By Christine Wheeler, MA

Is your eating behavior out of control and bordering on unhealthy?  Does someone you love have an eating disorder?  It can sometimes feel that the illness has a life of its own ... and you are trapped in its grasp.  And try as you might to use your willpower to change how you eat ... it seems impossible to fight the voices in your head.

Can you take back control over your eating?

Emotional Freedom Techniques (EFT) is a practical approach designed to target the emotional aspects of your eating disorder.  As such, it can help you quickly collapse your immediate need to perform destructive behaviors like compulsive eating and bulimic or anorexic habits.

It's not perfect in that it doesn't always completely wipe out eating disorders ... but it does provide relief more than 80 percent of the time.  That being said, there are many instances where skillful use of it has eliminated the problem completely (see the actual case below).

The American Psychological Association points to negative emotions or trauma as triggers for eating disorders.

Although no specific cause of eating disorders is known, the American Psychological Association states that "Negative emotions or traumas such as rape, abuse or the death of a loved one can also trigger disorders."

The most common mainstream treatment options offered to eating disorder patients are long term, complex psychological, and behavior modification therapies.  By contrast, EFT provides you with a quick, efficient and commonsense healing approach that delivers lasting results without the costs of conventional treatment, therapies and medications.

Basically, when unresolved emotional trauma is present, the subtle energies that flow through your body become disrupted, allowing space for issues like eating disorders to take hold.  EFT is so successful because it alleviates the emotional trauma.  It leaves your energy system balanced ... and you can actually be freed from your compulsions to eat or purge.

Your unresolved negative emotions could be associated with trauma, abuse and underlying anger, guilt, and fear.   When the emotional root is removed, there is nothing left to fuel your disordered eating behavior ... you can feel the return of your sense of control over your eating ... and regain your health.

The basics of EFT can be learned by anyone and can be self-applied (usually in minutes).  In complex cases of eating disorders, often the support of a skilled and persistent EFT practitioner is necessary to truly get to the root of the issue.

EFT gets to the root of complex compulsions.

You can read the entire case on the EFT website

Sonia Novinsky, an EFT practitioner from Brazil worked with a woman, Kara (whose name has been changed to protect privacy), who was in her thirties and had an eating disorder since adolescence.  In addition to compulsive eating, Kara also was a compulsive shopper and Sonia quickly found that she had many emotional issues in her life that were causing her distress.

For example, Kara's mother had suffered with leprosy since Kara was a child.  Kara had been told by her grandmother that her mother's illness and disfiguration happened because Kara was "a bad girl".

Kara recounted a vast array of core beliefs and emotional issues related to food, family, her body, sexuality and relationships.  All of these issues contributed to Kara's compulsive behavior with food and with shopping.

Sonia worked with Kara for 12 sessions over a six week period, with a great deal of EFT homework, persistence and love.  In the process, her numerous emotional issues were resolved and higher levels of personal peace were achieved.

Once these underlying causes were eliminated, Kara was "completely without compulsion" for food or shopping.  Her self image improved, she was eating healthy meals and had improved her relationships with people.

This was a complex case and Sonia's persistence and detective work to get to Kara's core issues were the key to success.  Once these issues were found, EFT could handle them with relative ease.  It should be noted that eating disorders, compulsions, addictions and weight issues all have similar emotional causes that can be addressed with EFT.

Please note EFT can be at least partially successful on even complex cases by merely applying the process mechanically.  It is simple to do and results usually follow.

More on EFT

Please note that in addition to eliminating eating disorders, 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 website and its numerous success stories regarding fears, phobias, emotional traumas and physical ailments.

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

Christine Wheeler is an EFT Practitioner, and freelance natural health writer.  Christine and Dr. Carolyn Dean co-authored IBS for Dummies (Wiley Publishing) where they present EFT as one of the natural treatments options for people with Irritable Bowel Syndrome.