And Then What?

Posted by Ron Ball

Oct 22, 09

I was with a client today who wanted to tap on her phobia which is a fear of heights. I asked her to give me an example of something that if she thought about right now might get up to an 8 or 10 SUDS level. She picked one that had her at 10. It was being on the second level of a shopping mall and looking down. So we started tapping on, “Even though I have this fear of heights …” Turns out that wasn’t what was making her fearful at all. Let me tell you how we got to the real core issue.

Although there was some change, my experience with EFT is that when you get minor shifts you’ll want to dig deeper or come from a different angle. So I asked her what might happen if she got close to the railing at the second level or put her hands on it. She said she would get very nervous. So I asked, “And then what?” She said she might feel an impulse to jump. That feeling changed to being more of a fear of being pushed.

So I asked her again, “And then what?” Almost immediately her face became flush and she said, “I’d die.” The tears flowed. So we tapped on the real core issue:

Even though I have this fear of death, I deeply and completely accept myself.

I also used the Choices method and did a few rounds of EFT tapping. In a few minutes she was down to zero and feeling calm. (Characteristically, she did some yawning.) We did testing to see if she could get herself back up to a high number and it held at a zero. Asking, “And then what” or “And then what might happen,” can often get you to the core issue quickly and gently.