EFT Cooling Tower Technique
This is an anger management technique I have used to successfully help clients “let off steam” safely and effectively, combining EFT with a simple visualization to help “vaporize” the energy of anger. The function of a cooling tower is to remove energy from a building. This is an interesting metaphor and can be used to remove ‘heated’ energy that can build up within us, sometimes to boiling point.
Cooling towers are specially designed chimneys used in the production of coal for electricity and is here used as a metaphor for the rise and release of “heated” angry energy and emotions, which boil inside and cause us to eventually loose our cool, most often inappropriately and to the detriment of others and ourselves. Here is an example of a treatment, where the client went from “steaming to cool” in 4 rounds.
Sue described an incident where months ago her 8 year-old son was bullied and beaten up by a group of older boys in a toilet block at school. At the time upon hearing of the incident Sue, in her anger and rage, stormed down to the school to literally “go after” the boys who had harmed her son. She was angry with the school for allowing this to happen and felt that ‘not enough was being done’ about it. She hurled abuse at the teachers and literally ‘went off’ at anyone who crossed her path. Since the incident Sue’s son developed a fear of public toilets, separation anxiety and went from being a bright, outgoing, popular child to a withdrawn frightened one who feared going anywhere without his mother, including school. Sue came to see me about getting help for her son, but became visibly and increasingly distressed as she “told the story”.
In describing the incident she clearly harbored a great deal of angst toward her son’s attackers and the school and was talking about going back to the school again to ‘have her say’ in much the same fashion as she did before. As she was already “in the moment”, in this case, instead of applying EFT in the ‘classic’ fashion of using set up phrases, I asked Sue if I could start tapping on her, while she was feeling upset.
As I tapped the shortcut points in a continuous manner, I asked Sue to close her eyes and visualize what she would ‘do’ to those boys if she could “get her hands on them”. I asked her to send those thoughts and images up through her head as though she was releasing steam through a chimney. She started shaking and crying and literally steaming as she ‘imagined’ what she would do to them ‘if she could’. After about 4 rounds she stopped, opened her eyes and with absolute amazement said, “it’s stopped, it just stopped, it’s gone”, meaning her intense anger and feelings of vengeance. She was utterly surprised.
I asked her if she was willing to describe what happened in her mind. She said at first she saw a gun appear vividly but then the image simply vanished and she just “snapped out of it”. You could see the relief on her face and in her body, which had collapsed back into the chair. She realized how destructive carrying this kind of anger was and how different she felt without it. She had cooled right down within moments. She said the image of steam rising from her head really helped her to let go. In her newfound “coolness” she started speaking differently about the whole situation and started coming up with new ideas and insights about how to handle the problem. Needless to say they were far more diplomatic than using weaponry! Instead of feeling “at war” with her son’s attackers and the school, she was able to “put down her guns” (her fears, vengeance, deep sense of injustice and defensive rage) and start making decisions from a place of calm, rather than the previous place of rage. She acknowledged that her anger only really made the situation worse and achieved nothing in the way of resolution. She was glad to be free of it.
In a separate session with her son we used the same technique to release his anger towards the boys who had hurt and humiliated him. Coincidently he brought up the same visual of a gun. This is the sort of deep emotional disturbances our children do not need to hold onto and carry into adulthood. We are incredibly fortunate to have EFT. EFT helped resolve all his issues as well and he is back to being confident and stress free, no longer showing any of his previous symptoms.
How To Apply the Cooling Tower Technique
Whenever you are “heated up” about something and feel like you could “blow your stack”, use EFT to take the heat out of it and cool down safely by diffusing the anger before it creates bigger problems. Spend time doing EFT on these boiling issues, changing the path from one of potential destruction to one of greater peace and calm. The trick is to unleash in your mind, without holding back, all the thoughts and actions that you are tempted to take. Sometimes we just carry these inside us letting ourselves get to a boiling point then exploding, while other time we explode first and think later, by then it’s often too late and at best we hurt our loved ones or at worst we may be led to commit a crime, all of which could have been avoided with some simple tapping to let off the excess steam (energy).
1. Think of a problem in your life that is causing you to be at “war with” somebody or, something in your life that you are “heated up” about. Is there a person or group of people who you “could kill” for something they’re done towards you or someone else that leaves you feeling enraged. Use a “Heat-o-meter” to measure how heated up about the issue, with 0 being “completely cool” to 10 being “100% steaming/fuming
2. Close your eyes and allow yourself to focus on the scene in your mind’s eye and imagine what you would ‘do’ to get back, get even, settle the score etc. Say what you really feel compelled to say or compelled to do to the other person or person’s.
3. While letting the ‘heat’ rise up, tap continuously and imagine sending those thoughts and images up through your head as though you are releasing steam through a chimney. Tap until all those images have evaporated like steam.
Using EFT as a “weapon” to end those inner and outer wars creates a deep sense of personal peace despite the external circumstances that then translates into peace at home, work and in the community. We can all contribute to world peace simply by systematically letting off steam with EFT. We do have the power. It is at our fingertips!
On a personal note my father suffered high blood pressure and developed a brain tumor before he died of a stroke. He carried a lot of anger around a lot of his life and I personally believe this contributed enormously to his dis-ease. Coincidently, when he migrated to Australia in the 50′s, Dad worked as a laborer in the construction of the cooling towers in the coal-mining town that I grew up in, so dedicate this technique to him.
Angie Muccillo
EFT Practitioner & Instructor
Remedial Massage Therapist (Member AAMT)
(BA Social Science- Psych/Soc)
(Cert IV Remedial Massage)
(EFT-ADV)
Location
Sublime Massage Clinic
Hutton Street
Thornbury Melbourne
Vic Australia 3071
mob: 0417391055
sublime@pacific.net.au
angiemuccillo@gmail.com
