The EFT Heart & Soul Protocol
I have always stood up for the “Classic EFT” pattern and resisted changing it on the grounds that it is the Classic EFT pattern that convinced the World in the first place that EFT is something that is unique, and that actually works, BECAUSE IT DOES.
I am a great believer in the axiom that if “it ain't broke, don't fix it!” so I have refrained from publishing a slightly changed EFT protocol I've been using myself for the past six years.
However, as I'm being told over and over again that there are many people who like the EFT Heart & Soul pattern, and as it essentially keeps the Classic EFT pattern intact, I have decided to publish it and offer it as something that might come in handy in certain situations, and with certain clients.
The following changes were made:
The Sore spot has always been a sore spot with me.
Yes, it is sore.
But that's half the problem; the other half is to convince people to start stabbing around on their chests when they first learn EFT to find something that hurts.
I found this to be very distracting and actually quite destructive if you are trying to build confidence and as a first introduction to the whole thing with newbies.
If they don't find it, and often they don't, you've basically dug a hole for yourself, for the treatment and the client that is going to be very difficult to climb out of again.
If they do find it and stab it too hard, as newbies invariably do, they have a pain experience that distracts them from the actual problem at hand and again, they don't like it, it increases resistance, and also the expectation that this will hurt again at some point.
So I quietly dropped the sore spot within the first 20 clients as being unhelpful and replaced it with the flat hand placed over the general area where the sore spot resides, instructing the client to feel the warmth of their hand coming through the clothes, and making their opening statement much as you would swear allegiance to your flag.
This is before the sore spot was dropped in many other places and replaced with the reversal correction on the karate chop point; I liked the “placing the hand on the chest” start for the EFT session so I used that instead in most cases.
When we developed the simple but profound Heart Healing technique in EmoTrance, I started using the Heart Healing posture to start an EFT session instead.
The Heart Healing posture is very centering; and the heart of energy is the structural center of the energy system. Any healing intention placed there has the widest ranging benefits for the entire energy system; plus placing both hands on the center of your chest to make the opening statement is mindful, and very focused.
If a further PR correction is required, this will come on the karate chop point towards the end of the treatment anyway; but Heart Healing has a better chance than both sore spot AND karate chop point to deal with global reversals, right there and then.
As I have often noticed that people at the end of a round of EFT appeared confused and disorientated, not knowing really what to do next, I appended the Heart Healing posture at the end of the protocol one more time.
- Here, three deep breaths are taken in the Heart Healing posture to bring the treatment together, focus, ground and center the client (or the self in self help treatments) and to literally give a breathing space for cognitive insights, which is very valuable indeed.
This way, the EFT protocol gains a definite start, and a conclusive end; it makes the treatment feel very complete, from start to end.
Clients like this, and I do too.
There are a myriad points that could be added to the basic EFT tapping routine; the only one that I always wanted to add was the Third Eye Point.
This is one of those things that is in global consciousness and that just about everyone knows signifies something spiritual – even if it is because the spot was observed on the foreheads of Indian ladies, the Third Eye point is something that people really understand and take to right away.
To start the round with the Third Eye point to me signifies that we are asking our higher selves to become involved and to call on higher powers to assist this endeavour of healing or change.
If a person thinks of the Third Eye point as a connection to higher forces, to their own soul, to their energy mind or to other unknown higher powers, this definitely shifts the EFT round towards a more rounded, spiritual form of healing and self healing.
This is just a slight shift; and it is isn't spoken as to a beginner, the points are just where the practitioner says they are. In my experience, adding the Third Eye point is natural, and very helpful to lead into the round proper.
To Monkey, Or Not To Monkey?
 I am referring to the Under Arm point, of course.
This is, especially for beginners, but pretty much always, a definite state breaker to the whole EFT round.
For beginners, it can be very off putting both to see it being done, as well as to try and find the point and do it.
Putting people off is never a good thing because EFT needs to be given the benefit of the doubt, and the smoother it can flow, especially on the first contact, the better for all concerned.
Some might argue that the Under Arm point is very necessary and causes many good shifts, and this is true; however I have weighed this in the light of other points that were dropped out for similar reasons, most notably the point that lies in older women beneath their breasts and who would have to lift their breasts up physically in order to tap that point.
The loss of neither point has significantly affected the effectiveness of EFT treatments, so I decided to drop the Under Arm point.
For beginners, the “monkey scratch” is that one step too far, presents too great a danger of the whole technique becoming “ridiculous” and leaving it out flows both the demonstration as well as the session better, which in and of itself expedites lerning EFT, and then healing and change through EFT, by virtue of design.
Keeping The Finger Points
Since I originally developed the Heart & Soul Protocol, it has become fashionable to drop all the finger points and to tap only the face.
I have discussed this with colleagues and they agree with me that the fingerpoints are useful in the treatment flow as the tapping moves down the body and out in the end, all the points together creating a pathway for the problem to leave.
There are many other reasons for keeping the finger points in the protocol; one that I gave to a novice this morning was as follows.
When you are in a fairground, and you're paying say, 1 dollar for ten bullets at the shooting booth, and you want to get a nice stuffed giraffe for your girlfriend, would you rather have ten bullets, or twenty?
Of course, someone who has been doing EFT for a long time and who is a “good shot” as it were, can know immediately which points need tapping to get a good shift, and they can certainly “get by” on the face points alone.
But a beginner is generally grateful for those extra bullets, the extra attempts AND the extra time spent re-balancing the energy system is a good thing, if you are a beginner or not. You simply improve your chances to “hit the right button” and have the problem reduce, or disappear altogether.
So we're keeping the finger points for now and leaving it up to an individual to choose if they want to use them, which seems fair enough to me..
 If I got a dollar for every time someone asked me, “But why don't we tap on the ring finger?” and me wearily replying, “That point is covered by the Gamut point which comes later ...” I would be a lot richer than I am!
And why bother?
It is NATURAL when you're tapping the fingers to tap all five of them.
It is natural, it is obvious, and it ends that question for good, once and for all.
The extra taps won't do any harm and the treatment flows MUCH better if we include the ring finger – and there are bound to be some meridians in there, one way or the other, so we might as well tap it and save all that trauma and confusion!
Removing The 9 Gamut Treatment
Unlike many others, I am not averse to the 9 Gamut Treatment per se, if we leave out the humming of “Happy Birthday” for beginners especially.
I find the jumps in the eye movements very interesting, but then I'm an NLPer, so I would.
I keep the 9 Gamut Treatment as optional and something to do if the treatment gets stuck, or something extra is required; this is also so for the Collarbone Breathing technique.
With elegant and thoughtful opening statements and the right encouragement from the practitioner, these things are rarely needed as the round itself delivers the changes in the context of a HEALING TAKING PLACE spontaneously between the client, and the practitioner, that is above and beyond all the tapping that goes on at the surface.
The EFT Heart & Soul Protocol
So here is the Heart & Soul EFT Protocol in brief.
- Assume Heart Healing Posture.
- Take three deep breaths, in and out.
- Say the opening statement.
- Take a deep breath, in and out.
- Start tapping the Third Eye Point and repeat the reminder phrase.
- Top of the Eyebrow
- Corner of the Eye
- Under Eye
- Under Nose
- Under Mouth
- Collarbone
- Thumb
- Index Finger
- Middle Finger
- Ring Finger
- Little Finger
- Gamut Point
- Karate Chop
- Return to the Heart Healing Posture.
- Take three deep breaths, in and out.
This completes the EFT Heart & Soul Protocol.
I offer this not as a replacement for Classic EFT, but simply as an alternative that works well and flows well, and is more happily embraced by some clients and audiences who are a little uncomfortable with a too mechanical seeming approach to mind/body changework and healing.
The EFT Heart & Soul Protocol - © Dr Silvia Hartmann - 2003/2009
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