Okay, Real Talk —

The majority of us spend our lives running from, avoiding, or blindly reacting to our emotions. It’s understandable — intense emotions can be overwhelming! They can make us feel out of control, like our lives aren’t our own, helpless, and small.

Plus, most of us aren’t taught emotional regulation skills to help us feel our feelings and cope with our emotional reactions.

The truth is, ignoring your thoughts and emotions doesn’t make them go away. And suppressing them with alcohol and drugs won’t free you from their power. (Trust me, I tried this path and can vouch for you — it gets you nowhere fast.)

Emotions you try to avoid get stored in your body, where they can contribute behind the scenes to long-term struggles with mental health and emotional dysregulation.

In other words, when you ignore your emotions, you store your emotions.

You know you’re supposed to “feel in order to heal,” but if you’re anything like me, just feeling your emotions doesn’t feel good or empowering. It can feel bad. Damaging, even. You know you don’t want to be at the whims of emotions living skin deep, ready to be easily triggered… So what can you do?

Emotions are Energy

For years as I tried to heal my own trauma, I was told to “sit with my emotions.” “Don’t suppress them — allow yourself to feel it.”

I get the intent. I do. And I agree, to a certain extent. But nothing frustrated me more than hearing that advice. In my experience, “sitting in your emotions” and feeling them over and over again isn’t going to help you.

(In fact, it can actually re-traumatize you and deepen those wounds. Trust me — I’ve been there and done that…)

The key isn’t just feeling your emotions, but moving through them. It’s about learning emotional regulation strategies that allow you to experience your emotions, but from a safe distance. It’s this safety that expands your distress tolerance, resilience, and ability to see and feel in a new, empowering, and positive emotional light.

Emotions Flow Through Us Like Electricity in a House

What is EFT?

EFT is a research-backed therapeutic technique that’s been used to successfully treat post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD), anxiety, depression, insomnia, and physical pain. EFT is also used to strengthen the mind-body connection, regulate emotions, and cultivate greater overall wellbeing.

Although EFT is typically dated back to the 90s, the roots of Emotional Freedom Techniques can actually be traced back thousands of years to Traditional Chinese Medicine in practices of Qigong and Acupressure.

EFT works by combining the calming power of tapping with powerful affirmations that empower you and affirm your ability to choose your emotional experience.

In practice, EFT gives us permission to feel and reduces the intensity of our emotions so we can consider their sources and release them from a place of safety. Ultimately, this helps puts us back in the driver’s seat of our experience, rather than being pulled through life by our emotions.

Emotional Wellness EFT is great for:

• Learning a new way to navigate emotions and take control of your emotional wellbeing
• Giving yourself permission to feel and heal
• Teaching trauma survivors the tools to safely manage day-to-day emotions
• Understanding how emotions and energy impact our body and nervous system (and how we can reclaim our ability to choose our own emotional landscape)
• Learning how to use EFT to manage and cultivate your daily emotional landscape without harm
• Learning to label and identify your emotions instead of blindly reacting to them.

A Note on EFT & Trauma

We all experience trauma throughout our lives. As much as we may want to move on from these moments, they can leave a powerful imprint that sinks into our souls and can limit our capacity for happiness and freedom to live our lives as we please.

At its simplest, trauma is damage to the nervous system. Whether big, small, one-off, or repeated over time — trauma is painful. And it can be hard to free ourselves from the harsh limitations, feelings of lost control, and suffering it causes.

A Short Trip Down Memory Lane…

I spent years avoiding and dismissing the impact of my traumas before I did a 180 and confronted them head on.

I did extensive writing about the experiences, not knowing I was re-traumatizing myself as I dove headfirst into the details and pain.

I went to therapy, which gave me a greater understanding of my experience, but honestly — it didn’t change how crappy I felt most of the time. 

I wanted freedom from the unpredictable and intense waves of emotions that would hit me seemingly at random and completely derail my day and leave me feeling drained.

I wanted a tool I could use to help me feel better on my own terms, not just once a week in the purposefully non-triggering environment of my therapist. So when I stumbled upon EFT, I realized I’d discovered something big.

I began experimenting with EFT tapping and found I was actually able to move through my emotions as they arose, rather than just having to wait them out. This was HUGE, as it told me I could deal with and reclaim power over my emotions, instead of being controlled by them.

EFT for Trauma Survivors

I still highly recommend working 1-on-1 with an EFT practitioner to shift limiting beliefs and rewrite traumatic experiences if you are a trauma or complex trauma survivor. That being said, you CAN use EFT on your terms to move through daily emotions as they arise and reclaim your ability to feel good.

This course is designed to teach anyone — complex trauma survivors and people struggling to feel in control of their emotions — how to use EFT as a tool to cultivate calm and the freedom to choose how we feel.

<< If you’re a complex trauma survivor and are looking for support along your healing journey, we got you covered.>>