The Devil's Armpit - Energy EFT Case Story

Jillian came to me on short notice with what may seem to be a tall order. I have never worked with her before, so I wasn’t sure to what all to expect. Jillian was having some trouble with anxiety and panic attacks.

She told me she had a history of anxiety and panic attacks that she had worked through own her own, however a recent trip to her dentist, was more eventful than expected and left her with a follow up appointment the next day after our session and she was already a “nervous wreck” about it and “worrying herself sick”.

So to begin we did a round of Energy EFT to de-stress, which she found incredibly relaxing and helpful in itself. Upon taking a little background on her anxiety and the last time it triggered before the dentist appointment, she was able to tell me she went a few years without any panic attacks until a month prior when she went on a zip-line adventure and had a panic attack, which led her to being escorted from the middle of the course back to safe land.

She told me that ever since then she hadn’t felt quite right, and it triggered a lot old stuff that needed to be released. There are many ways we could have gone about approaching this, but I decided to use the autogenic EFT Intervention so we could start to release the anxiety and panic as a whole without breaking down every instance in which it happened, especially given time was of the essence, she had her dentist appointment at 10am the next morning and it was already 8pm the evening prior.

To get her familiar with what we were going to be doing I first had her set up an autogenic memory habitat from a happy time in her childhood. Once she saw how the autogenic habitats worked, we then proceeded to work on the anxiety and panic. I reminded her that we were setting up a habitat with a past aspect of herself in it, so that she stayed present and disconnected from the anxiety and panic she had felt when it happened.

So as we set up the habitat, she gave it a name “The devil's armpit”, that brought about a giggle but the habitat was located at her favourite beach, it was right at 3pm when the sun was at its brightest and hottest. The aspect of her was standing right in the middle of the beach and a hotel just behind her. She had the choice where she could either turn and return to the cool and safe hotel room, or continue forward to the cool and refreshing ocean water.

The weather was just oppressively hot and humid outside. She could hardly breathe because the air was so thick and heavy from the humidity. She could smell the salt in the air and hear the seagulls as they were flying searching for food. I took her starting point on the SUE Scale which was -5. We then began to tap simply on “The devil's armpit” and how oppressively hot and humid it was, as well as the aspect’s feeling of “Just wanting to get out of here.”

Click here to learn about The SUE Scale

Having never done Energy EFT before, she was quite surprised to be at a -2 after the first round. When we revisited the habitat, it was not oppressively hot and humid, rather just hot and humid, the sun had begun to go down a little and the aspect wasn’t feeling the fight or flight feeling like before. Although still feeling it hard to breathe and not completely comfortable, we went into the next round.

We tapped on what the aspect was feeling such as “hot”, “suffocated”, “hard to breathe”, “walking in the thick of it” and “stuck.” Once we finished that round and revisited the habit the aspect was feeling much more in calm and in control. The client was pleasantly surprised by this. She was now at a 0 on the SUE Scale.

The habitat was not as hot, and no longer felt suffocated. The aspect was able to take a deep breath, as was the client. The feeling of having to escape was no longer there. It was one of the aspect knowing it had choices. We then went into the next round. We tapped for “choices”, “more choices” and “the aspect has many choices.”

This as a practitioner was really great to see, and a reminder of why it is so important that we allow the clients to use their language and words. For Jillian, she needed to know she had choices, and was able to make them. We ended this round on a +3.

When we revisited the habitat. It was just a summer day, where the aspect was walking to the beach with its family. Yes it was hot and humid, but not oppressively, it was a typical summer day at the beach. The aspect confidently chose to walk to the beach and enjoy the time with her family. Heading into the next round we went off of the new found confidence the aspect had, and tapped on “Confident choices”, “The aspect makes confident choices”, “The aspect has choices it makes confidently.” This took Jillian to a +6.

Not wanting to stop there, we went one more round. Upon checking in before the final round, Jillian observed that there were lots of possibilities the aspect had to do at the beach. That is what led us to ending the session tapping on “possibilities” and “opportunities”, “endless possibilities” and “endless opportunities.” This left the client at a +8. 

Jillian was feeling so much lighter, and laughing, knowing she would confidently go to the dentist the next morning. Upon her follow-up in the afternoon, she called to let me know that she had no anxiety about going and the appointment was completely uneventful and actually went shorter and better than the dentist expected. She had to let me go rather quickly as she was about to venture into town to do some shopping.

It’s truly a wonderful thing to be able to have this tool, to so quickly “tap out” something that has been an ongoing issue for many years, in one session. We plan to follow up on our session, but until then I am happy to report that a month later, Jillian is still anxiety free.

Jamie Streett is an GoE EFT Master Practitioner and EmoTrace Practitioner from Maryland, USA, who is an Angelic Life Coach and a Human Design Specialist. To contact Jamie head to her online GoE profile page.

This article was first featured in the Spring 2015 Vol.2 No.2 "Creativity & Colour" edition of The Energist magazine, the GOE's full-colour quarterly print magazine which is shipped worldwide to our 1300+ members every three months. Click here to join The GoE, with membership starting at just £30/per year.

For more information about The Energist and to read the digital version online for free, click here.

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