EFT In The Therapeutic Residential Setting with Children


By Geraldine Taylor F


uture In Mind operates a group of small thera- peutic childrens’ homes based in the Staffordshire area. It has been running for 10 years and offers one to one staffing alongside daily therapeutic input to some of the most damaged children and young people - all of whom have been abused and traumatised. All have some level of Attach- ment disorder.


As such, the Attachment Therapy Programme was developed to help children and young people overcome their personal traumas. This pro- gramme is the first in this country that has been implemented into the residential setting. In November 2009 it was presented at The International Study of Trauma & Dissociation 26th Annual Conference in Washington DC where it was well received.


On their admission we begin a three month therapeutic assessment and during this time we collate all histori- cal and behavioural information. This always involves meeting with signifi- cant people in the child’s life.


Their level of Attachment disorder is measured in order to find the cat- egory the child falls and to identify the appropriate therapeutic activities and therapy from our senior therapist or myself.


The Attachment therapy consists of a 7 phase programme dealing with all aspects of the child’s developmental and neurological connections that


have either been damaged or the connections have not been made at all due to ongoing neglect, abuse and/ or trauma.


At the same time as this work is being dealt with by our therapeutic support staff the therapists work to build up a trusting working relation- ship from where they can commence work desensitising the memories of their past abusive experiences, dealing with unwanted or unhealthy behaviours and/or addictions, building up self esteem and confidence and often dealing with memories that are held in the body rather than visual memories in brain.


During this time of intense ther- apy, we have found that EFT has been very useful. Not only have we used it for the younger children in order to deal with nightmares, eating problems, fear and anxiety, but we have found that it is effective with teenagers. Very often in residential care these young people have found that there is a ‘no touching’ policy (usually for fear of allegations being made about staff by young people in their care.)


At Future In Mind we work on the basis that our relationships are such that the children want to work with us and we have a mutual respect for each other.


We do hug the children and make appropriate physical contact. Some of the children and young people will do the tapping themselves but more


often than not they enjoy the tactile contact of the therapist doing the tapping.


This is not surprising if you imagine their previous experience of go- ing through life without ever being touched.


When you believe that you are untouchable, unloveable and not an OK person, this lack of safe and ap- propriate physical contact will merely compound the problem.


Bedtime is sometimes a very difficult time for these youngsters and EFT emergency points will be used if needed.


The use of EFT combined with other therapeutic techniques has been found to be very useful ie. Tapping a child’s hand when relaxed at bedtime whilst reading a story of fairies that can tap whilst the child is asleep and help to heal the negative feelings; us- ing EFT during a session of working with the child’s fear or anger in the stomach is also very effective. So the child learns to control their feelings whilst at the same time accept the help that is being offered.


Most of the staff have received the EFT Practitioner training and find this really useful as another tool to work with the children when the senior therapist is unavailable. It is also really helpful for the staff to use for themselves.


This is not an easy job and any tech- nique to deal with stress and personal issues; is a bonus.


THE AAMET MAGAZINE I AUTUMN 2010 I www.aamet.org 23


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