This week's interview is with @eftnow or Sam Neffendorf breaks people out of the life-long trances, behaviour patterns and beliefs that are keeping them sick, skint and stuck. And that's the kind of stuff we love and support here at @naturalmedicine, as we work to celebrate natural healing and supportive therapies on the Steemblock chain.

As a META-Health Coach, EFT Trainer and Matrix Reimprinting Practitioner, he inspires people to stand up for themselves, reach new levels of health and realise their potential to have an amazing life. Tapping and Energy Psychology techniques enabled him to escape from corporate life into doing something he loves and, most importantly to become a dad naturally (twice), after being told that this would be very difficult by his GP.

He now spends most of year living in a beautiful part of Spain with his family and hosts exciting retreats, as well as working online with people worldwide, both individually and in groups.

Sam believes that now is an amazing time to move beyond your physical, mental and emotional blocks so that you can create the life you want, make a difference in the world and play your part in building an amazing future.

Sam by the river near his place in Spain, frolicking with his boy.

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NM: Hi Sam -you've been posting some wonderful podcasts and Dtubes about Emotional Freedom tapping, and this is someting that us at @naturalmedicine have dabbled with, and are seeing the benefits of. Can you explain EFT to our audience - what is EFT so that we can simply understand it?

Sam: Emotional Freedom Techniques or “Tapping” is the best known meridian tapping technique. It is often described as a combination of ancient Chinese techniques (tapping on the meridian system) and cutting edge psychology.

The premise is that traumatic events trigger an emotional response that causes an interruption in the body’s energy system (meridian system) which then affects the nervous system and even the physical body.

By tuning into the specific emotions, beliefs and past events, while lightly tapping on the meridian points, you can discharge the interruption and release the emotional attachment to the event, behaviour patterns and beliefs which then enables you to leave them in the past, where they belong. You still remember them, but they no longer need to impact on your life.

As emotions are effectively the bridge between the physical and mental aspects of our being, you can work on any issue at all with tapping, from physical health through to creating a thriving life on your terms.

NM: A lot of people who are involved with teaching or delivering healing therapies have usually come from a place where it's had a great impact on their life. I know that this is the case with you, specifically as you talked about it in this post about how you helped your wife, @startreat, in labour!

Sam: Yes, that to turn our baby from breach into perfect birth position at 36 weeks pregnant so that she could give birth at home, as we desired.

I use tapping all of the time and on a day to day basis, it enables me to be focused and resilient to whatever comes up, as well as quickly resolving any occasional anxiety as it happens. Some of the specific benefits that I’ve had over the years include:

• Leaving a job that I couldn’t stand and creating a thriving business doing what I love and making a big difference in hundreds of people’s lives
• Became a dad naturally, after being told by my GP that it was very unlikely to happen without complex medical intervention. This also involved acupuncture and Chinese herbs
• Went from being terrified of standing in front of a crowd to becoming a confident presenter and public speaker and now, able to create audio and video content on the fly as a DTuber and DSounder
• Having more fulfilling relationships
• Becoming much more physically healthy, without restricting my enjoyment of life
• Moving to Spain and creating a thriving life that I love

Sam with stars around his emotional freedom tapping points - get your sparkle with EFT or what!

NM: Sounds really amazing and how lucky you are to have found something that helps you out on a daily basis. I have to say, I love the photo of you above! Loving those sparkles! I can see from my own tapping that they're the magic tapping spots!! Love it! So, who discovered meridian tapping and how did it come about?

Sam: Meridian tapping has been around in various forms for thousands of years. EFT was “discovered” by Gary Craig, who was fascinated with human peak performance. He was an NLP Master Trainer who learned about a technique called TFT (Thought Field Therapy) created by Roger Callaghan. This technique required a different tapping “algorithm” for each condition and therefore was quite complex.

Craig realised that he could simplify it by tapping on a system of specific meridian endpoints, while tuning in precisely to the problem. This is the most important part – the more specific you are while “tuning in” the better the results.

“For results that are terrific, it’s best to be specific!”

EFT was born in 1995. Craig then taught thousands of people in huge seminars until he created the Masters program and trained 28 “EFT Masters”. This was an attempt to standardise EFT, as people would learn it and then combine it with their own modalities and belief systems.

NM: That's cool, isn't it - because it seems to have correlations with other modalities such as cognitive behaviour therapy and other kinds of neural programming.

Sam: Yeah, this innovation can be a good thing. For example, I combine EFT with Matrix Reimprinting, NLP techniques and Provocative Therapy in my practice. However, it is important when learning EFT to learn the pure form, in order to be effective with it.

NM: So, do you need formal training to become a practitioner or be a legitimate source of knowledge for tapping?

Sam: Currently, EFT is not regulated, which means that any old crony can learn how to tap on Youtube and then call themselves a “practitioner”. However, they will most likely be very poor and unable to effectively hold space and explore deep issues. It will be surface level at most.

However, to get insurance and learn how to use the tools effectively, you need to be trained by a trainer certified by one of the Professional bodies such as EFTMRA and AAMET. I am a trainer in the EFTMRA, which was established by original EFT Master Karl Dawson, who is the creator of Matrix Reimprinting (an incredible process combining visualisation and tapping to deeply resolve past events.)

The most important thing here is to note that it’s not just about learning how to “tap” and away you go. The best practitioners have incredible empathy, intuitive questioning skills, deep heart connection and, in my opinion, appropriate use of lightness and humour – even on the heaviest issues. These skills, of course take time and experience to develop and enable these practitioners to be outstanding guides on your self-healing journey.

NM: Indeed - I always find the best practictioners are empathetic and know the right questions to ask without being conceited or arrogant. Those heart connections matter. Is there anything else we should look for in an EFT therapist?

Sam Yes, if you are looking for a practitioner, unless they have evidence that they learned directly from Gary Craig in the early days, definitely find one who is certified by one of the professional bodies and demonstrates commitment to continual development.

EFT Tapping Points

NM: One observation I've made when I've had a go at tapping (and I just read a book on it) was that there seemed to be some kind of connection between acupressure and tapping - is there anything in this?

Sam: Well, they are both working on the same system – the meridian system, along with acupuncture and many other techniques. However, the main difference is the use of specific language and questioning to quickly get to the root cause of an issue.

NM: Yes, that was one of the things I liked about it - that it quickly helped me articulate what it was that was going on, even if I started off pretty vague! That relationship between language and how we are feeling is really interesting.

Is there a simple tapping technique that we could try right now?

Sam: There are many. I think it’s best to do this from a video and you could use the second video I did on my recent Anxiety series that I did for @naturalmedicine on DTube.

https://steemit.com/ihaveanxietytoo/@eftnow/4qqiay7b

You can also find more, including a PDF of how to tap on my website at https://eftnow.co.uk/eft/

NM: We loved that series, and were thrilled you put them together for @naturalmedicine and the #ihaveanxietytoo challenge run by @mountainjewel. Tapping is one of the things that worked for me when I was going through the worse of my anxiety, and I was actually amazed at how it worked. What a gift you are Sam - love your generosity in sharing this with us.

If you'd like to watch this series on Dtube, click here

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Sam, I know you run sessions online and I know that some Steemians have really benefited from your guidance and therapy. Can you tell the NM readers what this involves?

Sam: I run both group and individual sessions online, using the Zoom system, which is a more secure and user friendly version of Skype.

People are often surprised that you can work in this way. However, if I am working face to face with somebody, they would be sat opposite me and usually doing their own tapping. Therefore, working online is exactly the same and is more convenient for most people as they don’t need to travel and can choose the best practitioner for them, rather than being limited by who is close by.

NM: This is so perfect, especially as we're in a Steemiverse where global connections are made everyday, and we've proved that we can work together no matter the time zone or the country you are in! So, how can tapping support Steemians - any last wisdoms?

Sam: Well, there's a lot of ways I think tapping can help Steemians specifically.

• Unlocking creativity to create content on steemit
• Building more enabling beliefs about money, entrepreneurship, relationships etc
• Becoming more confident eg making video posts, public speaking, social situations etc
• Making quicker decisions that are more in line with the life you want
• Breaking old habits and patterns of behaviour that are no longer serving you
• Clearing the mental clutter of societal conditioning and beliefs
• Releasing any unhelpful fears of authority that might be holding you back

NM: That sounds amazing! For readers, here's the link to Sam's website for more information: https://eftnow.co.uk. Thanks so much for your time Sam - we love you at Natural Medicine and wish you and your beautiful family all the best.

Have you tried EFT? Have you got questions for Sam? Please add value to the post by commenting below!

We hoped you enjoyed this interview. We aim to bring out an interview about natural healing and supportive therapies weekly. You don't need to be 'certified' to be interviewed - you might like to talk about a healing practice that has worked for you or to chat alternative therapies in general. Please get in touch if you've got something to gush about! We'd love to hear from you!