However brilliant our skill as practitioners, death is a reality for all of us. Not all clients will recover from their illnesses or injuries, and it can be difficult for us to face. Yet as health practitioners, our clients and their family rely on us to face their imminent death with them, and assist them to the best of our abilities.
A first step for every EFT Practitioner is to treat themselves for their own grief and fear issues related to death in their own life. Otherwise we may avoid going places our client needs us for fear of upsetting ourselves.
An important area to consider is our own beliefs around death and an afterlife of some sort, about god and heaven, is there anything after death of the body? How will we interact respectfully with another who has a very different set of beliefs?
When faced with a client who is in the process of dying, the most important areas for them are often
- Unresolved family and relationship issues
- Guilt and regrets over actions taken or not taken
- Fear of pain
- Fear of there being nothing more – will they have left some kind of positive legacy behind?
- What purpose and meaning their life has had
- Worry about remaining family, friends and pets – will they cope?
- Anger that they haven’t had what they believe their “fair share” of life
- Blame towards anyone who has contributed to their impending death
- Disappointment they won’t be there for some future events
- Frustration and a sense of failure that they haven’t overcome their circumstances so they can continue to live
- Anticipated sense of loss of loved ones
- Not wanting to be a bother to others now
With all these issues, EFT can be used to bring a sense of completion, and even positive anticipation of what comes next. Your client may not be able to participate fully or consciously in all the work and much can be done surrogately based upon conversations during more lucid moments. If your client is unable to tap for themselves, this can be a very loving way to assist them by gently tapping on their energy points for them if they agree (others may prefer you tap on yourself).
EFT can also be used very effectively to help survivors letting go and grieving their loss. With continual tapping while talking and using EFT in anticipation of the difficult stuff, much relief can be obtained.
It is very important to remember that EFT will not take away appropriate emotions rendering your client feeling-less. Your clients will still experience some feelings of sadness and missing etc related to the death. As the practitioner it’s important you don’t imply in any way that they will feel happy and comfortable all the time with what is happening, as that is unrealistic.
If you need some support to assist you or a loved one during this difficult time please contact LIz Hart, AAMET Certified Advanced EFT Practitioner (09) 410 5200 or [email protected]
