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If you are a cancer patient, or care for someone with cancer, you will know that you suffer not only the effects of the disease but also the EMOTIONAL stresses that come with it. fortunately There are new, EASY TO LEARN techniques WHICH can rapidly reduce the feelings of stress, anxiety and trauma associated with cancer.

As you will know after the diagnosis you may have a range of emotional stresses to cope with as well as the physical issues of the disease.

• You have to cope with stress and anxiety from the diagnosis itself.
• You may be afraid of particular treatments or diagnostic procedures, including: fear of needles or being confined in scanners. Just the thought of surgery, chemo and radiotherapy may make you feel ill.
• Perhaps you are finding it difficult to maintain a positive mental attitude through the treatment and beyond.
• Maybe you can’t cope with the side effects of some of the treatments.

• Being overwhelmed with the emotional stresses of cancer isn’t going to improve your quality of life or your chances of overcoming the disease.

Up to now stress, anxiety and trauma have usually been dealt with by reassurance, cups of tea, counselling and in some cases medication. Fortunately there are new techniques, particularly Emotional Freedom Techniques (EFT), that you can use to rapidly reduce the feelings of stress, anxiety and trauma.

Although it seems to be much too simple to work EFT can offer many benefits when used in this context.

• Quick and effective stress relief. Once you have EFT at your disposal you can use it very simply and easily to reduce anxiety and stress in all sorts of situations.
• You don’t have to take any pills or potions. EFT exploits the body’s own natural relaxation methods so you can get rapid relief whenever you need it.
• This approach completely supports conventional treatments, there are no adverse reactions with medication or other treatments.

EFT works beautifully alongside the traditional medical models of treatment such as chemotherapy, radiotherapy, surgery and hormone treatment. During medical intervention the patient often feels very disempowered and out of control, something is attacking them from the inside, and they are also being attacked externally. They can feel like onlookers in a war zone over which they have little say. Teaching EFT gives them a way of taking back the controls and actively engaging in their own healing process. This in itself is empowering and positive. In our experience, cancer patients are amongst the most enthusiastic tappers we know

Sue Beer & Emma Roberts,
EFT Master Practitioners working with cancer patients

How specifically can EFT help?

• You can relieve your fears and anxieties: By using EFT you can greatly reduce, even remove, the feelings of fear and anxiety that go with the experience of having cancer.The reduced level of stress can have many psychological and physical benefits.
• Neutralise the trauma of your diagnosis: For most people the initial cancer diagnosis is a traumatic experience, this is the point at which everything changes. Using EFT you can neutralise the painful memory of the diagnosis so that you can move on.
• You can neutralise the stress associated with the word cancer: Even the word ‘cancer’ can have a powerful negative effect. In earlier times the word would inspire dread, even now many people associate it with a death sentence.Neutralising the negative feeling associated with the word is a great place to start reducing the emotional impact of the disease.
• Change your negative beliefs about the illness: Many unhelpful beliefs surround cancer, for example: “Cancer is a death sentence” and “Even when it’s cured it will come back”. These beliefs interfere with the positive attitude and courage needed to cope with the illness and treatment.You can successfully neutralise these beliefs and encourage more helpful states of mind.
• Use EFT to help you manage pain or other physical symptoms: It’s well known that stress and anxiety increase the severity s of pain. Even the stress relief aspects of EFT can significantly reduce the patients experience of pain. Sometimes even other symptoms such as nausea can be relieved using EFT.
• Reduce your fears about treatment: Some of the medical procedures associated with cancer can be very intimidating. If you are afraid of needles or claustrophobic, chemotherapy and MRI scans can be as frightening as the disease itself.EFT can quickly reduce phobic and other fear responses so that you can get the treatment you need.
• Reduce your fears for the future: Even after treatment, being clear of cancer can be very frightening. What would have been simple aches and pains become signs of the cancer coming back.EFT can reduce your levels of fear and anxiety so that living without cancer can be less scary.
• Approaching death and dying if the medical treatment fails: Even if the cancer treatment is unsuccessful EFT can help you or your loved one approach death with dignity and calmness.

Important

This approach is intended to bring relief to the emotional strains of cancer it is not a substitute for good medical advice. These techniques are intended for use in conjunction with medical treatment not instead of it. While EFT has produced remarkable clinical results, it must still be considered to be in the experimental stage and thus practitioners and the public must take complete responsibility for their use of it.