Meet Hannah Currant
Founder of Hannah Currant Shiatsu
Hannah (She/Her)
Experienced and qualified EFT and Shiatsu Practitioner
Uncertainty, especially after you have completed cancer treatment, can be one of the hardest places to sit in life.
We can feel paralysed and unable to make plans, think ahead, or allow ourselves to fully relax. Often leaving us in a powerless or anxious state, with no discernible ways out.
Emotional Freedom Technique (EFT) is sometimes known as “acupuncture without needles” and is gaining worldwide recognition and research proving its effectiveness in a number of different areas.
EFT can help to soothe some of the emotions that accompany uncertainty, and you will discover a great shortcut to connecting to the present and how to find peace in this moment regardless of how the future may be shaping up.
A study published in the Journal of Nervous and Mental Diseases found that EFT lowered the major stress hormone Cortisol significantly more than other interventions tested.
What is EFT tapping?
Tapping, also known as EFT (Emotional Freedom Technique), is a powerful holistic healing technique that has been proven to effectively resolve a range of issues. It is based on the combined principles of ancient Chinese acupressure and modern psychology.
The basic tapping technique requires you to stimulate acupressure points on the head, face and body, by tapping gently with your fingers, whilst talking through an issue, pain or difficulty.
Tapping on these meridian endpoints, while verbally or mentally addressing the root cause of distress, sends a calming signal from the body to the brain.
"EFT has been proven to reduce cortisol (the stress hormone) by up to 50%. Tapping calms the mind, regulates our nervous system, and reduces stress and anxiety."
How does tapping work?
Tapping acupressure point works by stimulating our inbuilt healing system. It activates this system to send calming messages to the amygdala in the brain (where emotions are given meaning and remembered) which governs our flight, fight or freeze response.
When we are feeling stressed or anxious we go into a flight or fight mode and tapping can very quickly helps bring us back down into a much calmer position. This enables us to think more clearly and access our pre-frontal cortex , the useful part of our brain that gets shut down when we are stressed.
Through tapping, we're able to calm the nervous system, rewire the brain to respond in healthier ways, and restore the body's balance of energy.
Follow Hannah's introductory guide below to try the EFT tapping technique at home.
Introduction to EFT Tapping at home
This short guide, created by Hannah, will teach you the basics of how to use EFT (Tapping) to ease the discomfort of uncertainty and to find ways to relax even when you don’t know how a situation is going to unfold. Once learnt, this method can be used on anything, anywhere.
Close your eyes before you begin, taking a deep breath in through the nose and slowly out through the mouth.
Notice how you feel and tune into your body. Where are you noticing tension and anxiety in your body.
5 step guide to tapping -
1. Identify the problem or issue and give it a score on a scale of 1-10 (1 being hardly noticeable, 10 being as strong as it could be).
2. Set up – Tapping on the 'karate chop' point (see image below) repeat the following statements -
“Even though I have this problem...I completely love and accept myself anyway.”
“Even though I have this feeling...I accept who I am and how I feel.”
“Even though I feel this so strongly I completely accept myself anyway.”
3. Tap round each of the points (on the image below) starting at the top of the head, naming each aspect of how you are feeling.
4. Check in with what you notice, has anything changed/moved? Take a breath and continue around the points using phrases like “this remaining pain/feeling/issue”.
5. Take a breath, and check in again – notice if the scoring has changed, and if anything else has arisen that you’d like to add in or focus on. Go back to the set up and keep going through each step.
Additional tapping tips -
When ‘tuning into’ the issue/problem/difficulty – explore where you might feel that in your body -
Does it have a physical sensation? (i.e. a tightness in the chest.)
A direction of movement? (i.e. a churning in the stomach/a rising feeling in the throat.)
See if you can give it a colour/texture/form and add that into your description as you tap around the points.
Keep switching between the physical and emotional sensations.
If anything shifts or changes or arises – add that in.
Once you’ve done a few rounds on what you’re feeling – you can give some attention to what you’d LIKE to feel.
See if you can clarify what that might be and how it might feel (i.e. a sense of peace and spaciousness/calm and loving etc).
Begin to add this into the tapping with sentences like -
It’s OK to feel calm about this.
I choose to be surprised at how easily I can let this go.
I allow myself to be peaceful around this.
And notice what the ‘Yes buts” are, and build them in! (They’ll conveniently pop up! Turn the volume up and bring them in!)
You can alternate between the positive and the negative and keep checking in with the original set up statement, and how strong it feels in relation to where you began, and if anything else has arisen feel free to follow that.
If it’s a strong reaction/thought/feeling again give it a scale from 1 – 10 and keep going! There’s no getting it wrong – just keep naming whatever comes up and keep tapping!
Enjoy and good luck!
Want to learn more about tapping?
The Tapping Solution App- The Tapping Solution App has lots of really useful 'tap along' short sessions. Many of them are free, and can be really useful when you can't remember what or how to tap! You can download the App here for free..
Further reading - If you'd like to read more about the research into EFT you'll find all the latest papers and articles here.
EFT courses / workshop - Hannah Currant is an experienced and qualified EFT and Shiatsu Practitioner, based in Bristol, with experience of working with cancer patients, survivors and their supporters. Hannah offers 1:1 support, online, group courses & workshops.
More details for Hannah can be found below -