The Navigator And Driver Metaphor For Effective EFT Work – Part 1

Newcomers to EFT can find so many free or cheap resources available online to tap along to. It begs the question: Why hire a practitioner?

For simple issues, EFT shared in off-the-shelf resources might be effective and low cost. But what about approaching knotty, multi-layered problems that are unique to the individual? These cheap resources, at best, skim the surface. At worst, they make it look like EFT doesn’t work.

This article explores what qualified, trained practitioners versed in the Art of Delivery can offer.

What Sets Apart A Trained Practitioner?

Practitioners who train through EFT International standards and materials have to develop their craft. They do this by gathering knowledge of techniques and developing their experience. At each level, they complete assessments and more than 50 hours of practice sessions which are reviewed by their trainer. This means that they learn how to keep a client safe when navigating intense emotional experiences. They also learn ways to unearth core issues and use intuition to ask better questions.

Even after qualifying, EFTi Practitioners continue their learning. They are required to attend mentoring sessions and  complete 30 hours of continuing professional development every year.

Good practitioners know how to play detective to find the roots of the presenting problem. Take a tap root out to its tip and the problem is gone permanently. The number of celebrity artists who say they have to practise EFT daily in order to cope with their performance anxieties sometimes frustrates me! If only they knew how to go deeper to get a full, lasting resolution. A good practitioner would make all the difference.

In addition, skilful practitioners know how to test to ensure that the problem has been cleared carefully. It’s this level of care by a trained practitioner that can make all the difference between success and failure with EFT.

Here’s how this might look, feel or sound.

The Driver And Navigator Metaphor For Deeply Successful Client Work

I was recently delivering an EFT Level 3 training when an extended metaphor bloomed in my mind out of nowhere. It had a powerful impact on my students. They deepened their understanding of how to best handle the relationship between practitioner and client for delivering profound results.

First, let me outline two key foundational ideas that underpin this metaphor. They give the metaphor meaning and impact.

Some of the values I hold dear to me in my EFT work are empowerment and freedom for the benefit of the client and the practitioner. I infuse both of these in my work to deliver powerful results. These values also help me offer clear and safe boundaries. Managing healthy boundaries is an important skill in client care.

This metaphor helps towards that.

Second, the metaphor in this model speaks to the idea that the client has all the answers. Advances in neuro-biology help us understand how the body reacts to a perceived threat by activating the autonomic nervous system. We then need to apply our EFT skills to help the client move out of a dysregulated stated by deactivating the response to the threat.

Intellectual Knowledge Of Neuroscience Alone Isn’t Enough To Understand How To Relate To A Client And Best Serve Them

Instead, engaging with the client’s truth enables the practitioner to support their transition of the out of stress response. The metaphor takes the approach that the Practitioner-Driver knows how to drive the EFT vehicle to conduct a safe session. The client takes on the role of the Navigator – deciding where they’d like to get to, and narrating the map of their world-view so the Driver can take them there.

End of Part 1 - Go to Part 2

Sejual Shah is an EFT International Trainer of Trainers and 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 has developed Business Energetics, a spiritual tool that includes EFT for profound business growth. Her coaching website is www.healthyinmind.com, and her EFT training courses can be found at https://eftclasses.co.uk/