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EFT in Medical Settings
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Using
EFT for Pre-Operative Patients
Using EFT for Pre-Operative Patients
By Dr. Patricia Carrington
"Marie" (her
actual name is disguised to protect patient confidentiality) is a nurse in a
large hospital where she has been increasingly able to use Emotional Freedom
Techniques with patients. Her experience with the pre-operative use of EFT
hopefully foreshadows many similar interventions in the future. I can
envision a day when EFT is an accepted procedure in hospitals and a part of
standard pre-operative protocol. This seems to be a vision worth holding for
all of us.
Marie is well-known among
the nursing staff in her particular hospital because she heads an inpatient
service. Also, she has helped many hospital staff members with their own
problems by using EFT ––not only a helpful gesture for the recipients, but a
means of allowing EFT to become known and accepted within the hospital (See Introducing
EFT to Hospital Personnel).
Recently, Marie was
summoned to a floor where a woman patient was terrified of an impending
operation that was necessary and imminent. She was nearly hysterical due to
her fear of the surgery. The nurses were at a loss as to what to do about
this. Remembering Marie's helpful EFT interventions under other
circumstances, the clinical nurse specialist called Marie to come to the
floor.
When she arrived, she found
the patient distraught and terrified. Marie asked the woman if she would like
to try "a simple technique to help you with your fear that involves
light tapping on your face and upper body."
The woman agreed and the
set up phrase they formulated went as follows: "Even though I'm
terrified of surgery..."
In the middle of the second
round of tapping the patient stopped abruptly when she had reached the under-
nose spot and exclaimed, "Oh! It's gone!" She would have stopped
EFT at that point had not the nurse specialist (the person who had called
Marie to the room) insisted that she complete the round.
This patient’s panic was
completely gone. She consented to surgery without a problem and the operation
went smoothly, although there were delays. The staff was impressed. Word was
spreading that EFT could be helpful.
Marie visited this woman
the next day and while this patient did have some anger issues around the
several delays before her procedure, she said she did not want to work on her
anger. She felt the anger was justified and seemed to fear that EFT would
take away her right to be angry -- a frequent misconception about EFT.
Actually, the fact is that while using EFT might have lessened the emotion of
anger here, it might also have made Marie more effective in promoting EFT’s
benefits to the hospital staff by showing how it can be used effectively to
defuse emotionally upset patients.
Marie describes the
following types of distress that patients are apt to experience
pre-operatively. These are well-known to nursing personnel. Here are some of
them, not necessarily in order of severity or frequency:
Fear of Anesthesia
This is a very common
pre-op fear. It often involves a fear of saying or doing something
inappropriate while under anesthesia. In addressing such a concern, one
useful EFT statement might be: "Even though I'm afraid I will lose
control and act inappropriately (under anesthesia), I choose to be
appropriate and calm during the procedure." This way of applying EFT
uses the Choices Method which calls for constructing a statement reflecting
the specific goals of the individual.
Fear of Dying
To target this major fear,
if the patient’s belief system is consistent with this notion, one might
suggest the set-up phrase, "Even though I'm afraid of dying during
the operation, I know that God will be with me at every moment." For
a patient who may not have such a spiritual perspective, one might suggest the
phrase, "Even though I'm afraid of dying during the operation, I
choose to handle whatever happens, beautifully," or, "I
choose to be calm and confident that everything will go smoothly."
The first of these phrases reflects the fact that not being able to HANDLE a
crisis, or ultimately not being able to HANDLE the experience of dying, is
often the most powerful and compelling fear of all.
Fear of Pain
A possible EFT Choice for
this might be, "Even though I am afraid of pain after the surgery, I
choose to be relaxed and have my pain fully under control."
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