It was May 2015, and I was going through the painful process of separating from my husband of 22 years. It had been a year of a great deal of fear, even terror, about going it alone and supporting my two daughters. I had just become certified as an EFT practitioner, leaving my legal career behind, when my trainer and mentor, Michele Hart, invited me to her home over Takaka Hill for a weekend of EFT.
Arriving at Michele's home, I felt so safe and nurtured. After settling into her soft, cosy sofa, Michele suggested, in her kind, soft voice, “I’d like to try something new - is that okay?” Michele had recently been on an NLP course and was keen to bring it into her work with EFT tapping. I was open and enthused; I always loved new ways of working.
What Does This Feeling Look Like?
Michele was always so creative, and I just lapped it all up. We began tapping using the basic EFT protocol when Michele simply asked, “Where are you feeling this emotion in your body?" When I described feeling it in my chest, Michele inquired, "What does this feeling look like?"
Immediately I saw an image in my mind’s eye of a scrunched-up piece of grey paper; it looked old and worn. The image was so clear that it really was showing me, as a metaphor, how I felt all tight and scrunched up. Michele asked me to bring this image I was seeing out in front of me. I felt a huge sense of relief. I sighed. Something had shifted in my body, and it no longer felt so tense and heavy.
With curiosity, Michele asked, “What do you see coming that is going to release and heal this image?” As I watched, I saw the image begin to change right in front of me! I felt so immersed in the experience until the image stopped changing. It reached what felt like a resolution; this image was now a bright white, brand new piece of paper.
Inner Messages and Clarity
My rational brain couldn't understand at all what this was about, but my body felt at peace—really at peace. Then, out of thin air, this inner message came through: "It's a new start." This was what the image was conveying to me, and it was perfect! My cognitive mind was catching up, and I now understood at a deep level that this was exactly the right message for me at the time.
I was surprised to discover that the intensity of the original issue, the fear of going it alone, which had been a 10/10, was no longer there. I returned home feeling much more positive about the future. I also left with the clarity that I didn't have to return to my legal career, but I could make a new start and set up my own EFT practice.
Developing the Process
I was grateful to Michele for introducing me to her “Right Brain Process,” and I now had the enthusiasm to try the process with my clients. I began experimenting further, adapting the process to the way I worked, integrating the techniques I had learned in my own training, and working intuitively.
I also learned to slow things right down and to just hold space in "presence," trusting the brilliance of my client's subconscious mind to find healing resolution. I found that asking the client to bring the image out in front of them to a place that felt comfortable created a space of safety for the client to explore working with the visuals presented. It was fascinating to witness that the images the clients would see would most often bypass their conscious mind. I noticed how some clients would be so immersed in a three-dimensional experience that it went way beyond inner visuals.
I would intentionally ask my clients, as the images reached a resolution, if there was a message for them, and almost always the client's subconscious mind would just present a message of profound insight and understanding. We would, at the end of the process, “infuse” the concluding image and message into the client’s body and energy field.
I decided to call the revised technique the "Heartstream Process." Firstly, because the technique focuses so much on the heart centre, and secondly, because it is a reflection of my mission of streaming the heart energies of healing into the world. It is such a joy to share this technique!
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Carolina Kerridge is a Holistic Therapist and Advanced EFT & Matrix Reimprinting Practitioner based in Nelson New Zealand.
Photo by SJ Objio on Unsplash
Andrea says
Wow. That sounds amazing. I work a lot with images as well finding it so very powerful with things shifting so much quicker than EFT alone could ever do.