By Christine Wheeler, MA

After applying Emotional Freedom Techniques (EFT), an innovative new form of emotional acupuncture, a severely phobic dental patient reports, "The techniques really, really worked! I was still trembling, but I could tap (perform EFT), and was totally relaxed, so we were able to get the dental work done.  My dentist was very pleased -- he said it was like night and day." Read a synopsis of her case below.

Emotional Freedom Techniques (EFT) is a new drug-free treatment for phobia sufferers of all kinds. It has been gaining widespread attention from health professionals and laypersons and has provided considerable relief to phobic patients. Phobias can be debilitating and even health threatening, particularly if the person avoids dental work because of their phobic response.

According to the principles of EFT, phobic responses are a result of unresolved negative emotions or trauma. Dental phobia literature links adult fear of dentists with a traumatic childhood dental incident. This is one possibility, of course. 

But EFT users have expanded that understanding and successfully cleared dental phobias by resolving trauma associated with force-feeding and oral rape ... these being oral traumas that had nothing to do with dentists.

The basics of EFT can be learned by anyone and can be self-applied (usually in minutes). This "tapping technology" involves stimulating a series of acupuncture points with the fingertips. When negative emotions or traumas are resolved, the body returns to a state of balance and the phobic response fades away ... often quickly and usually permanently. 

In the interest of appearing conservative, EFT does not claim to cure phobias. However, most phobic EFT clients no longer have their symptoms while others report an 80 percent success rate in significantly reducing their phobic responses. Some EFT users have success on their own while others work with EFT practitioners to achieve their results.

EFT was developed using theories borrowed from Einstein (that everything is energy, including the human body) and the traditions of acupuncture (stimulating the acupuncture points balances subtle energies in your body). 

What has resulted is a thoroughly modern approach to dealing with debilitating phobias without known side effects or the use of anti-anxiety medications.

The following is a synopsis of a case study from the EFT Web site where an EFT client calms her intense fear of dental work, enabling her to have her cavities filled.

Resolving a Client's Severe Dental Phobia

Susan's severe dental phobia made it impossible for her to have dental work done. To date, Susan only had dental cleanings but now she had cavities that required attention. When the dentist attempted to work on Susan's teeth, she went into a panic, screaming and flailing in the dental chair. No work could be done. Her dentist referred her to Betty Moore-Hafter, an experienced EFT practitioner, for help.

Betty and Susan discussed the dental phobia. Susan felt that she could not control her panic but did not know where the terror came from. Hers was an intense reaction that included an aversion to all aspects of the dental procedure -- having cotton in her mouth, being terrified of the needle, the drill, and even the spray of water. 

Betty knew to look for unresolved emotional issues that might be causing this phobic response. They performed several applications of EFT to neutralize some of the distress Susan felt just thinking about having dental work. 

Susan's reaction had calmed and she remembered a childhood incident where she vomited after forcing herself to eat a second helping of a food she didn't want. She remembered, as a child, feeling out of control and violated. When Susan was in a dental chair as an adult, her body remembered this out of control, violated feeling ... and her phobia was born.

Betty led Susan through more EFT to neutralize the traumatic feelings associated with the force-feeding. After a total of three hours of EFT (much longer than it normally takes), Susan still felt a little anxious about going to the dentist -- but nothing like it was.

A few days later, Betty received a phone message from Susan who stated, "The techniques really, really worked!  I was still trembling, but I could tap, and was totally relaxed, so we were able to get the dental work done.  My dentist was very pleased -- he said it was like night and day."

Please note that, in addition to improving phobias with EFT, it has been a consistently effective healing tool for hundreds of other physical, mental and emotional ailments. For more information, you can explore the EFT Web site and read through some of the thousands of success stories collected from people who have effectively used EFT to eliminate their fears, phobias, emotional traumas and physical ailments.

While a complete description of EFT is beyond the scope of this article, you can learn all the basics from the free EFT Get Started Package, including a free download of the 79-page EFT Manual. Those wishing to save time and dive right in can get the very affordable training DVDs.

Please consult qualified health professionals before putting EFT into practice for yourself or others.