SPECIFIC WAYS TO USE EFT ON THE SYMPTOMS OF ADD/ADHD

I am Don A. Blackerby, Ph.D., founder of Success Skills headquartered in Oklahoma City, Oklahoma, USA. I have been an educator for over 30 years in various capacities. I have been working with students with ADD/ADHD for almost 10 years with a high degree of success. I would guess my success rate to be 90 to 95%.

One of the factors that makes my success rate so high is that I will start off using EFT on highly specific behavioral problems as they occur. In other words, I do not wait to get to the deeper issues, I use EFT on whatever emotion or disruptive behavior is presenting itself at the time. So, for an adult, it may be that they keep disrupting business meetings with non-relevant ideas, or, it may be that they are having a problem focusing on and expressing an idea, or, they may talk incessantly and don't know when to stop and listen. For students, it may be that they are arguing with their parents about having to do homework, or, they don't want to go to school, or, they cannot stay focused on the lesson at hand. If either an adult or student is displaying one of the symptoms of ADD/ADHD (such as hyperactivity, distraction, not listening, etc), I will use EFT on that symptom. There are many other examples too numerous to list here. Hopefully, you get the idea.

Generally, this approach will calm down the current situation and make it more workable. If the symptoms persist over time, then I start looking for the deeper issues such as some trauma that they may be currently experiencing in school or at work. If there is none, I look for past traumas which have been unresolved and which are manifesting themselves in the current situation. It is my experience that most anger, anxiety, rage, fears, guilt; etc comes from some un-resolved and unconscious trauma. The symptoms of ADD/ADHD are simply ways of acting out that unconscious and un-resolved trauma. EFT is wonderful for ferreting out the current traumas or the old traumas.

If a trauma cannot be found, then some of the causes may be allergies, toxins in the body, high stress and anxiety, lots of sugar or junk food in the diet, or just the stress of not being able to cope with life. Many parents are overwhelmed with attempting to balance a career and a family. Many students are stressed because our schools do not ever get around to teaching the student HOW to learn in the classroom. Therefore, every day produces high stress and anxiety for them and many times the ADD/ADHD symptoms are how they act out their frustration

The good news is that EFT can deal with much of the above and/or help ferret out the other potential causes and find relief for the client. One word of caution, EFT can take away the negative emotions associated with most of the above. However, if the student or the adult does not learn the skills to do the everyday tasks of life, then the trauma and symptoms will come back. Examples are: if the student does not learn how to learn in the classroom or if the parent does not learn how to balance family and career.

Before I get to a specific example, let's review the EFT Tapping Procedure and sequence. It is simple and easy to do. (However, as with NLP, doing it with style and mastery requires training. If you are interested in being trained in EFT or in reading more about it, check out Gary Craig's web site www.emofree.com ) You identify the issue to be dealt with and have the client assign it a code word or “reminder phrase.” Then assess the strength of the issue. Some EFT practitioners do muscle testing and others ask the client to assess on a scale from 0 to 10, where 0 is no strength and 10 is maximum strength. Then, while the client attends to the issue with the reminder phrase, you lead them through the EFT steps as follows:

THE EFT PROCEDURE

1. The Setup ...Repeat this affirmation 3 times:

"Even though 1 have this __________ or “ Even though 1 still have

1 deeply and completely accept myself.” some of this _______ 1 deeply and completely accept myself.”

while continuously rubbing the PR Spot or Karate Chop.

4. The Sequence (again) ...Tap about 7 times on each of the following energy points while repeating the Reminder Phrase at each point: EB, SE, UE, UN, Ch, CB, UA, Th, IF, MF, BF, KC

Assess the strength of the issue again. It usually has been diminished. If there is any strength left, do the EFT on the “remaining” problem. The Setup affirmation and the Reminder Phrase are adjusted to reflect that you are addressing the remaining problem. Continue this until it has gone away completely. Sometimes a new aspect or issue of the problem will emerge when the first problem is gone. When this happens, repeat EFT on the new aspect.

A mother and her 11 year old son came to me from St. Louis in order for me to do some “Academic Consulting” with him. His grades were low in all the primary academic subjects and he had many of the symptoms of Attention Deficit Disorder (ADD). Since his mother did not want to medicate him for the ADD symptoms she brought him to me for alternative treatments.

After my assessment, it became very obvious that his learning strategies were very inefficient and ineffective. He was basically an auditory learner and would simply repeat things over and over as a way to learn them. This is not a good way to learn academic subjects—it is very boring and time consuming and just does not work very well. I taught him how to become a visual learner, which is a more interesting and faster way to learn (see www.nlpok.com for more information on this).

After learning the new learning strategies, most students' interest and motivation will start to increase. This student vehemently declared that he just didn't like school and did not want to go back (he was on spring break). I decided to use EFT on this emotional block.

He declared that his dislike for school on an intensity scale of 0-10 was a 10. The set-up was “Even though I dislike school and don't want to go back on Monday I totally and completely accept myself.” After the tapping his intensity only dropped to a 9. “Even though I still have some remaining dislike for school and do not want to go back on Monday, I……..” His intensity dropped to a 5, but then he changed his mind to a 7. I sensed that he did not want the tapping to work, so I gave him a break.

After he came back, I decided to get much more specific by asking him the question, “What specifically do you not like about going to school?” His reply was swift and firm— “My PE teacher yells at us all the time and my math teacher gets mad at me and John (not real name) who sits next to me is always talking and moving around and he gets me in trouble.” Taking them one at a time the set-ups were:

“Even though my PE teacher yells at us, I totally and completely accept myself and forgive him.”

“Even though my math teacher gets mad at me, I know it has more to do with him than me, and I totally and deeply accept myself and forgive him for losing control.”

“Even though John gets me into trouble, I forgive him and totally and completely accept myself.

Being more specific helped bring his intensity down and then I decided to use EFT to install a more empowering belief. After talking to him about how much he had learned in his visit with me, I asked him what he thought would be a better belief to have about school which would help make school more successful and fun. He decided on “With the new learning strategies I have learned, I can make school as easy and fun as I want it to be.” He tapped each of the points as he repeated the new belief over and over. The relief in his voice and face was very evident.

After another break, his mother wanted me to help him with some of his ADD symptoms. She reported that he got frustrated easily and would then get angry at her when she wanted to check his homework. Set-up-- “Even though I get frustrated and mad at my mother when she checks my homework, I totally and completely accept myself and forgive my mother.”

She also reported that he sometimes had a lack of focus, was very hyperactive much of the time, would get bored doing his homework, and was very obsessive—which would drive everybody around him crazy because he would talk incessantly about it. Most of these are symptoms of ADD.

By this time, he was really getting into it and his energy level was coming up and his attitude was taking a definite swing toward the positive and upbeat. I had him tap on each of the issues separately until they all dropped to a 1-2. After each one, I asked him how he would like to act and believe and when we would come up with a new belief, we would tap all the points while repeating the new belief.

I did some further integration work with him and then future paced the new beliefs into the upcoming school days. I have not received a long term report, since I just saw him recently, but all of my tests I ran in the office indicated a successful visit.

About the Author

Don A. Blackerby, Ph.D. is a former math teacher and college dean and founded SUCCESS SKILLS in 1981 in order to focus on using NLP in helping struggling students in school. In 1996, he wrote a book “Rediscover the Joy of Learning” in which he describes his NLP based strategies and processes on how he helps struggling students including those who have been diagnosed with Attention Deficit Disorder (ADD). Don is not a psychologist, psychiatrist, or medical doctor, he is an educator who is certified in Neuro-Linguistic Programming (NLP) and practices as a Personal Development and Academic Coach. On a spiritual path he is an ordained minister and registered in the State of Oklahoma. He may be contacted in various ways. His address and phone numbers are: SUCCESS SKILLS, 1517 Walnut Cove Road, Edmond, OK 73013, USA. His phone number is 1-405-330-0164. His fax is 1-405-330-0167. His E-mail is info@nlpok.com . He also has a web site: www.nlpok.com .