Episode 186. Tapping (EFT) for Stress Reduction and Emotional Wellbeing (Part 2) with Peggy Oberthier.

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/

Chapters

• 0:30 Peggy's experience with personal trainers and self-motivation
• 2:15 Using EFT tapping helped reduce stress and increase self-accountability.
• 8:30 The science behind tapping for emotional wellbeing.
• 15:15 Using EFT tapping to reduce food cravings and change food habits.
• 24:50 The link between EFT and the acupressure meridians.
• 27:00 Peggy shares her insights and experiences on becoming a better teacher and counsellor.
• 36:00 Why training for therapists should include healing their own trauma.

Transcript

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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