Dr. Patricia Carrington’s “Choices” Method
Patricia Carrington, Ph.D., Associate Clinical Professor at the UMDNJ-Robert Wood Johnson Medical School in New Jersey, was one of the first clinical psychologists to incorporate EFT into her professional practice. She not only became a leading
practitioner of Emotional Freedom Techniques, she made an important contribution to its Setup Phrase.
Basic or mechanical EFT focuses entirely on problems. It starts with statements like,
“Even though I have this pain in my back..” or, “Even though my shoulder is in agony...”
and ends with the phrase, “I deeply and completely accept myself.” The treatment then proceeds with the repetition of a “problem” reminder phrase such as the phrase, “This pain.”
There’s no doubt that by using this type of Setup Phrase, you can tap a problem out.
But Dr. Carrington took a different approach and showed that you can also tap a solution in.
She did this by adding “I choose” to the last portion of the Setup Phrase, making it possible for the person to define or describe a specific desired outcome by inserting an affirmation or positive statement after the words “I choose.”
As she explains:
When I was using EFT with my own clients in psychotherapy, I soon discovered that I could get even better results if I allowed them to insert their own positive affirmations into the EFT statement. This way the Setup Phrase became perfectly suited to the problems they were addressing.
For example, if a person's hand was throbbing, I would suggest an EFT statement such as, “Even though my hand is throbbing, I choose to have my hand be comfortable and pain free.” This immediately makes perfect sense to the injured person; it expresses precisely what they want to bring about – the cessation of pain and the healing of their hand.
It was through experimenting with my own clients that the EFT Choices Method was born. In it, the person applying the method identifies the outcome that they would truly like to have for the problem at hand, and then puts this desired outcome into a phrase which they use at the end of the Setup phrase. Instead of
“I deeply and completely accept myself,” this phrase commences with the words
“I choose.”
It’s important to note that “I choose” is not used in the format of a traditional affirmation. The latter is a statement that is intentionally contrary to fact, as, for example when a person living in a dingy basement apartment says, "I live in a beautiful sunny home.” This statement is intentionally contrary to fact. According to the rules of traditional affirmations it will result in subconscious programming that attracts the “beautiful sunny” home of the person’s dreams. All too often, however, traditional affirmations result in doubt and skepticism on the part of those who repeat them, particularly if the affirmation is in too sharp a contrast to their current state of affairs.
When people tell themselves that they live in a beautiful sunny home when in fact that is obviously not true, the traditional affirmation is apt to create what EFT refers to as a “Tail-ender”. A little doubting self-statement in the back of our minds says, "Oh yeah? I know that's absurd!” or "I’llNEVERhave that! “ or "I feel like a fool for saying this."
Such self-doubts are stilled, however, when you place the words “I choose” at the beginning of your affirmation statement. For example, if the person described above were to say, "Even though I live in a dingy basement apartment, I choose to live in a lovely sunny home,” the statement would be immediately believable because anyone has the right to make a “choice” and this doesn’t contradict the situation they are in.
This method of injecting “Choices” into EFT soon developed into a definite protocol which I found to be extremely effective, not only for my own clients and workshop participants, but for many others as well. I then formalized the Choices Method and began training other people to use it. It was almost immediately greeted with enthusiasm in the EFT community, and today many thousands of people are using EFT Choices statements. In particular, psychotherapists, counselors, and personal performance coaches are using the Choices Method because it so precisely targets their clients’ problems.
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Dr. Carrington’s six rules for phrasing Choices statements are sensible and effective:
1. Be specific.
2. Create pulling Choices .
3. Go for the best possible outcome 4. State your Choices in the positive 5. Make Choices that apply to you
6. Make Choices that are easy to pronounce
“Pulling Choices” use words that draw you in and make you feel involved. They are the opposite of dull and boring statements. Dr. Carrington begins with the example, "I choose to express myself in a way that gets my points across to Susan," which is a perfectly accurate statement as far as it goes. But, she says, an even more appealing version might be, "I choose to find a creative way to get my points across to Susan." As she explains, the word creative gives the statement some excitement and suspense.
You wonder what would be a creative way to get your points across. As she says,
“Curiosity is a powerful motivator. “ Surprise is another word that can draw us in, so another effective statement could be, "I choose to surprise myself by finding easy and enjoyable ways to get my points across to Susan.” Easy and enjoyable are pulling words, too, and they help make this a compelling statement.
Here’s an example of a Setup Phrase that falls short of the six recommendations:
Even though my back hurts, I choose to have it not hurt.
Following Dr. Carrington’s suggestions, we can add specific details about the pain, insert some interesting or compelling ideas, describe what we’d rather have, replace negative words (no, not, can’t, won’t, etc.) with positive words, and create a personally rewarding Choices Phrase. For example:
Even though I have this sharp, red, throbbing, angry, hard, pyramid-shaped pain stabbing the small of my back just to the left of my spine, I choose to be delighted by how easy it is to enjoy a relaxed, pain-free game of golf tomorrow, with full range of motion, perfect coordination, and my best score yet.
Even though my back has me crying in pain, and I can’t believe that this tapping business is going to make any difference at all, I choose to have this whole situation work to my advantage. I choose to have fun doing these EFT exercises in the most ingenious way, with the enthusiastic cooperation of my brilliant subconscious mind, so that the whole process is easy, comfortable, and effortless, and my back feels completely well.
While tapping on the EFT acupoints, try alternating between “problem” and “solution”
reminder phrases.
For example, in the first round of tapping, use “problem” reminders:
Top of Head: stabbing pain Inside Eyebrow: so frustrating Side of Eye: terrible pain Under Eye: can’t move
and so on, through all the tapping points
Or use the same complete “problem” sentence on all of the acupoints, such as:
Top of Head I’m upset because my back is in agony.
Inside Eyebrow: I’m upset because my back is in agony.
Side of Eye: I’m upset because my back is in agony.
and so on, through all the tapping points.
Then, in the second round of tapping, use only positive “solution” phrases, such as:
Top of Head: better already Inside Eyebrow: pain-free
Side of Eye: complete range of motion Under Eye: everything’s easy
and so on, through all the tapping points
Or use the same complete “solution” sentence on all of the acupoints, such as:
Top of Head: I choose to feel completely well in every way.
Inside Eyebrow: I choose to feel completely well in every way.
Side of Eye: I choose to feel completely well in every way.
and so on, through all the tapping points.
In the third and final round of tapping, alternate between “problem” and “solution”
phrases, such as:
Top of Head: stabbing pain Inside Eyebrow: I feel wonderful Side of Eye: sharp spasms Under Eye: full range of motion Under Nose: so frustrating
and so on, through all the tapping points, always ending on a “solution” phrase.
Or alternate between the two complete sentences used above:
Top of Head: I’m upset because my back is in agony.
Inside Eyebrow: I choose to feel completely well in every way.
Side of Eye: I’m upset because my back is in agony.
Under Eye: I choose to feel completely well in every way.
and so on, through all the tapping points.
To be sure your final phrase is positive (you should always end on a positive note), finish by tapping on the Inside Eyebrow point while saying a positive reminder phrase.
Some practitioners start with problem reminder phrases in the first round of tapping, alternate between problem and solution reminder phrases in the second, and devote the third round entirely to solution statements.
Some begin with the basic EFT Setup Phrase (“Even though ___, I fully and completely accept myself,” or something similar) for their first two Setup Phrases and switch to Choices phrasing for the third Setup Phrase.
Some use only one Setup Phrase and incorporate everything in it before they start tapping the acupoints. Like EFT itself, the Choices Method is flexible, and there is no single “right” way to use it.
The Choices Method is brilliant because it helps people figure out not only what they don’t want but what they do want, it installs affirmations and positive statements, and it helps speed results. Patricia Carrington is truly an EFT pioneer, and I applaud her discoveries.