Using a Movie as an Emotional Trigger – A Case Study

One of the key successes of using EFT and getting results is the quality of the connection you have with what I call the SEF (Sensation, Emotion or Feeling). When you focus on a bad sensation in your body, on a negative emotion or a bad feeling and, at the same time, you tap meridian points, you trigger comfort and anti-stress chemistry in your brain and kind of counteract the negative SEF you are focusing on.

If you just received bad news over the phone, or if you are minutes away from an important presentation you have to deliver in front of a large audience or if you've just been involved in or witnessed a big car accident, the connection to your sensation, emotion and feeling is there, live! No trick required. You are in! It's time to tap right away. You even do not need words to make the tapping work. Just stay focus on your current SEF is enough.

However, in a session, with an EFT practitioner, we are not in front of a real-life event generator of SEF. Different strategies must be used to establish that connection to a SEF. EFT practitioners will use techniques such as "tell the story", "the movie technique", "searching core issue", ...

There are probably tons of other ways to connect people to the negative SEF hidden within them. Some might use sound and music. Some other could work with odors. Olfactotherapy can certainly be blended with EFT. Essential oil can be used to open the gates to access old memories where the odors were predominant.

Movies as a way to connect to a SEF

Everybody knows someone, myself included, who went into tears, just by watching a simple movie. When you relate to what's happening on the screen, emotion can emerge. You have then a window of opportunity to take care of yourself and tap on the negative emotion that arises. The best is to tap right away. However, this is something that can also be addressed in a session with an EFT practitioner.

Here are some ways movies can be used with EFT.

 On the first session, within the health assessment, you can ask the person to quickly scan the movies she watched in her life and ask if there are movie scenes that trigger a strong emotional response. It could be specific scene, or it could be a generic description of the type of scene that would generate emotion. This will gives you some clues on the emotional universe of the person in front of you.

  At the beginning of any session ask if the client saw a movie lately and if there was a specific scene that triggers some emotions. You can decide to do some tapping on this or, at least, this will gives you some clues on the emotional universe of the person in front of you.

  If you ask the client to keep a journal, you can ask her to track the movie she watched and the emotions that were triggered by specific scene. You can decide to do some tapping on this or, again, this will gives you some clues on the emotional universe of the person in front of you.

  The client, at home, when watching a movie, can pause and do some tapping if emotion emerges.

A Case Study

Here is the case of Jennifer (fictitious name) where the movie she watched just the day before the EFT session was the key to unlock something big, and this brings remarkable results. 
 
We had many sessions, me and Jennifer. She had a very difficult childhood and with her, I was not in front of a candidate for a one session wonder that could happen sometime. We were in a period where we were specifically working on her professional life and her relation to money and abundance on one side, and her relation with herself as a woman to be available and attract a loving relationship with a man.

The starting point of this session was her relationships with men. So, we did a couple of rounds of tapping on the fact that she was often involved with impossible relationships with men. At one point sadness emerges, and she could make a connection with the fact that she felt abandoned by her mother when she had been placed for a couple of days with relatives (aunt and uncle). 
Then we tap on that in the third person as if we were tapping on one part of her:


Even though the little Jennifer felt abandoned by her mother when she was left at her aunt's house, she loves and accepts herself completely.

After that round, she felt like a ball in the plexus area. So we tap for that sensation. 
The following round was about the feeling that she was, kind of, placed by her parent all her life. After that round she had the feeling that she doesn’t have the tools to get along alone in life. 
Then the feeling of being often hopeless emerges.

Even though there is a part of me that is often hopeless, I love and accept that part completely.

She then remembered the film she saw, just the day before: Life of Pi. It’s the story of a young man who survives 227 days after a shipwreck while stranded on a lifeboat in the Pacific Ocean with a Bengal tiger named Richard Parker.

The key SEF for her was that she was often feeling alone as if she were in the middle of the ocean like Pi was. Alone with nobody to talk to. Alone to fight the “danger” of life.

The rest of the session was just about that. We tapped more than 12 EFT rounds just on that theme of loneliness. These 12 EFT rounds were sometime really intense. I felt that the connection with her loneliness within her was really strong. Here are some examples of rounds we did.

Even though I am feeling alone as if I was in the middle of the ocean, ....
Even though I am feeling alone in the middle of the ocean, ... (Strong emotional response here. We did it two times in a row.)
Even though I am feeling alone in the middle of the ocean, and I am afraid, ...
Even though I am afraid that nobody will come for me, ...
Even though I am afraid to die alone, ...
Even though I am feeling alone in the universe, ... (here pain manifests in his body: burning sensation in her stomach as well as hollow sensation in her plexus, ...)
Even though I have this hollow feeling in my plexus, ... (two times)

She ends the session with a feeling of calmness and a sensation of being lighter. The next session, the results were obvious. She had a rush of social activities just after that "Life of PI" session, most of them initiated by others, unexpectedly, I would say. Yes, unexpectedly... why would you change something inside you, and then the others (what's outside you) seem to change? This is something I observe often and found fascinating. That's why I used to say to my client: "you change inside you and the outside changes by itself". She really gets out of her loneliness after that session. It's no doubt for her. She also adds: "Moreover I feel lighter. I really see a difference between before and after that session." And after several months, I checked again. And the increase in her social life keeps going !

Movie to enhance the connection with a SEF

In the case of Jennifer, I strongly believe that having access to a movie scene that triggers a strong emotional response helps her establish a stronger connection with her feeling of loneliness in her life. It’s like if the movie was acting as an amplifier to the connection. The title of this article is “using movie as an emotional trigger”. However, I could have also put “Using movie as a connection amplifier to the emotion”.

Therefore, my message to you is... do not underestimate the power of emotional movie scene for the individuals you are helping with EFT. You have now an additional tool that could facilitate and amplify the connection to the emotions you want to free!

Happy tapping! François Picard

François Picard is an EFT International Accredited Certified EFT Master Trainer, NQT, and Advanced Practitioner . He is also a massage therapist with over 10 years’ experience. He works mostly in French in the province of Quebec where he helps his clients find relief with any type of emotional or physical issue. Visit his website at www.LiberationdeStress.com.

From the EFTfree Archives, which are now a part of EFT International .
Originally published on Nov 2, 2013.