EFT for the Highly Sensitive Person

Being highly sensitive has its blessings and its drawbacks, sometimes both, simultaneously. Much of my work has been about how to use EFT to heal the wounds of the sensitive nature so that we are empowered to use our gifts in the service of ourselves, our families, our communities and the world itself.

Here are some ways to gather information for tapping with a sensitive person. A highly sensitive person might want to learn more about their trait, and perhaps even tap for the feelings that being "so sensitive" have brought up in them. Keep in mind that everything for a sensitive person will be more vivid, more intense, a deeper experience of pain or maybe even a richer experience of joy.

One place to begin is by defining what it means to be highly sensitive.

Tap on the Definitions

Does this describe you, or anyone you know?

You feel emotions deeply, and you can't hide what you feel.

You are always aware of what people around you are feeling.

Your feelings are easily hurt by criticism or even a look, and you keep thinking about what happened, and what you might have done wrong, and what you should have done instead.

You feel deeply for other peoples' suffering. It is difficult to watch the news, or to see sad movies.

Sometimes you can slip easily into feeling anxious or depressed, and once caught in the feeling it is hard for you to move out of it.

You are not comfortable in large crowds, hectic environments, or around loud music. You get easily overwhelmed when there is a lot going on.

You are a perfectionist, and you want to be helpful - so much so that you put other peoples' needs ahead of your own.

You do your best to avoid conflicts.

You might feel like an alien in your own family. They are practical, industrious, social, while you are quiet, imaginative, thoughtful and creative.

You have a mission to bring peace to the world. You want to save the world from itself. You can see how good things could be, if only...

Tap on "Lists"

Ask people to make "positive" and "negative" lists about their sensitivity, and tap on the lists. When I have asked groups of sensitive people what they like best and least about their sensitive trait, I have gotten answers that reflect these qualities:

Drawbacks to being so sensitive:

I notice more details, and when I comment on them people think I am weird
I am too attuned to what feels like impending criticism or disapproval
I feel socially awkward because I am not good at small talk
I am too empathic - I feel what everyone else is feeling
Being so sensitive makes me fearful
I seem to vibrate with the energy around me
I don't have good boundaries—I seem to become the other person
I lose myself
Every nuance of a situation penetrates me
I get nervous easily
I try to protect everyone
I worry about being a victim
I put other peoples' needs before mine

Blessings of being sensitive:

I am intuitively aware of what another person may be thinking or feeling
Being sensitive is a great early warning system
Being so empathic makes me very understanding
I can "step into another's shoes"
I am able to see/sense to the heart of a matter
I am deeply attuned to beauty
The "poetry" of everything comes through
I have a deep connection with spirit
I have a richer set of experiences that some others might
I have a different more finely tuned sense of humor that is deeper, and more readily available
I can see the beauty in almost anything
I see wholeness, always, everywhere

You might begin later rounds of tapping with "Especially because..." and follow that with some of the positive phrases in their list.

Ask Evocative Questions, and Tap on the Responses

Ask about heart-breaking experiences:

Question: What broke your heart?

Painful experiences are felt more deeply by a sensitive person, especially as a child:

Experiences lead to beliefs:

Question: What did this experience lead you to believe about yourself, or what it is like to be in the world?

Those heart-breaking experiences, large and small, can lead to beliefs about who we are and what is possible for us in life.

We Had to "Stuff Our Feelings"

It may not be possible or safe to express the powerful anger, sadness, and fear, and shame that we feel during and after these painful experiences. Those feelings get "stuffed" or swallowed. Stuffed feelings show up later in our lives as physical and emotional pain and illness. Most people with chronic physical an emotional pain are highly sensitive. The fear of confronting powerful feelings can stop us from beginning a healing journey.

Question: What emotions and feelings does this experience bring up in you?

Family Connections

Our families had beliefs and feelings about being so sensitive, toughing it out, not standing out, or "making you strong in a hard world." The people in our families who mistreated us did so because this is how they had been treated, and these were the beliefs and feelings they themselves took on from their own family experience. The tendency to replicate these misunderstandings and illnesses gets passed on down through the generations of a family.

Question: What did your family believe about you being 'so sensitive?' Were they trying to 'toughen you up for a tough world?' Did your sensitivity threaten their own carefully covered up or denied sensitivity?

Our Personal Healing Can Heal the Whole Family History

Healing our family’s history—this is on the way to healing the world! We just thought we had to start with healing the whole world, so that it would be a safe place for us. That was pretty exhausting. We left ourselves off our own to-do list!

Question: How can you take care of yourself and your needs without thinking that you are selfish? How could taking care of yourself first be a GOOD thing?

(Hint: I like to think of selfish as spelled "Self-ish," meaning "care of your spirit," or "self care.")

EFT is the perfect tool for a sensitive person to learn how to "deeply and completely love and accept myself."

I'm not 'introverted,' I am reserved, self contained, independent. I am not 'shy,' I intend to create deep and meaningful interaction.

It is remarkable that when we change our perception of ourselves we automatically change our perception of the the world. And then the world changes!

Rue Anne Hass
EFT International Certified Advanced EFT Practitioner and one of the EFT Founding Masters
Boulder, Colorado, US
www.intuitivementoring.com

From the EFTfree Archives, which are now a part of EFT International .
Originally published on April 20, 2010.