Boy's Fear of Opening Healed Hand Cleared with EFT

A little boy named John (not his real name) who was 4 years old was staying with my sister for a while. He loved to play any kind of ball, and one day he sprained his hand while he was playing catch. It was a pretty severe sprain, and it was painful for him to open the hand, especially after he woke up in the morning.

My sister and her family came for a visit about 6 weeks after John had injured his hand, and he still was having difficultly opening it in the morning when he first woke up.

The hand had healed physically long before. But I believed he now was afraid it would hurt when he tried to open it, so it would take several minutes of my sister encouraging him to put his fingertips on the table every morning before he would open it by gently pushing down on it with his other hand.

The first morning of their visit, John and I were sitting at the kitchen table. He had his hand curled up in a ball and was holding it in his other hand as though he was protecting it. I decided to try EFT to see whether it would make a difference for him.

I told him I was going to tap on myself and I asked if he wanted to play follow the leader with me. He said he did not. I asked if I could tap on him. He didn’t want to do that, either. No problem. I surrogately tapped on myself for him.

While I was looking at him, I said, “I am John, and even though I’m afraid my hand is going to hurt a LOT when I open it, I’m still a good kid.”

“I am John, and even though I’m really scared my hand is going to hurt when I try to open it, I’m a good boy, and Nana and Poppa and Elaine love me.” (Nana and Poppa were the names he used for my sister and her husband.)

“I am John, and even though I’m really, really afraid my hand is going to hurt a LOT like it always does when I try to open it, it’s OK and I’m a good boy.” (His face lit up every time I said “I’m a good boy.”)

Top of the Head: “I am John, and I’m really afraid my hand is going to hurt.”
EB: “I am John, and it really hurts a lot when I try to open my hand.”
SE: “I am John, and I’m afraid my hand is really going to hurt when I open it, so I don’t want to open it.”
UE: “I am John, and I don’t want to open my hand.”
UN: “I am John, and I’m afraid it’s going to hurt really bad.”
CH: “I am John, and I’m scared to open my hand.”
CB: “I am John, and I don’t want to open it because it’s going to hurt a LOT.”
UA: “I am John, and I’m afraid to open my hand.”
UB: “I am John, and I’m afraid it’s going to hurt.”

Top of the Head: “I am John, and maybe I can try to open my hand just a little bit.”
EB: “I am John, and maybe it won’t hurt so much now.”
SE: “I am John, and maybe my hand will be OK.”
UE: “I am John, and I think my hand is gonna be OK.”
UN: “I am John, and I’m gonna try to open my hand.”
CH: “I am John, and it’s really easy to open my hand.”
CB: “I am John, and my hand doesn’t hurt a bit.”
UA: “I am John, and it’s a piece of cake to open my hand.”
UB: “I am John, and my hand feels great!”

At that point, I stopped and asked him if he wanted to try to open his hand. He said he still didn’t yet, so I repeated the above sequences.

After I finished the second time and asked him again if he wanted to try to open it, he put his hand on the table with the fingertips touching the table.

He then slowly but easily pushed his palm to the table with his other hand. He had a surprised look on his face. I asked him if it hurt, and he said it didn't.

The next morning, when he got up, he came downstairs holding his hand up in the air with the fingers wide open. He was smiling.

“Look Elaine! I opened my hand without having to push on it!”

“Awesome!” I said. “Good job!!”

My sister said he didn’t have any problems with opening his hand after that.