The Chocolates Became a Soothing Antidote

A week ago I worked with Mary (not her real name). She wanted help with food cravings, specifically chocolate. At first we tapped on craving the chocolate, but it quickly became, "Even though I love the feel and taste of this chocolate in the back of my mouth." We did this many times, testing each time by imagining (we didn't have any chocolate handy) her seeing it, unwrapping it, smelling it, tasting it. It wasn't just the chocolate. It was the chocolate candies that were in her desk at work. She couldn't resist them, specifically after lunch, and this had been going on for several years on a daily basis. At first her craving intensities were diminishing, but after testing and exaggerating the senses, the craving was still there.

Further discussion lead to a connection with stress she had felt, beginning several years ago, with her former boss who had taken advantage of her by giving her extreme amounts of work to do, no appreciation or acknowledgment and, on top of that, unrelenting criticism. The chocolates became a soothing antidote. But it didn't end there. What came out next, from tapping on her boss's criticism was her mother's criticism when she was a young girl and how she was not allowed to cry when something was bothering her. Everything had to be stuffed. We had a number of rounds with her speaking powerfully, as she would have liked to, to both her boss, and then her parents. There were tears and true anger that emerged in her language and articulating.

After more testing her craving (still imagined) had come down to zero. I told her that when she was actually at work, if her craving came back it just meant that another aspect emerged and that she or we could tap more on that. I heard from her today, a week later. She has had no craving for the chocolate.

Paula Bobb
Rochester, New York, US

From the EFTfree Archives, which are now a part of EFT International .
Originally published on April 3, 2010.