Tag Archives: Emotional Freedom Technique

What is an “alternative approach”?

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Some time ago, I wrote about an experience I had – a session of Emotional Freedom Technique. This was something I hadn’t heard about until my friend Alex started to study it. I chose a new keyword for this posting – Alternative Approaches – and even as I chose the keyword I recognised that this heading begs the simple question: what is an alternative approach? Today, sitting in the lounge at Heathrow Airport, I am taking some time to respond to this question. I offer no prior research – simply an opinion.

As I understand it, the word “alternative” when applied to all sorts of approaches, is used as an alternative to “mainstream”. The primary issue here seems to be one of acceptance: is an approach accepted. This in turn begs the question: who by? I think of questions of power – would it be true to say that mainstream approaches are those approaches which are recognised by those sections of society which are most powerful? However, the question of what constitutes power is a subtle one. Instead, I opt to describe the mainstream as a tide of culture which is in some way recognised and endorsed.

It’s easy, when discussing alternative and mainstream approaches, to jump to the conclusion that those approaches which are seen as mainstream are those which scientists have tested and endorsed. There is much to discuss here and much to dispute. In the field of leadership in which I work, one approach that has passed into the mainstream via academic research is the use of competencies to identify those characteristics which differentiate the most outstanding leaders. Whilst this approach is largely taken for granted now, it was originally an alternative to the prevailing idea that testing for IQ (intelligence quota) was the best way to recruit for leadership potential. It was the research of David McClelland and his colleagues which showed this widely accepted (“mainstream”) approach to be based on assumptions which were, in fact, inaccurate. Because of McClelland’s research, testing for competencies, still an alternative approach 30 years ago, has gradually become mainstream.

At the same time, scientists can be blind to evidence when it does not fit prior theories or when they struggle to explain it. Fresh from participating in a training in Transcendental Meditation (TM) I am struck by an anecdote which I had heard prior to attending the training and which I heard again whilst I was there. Some years ago, a large group of meditators spent some time meditating in Washington D.C. with the express aim of reducing crime rates. The Chief of Police was highly sceptical, predicting that it would take six feet of snow to have this effect. Still, the scientists who had been lined up to study the data had to concede that yes, crime rates did go down. A paper was written but only published some time after the event in a peer-reviewed journal, accompanied by a rather apologetic addendum. The research that supports the use of Transcendental Meditation to achieve all sorts of positive outcomes is now extensive. Has it (as yet) become a mainstream approach? No.

In what sense then, do I use the term “alternative approach” on this blog? I aim to use it entirely without prejudice, recognising the many and varied approaches that can make a difference in people’s lives. Perhaps an underlying belief that I hold, which may mark me out from the mainstream, is that far more is possible than we often imagine. The myriad of approaches available to us serve to highlight – should we choose to be aware – just what possibilities exist. In this sense, an alternative approach is simply an option and every approach to which I gave airtime on this blog is an option – an alternative approach.

Emotional Freedom Technique: trying out a new approach

Alternative approaches, Coaching, Your personal and professional well-being, , ,

A good coach, in my view, is also a committed learner. After all, whether your clients are senior executives, Olympic sportsmen and women, or any other man or woman who (like you and me) is trying to find their way in life, who wants to work with a coach who lacks the wisdom that comes from engaging in their own learning?

When my friend Alex invited me to a session of Emotional Freedom Technique, something he has recently invested in learning and is now beginning to practice with clients, I am aware of all the experiences that have prepared me to try out this new technique. I am also comfortable to try something that is as yet unknown to me.

This proves to be just as well, not least because we hold our session in the open air outside the Royal Festival Hall. I am comfortable that passers by may see – watch even – a process which involves tapping on my hands, face and body, like acupuncture without the needles. I am also comfortable that, should the process stimulate emotions in me (which it does), passers by may see – watch? – as I sit with them.

On the surface, the issue I choose to work with is not close to the emotional bone. In the summer of 2007 I started to experience some physical discomfort in my left knee which has not completely disappeared. Still, as the session progresses I start to make some connections. A penny drops as I realise this started less than twelve months after my father died. Is there a connection? I also realise that, whether or not there is some causal link, I have made a link in my mind, fearing that this is the beginning of a journey towards a debilitating old age. No wonder I am impatient and anxious when I think of my knee.

As the session progresses Alex asks me what’s coming up for me so that I am able to share the thoughts, the emotions and the physical sensations I experience as we go. Throughout the session he is ready to go with the flow, adapting to whatever comes up along the way. At the end of the session I am experiencing no changes in the physical sensations in my knee, though I am open to the possibility that change may occur and I have made some connections along the way.

Over the weekend, as I go about my usual activies (walking to Blackheath and back to collect my dry cleaning, digging in the garden, etc.) I notice the sensations in my knee. There are moments when the pain shifts to another part of the body altogether. There are moments when my knee is quite comfortable. Above all, my relationship with the discomfort I experience is changing. I know that the changes I am currently making to my diet are likely, over time, to create the optimum environment for good health in the second half of my life, I know that my father’s experience in old age need not be mine, I know that – whether the pain goes or stays – I can handle whatever comes my way.