Chronic pain represents a major global healthcare crisis, and current treatments are limited in their effectiveness, a big reason being that chronic pain is still misunderstood. It not only causes physical suffering but mental anguish as well.
EFT has been found to be a successful method in helping many people with pain related issues.
EFT for Chronic Pain
One of the areas I have a lot of experience in as an EFT coach is chronic pain (or neuroplastic pain). Through my experience in healing my own neuroplastic pain symptoms, it has become an area I am passionate about and specialise in. I have had quite a few clients with existing long term pain conditions seek EFT for management and relief of symptoms with a great deal of success. EFT was one of the main tools that I used in healing my own neuroplastic pain symptoms and I have learnt so much along the way that I share with my clients going through very similar challenges!
EFT is such powerful healing tool that can tap into the emotions contributing to the pain, which is a big part of the pain cycle. Tapping on these emotions (grief, frustration, anger, sadness) and any contributing events/traumas linked to pain, can significantly help soften the intensity of the symptoms and overtime they can gradually disappear altogether.
My approach to working with neuroplastic or chronic pain is through the combination of EFT and education about pain with in between session homework. Pain education helps develop an understanding about what is really going on within our nervous system and understanding the pain cycle can help alleviate fears. By combining EFT with pain education, we can rewire the nervous system, decreasing the intensity of pain and quite often dissolving it altogether.
Chronic Pain or Neuroplastic Pain
I now refer to chronic pain as neuroplastic pain. This term feels lighter because it suggests that the pain is changeable, which it is! The ability for the brain and nervous system to adapt and change is called ‘neuroplasticity’. With neuroplastic pain our brain and nervous system have developed a habit of producing pain signals to essentially keep us safe. This faulty alarm response (pain response) serves a purpose but when it is ‘on’ all the time it is not helpful. The good news is that we can ‘retrain’ the brain and nervous system to feel safer with symptoms (through EFT and other tools) and switch off this alarm which is a key to healing neuroplastic pain (chronic pain).
Research on EFT and Chronic Pain
Dr Peta Stapleton who is a pioneer in the EFT research world, has recently completed a research study on EFT and chronic pain.
In summary, the research found EFT to be very effective in treating chronic pain safely. Participants found somatic symptoms to be significantly lower after EFT and continued to remain low at follow-up. Also, quality of life scores were significantly higher after EFT, which were also sustained at follow-up.
The research is very positive and summarises what I see with many of my clients who I help with chronic pain issues.
If you feel like you have exhausted all your options in treating your pain, then EFT is worth exploring. Everyone’s story is unique, and EFT sessions delve deep into personal stressors that are most likely contributing to the pain cycle. By working through aspects of your life with EFT, we can help you break the pain cycle once and for all.
