This article is available in Spanish. Go to the Spanish translation.
Work and stress. The two go hand in hand for many. Having both come from the corporate workplace initially—Sejual from law, Lynne from institutional publishing - we knew that there was a great need for stress relief in workplaces, as well as other benefits that are so achievable with EFT.
In contrast to one-on-one therapy work, bringing EFT into the corporate environment requires a significantly different approach. We’d like to share our experiences in successfully doing this with three multinational companies: Merck & Co, Parker Hannifin, a large law firm headquartered in Washington DC., and a government body also headquartered in DC.
Primary Focus: Stress Management
As layoffs and tension increase in the current economic climate, stress levels for the remaining staff at all grades have risen to toxic levels. This regularly results in poor performance, absenteeism, increasing health-care costs, and even lost clients and business opportunities. Such blows hit both the owner and management, so continuing the cycle of harm. This is not novel—we all have personal experience of the cost of stress. But dealing effectively with stress is news and corporations need this information.
In our experience, the best way to create helpful change in the workplace is by bringing EFT into the situation, and positioned as part of a stress-management training. We know EFT is a healing technology that provides impressive results before our eyes. This is true in how it works on all the elements of stress that people experience: anxieties, worries, fears, and physical tension melt away when worked on with EFT. With this aim in mind, we’ve succeeded in introducing EFT into the workplace by billing the workshops as Stress Management Training.
In the business world it is culturally permissible to deal with stress. Rather than a sign of weakness, it can be seen as an advantage to the business and employees to deal with stress. It is now well-accepted that stress relief will help deliver performance-efficiencies and so improve profits.
We also speak directly about delivering “peak performance” techniques. This again carries the promise of the possibility of increased profits and fits with business motives and goals. Top achievers are always looking to “up their game.” We’ve avoided presenting ourselves as a therapist to the wounded. This would make them run away from EFT, given that they cannot allow themselves to be seen as weak in public. It is not as if they have no personal problems—we’ve found that these naturally come up. They can however easily be addressed in the privacy and natural safety of follow-on one-to one-sessions.
Typically, we’ve held introductory workshops for groups up to twenty; any more than this and it can be difficult to deliver meaningful results to. We are always paid well for these workshops.
Getting In—How to Open the Doors
Working with corporations sounds like a great idea, but how did we get in? The answer is pretty simple—by using EFT to align ourselves with the end outcome. We both employ the principles of attraction in our work. Given that we both had corporate backgrounds and wanted to serve that field, we worked with EFT and a positive mindset for our own benefits to allow opportunities to naturally arise in an easy way.
Lynne had ongoing friendships with people who were highly placed in firms and institutions on the one hand. She also had a client who had experienced such significant change during his one-on-one work with her that he wanted to bring it to his company. For Merck Pharmaceuticals, Sejual was invited to take part in a health fair in the workplace through networking locally and took it further by asking to run a paid workshop. She was able to work with Parker Hannifin after an impressed client championed her into her firm. The client even helped organize a meeting with the HR department at her company.
In each approach, there was no “formula” or set technique to “get in”---but rather being alive to the opportunities as they showed up in conversations. Sometimes the negotiation and presentation goes on for a long time—in one case a workshop began in discussions one January, was executed in July, and ongoing workshops are being negotiated for this new year. We don’t force conversations or outcomes. Instead we look for ways to engage in sincere and professional discussions that are focused on delivering maximum benefits. Our focus is on serving our clients’ needs.
End of Part 1 - Go to Part 2
Co-authors Sejual Shah and Lynne Shaner are both EFT International trainers and advanced practitioners.
Sejual Shah is an EFT International Accredited Certified EFT Master Trainer and Advanced Practitioner in the UK. She helps execs with career growth and confidence issues. Since 2008 she has pioneered ways of delivering business EFT courses to large companies at home and abroad and loves coaching other practitioners to do this as well. She is the co-founder of Business Energetics. Her website is www.healthyinmind.com
Lynne Shaner, PhD is an EFT International Accredited Certified EFT Master Trainer and Advanced Practitioner in Rockville, Maryland, US. She is also a certified hypnotherapist and holds a PhD in the field of Mind-Body Medicine. You can visit her online at www.eftpraxis.com
From the EFTfree Archives, which are now a part of EFT International .
Originally published on April 3, 2010.
Sejual Shah says
Part 2 of this article can be found here: http://www.eftfree.net/2010/04/10/eft-to-corporations-part-2/