Today begins the 7th Annual Tapping World Summit. It’s a free online event, and if you are still suffering, in any way, from your encounter with the sociopath, I strongly recommend that you check it out.
Tapping, also called Emotional Freedom Technique, is a form of energy psychology. I believe this is the new frontier of psychology, although it is rooted in 5,000 years of Chinese acupressure practice.
The therapy looks funny using your fingers, you tap precise points on your head, hands and torso while verbally making a statement about a stressful situation or a disturbing memory. After going through the tapping sequence a few times, the emotional charge associated with the memory disappears.
Yes, that’s right. The emotional charge disappears.
How does this happen?
Calming the amygdala
Experts believe that tapping certain points on the skin sends calming signals to the amygdala, which is section of the brain responsible for the “fight or flight” reaction. The amygdala, part of the limbic system, is involved with memory, decision-making and emotional reactions.
“The brain is getting opposing messages,” explains Dr. David Feinstein, author of The Promise of Energy Psychology. “It is getting a message to increase the threat, because that’s what the image does. And it’s getting the message to decrease arousal, because that’s what the tapping does.
“After a little bit of time,” he continues, “the message to decrease the arousal dominates because nothing bad is happening. The events that caused the threat are no longer in play, so now the person is able to hold the image of the memory or of the trigger and there is no arousal.”
Easy, free and fast
Many Lovefraud readers call me for advice on how to overcome the emotional devastation wrought by the sociopath, and I frequently suggest that they try tapping.
Here are the benefits:
- It’s easy. To learn the technique, watch the video above, or watch any of a number of videos you can find online. Presenters in the Tapping World Summit will go into detail on how to use the technique for different types of problems.
- It’s free. You can learn the technique yourself, and you can do it yourself. Although there are practitioners who use the technique often psychologists and counselors if you can’t afford them it’s not a problem. Treat yourself.
- It’s fast. You can start to feel relief in minutes, and I’m not kidding. When you experience a traumatic memory, you can go through the tapping sequence a few times, and the charge of that memory will dissipate.
Now here’s the trick: Tapping is very precise. It works best on a well-defined traumatic memory or emotion. So instead of trying to remove the charge from a general statement such as, “The sociopath ruined my life,” it’s best to break up the experience into components.
For example, you can bring to mind incidents such as, “The sociopath took $5,000 from me,” and “The sociopath cheated with his old girlfriend,” and “When the sociopath said she loved me, she lied.”
My personal endorsement
When I was recovering from my experience with the sociopath, I used a different type of energy psychology, as I was not aware of EFT tapping at the time.
Now I know about it. So when I’m upset about anything, IÂ can use tapping to dissipate the emotional tension that I feel.
Not only is this technique good for relieving anxiety and PTSD, but it can also be used for performance enhancement. So before I started doing speaking in public about sociopaths, I used EFT tapping to alleviate my nervousness. I can tell you that it works.
Tapping World Summit
The Tapping World Summit starts today at 8 pm EST and continues for 10 days, through March 4. It features presentations by experts in the field, which are each available for 24 hours for free. Of course, the organizers would like you to buy recordings of the presentations, but you don’t have to.
To find out more, go to this page:
7th Annual Tapping World Summit
If you are still suffering because of the sociopath, I encourage you try tapping. Releasing the emotional pain is really good for you, and that’s what tapping helps you to do.
And as the pain dissipates, you’ll feel clear enough to address other issues that the sociopath has left you with, such as a financial mess. Tapping can hasten your journey of recovery.
Thank you Donna for your ongoing helpful advice to victims of sociopathy. I can testify that this technique does work…just give it a couple of days as you will not initially, feel any different!
I give tapping mixed reviews. I had heard great things about EFT from mercola.com , so I went to a 2-day seminar to learn tapping. I don’t think it really worked for me.
Later I went to an energy psychologist who used tapping among other things. That did seem to work really well and was freeing and calming right away and later.
So, maybe it is just a matter of finding a practitioner that works for you. I had PTSD as well as many years of chronic stress and adrenal exhaustion, so maybe the tapping helps these.
I tried tapping and it didn’t work for me. I tapped so much I was bruised. I thought I was doing it wrong so I invested in professional guidance. As it was explained to me, tapping is good for stress, for anxiety, for old hurts. But is not really helpful for PTSD or trauma.
EMDR is for PTSD and/or trauma.
I don’t have the money for an EMDR therapist. I spent my little bit of savings on tapping training that did not work. But at least the professional was honest with me so I did learn. And I don’t feel guilty anymore that tapping didn’t work.
Strange; I found it quite calming. No great aha moments…just more peace.
flicka,
I don’t find that strange at all. I think it validates what I was told by the therapist. Different needs, different emotions, different situation. And it worked for you. That’s very encouraging.
Although, like you, after 40 years of being subjected to psychotics by my ex and 5 beloved children and having depleted my resources, I retain plenty of PSTD.I was quite pessimistic towards tapping but thought I’d give it a try anyway.I was truly surprised at the amount of peace and calm I experienced afterwards (the number did diminish.) The memory and pain will never go away, for that is far too deep and long, but there was less angst and more peaceful acceptance of the hurt on my part. Perhaps my expectations were lower or as you say, for some tapping helps more than others. No great miracles, just baby steps in the healing process. Wishing you and all victims strength and patience in finding your old selves again.