Snake phobia

____________________

Gary Craig

An EFT user and I spoke on the phone about a client who was hesitant to address her snake phobia because her fear was so intense. It's sometimes hard to convince a client of the relatively painless nature of EFT when s/he has experienced many conventional and painful healing techniques that didn't work.

I suggested a technique I have performed successfully on several occasions. It goes like this. Go into a pet store that carries snakes and locate the snake section. Then take the client to the pet store but don't go inside. At least not yet. Outside the pet store the client is relatively calm because s/he feels reasonably safe. Then use EFT for any anxiety s/he has for going through the door. Once s/he is ready to proceed then go inside the pet store (just inside the door). Then point out the location of the snake section (perhaps against a distant wall or in some corner). Then use EFT for any anxiety s/he feels for being this near a snake. Then go closer and tap again. Repeat this process until s/he gets closer, presses her nose against the glass cage and, with the cooperation of the pet store owner (they usually cooperate), she actually holds the snake. This is a relatively painless way to "sneak up on the phobia."

Below is a letter from the therapist that used this idea. Thought you might enjoy it.

LETTER: "Well I took my snake lady to the pet store and we did our stuff. I won't bore you with the details but at the end of about 45 mins she held a snake and she was euphoric. She called my machine that night and left an amazing testimonial. She wants to go back to the pet store and get herself a pet snake. (I have to admit he was pretty cute).

Just wanted you to know. Happy tapping."

In theory, a simple delimited phobia only requires a round or two of EFT and you are all done. I have had plenty of positive experiences with this. However, sometimes there is more to it than just a simple phobia. Some people with phobias, at least in my experience, also have a number of traumatic experiences regarding them (e.g. one snake phobic client of mine remembers someone throwing a snake in the bathtub while she was in it). To be thorough, one should also investigate such past traumas.

For example, I have found that addressing what seems like a simple height phobia can sometimes have misleading results. That is, they may be fine when looking over the third story balcony you were treating them for. But put them on a higher floor, or on a cliff, or someplace where there is no railing, or in a tree, or have them look off of a bridge, etc. (these are all possible aspects) and, in some cases, the phobia may "come back."

In fact, what you treated doesn't come back at all. Rather, what you are dealing with are new aspects that were previously unaddressed. They may be tuning into past "scary" incidences where there was trauma, guilt, anger, etc. and it can be pretty hard to know what you are dealing with. What the client may be calling fear may, in fact, be guilt, anger or something else. Whatever the client may call it, however, the comprehensive EFT algorithm will address what is really there. This is a major advantage of EFT.

The impossible snake phobia--How did you do that?

____________________

Gary Craig

This one may show up on national television--The Discovery Channel.

It is also an important case because it illustrates three vital points regarding EFT and a stubborn phobia....

With EFT, it doesn't matter how long the client has had the phobia or how intense it is. What does matter is how complex it is.

The value of persistence. It often prevails when we are unable to apply a more artful delivery.

After a phobia is cleared with EFT, some clients still exhibit above average caution regarding the feared object. This is normal BECAUSE THE CLIENT IS LACKING EDUCATION with respect to the item that they have spent a lifetime avoiding.

About 6 weeks ago I was asked by The Discovery Channel film crew to fly to Phoenix, AZ and apply EFT to an "impossible snake phobia." It was considered impossible because it was extremely intense and the client had had it for nearly 40 years. As it turns out my efforts were quite successful even though the road to success wasn't exactly a freeway.

Upon arriving in Phoenix I was escorted by the film crew to a desolate ranch where the temperature was over 100 degrees and where there was nothing but a horse corral, a few acres of corn, a building or two and dusty land for as far as I could see.

And...oh yes...Byron Wilkerson was there, too.

Byron is a professional cowboy....a rodeo star with the handsome ruggedness of the Marlboro Man. He has a cowboy "twang" in his speech that accents his heroic western persona. He could walk right out of an old time western movie.

Like other heroes, he walks and talks with an invincible air of confidence and fearlessness. And all this was real....until....

he saw a snake...
or saw a picture of a snake...
or heard about a snake....
or even had a thought about a snake.

And then the macho stuff disappeared as his "walk tall" gait wobbled under his rubbery knees. His hand twitched, his stomach tightened and he felt panic all over his body. A true phobic response.

After Byron and I spent a few minutes getting acquainted, the cameras started rolling and I began applying EFT to him for his general fear of snakes. I was purposely being global here because he was already nervous and I wanted to take the edge off.

"Even though snakes annoy me...."

"Even though I have this unwanted reaction to snakes..."

He had absolutely no belief that this process or ANY process would work for him. To him, it was impossible. He was only there because he promised the film crew that he would give it a try. Within the first 2 minutes he began laughing out loud at me. He thought this whole tapping thing was ridiculous (even though I had tried to explain it to him up front). Fortunately, he had agreed in advance with the film crew to stay with it. That, plus my congruence about the process, kept him around. Otherwise, he would have been long gone.

I then shifted approaches and used the Tearless Trauma Technique on two specific snake related events in his past. One was when he woke up from a nap with a rattlesnake crawling on him and the other was the memory of his cousin allowing snakes to crawl around his (the cousin's) neck. These were easy. Two rounds each of EFT and those previously intense memories were neutralized.

Ahhhh...this was going to be easy, I thought. Just decimate his various snake memories and we will collapse the foundation under the phobia. However, upon asking for more memories he said he "couldn't remember any more." That's odd. Here's a guy who has been deathly afraid of snakes for nearly 40 years and he could only remember two specific events? Hmmmm.

I prodded for more memories but ran into a blank wall. I suspicioned that his snake phobia was a metaphor for some intense childhood memories and, if we were alone and not on camera, I would have pushed until I found them. However, this macho man did not agree to such probing on camera. I had to respect that.

Sooooo, since I couldn't address what I thought was the bulls eye, I was left with straight EFT and persistence.

As it turns out, the film crew brought a book filled with pictures of snakes and, even though we had collapsed two of Byron's specific snake memories, he still could not go near that book. His hand was twitching at the mere presence of it and he was about ready to run out of the corral. So I had the book placed on the ground about 30 feet away and tapped for his present fear....

Even though that book scares me....

Even though my hand is twitching....

Even though it is only ink on paper and there is no real snake....

A few rounds of this and he was calm. He was amazed at his lack of fear and said....

"How did you do that?"

Then we brought the book about 5 feet closer (to 25 feet) and his fear response resumed (although it was only 50% of its former self). A few more rounds of EFT and he was calm again. Then 20 feet...then 10 feet...then 5 feet....

And so on it went until Byron had the book in his lap and ran his fingers over the pictures with no fear response whatsoever. He was impressed and, once again, said...

"How did you do that?"

Next, the film crew brought out a computer with a movie of snakes on it. These were nasty, slimy, crawling, attacking, fang-filled snakes that would have put the snake scene in Raiders of the Lost Ark to shame. Byron watched this movie with very little fear--only an occasional grimace when a snake coiled up and attacked. But a few rounds of EFT with Set Up statements like....

"Even though I'm afraid of a computer screen...."

"Even though I know those computer snakes can't harm me, I'm afraid of them anyway...."

....and Byron was calmly touching the computer screen right where the open-mouthed fangs were. Once again he said....

"How did you do that?"

That was the end of day 1. He still had not seen a live snake (which is the ultimate test for our procedures) but that would come tomorrow. Please note that I think I could have collapsed this whole thing in 15 or 20 minutes if I had been able to play detective and find the big issue(s) underneath the phobia. As it was, the first session took over 2 hours of non-stop EFT'ing. This is important to keep in mind for those who think 10 minutes is adequate persistence.

On day 2, I asked Byron to re-visit the memories we had previously collapsed and he reported that he had no intensity about them whatsoever. Success. No pieces to pick up here.

I then had him hold the book and run his hand over the pictures. Again, no problem. We were apparently thorough enough to collapse all the aspects around both the book issue and the memories. The computer screen wasn't available so I couldn't test that part of it.

So, onward to the ultimate test. The film crew hired a snake expert to bring two caged snakes into the corral....a dangerous rattlesnake and a harmless boa constrictor. Byron knew this was going to happen and, despite all our previous work, he became very nervous at the sight of the snakes. There was, apparently, something about live snakes that wasn't present while we were addressing the memories and the pictures.

The snake expert held the glass cages (with the snakes in them) about 50 feet away and gradually brought them closer as I persistently used EFT on Byron. Incidentally, they ONLY came closer with Byron's permission. At all times I told him he was in charge regarding how this process progressed.

To Byron's amazement, he actually touched the glass cage without his hand twitching and without feeling he had to run. However, he was still a bit nervous and this experience, which was clearly a dramatic improvement for him, was still not his favorite thing to do. He even announced quite convincingly....

"But I ain't touching no snake."

I accepted that and our session drew to a close.

At this point one might conclude that EFT had failed to give the ultimate relief...namely...Byron touching at least the harmless snake. However, that would be a false conclusion. You see, Byron has heard that some snakes are harmless and some are dangerous. But, deep down, HE DOESN'T TRULY BELIEVE IT. As far as he is concerned ALL SNAKES ARE DANGEROUS and are to be avoided. Why take chances? That is his belief.

Byron and I spoke about this at length and I offered the following metaphor, to which he emphatically agreed....

Suppose someone shows you a pistol and demonstrates that it isn't loaded. Then he stands a few feet away and points it at your head. Are you just going to sit there and let him pull the trigger? Or are you going to be prudent and move? Just because the gun appears not to be loaded doesn't mean it isn't loaded. Why take the chance if you don't have to?

And that is how Byron sees snakes. They are all dangerous. That is his education on them. So, until his understanding of snakes changes, he will treat all snakes as dangerous and isn't about to start petting them. Given his beliefs, neither would I. This is normal caution on Byron's part....it is not part of a phobia. This is very important to understand. Otherwise, we may think we failed to "get it all" when all that is needed to "finish it off" is proper education.

The really good news here is that 15 minutes after we finished our session, the snake expert put one of the snakes on the ground...outside the cage....so the film crew could video tape it. Byron was standing about 15 feet from it and was completely aware of its presence. He carried on a normal conversation, had no rubber knees, no twitching hand, no panic reaction. In short, he had no phobic reaction whatsoever. Just the normal caution that his beliefs required.

Success.

About 3 weeks later, Byron called me on the telephone to report that he had seen several snakes in the interim and at no time did he have a phobic reaction. This is unheard of for him. After we both acknowledged how strange this procedure is he said...

"After the results [I experienced] I don't care how idiotic it is. You made a believer out of me."

Spider fear

____________________

Lainy Wells

It was good to speak with you last Saturday. Thanks for the encouragement to share some of my stories as a LAY PERSON. I have quite a few, but my first experience was with a spider phobia. It was an effective way to demonstrate the effectiveness to myself which encouraged me to try it on many other areas.

In February of 1998 I ordered your tapes. I had become interested in the “tapping” phenomenon when I witnessed a friend’s grief therapy following the horrible tragedy of having killed a 14 year old girl in a car accident.

While watching the tapes, I accepted the invitation to tap along with the demonstration on whatever I chose to address. I thought tapping on spiders would be interesting. I had already done a great deal of work to reduce the size of my phobia but knew there was more to do. They still gave me the creeps. If I found one upon opening a cupboard I would be startled. If my husband was around I’d have him “remove” the spider for me. During certain times of the year I would leave the house with a broom in hand making swinging motions in the air as I went down the front stairs to swish their webs away (just in case there were any.) I always felt “surprised” to see them, anywhere. I actually felt like they were being deliberately sneaky just so they could upset me. Yes Gary, I know, interesting writing on my walls.

So, I tapped on spiders while I watched the tape learning about EFT.

The next day I walked down the sidewalk going to my office. I became aware of myself bending over, saying - as I watched a black spider crawling kitty corner across the walkway - “Well, where are you going you cute little feller?” I stood up and had to laugh. Never in my life had I had any curiosity about any spider and “cute” certainly wasn’t ever a word I would have used to describe them!

That was almost a year and a half ago. Now, as Dr. Callahan and Gary remind us, tapping doesn’t make us stupid, so I don’t play with spiders. I do however have a few daddy long legs with whom I cohabit. One lives in my cookware cupboard, another in my bathroom, another right where I grab the garage door to push it open. I usually remember to be careful so I don’t “startle” him!

After that first success I went on to many more. This last April I attended the International Conference for Energy Therapy in Las Vegas learning some additional techniques. I continue to use the methods by myself on a daily basis and in “peer sessions” at least once a week with two of my friends who are also “tappers.” We're diligently going after all kinds of "problems," getting lighter and clearer and more loving by leaps and bounds.

Intense spider fear

____________________
Gary Craig

This case is important because it explores a situation where a client is actually making good progress even though his/her response would suggest otherwise. This happens more often than you might think and centers around the "Fear of the Fear" which means the fear of the fear returning. This, of course, is a separate issue but when it happens the tendency is to conclude that EFT "doesn't work."

A few months ago I gave an EFT introductory session to several hundred people in Northern California and, during the break, 20 or 30 people gathered around me for more info. One lady from this group challenged me with the statement....

"I have a fear of spiders that you can't even begin to touch!" This was said with a body quiver that emphasized her fear.

I took her bait and, in front of all those onlookers, proceeded to apply EFT. But because I was in front of so many people and because I only had a few minutes, I started with a preframe that went like this....

"Well, there are no spiders here in this meeting room so we will not be able to ultimately test our results. But perhaps in the limited time available we can take the edge off of your intense emotional response to the mere thought of spiders [she quivered again]. That would be a great result under these circumstances."

I knew more was possible (likely) but I didn't want to set the bar too high. Admittedly, this was a "save your hiney" preframe...but it was necessary in this environment. I had very little time, a challenging client, an intense issue and an audience that was expecting magic (they had already experienced magic during my presentation). Any sane presenter would have handled this case in a private session after the workshop. However, I've never been accused of being either sane or overly intelligent. Besides, my intuition gave me a strong "go ahead" signal.

As an initial test I wiggled my fingers about two feet in front of her face to emulate a spider. In, response, she nearly jumped out of her shorts. She put her hand over her heart in an attempt to slow down its pace and looked at me with disbelief for being so insensitive to her problem. Bad start.

So, we started tapping in a general, global manner with an aim toward taking the edge off of this extreme intensity.

"Even though I have this reaction....."

"Even though I don't like those things...."

"Even though I startle easily...."

Then, to test it, I wiggled my fingers again from two feet away and she said that was OK. Progress. I brought the fingers about 6 inches closer and she began to react again, although less intensely.

We tapped in more detail.

"Even though spiders scare me..."

"Even though those 'spider fingers' are too close..."

"Even though I'm afraid a spider will crawl on me...."

I tested it again by wiggling my fingers 6 inches closer and she was fine, although she seemed apprehensive. At this point I recognized her apprehension as a form of what I call "The Fear of the Fear." This means that the real fear had subsided but she was now worried about "getting too far into this" because she knew how terrified she became around the spider subject. She was now into an area which, for her, was the unknown. Since the spider phobia first came upon her she has not been without this fear and, for her, to have it disappear was impossible. Thus she had a Fear of the Fear.

I then asked about her most intense spider memory and she said she was fine with spiders until, about 5 years ago, some wind blew a spider into her mouth. She said, "I swallowed that crawly thing" and began to quiver again as she said it. Note, however, that it was not the intense reaction that the untapped problem might have brought up.

We continued.

"Even though I swallowed that crawly thing...."

"Even though I can still feel it wiggling in my throat..."

"Even though it is laying eggs in my stomach..."

She had quivers around these statements, which subsided as we tapped.

I then moved my wiggling fingers closer and closer to her face. She was OK with it, although it was clear that she was apprehensive about what MIGHT happen (the fear of the fear returning). I even ran my fingers over her face as though it was a spider. No adverse reaction. Since we were running out of time, I asked her to vividly imagine that "spider swallowing" incident. She did so with no emotional response whatsoever.

Despite all this (it took about 8 minutes) she remained unconvinced--although the audience was quite impressed. To her, the real test was a REAL spider--not just my fingers. She is right, of course. It must be tested under the real circumstances. In my experience, however, there is a reasonable possibility that a REAL spider would be no more terrifying than a pair of socks. If I'm wrong, we could simply resume tapping for any new aspects that came up.

Rapidly collapsing a complicated spider phobia

Experienced EFT'ers know that phobias can permanently disappear in moments with EFT. However, some cases have many aspects (pieces) to them which must be addressed before the phobia vanishes. In this case, Colin simply asked what it was about spiders that frightened his wife. Her responses gave him a list of aspects that were quickly collapsed with EFT. By getting these aspects up front, he likely saved considerable time.

____________________

By Colin Ball MSc (New Zealand)

I am relatively new to EFT, having discovered it a few months ago from a friend who used it to help me quit smoking. I was so impressed that I have been studying it intensely ever since, as well as practising it on myself and my family. I wanted to share a remarkable recent success I had using EFT on my wife, although I am sure you must have received many like this.

Until recently, my wife routinely demonstrated a moderate to severe fear of spiders (depending on their size) and had been sceptical about my suggestion that EFT might help reduce that fear, even though she had been surprised by apparent EFT success with myself and the children. Recently she uncovered a large spider whilst cleaning the garage and immediately stopped what she was doing and begged me to ‘get rid of it’ (if I was not around she would have found a way of killing it). I caught the spider and placed it in a large covered glass, and she was visibly frightened when I showed it to her, particularly when I went to remove the cover. I said we could try and reduce her fear now, if she would just give EFT a try, so finally she agreed. I took her inside the house, sat her down, and made notes as I asked what is was about them that frightened her. Following a generic warm-up of ‘fear of spiders’, we then tapped using short cuts on the specific responses she gave.

"Scared when they move fast"

"don’t like their long legs"

"very scared when my dad chased me with one when I was little"

"big ones make me jump" (this one introduced some humour as we tapped, which although a possible distraction I thought it was ok to finish on)

I then retrieved the glass with the spider, placed it on the table and asked how she felt on a scale of 0 to 10 and she reported a 3 (although I suspect it was less than this). I asked her if it was ok to remove the cover, and she said "yes, in fact I think I could touch it". She then took the glass, removed the cover and looked at it for a few seconds. She put her finger in the glass and cautiously touched the back of the spider, although she jumped a little when it tried to run away.

She then took the spider into the back garden to set it free, pausing to stroke its back (possibly to check that the fear had not returned) before going back into the house. This was a far cry from before, where it either faced certain death, or being released a very long way from the house ("so it can’t come back"). Since then she has started telling the world about how EFT has fixed her fear of spiders.

Dog phobia case that required persistence.

Some phobias, to our delight, vanish within one or two rounds of tapping. Others have several aspects to them and take 2 or 3 sessions. A few take ongoing persistence. We're not sure why this variance, of course, because we are still in the beginning stages of exploring these remarkable procedures.

A thank you to Dr. Marilyn Deak, my dear friend from Delaware, for giving us a dog phobia case that required persistence. As you will see, she was not only persistent but she also injected the creative use of lists, photographs and scrapbooks for her mentally challenged client. These are the types of cases that require love and caring as well as skill and patience. They represent the type of challenges that help us perfect our art of delivery.

____________________

by Dr. Marilyn R. Deak, Ph.D

I thought that you might be interested in a phobia case I treated, which was not a one session wonder.

A teenage boy was referred to me because of morbid fear of dogs. He was so afraid of dogs that he had broken his arm twice, running away from dogs he saw. He had never been attacked by a dog.

When I met 'Johnny', I learned that he was limited intellectually, with an IQ below 80. A favorite activity of his was mowing lawns, and his dog phobia seriously interfered with that activity since he tended to work in neighborhoods where there were many dogs, some restrained and some not.

'Johnny' understood why he had been brought to see me and was very motivated to be less afraid of dogs so that he could be outside more comfortably. I introduced EFT to him, and to his mother, and we did it several sessions in the office, with some progress outside of the office (in the presence of dogs). I had the impression that, as with many other youngsters, it was difficult for him to maintain the focus when we worked on the fear in the office. So we added several other activities:

1) Johnny started keeping a list of dogs that he could pet without being afraid . He would write out the list and any additions, each time he came in. At this point, we are up to eleven, and I just received a postcard from him on his vacation, telling me about a new dog he could pet.

2) I had him take photographs of dogs he had contact with so he could have a visual stimuli when he talked about his dog encounters. His parents were very cooperative with this project.

3) We started cutting out pictures of dogs from magazines, making a scrapbook of dog pictures, and tapping for the fear as he held the pictures.

At this point, a number of months into treatment, 'Johnny' still has some fear of dogs but no longer panics around them. He can go up to neighbors and ask to take their dogs for walks; he can calmly ask people to restrain dogs that frighten him; he can distinguish between fearsome and friendly dogs, and he's aware of his progress, and extremely proud of himself, and the very thick picture folder that we have amassed.

I keep in mind Gary's stress on persistence, and recognize that many of our successes require it.

Some brief phobia cases--snakes & roaches & bugs.

____________________

by Meryl Hershey Beck, MA, MEd, LPCC, CPC

I love doing work with phobias--usually it is the fastest and most amazing of all!! Living in Arizona, I seem to be working a lot with snake phobias.

Here are some examples:

1) I was out on a first date with a gentleman, at a local restaurant, and he asked what kind of work I do. So, not being shy, I told him and asked if he wanted to try some tapping. We quickly worked through an issue he brought up and then he said, "I would really believe this stuff (tapping) if it could do something about my fear of snakes. I hate to go into the garage, if a snake is on the television screen I have to change the channel, just the thought of snakes makes me sweat. I know it seems stupid, that a big man like me is afraid of even non-poisonous snakes, but I hate them and never want to see them!"

When I inquired, he said his SUD [0-10 intensity] level was only at a 3 currently. So I decided to find a prop and went to the front of the restaurant where they sell books, to look for one with a picture of a snake. Instead of a book, I came back to our table with a stuffed animal (toy) snake. I explained that we both knew it wasn't real and this might not work, but what was his SUD level now. It was about a 6. After three rounds it was a zero. We both weren't sure if it would hold when he saw a real snake.

Since he was new in town, I asked him if he wanted to meet me at a pot luck Chanukah party that I had been invited to the next night. When I arrived, he met me at the door asking, "Is this a set up?" I didn't know what he was talking about until he took me into the home owner's den (a home I had never been in) and there were TWO CAGES WITH LIVE SNAKES!

As he stood there looking at the snakes, I made a comment that it was amazing that he could be so near snakes since he had had such a fear of them and he replied, "I guess it is just a case of mind over matter" and didn't correlate it to the tapping we did the day before (apex problem)!

2) My associates and I were on the phone doing a radio interview and explaining our method--ERMT (Energy Restoration & Management Techniques) which uses EFT and other tapping techniques. We asked callers to call in....and worked with a gentleman who was terrified of snakes. After two or three rounds his SUD was at a zero and he was feeling calm and peaceful. The interviewer knew the caller and reported that she spoke to him a few days later and he was amazed and delighted that he still had no fear about snakes!

3) A few days later at a networking breakfast, a woman asked about my work. I told her the story about being on the air with a caller and tapping down his snake phobia. She said she was terrified of snakes, too. I asked her if she wanted to experience the tapping for herself to release the fear, and she agreed. Then I said, "What is your level of emotional discomfort when you think of a snake." And she shuddered and said, "No, no, I don't want to even think of them." We proceeded immediately to do the tapping, and after three rounds she was able to think of snakes without any fear.

4) I also have worked with several people around their fear of creepy, crawly, things--like spiders, roaches, and other "ugly" bugs. A few days ago, at a workshop in Texas, a woman reacted very strongly when a roach ran across the floor. That evening, I asked her if she wanted some relief from her fear of bugs, and she agreed.

We started with a little piece of paper to represent the bug, and her SUD was only about an 8. After we tapped it down to a 0, I said let's look for a real bug.....and her fear that I would find one was up to a 10. She reported that her heart was pounding and had sweaty palms. So we tapped. Once it was at a zero, and not seeing any bugs around, I asked her to let me know what her reaction was if she saw another bug. The next day she called me over and said that she had seen another roach and, although she didn't want to touch it, it was no big deal!

Fear of flying insects

EFT Contributing Editor Tam Llewellyn-Edwards of the UK performs a first class session with his client for what was originally thought to be a fear of moths. Due to Tam's insights it was soon discerned that it was actually a fear of all flying insects. Please note his approaches to the problem and particularly the manner in which he tests his work.

____________________

By Dr Tam Llewellyn-Edwards

Mary (not her real name) contacted me to treat her fear of moths. At her first appointment she could not raise any intensity regarding that fear as there were no moths about and she was unable to visualise with sufficient clarity to raise any fear.

We worked a little by asking what she guessed her fear would be if she where to see a moth in the room. She guessed her 0-10 intensity to be a 10. However, after a few rounds of EFT she was still guessing a 10 and still having difficulty visualising a real encounter with a moth.

At this stage a wasp appeared at the consulting room window and was trying to get in. The window was closed and there was no possibility of the wasp entering, but this caused an immediate terror reaction in Mary. She was clearly terrified and begged me to keep the wasp away from her. It transpired that her fear was not about moths, but about all flying insects.

So we were able to start work. No set up statement was necessary as the wasp was still banging against the window trying to enter and was clearly in Mary’s line of sight. Round after round of EFT was done using a dialogue about that particular wasp and all similar flying insects rather than any specific reminder phrase. In the presence of the wasp, no reminder was necessary.

Mary calmed down and was eventually able to approach the wasp – still on the other side of the window pane. She was able to look at it and describe how “pretty” its markings were. Eventually the wasp flew away, and I asked Mary to guess what her 0-10 intensity level would be if she were to face a wasp outside when there was not a window pane between her and it. She guessed it would be zero.

I suggested that we both go out into the clinic garden to find some wasps. This brought the intensity level up a little (to 2/3) but it was soon brought down with a quick round of tapping. We approached the door and I thought Mary was a little agitated as I was about to open it, so we did a further round of tapping before opening it.

Outside the door there is a lavender bush and at this time of the year it is covered with bumble bees (genus Bombus). These are similar to wasps, but never sting unless very provoked. Mary was able to approach the bush to look at the bees and she was able to describe the differences between the bees and the wasp she had seen outside the window. All the time she was instructed to continue tapping without using a reminder phrase.

We then moved to another section of the garden were I knew there was a pine tree which was a magnet to wasps. At that time of the year (summer) I knew it would be covered with a hundred or more wasps. The nectar from the tree’s flowers was washed by the rain into the gravel under the tree and the wasps also congregated in the gravel beneath the tree.

Still tapping Mary and I approached the tree and the wasps.

[Note: I was not putting my patient a risk here as at this time of the year, in England, wasps are well fed and docile. They do not sting even though Mary did not know that. Further, also unknown to Mary, I had an antidote to wasp stings and some anti-histamine cream in my pocket]

Mary was able to approach the wasps and walk on the gravel under the tree. She allowed wasps to land on her skirt and to crawl over her shoes. She was still tapping, but appeared quite unafraid and was quite pleased with herself.

Leaving the wasp tree we approached a Butterfly Tree (Buddleia), which was covered in Butterflies – the closest we could get to moths. Again there was some fear in Mary, but after a few rounds of tapping she was able to sit near the tree and wonder at the colours and variety of the butterflies as they explored the tree.

I suggested to Mary that some of the butterflies could be moths (quite untrue!) but she was unconcerned saying that they were all beautiful.

Cat phobia

Snake phobia

The impossible snake phobia--How did you do that?

Spider fear

Intense spider fear

____________________Gary Craig

Rapidly collapsing a complicated spider phobia

Dog phobia case that required persistence.

Some brief phobia cases--snakes & roaches & bugs.

Fear of flying insects

____________________
Gary Craig