EFT EFT Trauma-Informed Practice 2 — Questions and Answers
Question 1: Which trauma processing model provides important context for understanding how EFT helps resolve traumatic memories?
- Cognitive Behavioral Therapy's exposure hierarchy
- EMDR's Adaptive Information Processing (AIP) model (Correct answer)
- Freudian psychoanalytic free association
- Gestalt therapy's empty chair technique
Correct answer: EMDR's Adaptive Information Processing (AIP) model
The AIP model explains how unprocessed traumatic memories retain their emotional charge, and EFT — like EMDR — appears to help reprocess these memories adaptively.
Question 2: What is 'borrowing benefits' in EFT group trauma work?
- Charging clients a reduced fee by sharing session time with others
- Clients experiencing relief from their own issues while tapping along with someone else's problem (Correct answer)
- A technique where the practitioner uses their own trauma to model processing for clients
- Sharing tapping scripts between practitioners without client consent
Correct answer: Clients experiencing relief from their own issues while tapping along with someone else's problem
Borrowing benefits occurs because the nervous system responds to another person's emotional content even when clients tap on their own unrelated issues.
Question 3: What does 'cognitive shift' indicate during EFT trauma work?
- The client has developed a new cognitive distortion about the trauma
- A spontaneous change in how the client thinks or feels about the traumatic event, signaling emotional resolution (Correct answer)
- The practitioner shifts to a different cognitive reframing technique mid-session
- The SUD rating has increased, indicating deeper processing is needed
Correct answer: A spontaneous change in how the client thinks or feels about the traumatic event, signaling emotional resolution
A cognitive shift — such as the client spontaneously saying 'it wasn't my fault' — typically signals that EFT has resolved the emotional charge around a traumatic memory.
Question 4: When a client experiences an abreaction (intense emotional release) during EFT, what should the practitioner do?
- Stop the session immediately and refer the client to a psychiatrist
- Stay calm, continue tapping gently if possible, and help the client feel safe while supporting them through the release (Correct answer)
- Ask the client to suppress the emotion and return to baseline before continuing
- Increase the intensity of the tapping to help the client move through the emotion faster
Correct answer: Stay calm, continue tapping gently if possible, and help the client feel safe while supporting them through the release
Abreactions can occur during EFT and are typically brief; the practitioner's calm presence and continued tapping support helps the client move through the release safely.
Question 5: What is the recommended EFT approach for working with birth trauma or pre-verbal trauma?
- Such traumas cannot be addressed with EFT since the client has no verbal memory
- Using body-based approaches, surrogate tapping, or working with current physical sensations rather than verbal memories (Correct answer)
- Hypnotic age regression to access pre-verbal memories before applying EFT
- Referring these clients to a specialist since EFT is not effective for pre-verbal trauma
Correct answer: Using body-based approaches, surrogate tapping, or working with current physical sensations rather than verbal memories
Pre-verbal trauma is often stored somatically, so EFT approaches that focus on physical sensations and body-based cues are most effective.
Question 6: Why is resource installation (establishing positive states before trauma work) important in trauma-informed EFT?
- It replaces the need to process the traumatic memory entirely
- It builds the client's capacity to tolerate distress and provides an anchor if trauma processing becomes overwhelming (Correct answer)
- It satisfies insurance billing requirements before trauma treatment begins
- It allows practitioners to skip the initial intake assessment
Correct answer: It builds the client's capacity to tolerate distress and provides an anchor if trauma processing becomes overwhelming
Installing positive resources (e.g., a calm place or a felt sense of safety) gives clients an emotional anchor they can return to if trauma processing becomes too intense.
EFT EFT Trauma-Informed Practice 2
Which trauma processing model provides important context for understanding how EFT helps resolve traumatic memories?