Welcome to another episode of the In-situ health and fitness podcast! This week on the show, we have a very special guest, Peggy Oberthier. Teacher, Counselor and EFT practitioner.
In this special two-part episode, join us as we delve into the transformative world of Emotional Freedom Techniques (EFT), commonly known as tapping. Our guest, Peggy Oberthier, a seasoned teacher, counselor, and certified EFT practitioner, shares her insights and experiences using EFT to promote emotional wellbeing and manage stress in educational settings.
Peggy brings over 25 years of expertise in student wellbeing to the conversation, highlighting the profound impact of EFT on stress reduction and emotional regulation among students and adults.
Learn about the effectiveness of EFT in addressing food cravings and promoting healthier habits among students and educators alike and much more!
Show notes and links:
The main Australian website with free resources and links to trainings and practitioners is this one:
https://www.petastapleton.com/
I trained with Craig Weiner and Alina Frank through:
https://www.efttappingtraining.com/
Become a supporter of the show!
https://www.in-situcollective.com/members
📎 KEY LINKS
💻 Our Website - https://www.in-situcollective.com/
💌 Email Newsletter - https://www.in-situcollective.com/newsletter
💡 Coaching - https://www.in-situcollective.com/personal-training
📘 In-situ Facebook - https://www.facebook.com/the.insitu.collective
📸 Mack on Instagram - https://www.instagram.com/mackrykers/
📸 Jack on Instagram - https://www.instagram.com/jack.lgraham/
👋🏻 GET IN TOUCH
If you have any questions or topics you would like us to cover in the podcast, you can leave them here, and we can thank you personally for tuning in! - https://www.in-situcollective.com/questions
Welcome to another episode of the In-situ health and fitness podcast! This week on the show, we have a very special guest, Peggy Oberthier. Teacher, Counselor and EFT practitioner.
In this special two-part episode, join us as we delve into the transformative world of Emotional Freedom Techniques (EFT), commonly known as tapping. Our guest, Peggy Oberthier, a seasoned teacher, counselor, and certified EFT practitioner, shares her insights and experiences using EFT to promote emotional wellbeing and manage stress in educational settings.
Peggy brings over 25 years of expertise in student wellbeing to the conversation, highlighting the profound impact of EFT on stress reduction and emotional regulation among students and adults.
Learn about the effectiveness of EFT in addressing food cravings and promoting healthier habits among students and educators alike and much more!
Show notes and links:
The main Australian website with free resources and links to trainings and practitioners is this one:
https://www.petastapleton.com/
I trained with Craig Weiner and Alina Frank through:
https://www.efttappingtraining.com/
Become a supporter of the show!
https://www.in-situcollective.com/members
📎 KEY LINKS
💻 Our Website - https://www.in-situcollective.com/
💌 Email Newsletter - https://www.in-situcollective.com/newsletter
💡 Coaching - https://www.in-situcollective.com/personal-training
📘 In-situ Facebook - https://www.facebook.com/the.insitu.collective
📸 Mack on Instagram - https://www.instagram.com/mackrykers/
📸 Jack on Instagram - https://www.instagram.com/jack.lgraham/
👋🏻 GET IN TOUCH
If you have any questions or topics you would like us to cover in the podcast, you can leave them here, and we can thank you personally for tuning in! - https://www.in-situcollective.com/questions
Peggy thanks so much for coming on
Pleasure um the F where I want to go
first is a bit selfish so for those
listening and watching uh I met Peggy at
the gym I work at and you can definitely
tell people that have know what they're
doing in the gym and don't know what
they're doing in the gym and you're
definitely one person that knows what
you're doing and I've wanted to have
this conversation in the gym with you
but I didn't want to take up too much of
your time so have you leared how to work
out from somebody or how do you know
what you're doing okay yeah so I've had
gosh I've had personal trainers for a
very long time but I I started off as a
I played basketball for at the
University level in Canada so I had
whereabouts in Canada uh from Ottawa
okay yeah so I went to Ottawa U and um
so we had uh strength coaches uh you
know from the time I was 18 years old
and showing us how to use the weights
etc etc so that was from age 18 and then
I think uh I had two ACL repairs and I
had to Tren you know go from running and
doing lots of basketball Etc to strength
training
begrudgingly and so I got a personal
trainer and um so I worked with personal
trainers for years yeah Co and uh yeah
showed me everything and then I was kind
of addicted to needing my personal
trainer and then after Co I was like oh
I'm actually okay and uh and then I yeah
I just used the the biolane app I think
I showed you him and all his workouts
are there and but yeah um sweet two
things I want to touch on there you said
you felt like you're addicted to your
personal trainer and then you got over
it we talk about that a lot on the
podcast about actually doing it for
yourself and being at the point where
you can do it for yourself and again for
many people
2 years years whatever it is eventually
you should have that self motivation
snowledge to be a to smash it on your
own yeah what do you think changed oh
well uh interesting well you had no
choice because of Co no well no it what
changed was
um well Co for one thing yes but but I
was actually still you know seeing a
trainer during the lockdown and we would
go outside to a park and stuff like that
but what changed for me probably was um
I using the EFT taping because and this
is actually quite interesting because
when uh you have this fear of you know
not knowing what to do and it's actually
that's not true at all I actually know
exactly what I'm supposed to be doing
and um and the other thing was you know
pushing myself or feeling like I needed
someone to be make me accountable well
after I've reduced my stress and you
know I'm accountable to myself and I
just go so I don't actually need that
anymore because all the hurdles that I
used to have to get to the gym um I've
actually dealt with them though lot of
them through my e tapping believe it or
not yeah yeah amazing very so yeah so
that fear of of not knowing what to do
or um you know and then also finding
that app is actually a really fantastic
program not it's not an app it's a it's
a website and he has you can just build
programs and then I can just follow
along it tells me how much weight and
the sequence and what I'm supposed to to
do and that's really helped me um how
did you find that app uh on a podcast
yeah okay yeah so I listened to the
hubman podcast and I heard I know yes I
know so L Norton who is uh yeah he's a
he's a very good um speaker and his his
I just had a look and it was quite at a
pretty good po uh price point um I think
I paid it's not even $200 for the year
and you just uh what I like about it is
you can click on the the photograph of
and there's like a choice of 10
different exercises of like if I can't
get on a machine I can just click eight
other exercises that all hit the same
muscle and if I don't know how to do
that exercise I press and it plays a
video of what how to actually do it how
to execute it um but I spent four years
working out at Fifth Element Wellness
with some amazing trainers there which
is in North Fitzroy I had two fantastic
trainers and they were quite pedantic
with all the you know the um form and so
I got that drilled to me yeah so um yeah
oh very good yeah um yeah that's just
question I always wanted
um second completely off topic it could
be on topic though um after listening to
a humanman podcast you come in um with
goggin oh yeah yeah you come in and said
you were doing all these exercises that
you hate doing but you know that you
hate do yeah then you know that because
you hate them they're good for you yeah
yeah yeah do you think at that point
they're actually not you're not hating
it like at what point uh well this is
the thing um like it's very that was a
very bad description of it but basically
go in in the episode David gogins goes
over that as humans we should be doing
more things that we don't like doing to
improve our brain health yeah
and yeah but that just sort of brings up
the question that now that we know that
that's good for us if we do these things
does that actually mean that we want to
do them and then not actually we don't
want to do them yeah it it's a bit of a
vicious circle you're constantly chasing
it aren't you yeah so look I think for
me when it's a hard thing I just remind
myself that it's good for me and that
really helps me right so I go all right
like and if it says 12 and if I'm going
to tick that little box to say I have to
do 12 reps like you know if it says one
rep in reserve I have to do one rep and
Reserve like that's just but I've always
been very self self-disciplined and it's
been you know I have one of my core
values is longevity my mom died very
young and my mom died at 56 and um for
me I just I want to do everything I
possibly can to live as long as I can so
I'm reminded of that when I get you know
when I get up in the morning and I just
go oh my God I'm really tired and just
no just go and smash it out and it'll
feel uncomfortable and it'll be good for
my
brain no I love that um and that's again
while we do the podcast help people live
as long as possible yeah um cool so
changing into you and what you do how
how did you come across EFT tapping ah
yeah so um I went to this Retreat it was
a meditation sound healing sort of
retreat in 2019 I met this lovely lady
named al Alia Hopkins and um she told me
she was a social worker in a hospital
and she did this EFT tapping and I said
what and she described it to me and I'd
seen it on the heel documentary which is
this documentary that's been going
around Netflix Etc and I'd seen it and I
thought that is the most woo woo thing
I've ever seen and it must be all
Placebo like what a Croc like how can
you possibly tap on points in your body
and have relief that's just makes no
sense whatsoever and there was a guy in
one of our little groups and he said he
was a real Australian sort of Aer like
Surfer and he goes oh yeah yeah I used
tapping and he goes yeah I never used to
like sardines and then I tapped and then
I like sardines and I was like what how
does that even happen so it went from
there and so Ally and I really connected
at this retrait and she was from Cops
Harbor and she said I'm going to be in
Melbourne in December I'm going to be
I'm I'm working with this mineart
connect
Foundation come and see me you should
actually come to the the talk Dr Peter
Stapleton speaking it's on the science
of tapping and I thought oh gosh all
right well I'll humor her and I'll go to
this thing what were you doing at the
time so at the time I was working as a
so I'm working I was working in a high
school and I was a student well-being
coordinator so I was doing Counseling of
high school students and I've been doing
that for two years so um in at thorry
high school prior to that I've worked in
juvenile justice for five years at
Parkville College working there in um as
a well-being well we've rebranded it as
personal development the inite didn't
like well-being as a concept and um and
then just mainstream school before that
so yeah so that's sort of my
background and in December I went to see
Peter talk and here was this very
conservative very well spoken PhD in
psychologist psychology um professor of
Bond University explaining all the
science behind the tapping so it was not
a woo woo and she said I know it sounds
woooo and I thought oh she's connecting
to me and um and she had all the
evidence from the clinical trials that
she had done and I was blown away I was
also blown away by this live
demonstration that she brought someone
up on stage who' had an addiction to
Scotch finger biscuits I'm not lying
that's what happened and in about 15
minutes ah this is what we should have
done and in about 15 minutes she started
off by saying describing how tasty and
yummy it was and tapping through these
points by the end she was like uh it
kind of tastes a bit like uh it doesn't
taste very nice and I watched that live
demonstration I mean thought could have
this person been planted but all her
research that she spoke about and then I
eventually bought her book um spoke
about this reduction in food cravings
this 74% reduction in food cravings and
this was measured through functional
MRIs what what 74% yes yes food cravings
yes in food cravings it's absolutely it
was actually Cra Crazy yeah okay so um
yeah and so things that you have anyway
I I'll go back to then so from there and
then we were in
2020 and it was perfect timing for me
really with covid because um I was stuck
inside and Al Hopkins had these online
mentoring groups for her people that had
been had trained in EFT and I couldn't
actually find a course for me to do the
training until September so I just went
online three times a week and I did this
group you know mentoring uh as a
non-trained practitioner but I picked up
so much of it and I um so then in
September I trained with e International
with um Craig Weiner and Alina Frank
these two amazing trainers that are
based in um the west coast of the US and
I did this intensive three-day weekend
and then I opted I said right I'm all in
I want to become a full practitioner so
that entailed uh you know 50 practice
clients case notes for every one of them
um I think 12 hours of mentoring three
exams um a a tapping out of trauma
course which was a prerequisite and I
started using it in the school that I
was teaching at and I couldn't believe
how effective it was in helping kids
just resolve issues um and so that's why
I I just kept
I just kept using it and you know I had
all these psychologists around me that
were coming in and I'd say I'm just
doing tapping and and they go they're
better yes they're better they can go
back to class like I'd get a kid with
panic attack I would do 20 minutes of
tapping and then I would get them back
and so that was huge for me because
these were the same kids that I'd had
for let's say two years prior the same
panic attacks and now I had something
new to show them and I was able to get
them back so in my own little clinical
trials for the same students um yeah
this intervention was really really
effective yeah um so for those that are
listening and watching Peggy just took
us through a tapping session so make
sure you check out that um just to
understand what it's all about uh but
just going back to those uh Scotch
finger
addiction like for you when you went
through it with well me um and the
sweaty tread uh stair Master as very
person Iz so would it would have been
the same for the scotch finger yeah yeah
so with the food craving look food
cravings are quite interesting because
there's a lot of elements to them uh
food cravings can you know they can the
I mean they can be physiological because
if you've got insulin resistance or you
know different nutritional deficiencies
or whatever um but you sometimes what
you're you usually it's a stress
response right and you're self soothing
and so food cravings are quite
interesting that they are linked to past
experiences so for example you know soft
serve ice cream for me is like it's
really magical as I'm tasting it because
it actually brings me back to summer at
my you know in a beach house in in with
all my cousins and all my family so it
invokes this this memory of being with
them so if you're not aware of that
you're just having this ice cream going
oh I need that I just need ice cream
well what you need is that sub memory of
the happy time that you had so often
times our food cravings are linked to
those those you know it might be you
know pasta with nona so it that you're
you're craving pasta but what you're
craving is that like that memory of that
Sunday of Nona looking after you and
giving you this beautiful pasta or pizza
for me was like you know a really big
deal and it was all about birthday
parties and it was really special so I
want a pizza it's like well actually I
want that memory of that happiness
and that's what I want in my body so
that's why it's quite it's quite
interesting so when you're tapping on a
food craving you start with the physical
element so you simply start off with you
know so tell me about the creaminess of
that biscuit right so how do you
describe to me what do you what do you
smell you just start with smelling it
actually it's like oh it smells sweet it
smells it smells like
home it smells um yeah and then my mouth
is a lot you know my my my tongue is
starting to drip with saliva and all
that I'm really really wanting to taste
it so you're actually tapping uh on the
points as you're describing the physical
just components of the scotch finger
biscuit it's quite wild and then from
there you might taste it and then you
describe the taste sensation and you're
literally just tapping on it right and
you know even though I have this
um this design desire to eat the scotch
finger biscuit cuz it tastes so creamy
and but I accept myself anyway so you're
tapping on the element of just what
is and what was demonstrated and what
happened to me with like coffee for
example black coffee is that you get to
the end and you're sipping it and you're
just going it actually tastes
terrible but I tapped on all there was a
whole bunch of elements with coffee
because it wasn't just the coffee it was
like missing out going for a coffee or
being judged that I don't drink coffee
or and you went through that with
yourself or I went I was I in my part of
part of doing the practitioner training
is you have to
choose topics and tap on yourself
because when you're a practitioner you
you can assign homework for your clients
and they might tap on other elements
themselves and so yeah I did that myself
and then I I I did team tense with my my
eldest daughter we did it together and
my I've got two teenage daughters and
they're just like this is so stupid mom
like my youngest will just not have a
bar but my older one is like oh this is
really interesting and she texted me
from this party she said
Mom I don't even want to Tim Tam this is
really weird cuz she we used to like get
a packet we just finished off the whole
packet so uh and I tap with her as well
and I have no I I just have no desire to
eat a Tim Tam and so you have to kind of
be careful what you tap on uh I haven't
been gamed to do it for things like
pizza and chocolate and stuff but I
don't have I don't crave those things so
that's not a that's not an issue for me
um yeah it's absolutely crazy always say
Max got the harder job out of the two of
us like it's so easy for me just getting
people to exercise yeah obviously
there's a little bit more involved but
it's very easy compared to trying to
change people's eating habits I'm I'm
kind of curious how when you when we did
the demonstration with Jack it was more
focused on like a negative emotion oh
yeah and then but there's also
demonstrations of like getting rid of
obviously the emotion behind eating tim
tams would be positive right so it's
it's more about recognizing the emotion
in general like when you're tapping
that's right is that right yeah yeah
yeah that's right and we do tap on the
negative but you there's definitely
there are there's 48 different
techniques and so there are there is a
time to tap on the positive for sure and
with kids and adolescents I probably we
you know what I've been told and what
works um in some of the experts who are
working in schools is that you bring in
the positive a bit earlier so you you
you so that they can have this sense of
accomplishment right so they're like you
know and it's gone from a six to a three
or whatever so you there is time to tap
you definitely do tap on the positive
but you have to kind of reduce the
negative uh first so more so sorry when
the when like with the scotch finger
demonstration it was more so she was she
had a problem with Scotch fingers and
that's what you were trying so at the at
with that demonstration it was literally
just tapping on the elements of the of
the scotch finger biscuit not even how
she felt about it okay that was really
yeah really interesting yeah yeah that
it was very very and then from that with
food cravings you can tap on all the
other elements around like if it's not
reducing like you're like okay well I
don't want to give it up or I you know
um what other what other what other
aspects of that scotch finger biscuit
are driving you to the scotch finger
biscuit okay yeah yeah so even though I
have this feeling I accept myself anyway
even though I have this drive to finish
off the whole packet I accept myself
anyway or what yeah so you would just
keep you would keep tapping until
there's almost like a neutral feeling
but what what they find with the with
with the it creates an aversion to the
food so I mean ultimately we just want
to become neutral to food right there
it's just we're hungry we eat we would
go by our biological sort of Cravings
knowing that we have to have these
elements to fill us up and then it's
just you know people who don't have any
eating issues they just food is just
neutral neutral yeah it's 100% neutral
um and so that's what you're aiming for
but then what sometimes happens is this
eventual aversion with certain um
certain yeah certain food groups okay
yeah very cool I I wonder obviously we
spoke like so much about you needing a
practitioner right to get started but is
there a way that I could I guess suggest
techniques to my
clients around like tapping or would you
just recommend first going to a
practitioner and going through the whole
process to find def finding what the
underlying cause is I suppose yeah look
I I think with something like eating
because it's a lifelong thing right I
think that it's worth the investment to
get an expert
in the area I mean it's like I can see
you're really excited like I just want
to help people like right now you just
want to help people right and and you're
like oh it does work it works um but
with eating there's so many layers to it
and it's really about the um you know
the stress reduction if you can help
people reduce their stress so if if
there's one thing that you could
possibly take away is that you could you
know when somebody's had a stressful day
they want to do stress reduction
techniques whatever that that could be
yoga it could be a walk in the park it
could be just sitting with your dog um
and you could add in a couple of rounds
of tapping which is just literally
calming the nervous system down prior to
you know grabbing the chocolate or
whatever so it's it's what you know
because people are stress eating to self
soothe so there's lots of other ways of
self soothing so that that would be the
one thing is you could literally just
not say any words or anything but you're
just like I'm just going to calm my body
down and it's kind of like this self-
soothing like the grounding like you
said right it's a grounding you know
you're just like you might have your cat
on your lap at the end of a busy day or
and you're just tapping through the
points yeah so um and I think like when
I first started
tapping uh and I was a stress eater for
sure I would you know a really intense
busy you know these kids of these kids
are really distressed and there's a lot
of a lot of um a lot of lack of mental
health support for some of these kids in
the in the inner North and so I would
tap in the car on the way
home and that would just you know reduce
my desire for the I was always eating
nuts I was like eating nuts that was my
stress I was like oh it's healthy it's
not healthy when you have like 2,000
calories with of walnuts before dinner
um I didn't realize how how many
calories were in walnuts anyway so um so
by reducing that um you know that that
would really that really helped so and
then I had like I worked with a a client
um who would just have that chocolate
habit right and it was like a reward for
them so it was like her partner was out
she had two young kids it was just like
the stress of trying to get them to bed
and all that and then it was like that's
when you grab the chocolate so I would
we we we tapped on
just all the feelings around you know
the busyness the being alone when her
husband's away and all that kind of
stuff all those elements but then she
just added in some tapping and self
soothing for herself prior to grabbing
the chocolate and that seemed to help
her reduce her her yeah her crav because
it was just like again it's like a it's
a self soothing replacing the soothing
of the chocolate yeah yeah amazing so
there could be that but you you're not
going to get like it's not the same no
because a lot of those clients you know
it's there's so much Shame Shame is such
a hard emotion to tackle and you'd be
very very gentle in your EFT technique
like I wouldn't go I have all this shame
there's so many other techniques we
would we we do these gentle distancing
techniques we C we might call it a movie
title we would we could put it in this
like you know pretend box we are going
to sneak up on it we're going to we're
going to we're not going to say even
though I have all this shame we're never
going to do that we're g to it's going
to be a really gentle like slow approach
and and um so people don't feel flooded
you never want to feel worse in an EFT
session um then you know cuz sometimes
you know when you leave therapy you can
be completely drained and spent because
it's just been this complete flooding of
and describing of what's happening for
you well with EFT you do it in a really
really gentle way and you would never
really tell the whole story again
because we don't want to hear the whole
story we're going to hear elements of it
and just can just gently help you just
feel calm and safe as you're telling
these these really difficult emotions
yeah before we started you you did start
telling us about some really cool um I
think studies about how they actually
found the points yes yes and what they
discovered was a this Korean researcher
found that the energy Meridian points
that the Chinese had discovered like
5,000 years ago is actually a physical
system in our body it's not just like an
energy woow woo system that we it
there's what they call it is a primov
vascular system and they through these
studies where they've put D in and in
surgery they've actually been able to
map um this vascular system this primov
vascular system through the body and
they correspond with the Chinese
acupressure meridians that were
identified 5,000 years ago so they were
on to something so it's pretty
incredible so we're stimulating those
actual points um so for example the the
the where the top of the head is the
governing meridian so they're all the
same meridians you know the uh eyebrow
point is the bladder Meridian then we've
got the gallbladder the stomach we're
actually stimulating every single one of
the major Chinese Meridian points so
it's
self um yeah self stimul ulating
acupress points so I mean acupuncture is
amazing as a modality as well like
there's no question about it and I
actually get acupuncture um I feel like
it's EFT supercharged and it just calms
my body down really really quickly um
but the yeah the the EFT as a as a tool
to manage an emotion in the moment is I
think it's this the most effective thing
that you can use personally yeah yeah
incredible yeah um like you said it's
very practical which is awesome I I love
that I can't can't wait to dive into it
a little bit deeper um so how long have
you been working with people I guess in
that counseling space like oneon-one
yeah so um I've been working mostly
mostly with adolescence uh since so I I
started training in 2020 and then it's
supposed to take 12 to 18 months to
complete the full practitioner paining
and I did six months because a it was
lockdown and I was really lucky I had
all these people that were just stuck
inside and super stressed so everybody
was happy to so I had all these Canadian
um friends so I could get up at like
5:00 in the morning and get you know
four clients out of the way before I
even started work so and it was good
with the momentum and so basically so
since 2021 I've been fully qualified and
I've been working essentially at a
school since then and I did do some I
did manage to do a full-time job plus
Private Practice as well um but it just
became too much with my husband
traveling and so I am going to
transition from the school into private
practice solely um but I'm waiting for
my youngest to finish school which is
one more year so yeah but yeah that's
where I'm at right now and you think
you'll still work with mostly youth in
your private practice oh look I look
there's so many applications and what
I've what I've actually I've spent a lot
of time working with his parents on the
phone as a as a counselor just and I'm
I'm also going to be running um this
tuning into teens which is like a
parenting emotional coaching program at
the school that I work at um parents are
stressed and what's really really
interesting is that if you help parents
calm down and feel less stressed it has
an an incredible effect on the children
so if parents can
self-regulate um so I think it's
actually more powerful to work with
parents and um you know moms it's a
really busy time you know you have
teenagers are hard work um you're
dealing with usually aging parents um
sometimes there's divorce or separation
you know there's lots of things going on
and they're torn in a million directions
and you have these women they might be
going through per manopause or manopause
their emotions are all over the place
they finally realize I need to do some
self-care and so this is another tool
that I could use so I think stepping
into the space I would ideally probably
work with parents and teenagers um but I
love working with young people um yeah
because it's so applicable especially
for um any kind of oral presentations um
any kind of exam stress and like it's so
incredible to help bring your prefrontal
cortex back online when you're
studying um in fact there's a whole Dr
pet St wrote a whole book on um EFT and
M and it's really incredible you walk
into a room and you go oh what I can't
find and then you just tap and then all
of a sudden your brain comes back online
you go oh I left my keys there so and my
daughter who is who did your your 12
exams last year she used it for studying
and yeah she did really well so yeah so
I wish so badly that when I was a teen
that I had something like something like
tapping or just someone that told me
having emotions is normal and Okay and
like they have names and you can
identify them and stuff yes yeah you
know what I mean like so I good like 10
points to your daughter for being on
board with you cuz that's amazing yeah
yeah so and I she also described a
situation where they were about to do a
year French oral and she had all the
girls around her tapping along with her
to help calm the body down so yeah so
cute it's really cute yeah so I and I
worked with
um uh I worked with a couple of clients
overseas one of them was doing a
university and she had was just
procrastinating writing her thesis and
she was really behind and so it works so
well for procrastination because you're
you're you're basically getting down to
the nitty-gritty of what's the emotion
stopping you fear shame embarrassment
you know whatever it is um and and so
then every time she sat to to do it and
then she found herself scrolling she
would put her phone down and then she
could tap on her own after a while and
then so she was like able to get her
thesis done so for University students
it's really handy as well for those when
you have to be
self-driven and
self-motivated yeah it sounds like it
could be useful for everybody like you
said yeah um and you you sort of touched
on it before when you saying who you
wanted to help um and you talked about
it in the gym the other day about I
guess this could be for mainly mostly
coaches but people in real life as well
but I don't even know what the technical
term would be but
emotional mirroring I guess you could
say so you sort of brought it up as in
when you were sitting down kids and then
you if you sort of got flustered they
would get flustered and I definitely
notic that a lot with my clients I I try
and go in with the highest energy to
give them the best session and then they
come away with like a good energy so
um I guess like what's a way or what do
you think is there a way that
you have that energy in a session do you
prep beforehand do you know what going
to be yeah that's a really good question
yeah that's and I do see you with you do
have a lot of energy with your clients
Jack so I've gone geez Jack looks like a
great personal trainer so I just thought
I'd say that because it you know if I
ever needed one again I would it's it's
something I've definitely noticed like
when if I if I go on a session with low
energy then that client's not really
going to have a good session but if I go
in high energy and positive yeah I just
know that they're going to get a good
like you know they feed off my energy
corre they
myg um and again this is good foring and
people people through things but
obviously like you know your daughter in
that group like she brought that tapping
energy to that group which would have so
yeah I guess in your experience what do
you do and how can we use that in real
life typ thing it's a great question I
think look for me when I go to work I
have to be completely grounded and I
have to be in a really good head space
so I I met
every morning I do viic meditation so
that is part of my I go to the gym as
you can see me in the gym I have a good
breakfast I only have you know one
coffee and I have to do my own breathing
sometimes I do my own tapping if I
notice I'm a bit stressed and you know
um I have to make sure that I'm in my
heart space I know that sounds a bit woo
woo but I really have to and I set an
intention in my head that I'm here to
just be curious empathic and listening
and you know that might take six slow
deep breaths it might just making sure
I'm really hydrated I might do like I
said tapping on my own by myself just to
calm my body down because essentially I
want to be as calm and neutral and as
heart present as I can for clients
because then they know that it's a safe
place for them to talk because often
times a lessens they've never told
anybody this stuff before right and the
reason they don't tell their parents
like they say oh I love my mom but I go
yeah that's right and I'm the same I'm
the same kind of mom and it's okay you
you react and then you give advice
whereas I'm not giving any advice with
theft tapping I'm helping these kids
find their own Solutions through
questioning and sometimes I will give
them advice but
generally um I'm helping them you know
in that unconditional positive regard
and that heart you know that just that
gentleness I'm helping them find
you know safety in their feelings and
and and and confidence in their own
Solutions that's what I do yeah and it
like I tell you what on the days that
I'm tired
stressed um you just know that the kid
can feel it and they don't come back you
know like I I you know unfortunately
I've had a couple of psychologists that
hadn't really done enough of their own
work if you haven't healed the part of
you that has a wounded adolescent or has
any issues from high school you're going
to struggle with working in high school
because you're going to constantly be
triggered by whatever they're talking to
you about if they're telling you about
some breakup and then you remember your
own breakup and you haven't healed that
part of you from that boy who broke your
heart in grade nine you are
screwed what happens is the kid just
picks it up MH right so they're they
might not even be aware of it but
they're just feeling
uncomfortable um luckily I've got some
amazing clinicians working with me now
and that they're just
incredible and the kids feel s safe to
come in and and and talk so and I
haven't always been like that you know I
know that you know when you think you
look back in your podcast and you go oh
like those wasn't great questions well
you know at the start I just I just I
shudder to think of how I might have
reacted with a couple of kids because I
wasn't just calm enough myself and I'm
glad you said that because I wanted to
say is that something that like it has
any of the courses you said you done a
bunch of short courses all that sort of
stuff has anybody ever touched on that
because again in the personal training
World strength and conditioning all
these people are coming out of these
courses but they just got no idea it's
just like well here's a workout do the
workout and it's like yeah look that
technically what they're there we're
there for but that's just so much more
involved and no one ever talks about it
especially in the fitness world it's
it's so insane isn't it CU I definitely
have had personal trainers that have
come with very low energy and I've had
to break up with them uh break up with
them I have in the same gym which was a
bit but and also you know I one guy I
was just I was he probably won't ever
listen to this but I was like his
counselor and it was you know he would
just complain to me and I'm thinking of
P he's a p and I'm like okay but you're
right it's funny um I know that some
some training like I think you know gal
Psychotherapy training they do a whole
one or two years of just on their own
and healing their own stuff I think that
more and more um depending on the the
kind of supervision you have and you
know I
think it it really should be part of the
training but I hadn't really heard this
until I started doing my EFT trapping uh
trapping tapping training um and in
particular um my tapping at a trauma
training um but my my mentor Alia
Hopkins she always started with like
this heart-c centered breathing and that
she uses heart math and I don't know if
you are familiar with that so it is um
heart math is a whole science around the
power of the heart and it's just
breathing into the heart and being
present in the heart and and I'm
simplifying it and I'm not doing it
justice so I will I'll send another Link
in the show notes but um it makes a huge
difference when somebody is just really
sitting there in heart present and in in
doing exactly what they want to do you
know and that's their
purpos you you have mentioned trauma a
couple of times okay yes and it's so
trendy right now online um can you you
maybe talk a little bit about like what
your trauma course you did a separate
trauma course before yeah so what that
was like yeah so it's called tapping out
a trauma and look and just to put it out
there because I'm not a licensed mental
health practitioner so I'm not I have I
haven't completed my masters in um
counseling and I'm not a social worker
or a psychologist so I'm not a a
registered I don't I would never work
with somebody on trauma I would refer
them on to somebody who is a licensed
mental health practitioner so I'm I'm
like your mild to at stress um do I have
experience in trauma yes I do because I
worked at a juvenile justice we got
trained in you know trauma trauma
informed practice for teaching um but
with tapping out of trauma it's really
just understanding how the body um
stores trauma how the body um how
memories are you know trauma is stored
in the body right so a lot of the
memories that you have are are in a
somatic element so
when you're working with a client uh
that has a traumatic memory there is a
very gentle way of of approaching it one
of the people from my uh so Alina Frank
you can go and see this on YouTube it's
the most incredible demonstration um and
she is working with a survivor of U one
of a school shooting and she is proc
helping them process this traumatic
event and it is called the tell a story
technique and you start off so the tell
the story technique is you just start
off with when you just think about the
event and you literally are just tapping
you're not saying any emotions you're
literally just tapping on on just
thinking about it and you just tap and
you say even though I am thinking about
this I'm safe and okay right now and
you're just keeping it really really
really
gentle and um and what happens is you
see this live demonstration as they
start to say and then the shooter walked
here and and they're and they eventually
get to the end they can tell the whole
story but their body is calm so you're
it's this
reconsolidation you are creating a new
association between your amydala and
your
hippocampus because you're continuously
calming the body down as you have the
thought wow yeah yeah so it's really
fascinating and um Dr Lori leaden who
was one of the original teachers from
the um Mard connect Foundation who was
also at this original conference that I
attended seeing Dr Peter Stapleton she
worked in using this very gentle
technique so she was a PhD in Psychology
uh she went into Rwanda and she worked
with orphans survivors from the genocide
using EFT tapping wow absolutely
incredible she also has worked in Sandy
Hook and it is it's a really powerful
tool because it's so
gentle um
and she has and she uses this you know
always super gentle and it's all about
you know heart centered and just being
completely present so she spends a lot
of time focusing on her
own you know her own nervous system
before you were present and and this is
the tapping out of training tra trauma
that I did is really around how
resourced are
you going into working with a client you
know are you
you have to really work on your own
nervous system before you are ready and
able to but there's some other things so
Dr Peter LaVine who's the sematic expert
guy there's some other techniques that
you can use aside from just the eight
acupressure points that help a client
regulate when they've having a traumatic
memory or flashback and so there's some
other things that you can do um that are
pretty powerful so I think having that
knowledge behind you is that
helps you just go gently and carefully
with every single client yeah yeah so
you don't ever want to be going you know
so what's your earliest memory of that
uh of that fear you you just you're just
going gently you're just dealing with
the present moment maybe the future and
then over
time with the correct practitioners you
know um you might address some of those
other perhaps traumatic is um issues so
I had a kid you know know at school who
got um jumped you know unfortunately
this is happening in the inner North
right and so we used tapping to help
calm him down with his memory of being
jumped so
that he found that really useful so he
could he could then tell the story and
then he didn't have his heart racing and
then you know he can now he can go back
to Northland you know a shopping center
because he had this incredible fear um
so that that's really powerful if you
get them young and you get them early
um following the event um it works
really really well so it's used it's
it's used in the veterans um us you know
veterans um for PTSD it is a known
effective modality and it's it's really
quick compared to CBT yeah it's like
every like there's no space or there's
no I guess area so far that it couldn't
be
beneficial in right like that's right
yeah it's incredible it is it's really
incredible y
um yeah I feel like we could just keep
going going and going going my parking
meter is going to run out yeah um we
wrapping up yeah thank you so much for
your time oh um is there anything else
you want to share with everybody before
we leave no uh look just yeah just make
sure you're uh working with somebody who
has the full practitioner training I
think if you have some issues that you'd
like to tackle because uh that extra
training that they've done is really
going to put you in a a safe space um
and yeah I can send some I'll send the
link
to the Australian um data well the the
what is it called the the
Australian Guru of tapping in her
database of all the different
practitioners um all right so everybody
listening you did hear Peggy say that
she's going to be doing this for herself
I yes yeah so big waiting list watch
this space yes watch the space I am
going to yeah launch my private practice
again
um yes it's going to happen I'm just
waiting for my husband to get his he
started a business so we couldn't have
both of us I know I know one at a time
so hopefully June um is when he should
be well and truly launched and then I
can follow not long after that that's
not too far it's not too far away we'll
put some links in the show notes so
people can contact you and then when
you're ready to rock and roll yes be
ready to work with people awesome yeah
great thanks again Peggy you're welcome
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