needs: Safety, love; nurturing on all our levels. We get distracted by our own loopholes.

Simply satisfying our needs can only occur when we go back to what the body is telling us. When our body feels tensed and stressed it means something is not in balance in our life. When we keep ignoring our body we can become ill. The only way to resolve is to learn to be in the moment and connect with the body. What are we feeling, where is this pain or tension and what can we learn from this, what is behind it? Are we not feeling loved? Are we not feeling safe? What do I need in this moment to feel better, what does my body want?

By simply communicating with our body and acknowledging its pain and stress we start to heal. Our body is simply telling us that we are not happy; our life’s purpose is not being fulfilled. How can we change this? Only you know. You only know the truth and no one else! In a counselling- and/or energy session we can start to work on revealing what maybe bothering you.

Step by step you can uncover why you are not happy and how to change this! Your ego may kick into fear though; it may attempt to prevent you from finding answers within. Simply trust your inner wisdom, simply silence your mind. Or is this not so simple? We may have created limiting patterns that we believe are keeping us safe. We may have created these patterns or beliefs when we were children. At that time these were probably keeping us safe but now they can prevent us from growth. Instead we are blocking ourselves and this is keeping us from our highest potential.

Now we have entered the important topic of our subconscious mind, which is acting like an old fashioned tape recorder since it has no mind of its own. The patterns recorded there can for example stop us from reaching our ultimate awareness of being happy in the moment. We may find ourselves in an endless circle of confusion: Perhaps we think we are not safe when we are happy, so we focus on our unhappiness in order to feel safe. Perhaps we may think we are not worthy of being happy, thus we create the pattern of not being deserving of being happy.

In order to be in the moment and truly enjoy happiness we will first have to change our mindset

The Way to Address Emotions and Pain via the Body with EFT Tapping

I believe that our body is not just our physical manifestation, it is also our most important messenger: There where the mind is often confusing us from what is really going on, the body just ‘knows’ what needs to be healed! When we feel the need to heal something, we need to focus on suppressed emotions which we often store somewhere in our body. Our body, our cells, store emotions when we hold on to them. This is why I believe we get sick when we are simply not listening to physical symptoms and/or we are repressing hurtful emotions all the time and not give ourselves the chance to release them.

When working with a client for example through EFT tapping, we find the emotionally charged and trapped energy somewhere in the body. This may sound more complicated than it is; we simply locate a tension, a discomfort or pain. When there is no obvious pain or tension, we just start to tap on bothersome thoughts or feelings the client had today or recently and the body will respond. This response may be subtle, for example a subtle dis-comfortable feeling in the abdomen, or more obvious, for example a sudden sharp pain in the neck.

When we start to use the EFT tapping technique to acknowledge this energy in the body, the client will tell the body that it is okay to open up about this repressed emotion it was holding on to. When the body relaxes, caused by tapping on the acupressure points in face and upper body, the client taps into his or her inner-wisdom whilst he or she ‘gets his mind out of the way’ and accesses information stored in the subconscious mind, our personal computer.

This information will lead the client to discover why he or she is in emotional and/or physical pain and what can be done about it to release it. When it is too painful to discuss this with me, we merely focus on the energy in the body and follow where it leads us in order to release it. This energy can travel through the body; starting out with a dis-comfort in the abdomen, it can move up towards the chest area, then disappears there, appears again in the neck and leaves the body for example through the top of the head. It is a very interesting process to follow; the body exactly knows how to deal with the pain and releases it in a magical way. EFT tapping is truly magical, and it shows us that we are truly energetic magnificent beings perfectly capable of healing ourselves when we just trust.

When the client is ready to speak about the event(s) that has caused this pain we can gently keep on tapping while we do our tapping rounds together. The client may release more emotions and thoughts holding him or her back from feeling well. During the tapping rounds the client will discover solutions for his/her pain and his/her problems if needed.

EFT tapping is an empowering method and it gives me much joy and happiness to watch a client re-connect with his/her inner-wisdom and lets go of whatever it was holding him/her back from feeling well well.

Conscious Living and Self-Empowerment

We are all on a journey that is called life. Every day we make at least a thousand choices. It is not just the bigger choices influencing us: I belief that in order to make us happy and healthy we have to bring our daily small choices into our awareness too. Just one example of a daily returning group of choices most of us are fortunate to be able to make: ‘What am I going to eat for breakfast/lunch/dinner, am I going to eat breakfast, where am I going to have breakfast, with whom am I going to have breakfast, how am I going to eat my breakfast?’

This is just a small example of the many choices we are making during the day. Most of these choices happen on a subconscious level. The subconscious mind works like a tape recorder and it works according to patterns we create during our life. These patterns are meant to keep us safe, happy and healthy.

Becoming aware of our choices is becoming aware of these patterns. Living a conscious life means that we are going to take a look at these patterns and see if they still work for us. Are they keeping us safe, happy and healthy?

Are you aware of how the choices you make about for example something as simple as your breakfast are influencing your life? Are you aware that the simple concept of breakfast can be a part of your health, happiness and sanity? And I do not just mean whether you are having a healthy breakfast, junk food or not having breakfast at all. It could be about eating your breakfast mindful, with the full attention it deserves.

You see, the food you are eating is meant to nourish your body. That is why we eat, not just because we feel the sensation of being hungry. Feeling hungry is a symptom simply telling us that our body needs fuel. The choice whether you give your food the attention it deserves it yours. When you give it the attention it deserves you acknowledge the fact that you matter.

That your body matters and needs loving nurturing: Coming into the awareness that your body is a sacred part of you, that it is not only giving you the opportunity to move around in the physical world but also that it is your sacred messenger. It tells you when something is out of balance in your life.

Breakfast is just one tiny choice you are making on a daily base. There is so much more to choose from. Becoming aware of why you might be making certain choices and how these can influence your life are key to conscious living.

Spirituality to me means becoming conscious aware of our choices and subconscious patterns that may run our lives, followed by the importance of perception of life itself, its events, our actions and how we may judge and perceive it all.

Our thoughts, feelings and actions are creating our lives constantly. Spirituality is what can empower us to make the right choices for ourselves AND for the well being of those around us.

When the awareness of the results of our thoughts, choices and actions is lacking, we are creating without consciousness and this can be dis-empowering.

Spiritual counselling can be a wonderful step forward into conscious awareness.