Trauma Informed EFT Tapping

July 27, 2022 Interviews with Craig Weiner, Trauma

This interview was part of the 24 Hour Tapathon created by Gene Monterastelli. It was designed as a fundraiser for the Peaceful Heart Network, an international non profit organization directed by Ulf Sandstrom and Gunilla Hamne, and dedicated to easing suffering and preventing violence worldwide through trauma informed tapping. The inaugural event had hoped to raise $10,000 and ended up raising three times that!

My interview with Gene was dedicated to the concept of describing and detailing what I felt were the most important elements and considerations for offering trauma informed care within the context of EFT tapping Gene is a fabulous interviewer having conducted hundreds of interviews on his Tapping QandA podcast over the past decade. Here are some of those highlights

• Realizing the significance and widespread impact of trauma on an individual’s and community’s life
• Recognize the signs and symptoms of trauma
• Finding ways to Integrate trauma knowledge into your procedures and practices 
• Learning to avoid re-traumatization through trauma-informed EFT practices in order to reduce excessive flooding and abreactions

Also I detail a number of EFT specific client practices including

1. SLOW it DOWN, first create safety and rapport and only go as fast as the slowest part of the client feels safe to go…The need to go slowly with EFT, to titrate the work, and to work in the “safe -Optimal Arousal Zone.” Try beginning with Recent-Current-Future as it can be difficult to know how each person is going to respond to EFT.Never ask about “First or Worst” experiences in a first session, A regulated client is a client who can think creatively, feel safe enough to integrate change and heal that which has not yet healed.
2. RESOURCE your client and have them recognize and practice connecting to their resources. Regulation is critical for helping people feel safe with both the practitioner and with the EFT tapping process. Dysregulation or feeling “not in control” of the EFT process does not feel safe, and people only FEEL when they feel safe. 
3. Just because you are made aware of a traumatic event does NOT mean you should necessarily go there. 
4. Stay in your professional scope of practice and skill lane.
5. The importance of offering trauma awareness education can help a person regarding how EFT works and why they might be experiencing what they are experiencing. Pre-framing and Teaching our clients about how stored survival stress / trauma shows up in the body and the impact it has on a person’s life helps them to know what they are experiencing is a normal response for a body that has experienced scary things, and why you need to work slowly.  Pace the work according to the needs of their body and where it is at now. 
6. Use your client’s words but not necessarily ALL of their words! Remember the “Trauma Pull”…be their “Seeing Eye Dog” and take them where THEY want to go but only by crossing at the crosswalk when the light turns green to ensure a safely facilitated session!

The conversation goes beyond these highlights so I hope you enjoy it!

I was honored to receive this comment after this interview aired from Ulf and Gunilla, the founders of the Peaceful Heart network: “Thanks for a fantastic talk on trauma informed practice! Best talk on trauma informed practice ever! We suggest a transcript of this session as a book and a manual for everybody in therapy, coaching, humanitarian work, people – regardless of modality or profession.”