Lots of great setups for all kinds of emotions and experiences.
Blessings, Dawn

Part IV
Hi Everyone,
Here is Part IV of Dr. Carol Look's weight loss series. Please note her creative use of EFT for visualization. As you will see, it allowed the client to better see herself at her goal weight (important) AND contributed to the surfacing of underlying core issues (also important).
Hugs, Gary

"Beth" volunteered for a group demonstration involving a visualization technique to create an image of herself at her goal weight. Before directing the group to try to visualize themselves at their goal, I asked them, "What happened the last time you were at your goal weight?" When another class member said she associated her goal weight with getting pregnant, Beth was shocked that "someone else had the same memory/ association."

Beth had been unable to get pregnant and medical tests were unable to locate a cause. When she gained a little weight and reached what she considered her "optimum" weight, she was finally able to get pregnant with her first child. Beth gained 60 pounds with her first pregnancy and was unable to get pregnant for the second time until she reached the same "optimum" weight. Following her second pregnancy (17 years ago) Beth said she was never able to lose the weight again, despite numerous diets and attempts and, needless to say, she never became pregnant again, although she had certainly tried.

Airing this association seemed to be emotionally freeing in itself. So instead of tapping for these aspects, my intuition led me to leave this discussion about pregnancy. Accordingly, I moved the class on to tapping for the visualization exercise, knowing we could always return to this issue later if there were still blocks to the visualization.

I asked the participants to close their eyes and imagine themselves at their goal weight, and to then rate the clarity of this picture. Beth and the rest of the group tapped as follows: "Even though I'm having difficulty seeing myself at my goal weight, I deeply and completely..." After the first round of tapping, Beth told the class she could now see herself twirling in a party dress, happy with a clearer picture in her mind of her "success." She tapped two more rounds for "Even though I'm still having some difficulty seeing myself successfully reaching my goal weight..." and then the image evolved whereby she could see herself at her ideal weight in her everyday clothes, comfortable and peaceful with herself. There were no other immediate blocks to seeing the positive end result. The feelings associated with being pregnant did not resurface.
During the tapping for the visualization, Beth revealed to the class that she had gotten in touch with a memory of the first time someone shamed her for eating too much. She was five years old and remembered being scolded at a party when asking for more food. The surfacing of this memory was definitely a surprise to her. I asked the entire class to tap for "Even though I'm ashamed of myself...and my body...and for being overweight...I deeply and completely accept myself anyway." I then asked them to use the forgiveness set up ("I forgive myself for being overweight...for being ashamed of myself...") while tapping the treatment point on the index finger.

In a follow-up phone call with Beth 5 weeks later, she reported the following: "I have lost 10 pounds, I have been able to stick to my low carbohydrate diet, and I have lots of energy." During this time, tapped for the following aspects:

"Even though I crave carbohydrates...,"
"Even though this weight loss stuff is going too slow...," and
"Even though I seem to be at a plateau..."

She tapped for "Even though I can't eat like others..." (an essential key for her) and "Even though I need to exercise more than twice a week..."

I made the following suggestions to Beth to fine tune her language and hopefully push her off her plateau.:

"Even though my body doesn't want to let go/ wants to hold on to the weight..." and "Even though my body refuses to leave this plateau..."

She was also using the phrase, "I need to exercise" which I thought needed some revision. So, I asked her to be more specific about her exercise routine and to target the feelings she had about exercising. Here is the recommended wording.

"Even though I dread exercising..." or
"Even though I resist exercising more than twice a week..."

I asked Beth how she was feeling emotionally about having lost 10 pounds so far. She said she wasn't terribly excited because she's "done it before" and just felt very frustrated with herself for getting back into this position of needing to lose the weight again. We tapped over the phone for "Even though I'm frustrated and mad at myself that I've got to go through this again...I deeply and completely love and accept myself anyway."

My final suggestion to push through the resistance was to start every day with the classic treatment for deep psychological reversal, "I deeply and completely accept myself even if I never get over this problem/ never lose the weight."
She promised to write me when she lost the next 10 pounds!
Dr. Carol Look