Articles

The Emotional Scale Article

30th December 2017 by Christine Sutton

The Emotional Scale in EFT.

An article published on Gary Craig website.

Hi Gary,

We thought you might be interested in our recent experiences with applying the Emotional Scale to EFT practice. We have found that it is a really great way of highlighting to clients just how far they have come along the healing pathway during one healing session or over the course of several healing sessions. It has become a regular, extra method of testing in our practice. It is also a great tool to aid empowerment of the client.

Introduction:

In our work with clients and students we have often found ourselves trying to summarise what EFT does in a general sense. These are some of the phrases that we have come up with:

EFT identifies the place(s) in a lifetime where the love is perceived to have gone missing and offers the possibility of alternative perceptions.
EFT identifies the “writing on the walls” which is responsible for the emergence of an issue and re-evaluates it for current truth and acceptability.
EFT works with both the emotional and physical manifestations of problems.
EFT neutralises over-reactions at both the emotional and physical levels.
EFT helps people to recognise the significance of their emotional and physical reactions.
EFT helps people to respond more consciously to the emotional and physical manifestations of their issues, rather than experiencing an unreasoned reaction.
EFT guides people towards acknowledgment, acceptance, understanding and eventually forgiveness of the circumstances and people involved in setting up their issues - including themselves.
EFT helps people to move towards their place of personal peace.
Another and much simpler way of saying all of this is that we are aiming to help our clients and ourselves to “feel better”.

“Feeling Better”:
Usually after treatment a client recognises easily that they have shifted to a better place either emotionally or physically. However sometimes, even with frequent testing, clients find it difficult to recognise consciously all that they have achieved.

This is particularly true for complex issues because once a particular issue or aspect is cleared they shift immediately onto the next one in line. The emotions associated with that one can mask the resolution already attained. From their perspective they still feel “Bad” – albeit a different bad from when they walked in the door. Sometimes no amount of reassurance helps and the client can become disillusioned and may refuse further treatment.

Also, sometimes after applying EFT treatment to an issue, clients will literally forget that it was ever a problem. This is the Apex Effect and it can be frustrating for the EFT practitioner because the client does not seem to realise what has happened. They may have begun the session in deep emotional distress and by the end cannot even think about the issue and may say that it was never a problem at all. Despite the practitioner’s best efforts at reminding them of the clearance that has occurred the client may go away thinking that EFT is ok but it didn’t really do much.

What is needed in both of these cases is a way of highlighting the progress made by the client and helping them to register the shifts which have occurred at the conscious level. We have found that introducing the client to the Emotional Scale can be a way of achieving this. It also helps clients to see the state that they are ultimately aiming for – the state of Personal Peace. Realisation that this state is attainable by everyone tends to encourage people to continue with the healing journey.

Please note that the Emotional Scale is not an original idea. We have found various versions of it in many spiritual development and self-help books. All we have done is to apply it to our work with clients and students with interesting results.

The Emotional Scale:
Please note that the scale is not used in the same way as the SUDS or level of intensity scale. The purpose of the SUDS or level of intensity scale is to assess the current intensity of an emotion during emotional processing. The Emotional scale is used to identify the particular emotional state being experienced at any time and its relationship to how we want to feel.

The version of the Emotional scale that we have adopted is this:

To simplify matters we have grouped the emotional states into coloured zones with which people seem to identify very easily. Though this is a visual representation of emotional status we have found it to be equally useful to clients no matter what their favourite sensory modality (Visual, Audio or Kinaesthetic.) Most people seem to accept the scale with instant recognition and are able to tell you easily in which zone or range of zones they are currently living.

The number and colour of each zone links to the “Feel” of the emotions in each band. The higher frequency colours (green, blue, violet) relate to emotions that feel good and seem to carry a higher energy. The lower frequency colours relate to emotions which feel progressively worse as we move down the scale. These carry a lower energy. If you are familiar with the idea of energetic vibrations you could say that the upper level emotions carry a higher vibration than the lower level emotions.

Try it Out: Try this simple test out for yourself - close your eyes and think, “Depression, Despair, Depression, Despair” over and over again. Notice how you feel. It is actually very difficult to maintain a smile on your face while you do this - the energy just seems to leach away and your smile gradually droops and flows downwards. Anyone who has experienced depression will recognise this feeling and will already understand what low energy states depression and despair are. They feel paralysing!

Now try the opposite, close your eyes and think, “Joy, Passion, Joy, Passion” over and over again. This time it is difficult to keep the smile off your face! These words and their respective emotions carry a much higher energy level or vibration and you will feel your energy lift as you think the words.

What you have just done is to experience the two extreme ends of the Emotional Scale. As Gary comments in one of the DVD sets, each time we think the words related to each emotion our mind briefly samples that emotion for a fraction of a second, just enough to identify it. We feel and recognise the response as our energy system aligns with that thought or emotion. Similarly any event or memory which triggers a particular emotion will produce the related and recognisable energetic shift. This is happening all the time as we continually access different thoughts or memories or we are affected by events and the people around us. We are constantly shifting into different levels of the Emotional Scale.

Have a look at the scale again and decide for yourself in which zone you spend most of your time.

For example, you may find that spend most of your time in the Orange zone (Disappointment, Doubt, Worry, Blame) but that you bounce around from time to time down to Brown (Jealousy, Insecurity, Guilt, Unworthiness) and sometimes on a good day you can get up to Yellow (Boredom, Pessimism, Frustration, Irritation, Impatience) Does life in your zone feel good?

Now imagine how much better you would feel if you were living mostly in the green, blue or violet zones which are the home of Personal Peace. Where would you rather be?

Most people are very good at distinguishing the different energetic feel of their various emotions and there has to be a reason why we all have this innate skill. The reason suggested by several authors is that we are meant to use this skill to “feel” how we are in any particular moment so that we may then respond by choosing a thought or activity that gives us a slightly better “feel” than the one that we started with. The sense of relief felt as we access an emotion at a higher level tells us that we are travelling in the right direction - Up the Emotional Scale.

One of the things that EFT does so well, by clearing out the negative and limiting thought patterns, is help our clients and ourselves to move towards the upper part of the scale. As the layers of emotional garbage are cleared we feel better and find that we gradually spend more and more time near the top with frequent excursions right to the topmost level. This is the zone that feels ecstatic, where our peak experiences happen, where we are completely in tune with who we really are and we align completely with the flow of well-being in our lives. Conversely, the lower down the scale we slip then the worse we feel as we move out of alignment with the flow.

If this idea is accepted then it follows that the emotions can be used as a direct barometer for the degree of alignment with the flow of well-being at any point in time.

Once we have recognised from the feel of our emotions that we have moved out of alignment all that is needed to move back into alignment is to choose a thought or activity that produces a better feeling. We can simply change our mind and “feel” our way back into the flow. This takes practice but can give real benefits. There is often resistance to the change desired (one definition of psychological reversal is resistance to change). All that is needed is more EFT until the resistance crumbles and the change is implemented.

We have consistently found that introducing clients to the Emotional Scale can aid a real understanding of where they are in the healing process and it also acts to empower them by allowing control of the thoughts and emotions they accept into their experience. This is just another application of the Law of Attraction. When we consistently choose thoughts and activities that make us feel better (rise up the scale) then we automatically attract events and people that reinforce that better feeling.

Using the Emotional Scale in therapy:
Typical Case study:
M: A male client aged 34. Issues with feelings of failure, anger and resentment about a failed marriage which he could not seem to let go of. These were carrying him down towards depression.

1^st session:
At the beginning of the session he was asked to look at the Emotional scale and estimate where he thought he was emotionally at that time (this is the Emotional Set Point). He estimated that he was bouncing between zones Black and Red but settled on Brown as his current Emotional set point.

We worked in the normal way using his levels of intensity for testing on his feelings of guilt and being unloved. As these cleared he shifted upwards on the scale to anger and thoughts of revenge (Red zone on the scale). Initially this was directed at his ex-wife but as he vented these feelings other targets emerged including his father. It seems that both of these people (and probably others too) had contributed in some way to his feelings of failure, insecurity and worthlessness.

Ten minutes and a good rant later he started laughing and said he felt so much better after letting all that out. He apologised for his colourful language and we ended the session with him settling into a set point in the Green zone (optimism).

2^nd Session:
His emotional set point at the start was in the Orange zone (feeling discouraged and sad because he thought he was going backwards after the progress in the first session).

What had happened was that memories of specific events in his childhood and in his marriage had emerged and had been bothering him for 2 to 3 days. These had a common theme of him being put-down, criticised unfairly or being cast in the role of scapegoat. We dealt with these in the order of importance that he rated them using a mix of Tell the Story and Movie techniques and cleared them fairly easily but interestingly he still rated his set point as in the Orange Zone indicating that there was something else we needed to work with.

Conversation and questioning led towards his realisation that he felt “useless” and “could not ever get anything right for dad”. We worked in depth on this and reframed towards understanding of his Dad’s reasons for the way he behaved (“he did the best he could given his background and awful childhood”) and eventually moved towards forgiveness. He could not or would not forgive his dad at that time (“I cant let Dad off the hook just yet”) but was left feeling much lighter and brighter and as if a load had shifted from his back. He finished this session with his emotional set point in the Green zone.

3^rd session:
A tidy- up session. Initial set-point in the Orange zone - he was sad that he still could not let the “Dad” issues go completely. We worked with a few more “Dad” events, then switched back to the failed marriage and worked with events in the marriage, reframing towards understanding and possibly forgiveness of his ex-wife and himself for what they had created together. At the end of the session he said that he was really bored with the whole thing (Yellow zone) and just wanted it all to go away. We did a few rounds of “feel good” tapping, bringing in possibilities for his future and the advantages of his freedom from his ex-wife and the marriage. This made him laugh and we finished the session with him estimating his emotional set point as in the Blue zone .

Follow up:

By phone, a week later – he said that he felt great, his energy levels were much higher than before and that he was planning a change of job and a holiday. He commented on how much sunnier he felt and also that other people had noticed too.

Observations:

· Generally we have noticed that overall progress is up the scale. Though a client may temporarily slip down the scale during a session or between sessions as they access deeper levels of their problems the slippage is rarely right back down to where they were before treatment. Whenever slippage does happen we work with whatever has emerged for attention and clear it, then overall progress upwards is resumed.
· Some clients are concerned because they suddenly find themselves expressing hatred or rage as we work, or may start blaming other people for whatever has happened. They see this as wrong so it is important to explain that rage, hatred or blame are simply higher on the emotional scale than despair and depression and represent a temporary state en-route to healing. Once they realise that actually it “feels” better (i.e. gives a sense of relief) to be angry or to blame someone than to be depressed they accept that it is a necessary phase of the healing. Acceptance of all of the emotions being felt is real progress!
· We give out copies of the Emotional scale to our clients so that they can practise assessing their own Emotional Set Point before and after homework tapping. With practice at conscious observation of their emotions people get much better at spotting when they slip into a negative feeling and so can identify what event or thought pattern has caused it to happen. This realisation can then form the basis for more rounds of tapping and so encourage further releases and shifts upwards. In our experience this really accelerates the self- healing process.
· In practice the stepwise progress up the scale seems to be necessary. It would be very difficult for anyone to move upwards directly from despair to joy without steps in between. This would represent a huge energetic shift which would probably be unstable. We know that it takes time to process various aspects of an issue. They are only released at the right rate for that person and in the right order. The progression upwards through the levels with stepwise release of all aspects and issues along the way seems to stabilise the energetic shift and it becomes a permanent change.
· Use of humour to produce laughter or deliberately stimulating release of anger can produce dramatic upward shifts but the release of aspects and issues must still happen in the right order and at the right time.

Conclusion:
We already know that EFT is a superb tool for helping us to reach for the place of personal peace by allowing us to deal with the events and issues which mar our lives. Using the Emotional Scale deliberately can help to reinforce the shifts which occur with EFT and can give direction to the whole process. As a person learns to consciously notice their emotions, and practices choosing ones that feel better, or chooses actions which lead to a better feeling they inevitably rise up the Emotional Scale and achieve a calmer, happier way of living. Life becomes easier, more joyful and seems to flow better.

Somewhere along the way as we release issues and practice ways of thought that take us upwards rather than downwards on the scale we shift from life being an exercise in damage limitation to life being a joyful adventure in creativity. It all comes down to choice!

“Feeling will get you closer to the truth of who you are than thinking.” Ekhart Tolle

Love,

Christine Sutton and Philip Davis

Picture Tapping Article

30th December 2017 by Philip Davis

Article written for the AAMET Buzz magazine.

Announcing a new tapping technique - The Picture Tapping Technique.

By Philip Davis and Christine Sutton.

The Picture Tapping Technique is a new technique that is very easy to use, gentle, and particularly useful for addressing “Global Issues”. It requires an absolute minimum of practitioner input into the process, can be used on any issues where other Meridian Tapping Techniques are used but is particularly useful when

working with clients who have difficulty getting specific, or clients who are jumping around from issue to issue, from aspect to aspect.

Over the past few years, a number of new Meridian Tapping Techniques have been introduced that have taken the Ground Floor approach introduced by Gary Craig with his EFT Protocol and have extended it to make something extraordinarily powerful.

We use many of these different approaches on a daily basis in our practice and we get excellent results but over the last year, we have been developing and trialling a new way of using Meridian Tapping Techniques. We have found this technique to be so powerful that we use it with almost all of our clients now. It has provided us with powerful insights into our clients` subconscious minds, the writing on their walls and their core issues. Our clients love the process and as practitioners we find it can often give resolution to problems more effectively and less painfully than is possible with many other Meridian Tapping Techniques. Other practitioners and some of our students who have helped us to trial the technique have also been impressed with the ease of resolution for issues which had previously been difficult.

This is particularly true when the issue is “Global” or abstract in nature, or where the issue is known to have core events driving it, but those events are beyond memory. Of course, the technique can also be used on specific issues like aches and pains, fears and phobias and so forth.

We have used the words “practitioner” and “client” in this article to represent the person giving treatment and the person receiving treatment. However, please be aware that you can use the Picture Tapping Technique on yourself with excellent results. In that case, the client and the practitioner are the same person.

What is the Picture Tapping Technique?

The Picture Tapping Technique is an add-on to conventional EFT or other Meridian Tapping Techniques.

It is a way of using Meridian Tapping along with the power of metaphor and the imagination, to release problems in a painless and indirect way. Because the Picture Tapping Technique uses metaphor and symbols it often allows access to aspects, thoughts and memories that may be difficult to express either verbally or by using other modalities. Clients are frequently amazed and delighted at the way things are resolved and the connections between events and issues that are brought to light.

This technique is not a way of using Meridian Tapping with different words or a different tapping order. Instead, it uses a few well defined and simple phrases coupled with a very powerful concrete use of visual metaphor.

What can it be used on?

The Picture Tapping Technique is particularly useful where the problem is very non-specific or “Global” in nature.

Frequently, the process will lead a client from a very global problem to the core event(s) that are driving that global problem. It also frequently happens that the driving core events behind any global issue are healed without having to consciously work with those events.

Examples of global problems that have been successfully resolved are:

Low Self Esteem
Depression
Generalised anxiety
“My family situation”
“My Mother”
“My money worries”
“My blocks to success”
“All the events that are behind this problem”
“My resistance to letting go of the problem”
“The Karma from my past lives”
“Writers Block”
“Not good enough”
“Something terrible is going to happen”
… and many more.

Picture Tapping Technique may also be used on:

Specific problems where the cause is known but the event is felt too keenly to be addressed directly. In this way it can be used instead of other disassociative techniques.
Specific physical problems. E.g.: this headache, this pain in my knee, etc.
Specific emotional problems. E.g.: Spider Phobia, Anger at my boss etc.
Specific problems that appear to be blocked and are resisting clearance using other methods.
… and so on.

The Picture Tapping Technique may be used on any issue where conventional Meridian Tapping Techniques are used. However, we can envisage situations where other techniques may be more efficient than the Picture Tapping Technique. Some examples are acute pain from a recent injury or where a client has already entered a state of emotional overwhelm. In both of these cases a very rapid intervention is needed.

The Picture Tapping Technique is simple to use.

“Things should be as simple as possible, but no simpler” – Albert Einstein.

If a healing technique requires the practitioner to have the mental agility of Albert Einstein and the deductive powers of Sherlock Holmes then it is not a lot of use to anyone but a minute fraction of the population. Any healing modality must be simple and accessible to everyone if it is ever going to make an impact on the world.

This is why Gary Craig’s EFT has become such a worldwide phenomenon. The EFT Basic Recipe is so simple that it can be (and is) used by people from around the world of all ages from toddlers to the superannuated. In developing the Picture Tapping Technique, we have followed this ethos as much as possible.

As we developed this technique, we wanted to simplify it as far as possible. We tried leaving out different parts of the technique to see if it still worked, and a strange thing happened. We found that the more we took out, the more effective the technique became!

We found that when the practitioner had an absolute minimum of original input into a Picture Tapping Technique session, the results were far better, far more long lasting and a lot gentler than when the practitioner was creating reframes or trying to steer the session in a particular direction through use of techniques such as leading etc.

Testing is a large part of many traditional Meridian Tapping Techniques. The Picture Tapping Technique has a very “User Friendly” way of testing. The resolution of issues is usually very apparent to both the practitioner and the client. Often, the only testing that is done, is to ask the client if the issue is resolved yet, at an appropriate point. At the end of the session it is also a good idea to review the session to see if there is anything left of any of the issues, or if some new aspects have arisen.

This minimalist form of testing rips up the rule-book as far as many other conventional tapping techniques go. However, we have found that searching for issues and aspects and testing for clearance is unnecessary most of the time when using this technique because the existence of these potential problems are apparent to both the practitioner and the client as a part of the process.

Often, the most challenging part of using the Picture Tapping Technique is to “get yourself out of the way” and allow the client to generate their own reframes, cognitive shifts, etc. Most experienced EFT Practitioners are used to generating reframes on the fly, asking probing questions and searching for core issues, aspects, Writing on the Walls and so forth. However, the rewards are very great when the client does this for themselves and makes the realisation that (for example) “Mummy was probably doing the only thing she could at that point” or that “yeah, it happened but its pointless letting it ruin the rest of my life”.

It seems that the reframes, and cognitive shifts which the client generates spontaneously are far more profound than those suggested from elsewhere.

When using this technique it is not necessary for the practitioner to know any details of the issue being addressed.

In fact, the process often works better if the practitioner does not know any details of the issue, because there is less likelihood of the practitioner getting themselves in the way of the process.

Also, it is frequently useful to change the focus from the specific to the “global”. For example, to change the focus from “My arthritis pain in my knee” to “My resistance to letting go of this pain”, or “All the past events that have caused me to get this pain”. This can lead the client from a specific pain, to the global and then from there to the specific events behind the problem.

Why should I use the Picture Tapping Technique?

When an issue is being described verbally to another person (eg the practitioner), the client has to first of all put the feelings into words. This process inevitably means that at least something (and often a lot!) is lost in the translation. For an example of this, just try describing to someone what it feels like to be in love, or to feel depressed.

Once the description of the feeling has been given to the practitioner, the practitioner then filters that description through their own experience and judgements. Sometimes, vital clues are overlooked because a practitioner has no experience of a particular situation or emotion. Sometimes a practitioner will focus in on one aspect of a situation because something similar had happened to them, and that aspect was the most important for the practitioner. In other words, the practitioner is “getting in the way”.

The Picture Tapping Technique overcomes this problem because it removes the need to verbalise problems at all and it takes the practitioner’s interpretation out of the process.

Does the process allow for complete clearance of an issue?

Well, yes, it will usually clear all the aspects that are up and running at that time. Of course there may be aspects and related issues that are not addressed. However, once the running aspects and issues have been healed, any remaining aspects and/or related issues may then be brought to the surface to be dealt with in the same way.

What do others think of this technique?

“I am getting the most phenomenal results”

“I did another PTT on myself today. I'm so impressed with the method. There are, for me, 'aha' moments during the process… I find it amazing what the subconscious mind reveals along with the tapping. It's so gentle and safe.”

“I've been using the PTT to great outcomes. “

“Thanks again for this amazing technique. It's helping me so much!”

“I'm very impressed with the PTT.”

“The general problem I had is still 0/10. (It was 9/10 at the start of the PTT, and I can't thank you enough!).

In Summary:

The Picture Tapping Technique:

Is very simple
Can be used on a wide range of issues but is particularly useful when addressing global issues and/or finding core issues that are driving the global issues.
Is a very gentle technique.
Does not rely on the practitioner to think up reframes, ask searching questions or perform mental gymnastics.
Requires the practitioner to have the minimum of input into the process. (to get themselves out of the way!)
Requires the practitioner to use a number of specific ‘clean language’ phrases and questions to the client.
Allows reframes, cognitive shifts, finding aspects and related issues all to be carried out by the client.
Minimises ‘leading’ or implanting of ideas from the practitioner into the clients mind.
Gives increased “stick” to the reframes and cognitive shifts that the client has generated simply because they come from within, and are not being imposed from outside the client’s model of the world.

Philip Davis and Christine Sutton will be giving a number of one-day training courses in this new technique starting early next year. The details are not on our website yet (but we hope by the end of the week it will be done) , but if you want details of these courses then please eMail us or phone us and we will be happy to help. www.phoenixeft.co.uk eMail: philip@phoenixeft.co.uk