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Emotional Freedom Technique or EFT, a new therapy from
USA, cures by dissolving energy blocks through a simple tapping routine, claims
its first practitioner in India, Rohini Singh Chopra
After
years of pandering to the West's appetite for the exotic and the esoteric, it
is gratifying to be at the receiving end. And for once, it is not an umpteenth
rehash of Yoga or Vedanta. The therapy in question is EFT, short for Emotional
Freedom Technique, brought to India from Los Angeles, USA, by one-time cookery
columnist Rohini Singh Chopra.
Rohini's excitement is palpable as she
offers to demonstrate the therapy on a Life Positive staff member. We hold our
collective breath in anticipation. What follows is a series of taps on different
parts of the body and it is over. Over? What about the closed eyes and cupped
hands that one has come to associate with energy healing? What about the one hour
per day routine that one is exhorted to stick to if one expects any results? "You
know, a recurring impediment to my work with EFT is disbelief," she says,
an impish grin in place. Probably to keep us from expressing more disbelief, Rohini
immediately launches into the whys and wherefores of EFT.
It all began
when Dr Roger Callahan created TFT (Thought Freedom Technique), the forerunner
of EFT. TFT was an improvised form of acupuncture—it made use of light taps
instead of needles on meridian points in the body to cure diseases. Not terribly
original (the practice of acupressure also entails applying pressure on meridian
points), but effective nevertheless.
About eight years ago, Dr Gary
Craig simplified the elaborate disease-specific TFT routine and called it EFT
to distinguish it from the original. Although the EFT routine, called The Basic
Recipe in EFT parlance, works on the same premise of dissolving blocks in the
body's energy system by tapping meridian points, it differs as it takes care of
the entire body in one quick routine. The Basic Recipe consists of tapping seven
meridian points on the face and upper body and five on the hands. As Rohini says:
"You need not be ill or stressed out to use EFT. In fact, practising it daily
is something like overhauling your entire system in a few minutes."
Moreover, the
finger tapping is only one part of EFT. In something that sounds suspiciously
like NLP or the Silva Method, the right and left hemispheres of the brain arindividually
activated after 'logging in' the body's energy network via EFT's Basic Routine.
The practitioner 're-patterns' the brain by counting to kick-start the logical
left half and concludes by singing what is literally the most famous song in the
universe: 'Happy birthday to you'. This is meant to rev up the creative right
half of the brain. Perhaps sensing one's incredulity, Rohini smiles: "Sounds
bizarre, doesn't it? My hosts in America came in one morning and found me sitting
on my bed singing 'Happy birthday' with gusto. The lady, perhaps concerned about
my mental well-being, asked me later, 'Are you well?' I had a tough time reassuring
her that it was all a part of the new therapy that I was learning!"
In the short while that it has been around, EFT has gained wide acceptance in
the US where support groups are using it to deal with those suffering from a range
of psychological conditions ranging from trauma to addiction and phobias. The
success with which EFT has been used in treating the trauma of Vietnam War veterans
has inspired Rohini to use the therapy among army personnel in India.
While treating war victims might still be a distant dream, Rohini has already
embarked on her mission to heal with EFT. She recently worked with a woman who
had been shot at by a gang of armed robbers trying to steal her car. Says Rohini:
"Although she put up a brave front, she was severely traumatized. Once I
began healing her, she broke down and confessed to being scared all the time.
She could not sleep or drive. At the end of an hour, during which I performed
the EFT routine on her a few times, she calmed down considerably. She even walked
me to my car-the first time she had managed to move out of her home since the
incident."
Rohini's healing sessions are punctuated with periodic
assessments of the intensity of the problem or pain being felt by the patient.
Assuming the pre-therapy intensity to be a 10, the subsequent assessments are
rated accordingly. Rohini claims a progressive decline in the rating with each
dose of EFT's Basic Recipe. "Different aspects of the problem surface each
time I give EFT to a patient. For instance, one of my patients came to me complaining
of depression as a result of her impending divorce. As I began working with her,
I discovered that she was also suffering from guilt towards her children. At one
point during the therapy, she suddenly realized that she had been imposing unrealistic
demands on herself. EFT helped her to cope with one negative energy block at a
time," recounts Rohini.
For the time being, Rohini has her plate
full, what with EFT workshops slated for this month and plans to establish the
India chapter of Gerry Jampolski's Centre for Attitudinal Healing, apart from
her regular healing work with reiki. The interview over, Rohini graciously offers
to relieve any problems one might have, emotional or otherwise. "And keep
smiling!" she adds as she takes our leave, her amiable face wreathed in smiles.
After
years of pandering to the West's appetite for the exotic and the esoteric, it
is gratifying to be at the receiving end. And for once, it is not an umpteenth
rehash of Yoga or Vedanta. The therapy in question is EFT, short for Emotional
Freedom Technique, brought to India from Los Angeles, USA, by one-time cookery
columnist Rohini Singh Chopra.
