by Mayan Schraders

Using EFT (Emotional Freedom Technique)in the Treatment of Eating Disorders

Curiosity is a key attribute that helps us,as counsellors, keep on doing a good job. We have curiosity about our clients,their story, and their responses. We have curiosity about ourselves, our responses, and our quest how to keep improving our services. My curiosity led me to investigate the various energy psychology modalities. Energy psychology is an umbrella word for modalities such as EMDR, TFT and EFT. The latter two and their offspring are now often referred to as Meridian Tapping Techniques or MTT. I am writing this article to share my ongoing enthusiasm and excitement about integrating these new techniques into my practice.

My colleagues generally don’t have a great warm-up to working with clients with eating disorders. I can’t say it surprises me. After 20 years of working in this field I know how long term this work tends to be and how many layers of complexity are involved. For people who are in private practice, as I am, it is very important to have clear parameters for this work. Otherwise it’s very easy to end up being an unpaid key worker, and be landed with inappropriate responsibilities by default.

There is a morbid fascination in the general public with sufferers of eating disorders, especially those with anorexia nervosa. Unfortunately, anorexia sufferers are often glamorised both by the media and the dedicated sufferers themselves. Regularly there’s a public outcry about lack of professional help for eating disorder sufferers, in particular for those with anorexia. Clients suffering with bulimia nervosa or compulsive eating are more common, and no less tricky, dangerous or long term.Just because someone doesn’t show outward signs of starvation, does not mean that they are healthy.

Since 2001 I have been using EFT as one of the primary modalities for the treatment of clients with eating disorders. The outcomes for clients have greatly improved as a direct result of this, and as a practitioner the work has become lighter and easier. Two well-documented areas in which EFT is very successful are self-soothing/ anxiety reduction and overcoming cravings.

Mostly eating disordered behaviour develops as a response to an emotionally stressful situation. By changing the focus to how we look and what we eat, we gain some sense of control. Even though we may not be able to control what happens in our family, at school, or in the world, at least we can control what goes into our mouths. And over time the solution becomes the problem. Even if we may never consciously uncover what the emotional despair was about initially, one thing that is guaranteed to surface is strong anxiety at the prospect of no longer having an eating disorder to rely on. For the client the thought of having to change their eating behaviour can be truly terrifying.

Two basic steps in the treatment are, teaching the clients to use EFT on their cravings and to learn to tap to calm themselves. (Please note that for those with anorexia it is not uncommon to have feelings similar to a craving to not eat, as well as having cravings. In my experience the underlying dynamics for sufferers of most eating disorders are similar but expressed in different, sometimes opposing ways.)

Recently there have been more studies done and more information published about the effect of stress on weight. Consistent stress management is probably the best weight control measure, and EFT provides us with an easy tool to achieve this effectively.

Learning how to successfully deal with cravings is often a real relief to clients. It is a first step to empowerment,when they feel so out of control so much of the time. Once a client also knows how to manage their stress, and has got into the habit of doing this on a daily basis, we can start addressing some of the underlying issues as well as the current behaviour. We need to work on two levels when dealing with disordered eating. One is addressing the current eating behaviour and the other is related to the underlying issues.

The current eating behaviour is very individual and can be things like avoiding meal times, avoiding social events where food is part of the setting, binging at night after dinner, eating only one meal a day, scoffing food down, secret eating etc. Creating a set up phrase for the client to tap on several times a day makes it so much easier to break these habits. Working on this level, using EFT, we automatically and quickly get down to some of the core issues. Even though there are commonalities, the actual ‘flavour’ (excuse the pun) of these dynamics are unique to each  individual. When using a meridian tapping technique being specific is a key factor to success, so using the client’s words to set up their tapping phrases is crucial.

A client will often quickly identify that a part of them wants to get over this food issue, while another part is terrified. This is a tremendous insight for a sufferer to have. Once this is in their awareness we can start looking at what the eating disorder is doing for them.  It may be providing them with extra attention, a sense of safety, or a handy excuse to avoid anything that’s too challenging. Then we can explore whether there are other ways of getting ‘healthy’ attention and what that might be like, and so on.

Other issues that are likely to present themselves are historical and/or traumatic events, socialisation around food and the family relationship with food. As food issues are about nurturing, itis obvious that we are dealing with a disturbance in emotional nurturing, and therefore exploring the nature of the client’s relationships also provides a great source of healing potential. As you can see this still remains complex work and work that needs a lot of skill.

I have found EFT makes a significant difference for people who would have previously taken months or years to make the same progress. As I become more proficient with these tools, my clients gain stunning insights and are able to manage their own emotions with much more ease, which leaves them feeling in charge. It’s a win-win situation, because at the end of the day, I leave my office with more energy.

If you want to know more about EFT, you can download the EFT Manual for free at www.emofree.com. Alternatively, see an eight minute demonstration on the “About Mayan” page at mayan@mayanschraders.co.nz

Mayan has written a workbook called “Easy Weight Management – Overcoming your Food and Weight Issues using EFT”.This workbook is full of information gathered from her experience in this field, exercises and EFT statements to tap along with. It’s meant as a resource for both counsellors and clients. It offers a structured way to deal with some of the complexities of this work. Basic understanding of EFT is required. The cost is $20 for an electronic copy and $25 plus $2.50 P&P for a printed copy.Contact Mayan for details.