I write this letter for Sonya Sophia; gratefully acknowledging what she brings to the craft of EFT, and the personal and professional changes that continue in my own life daily.

My first encounter with energy medicine was several years ago at a local physical rehabilitation hospital where I have worked as a licensed Recreational Therapist for twenty years. The medical director at the time, presented Dr. Callahan’s work to the treatment team of which I was, and still am, a member.

Some years after that, Sonya Sophia moved to Chico, and began teaching Emotional Freedom Techniques classes and holding EFT circles for the community. I began to attend the circles and completed all three levels of classes she offered; and several specialty classes over the next three years. There were twenty to thirty people who took the beginning, intermediate, and advanced classes. People came from as far away as Las Vegas and San Francisco to attend. Sonya was very organized with her presentations and had excellent handouts. Many of those past students, including myself, are now confidently leading circles of their own and giving one-on-one sessions. They continue to work on their own chronic health issues and are now deeply engaged in their lives.

At the first EFT circle I attended, I tapped on chronic left hip pain and the feelings I was having around the pain. I found that I had been storing some unexpressed grief for my father’s death in that hip. The pain went away and was gone for weeks. It took some more tapping on other grief issues for the chronic hip condition to leave completely. My left hip now lets me know when there is some personal transition that needs love and attention through tapping, but for the most part it healed. This first encounter with the deep healing of tapping was astonishing and very welcomed. It opened up doors of possibilities that I still encounter in my varied work settings.

I work in two clinical settings: a Rehabilitation Center and Therapeutic Solutions center, both in Chico, California. In the physical rehabilitation center, I work with in-patients when there are issues of anxiety, pain, grief, or in some cases, suffering due to chronic illnesses. I have successfully treated anger, fear, grief, pain, sadness, and many physical conditions. Over the past three years I have treated approximately one hundred inpatients with tapping.

I treated a woman with Restless Legs and easily taught her, and her attending daughter, the technique. I also showed them the web page and left a laptop for them to explore EFT videos and testimonials. In follow-up, the patient reported using EFT when her legs woke her up during the night. The jumpy pins and needles sensation would leave and she was easily able to fall asleep again. As follow-up, I printed out a testimonial from the EFT site from a woman who had similar outcome using EFT for Restless Legs.

I was asked to visit a patient because he was screaming out in pain and reusing pain medication. He was so lethargic that I performed the tapping on him. I tapped for the pain, but emotional issues surfaced that were core or aspects of issues. I worked with him for about forty minutes and when I left, he had no pain. On a follow-up visit, I gave him self-tap instructions and he began successfully using EFT as a modality to address his pain and anxiety issues. He reported using tapping to help prior to going for an MRI. He became a spokesperson for EFT during his stay at the hospital. This is only a small representation of the everyday tapping experience in the rehabilitation setting.

My supervisor and other members of the team know that I will work with difficult patients and teach EFT when needed. They are supportive in my effort to use energy medicine in this setting. Sonya is an able teacher and instilled in me the confidence to use EFT to benefit myself and others. Once I began instructing patients and co-workers in the techniques I could hardly stop.

At the same rehabilitation setting, I have taught five aquatic therapy classes for the past twenty years. I have given individual and group EFT instruction to these classes while they were in the therapy pool. Two years ago, I asked Sonya Sophia to give a demonstration of EFT to a cancer support group at the Enloe Cancer Treatment Center. Some of the group members became very involved with using EFT for treatment.

In addition, I work in psychiatric out-patient day treatment center teaching EFT to groups of seriously mentally ill patients. It has proven to have amazing results with patients suffering from anxiety and physical pain. A patient who was diagnosed with Schizoid Affective Disorder and who had very low self-worth, tapped his way to feeling less anxious and more at ease with himself. He was always eager for new group members to learn EFT. I have numerous patients whose pain went from ten to zero, or near zero, in several minutes and later towards the end of the session had zero pain. Patients whose pain is tapped away consistently report zero pain level from one week to another.

I attribute my success as a practitioner to the inspired teaching of Sonya Sophia. She brought such enthusiasm and immediacy to the EFT classes she taught. I watched her tap with some very extreme PTSD cases in class and group settings and she was skilled, intuitive, and compassionate in bringing someone through a highly charged session. The work I have done with Sonya set the stage for me to use the tool and also to excel.

Sonya also gave instruction on the energy systems of the body and correlated them to EFT. Sonya was very consistent and available when offering circles and sessions to individuals and the community. Over a three year period she consistently held weekly circles at her home and when she was not available, recruited one of her able students to lead. I assisted Sonya in leading EFT group sessions where over one hundred and fifty people attended. She has such skill in the techniques, and she walks the walk, and talks the talk.

In my own life, I have more confidence and can easily manage any emotional upset. For the most part, physical pain can be easily tapped away. I am looking forward to years of offering EFT to my community and friends and I know this would not be the case had it not been for the care and attentive teaching of Sonya Sophia. In her journey, through our town and our lives, she has left powerful tools and teachings to help guide and heal many of us for years to come.

-M.M., California