By CJ Puotinen

Childhood is fraught with dangers real and imagined, and the fears that emerge in one's early years can do more than create temporary distress. These fears can become phobias that last a lifetime and interfere with a person's education, career, vacations, family, choice of residence, and everything else.

Wouldn't life be a lot more pleasant if childhood fears could be neutralized in childhood? Now a simple self-help procedure that's easy to learn and use makes that goal possible. EFT, the Emotional Freedom Techniques, has helped children of all ages overcome fears and anxieties.

According to pediatrician Alan Greene, MD, author of From First Kicks to First Steps and other books, most children enter into a magical time at about age 3, where make-believe is the order of the day. Imagination and creativity turn simple props into magic castles, the Old West, and other settings.

"But this imaginary world is peopled with both heroes and villains, with both marvels and monsters," says Dr. Greene. Some villains and monsters go away on their own, but others are difficult to dislodge. For example, Dr. Greene does not recommend exposing children to frightening television programs, videos, and movies because they can be overwhelming rather than healing.

"These vivid visual images anchor fears and remain seared into the memory," he explains. "Visual processing of fears is a potent tool, but it needs to come in a form that the child can then partially forget."

Like many experts, Dr. Greene recommends positive play, art work with crayons, imaginative "monster spray" water bottles, the classics of children's literature, and gentle encouragement to help children overcome their fears.

These methods do help kids overcome night terrors and other fears, but they require time and creative effort on the part of parents and caregivers.

In contrast, EFT often neutralizes fears in record time by combining focused thought with gentle tapping on the head and torso.

"This tapping stimulates key acupuncture points," explains EFT founder Gary Craig, "thus releasing blocks that disrupt the flow of energy along acupuncture meridians. As unlikely as it sounds, this combination of thinking and tapping can reduce or eliminate even the most disruptive and well-established childhood fears."

EFT practitioner Denise Wall used this simple approach to help 10-year-old Charlie, who refused to go to his bedroom alone because of "monsters" who lived there. Charlie's mother was at her wits' end because she had to not only escort him to his room but stay with him every night until he fell asleep.

Charlie's monsters were indeed scary -- they combined traits of bats, gorillas, monkeys, and horrible Freddie of "Friday the 13th" fame, who lived on the roof and had long pointy nails that scratched on Charlie's window.

"I had Charlie describe each of the monsters in detail," says Wall (see her complete article on the EFT Web site). "I had him tell me where they lived in his room and what their jobs were. Most of them came from the scary movies Charlie sneaked downstairs to watch with his older brother. The gorilla was the biggest and therefore the boss of the others."

Wall and Charlie started with the gorilla on the theory that if he disappeared, the other monsters would, too. "We tapped on the boss, the gorilla, and he went away," she says. "The other monsters began to get smaller. We tapped on each monster until it went away. Freddy required a few rounds of tapping.

We used the metaphor of karate, something Charlie has studied, the story line being that he was his own hero and he would get rid of these silly monsters who kept him from getting the rest he deserved."

After tapping, Charlie told his mom that his monster problem was "a hundred times better," and within a few days, Charlie said he didn't think about monsters anymore. He was able to go to his room without his mom as an escort. It has been over a year since Charlie used EFT to banish his monsters, and none of them ever returned.

In addition to eliminating fears and phobias, EFT 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 its numerous success stories regarding 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 affordable five-star training DVDs.

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