MY STORY - HOW I GOT HERE
About 20 years ago, in the UK, I stayed in a country spa with some girlfriends for the night. There was nothing much to do once we'd eaten our lentil dinner, so we all went to a demonstration of EFT that just happened to be on that night. We watched a film - this is pretty weird, I thought - then all of us tapped on ourselves about whatever issue we chose, ie something or other that was bothering us. I played along. Why not? But then, I was shocked by what happened next.
A situation that had really been upsetting me was now just a situation that didn't have any emotional charge at all. "Why should that stuff take me over?" I thought. "I can handle it. Not my problem anyway."
Five minutes of Emotional Freedom Techniques had given me - well, emotional freedom!
Since then I have wanted to share that freedom with everyone who needs it. My understanding of psychology has deepened considerably after years of study and experience, however. I confess that EFT was initially almost a party trick. "Hey, Laura's here! Anybody got any phobias they want to get rid of?" While it was such fun to watch the amazed faces of friends and family as they no longer connected to the phobia, I found that phobias were often just branches of a tree with deeper roots. At worst, cutting off the branch can leave the roots intact, to cause problems somewhere else.
So I kept studying. I kept exploring. I kept working on the tangles of my own roots, with TAT, EFT and other therapies. I went to seminars, conventions, and retreats; I read textbooks, learned to analyse studies, and learned the science - from the value of established assessment tools, to cultural considerations, to ethical concerns, and through philosophy, spirituality and religion. Through Jung, Skinner, and Carl Rogers; through Vagus Nerve reset, Epigenetics, Narrative Therapy, Attachment Theory, and so on.
Mostly I have kept curious, kept learning and kept living. I love what I do, and I love people. And what I want to do with all that is simple. I want to share what I have learned, to help people as I have been helped.