A worried grandmother had a great experience with Emotional Freedom Techniques in overcoming fear of flying and sought help for her teenage grandson (Max) who wanted to get the Covid vaccine but the very thought of having it sent him into an anxious state.
Max wanted to get the vaccine, and had no idea why he couldn’t talk himself around to getting it when his family had a group booking. They were concerned for his wellbeing, but no amount of cajoling would change Max’s mind. He felt so frustrated. Max was willing but something inside him stopped him following through.
Max had no recollection of any past incidents with needles. When ever he thought about getting the vaccine, all he pictured was a man with big hairy arms, hairy knuckles, and a very very large needle laden syringe standing over him.
The mindbody connection is very strong. Somewhere and who knows where or when, in Max’s past his brain picked up someone saying something that scared him about needles, or his body remembered a time when he had an injection, maybe a childhood vaccination or a movie he watched. Who knows??!
Max arrived with his Grandmother – again willingly to see if EFT could remove the phobia.
Emotional Freedom Techniques is a natural and gentle way of releasing past memories that the mindbody has associated with some form of fear. The brain’s smoke alarm – the amygdala, reacts when triggered by an external stimulus and a sensation is felt in the body.
EFT otherwise known as tapping, is a process of tapping on energy meridian points on the body while the tapper tunes into the sensation triggered by the stimulus.
So Max was asked to think about having the vaccine. When he thought about it, a sensation arose in his body and he talked about how he felt, what was bothering him about having the vaccine, while we tapped on the body points.
We knew the sensation was going down with each round, because Max would tune into the sensation and notice how it had changed as the amygdala calmed. As each round reduced the size of the reaction sensation in the body, we tested the possibility of having a vaccination now. Each time we tested the possibility, another aspect of concern came up and we proceeded to tap that down as he tuned into that new sensation.
After just over an hour, Max could no longer feel any discomfort at the thought of having the vaccination. He felt calm and relaxed when he thought about having it. The hairy armed man had gone, along with the big syringed needle.
Max and his Grandmother left our session and headed straight to town. He didn’t even feel the needle go in as the doctor chatted with him, and it was celebrations all round.
Who knows where phobias come from. Sometimes they are the mind storing made up stories of something seen or heard that hasn’t even been experienced. Thankfully, EFT is an effective means of desensitizing the link between the mindbody, stored in the subconscious, so discomfort is no longer present.
I personally am glad to be free of a fear of birds.
Jenny Malcolm
Mind & Body
Wellbeing Coach 27.4.22