One of the strangest parts of EFT for newcomers on an EFT Level 1 training is the strange eye-rolling procedure of the nine-gamut process. If the rest of EFT looks strange, this part looks very strange indeed. The eye-rolling part of the nine-gamut procedure is designed to take advantage of the way we use our eyes to engage as much of the person’s nervous system while the tapping as possible.
Students of NLP are familiar with eye accessing cues,the idea that people move their eyes to help them access different thinking processes. For most people looking up to the left helps them access visual memories, looking down to the right helps them to tune into their feelings and so on.
Although it my seem strange, using these eye movements is a part of EMDR (Eye Movement Desensitisation Reprocessing) therapy which is proving very effective for resolving traumatic memories and is now entering the therapeutic mainstream.
I recently attended an Integral Eye Movement Therapy training with Andy Austin (which I highly recommend). IEMT is his formulation of an eye movement therapy in which the therapist puts the eye movements to very good use.
IEMT and EMDR require quite a bit of training however the principles of using eye movements are quite simple and I’ve been working on combining some of these eye movement routines with EFT tapping to enhance the results.
We’ll be exploring these enhancements to EFT at the next EFT Cafe meeting here in Newcastle on January 8th. If you know some EFT and would like to try out some new routines drop me a line.
