Gilda Howards - 4 septembre 2010 -

How it all started for me was when the phone rang one day and this French lady Christine Disant who is an EFT practitioner in Carrigaline introduced herself and explained exactly what she does and asked me if I would like to come and have a treatment.  I must admit I was very sceptical as I have gone to crazy seminars in hotels before where people professed to be healers and got madly emotional and all that sort of thing so I was about to give it a miss as I was thinking to myself that this was another "hocus pocus" invention. I got over my scepticism having listened to Christine on the phone. What I liked about her was she was quietly spoken and not in anyway pushy.  All she said is; "why not come and try it, it is all so easy." I had never heard of it before even though it was written up in the Irish Times several times since 2008, and again in August this year and on the Marian Finucane's Show in 2009 and also demonstrated on the RTE Afternoon show "Start over in 20l0" by a lady who stopped smoking with the help of EFT. The principle of EFT is that you tap on various 'acupuncture points' on your face and upper body while talking about your problem in an accepting way.  You can do this in the comfort of your own living room.  It is part of what they call an 'energy therapy'. It is also very practical, gentle and easy to use. What kind of issues can it help? Well as Christine says; 'Practically everything', a lot of them I have already mentioned but I may not have mentioned anxiety before Leaving Cert, grief, depression and heartburn which a lot of people suffer from. Christine Disant who is a fully fledged practitioner for quite sometime has researched EFT in a very big way as she says; "I have used it for myself many times as a first aid tool, for example I had a log of wood thrown at full speed into my face (by mistake, of course!), but by using EFT immediately, I only got a tiny bruise the size of a beauty spot, invisible if you didn't know it was there.  There are so many different issues where it helped me personally that I will be grateful to EFT for eternity." Christine is only one convinced person but there are so many of her clients who have been troubled for years, either on physical or emotional issues and they have written testimonials by the dozens covering in some cases appalling problems that they have suffered for years and after a few sessions they have walked out from Christine a new person.  I am one of her clients who have had great results and I must tell you my story. DAMAGE I made an appointment with Christine and visited her studio in Carrigaline one afternoon. My problem was that I had a very painful knee having twisted it playing tennis a couple of months previously. I was still pretty dependant on a crutch or stick when I went to her, as I had a lot of pain.  This was on a Wednesday and on the Monday I was due to go to hospital to have an arthroscopy having had x-rays that showed I had torn the cartilage and done a lot of damage. Christine spoke with me for a while and then we started EFT, this self-help and self-healing method, based on acupuncture without the needles! After about 40 minutes she asked me to put my hand on the part of my knee that was really hurting. I genuinely could not find it and I felt a bit of a fraud! I asked her what I was going to do about going to hospital on the following Monday? I knew that she possibly felt like I did that it was a pity I had to go but I had already put off my surgeon as I got a chance to go to France for a week! Well her answer was very diplomatic, she said; "If you are going for that surgery, I am sure it is the right thing to do and EFT can help you get there in the best conditions, make the most of the operation and heal as fast and easily as possible." What happened next was over the week-end, I got a chest infection and having examined me in the hospital (just a short time before I was due to go to theatre) they sent me home as it was not wise to have an anaesthetic with the infection. That was went I said to my surgeon "this might be a blessing in disguise as my knee is absolutely fine. He felt it and said that I could go back to playing tennis and if I had any more trouble I could go back to him. Since then I have never looked back and it has been great since so I am resuming my tennis in September. Now, I have definitely changed my thinking on EFT because I was very sceptical to begin with. I must really tell you about the science behind EFT which was not developed like many other discoveries.  Here is the real story. In l980 Dr. Roger Callahan was working with a patient, who suffered from an intense water phobia which caused headaches and terrifying nightmares, both of which were related to her fear of water. To seek help she had been going from therapist to therapist for years with no material improvement. Dr Callahan tried to help her by conventional means for a year and a half.  He did not make much headway either. One day he stepped outside the normal "boundaries" of psychotherapy.  Out of curiosity, he had been studying the body's energy system and decided to tap with his fingertips under her eyes (an point related to the stomach). This was prompted by her complaint of some stomach discomfort. To his astonishment, she announced immediately that her phobia was gone and she raced down to a nearby swimming pool and began throwing water in her face. No fear, no headaches. It all went away, including the nightmares, and it has never returned. Now she is totally free of her water phobia. Results like that are rare in the field of psychotherapy but commonplace with EFT. Actually, after that result, Dr Callaghan created a new therapy called TFT (Thought Field Therapy). TFT is very efficient, but also very complex. Then an engineer called Cary Graig refined TFT to make it more "user friendly", and created EFT. ALZHEIMER'S Since the tapping sequence is so easy to learn, Christine's work is to guide you through the words you can use. This can be done over the phone or on skype (webcam on internet). Actually, most of Christine's clients are actually abroad. So wherever you are, you can always contact her through her website and see if she can help you. When I was chatting with Christine I asked her how would EFT work on people suffering from Alzheimer's as I felt it surely could do them some good and I was delighted with her positive answer as she is so excited with the wonderful results she is having with a patient at present and this is on Skype (internet and webcam) as Mary and John live in France.  This is hard to believe but it is really true! "When I was asked to help John, a friend who was in the early stages of Alzheimer's, I thought I couldn't do much about it.  It is a degenerative disease and there is no cure at this time. However, I had foreseen all the positive ways that EFT might help.

I have now had over nine months of weekly sessions with John and his wife, Mary and the results have been noticeable. Even though EFT does not claim to cure Alzheimer's disease, it certainly relieves the burden on a daily basis both for this patient and for his wife/carer." This is one of the many example from Christine. "Mary and John both use EFT on a daily basis. Whenever suffers from a pani attack or gets anxious in any way, EFT calms them both down. When John's memory goes, tapping on a specific idea might help him to remember it for a while. On the other hand, if John gets hallucinations, EFT will help to bring him back into the present time and place. For Mary, it's also a great comfort to be able to use it when her caring role becomes too difficult a burden. She taps her anxiety, sometimes her anger, or her sadness away, to get back to her old self again." Both John's speech therapist and GP appreciated the changes they saw after a few weeks, but the best advocate is Mary. "I continue to have weekly sessions with both of them. As Mary learns how to use EFT to defuse John's anger, fear, and panic on a daily basis, her carer's load is so much easier." Christine is eternally grateful to professionals both in the field of Alzheimer's Disease care or in the field of EFT who are all working together on this issue. The more people work with EFT and Alzheimer's disease, the more likely we are to find a better way to optimise the use of EFT with AD.

Christine's website aims at helping you to learn EFT in a practical way, giving examples on how it has helped many people already, and how EFT can help you deal with your own issues, and providing training material so you can start your journey in your own time. All it takes is to give it a go and see what happens! Alternatively if you need advice, feel free to contact Christine in Carrigaline, on her website's contact page, or on 087 648 1935; you are sure to enjoy your visit. A session is 50 euros for an hour. In some cases, as it was for me, one session is enough, but depending on your own situation it might take longer. You can always contact her for a quick chat before you decide if this is for you. On a personal note, as this is my last article with the Southern Star, I would like to thank all my friends who read my column and supported me down through the years and particularly those who wrote to me from time to time and especially at Christmas and sent me nice greetings. I would also like to thank the staff of the Southern Star, who were always courteous and fun to work with. I enjoyed writing for you but now it is time to say farewell and I wish you health and happiness for the future.