The following appears in the current EFT Masters Newletter and Mary Stafford has graciously allowed me to offer it here in the hppe that it inspires teachers and administrators.....

Mary Stafford's dream is that EFT will be taught in elementary schools and children will teach their parents to do this easy to use healing tool. Children who learn to tap will have a greater quality of life; they will be able to release their hurt, anger sadness and embarrassment themselves. Here are 7 tips for getting EFT into your children's schools.

1. Tell every parent you know about EFT. Create EFT groups where parents learn to use EFT for themselves and their children. Share the resources on the EFT website.
2. Participate in research projects. Doing research projects and collect data to document how EFT helps kids overcome test and/or math anxiety. Such documentation could make it easier for more schools to incorporate EFT.
3. For school staff who use EFT - teach other staff members how to use it for stress management.  Reducing stress levels with EFT benefits teachers and students and subsequently, teachers may share EFT with their students.
4. For parents with kids in school - go to PTA meetings. Tell other parents and school staff about the benefits of EFT for kids. Direct them to the EFT website.
5. Volunteer at your child's school. If you are tutoring kids, use EFT with a child's learning problem and share the result with the teachers.
6. For EFT trainers - prepare brochures focused on how EFT helps children. Provide them to school counselors, and put them on school bulletin boards. Show the EFT Specialty Series #1 DVD where Ann Adams presents using EFT for children's emotional issues.  

Ask school counselors you have trained in EFT to keep case histories of their use of EFT with children. Make presentations with the school counselors using the case histories. Encourage more counselors to participate in EFT training.

Mary Stafford, EFT Master
www.mindbodytherapy.com

 Thanks, Eric, for posting these suggentions.I wonder if anyone who has created a kid-specific EFT brochure would be willing to post it and share. Gary Craig has such promotional brochures and materials on his site, and a kid specific one would be great. While I use EFT w/ kids in the psych unit where I work, I have not yet approached my own kids' school, but some starter materials would help.

 Anyone want to help others avoid reinventing the wheel on this?

Lori Harger, RN, EFT-cc 

This sounds a great idea.   As Gary says its a good idea to address problems at an early stage.  What could be more appropriate that at a Pre School.

I'm about to begin a year long association with a grade school that will allow me to document the  use of EFT in classes for students in K through grade 6. The presentations and sessions we'll record should offer everyone a glimpse into applying EFT in a host of learning situations. Meanwhile, I encourage anyone who uses EFT in their teaching, coaching or youth group work to post your experiences for others to use and learn from.

Andrea, I'm sure that any of our readers who have experienced introducing and using EFT in classrooms can help you with this. As I am in the process of introducing EFT into a full K-6 grade school I can offer the following:

• be sure to do formal EFT presentations to both the staff and the parents (each group will have its own concerns and questions so these should be separate presetantions)

• come with as many reference materials as you can bring (again, both groups will want to know how and where EFT is being used elsewhere and there are increasingly many good reference works by people like Christine Moran, Pat Crilly, Sue Busen, Jan Yordy, Till Schillng and Pat Carrington) 
  

• start with some basic energy-related exercises to introduce the concept of body energy and the language of EFT to the students. Emotional Freedom Techniques doesn't look or sound like fun to an 8 or 10 year-old. Make what you present fun, active and involve the entire group to remove the pressure to step forward and speak up that will affect sensitive children (the video recordings we are doing will effectively illustrate this for others to follow)
  

• keep records of your progress much like you would with an adult client and share your efforts with others. EFT will be seen as a threat by some and as simply hocus pocus by others. It is only by introducing EFT into formalized environments like classrooms and tracking measureable changes in isues like test scores, performance, health issues, etc that it will gain awareness and eventual support by parents and teachers. Studies are being done that will help us all, but until double blind observations and testing are done and published it is up to individuals to set standards and maintain the integrity and propriety of EFT in any environment where young people are concerned. Tracking what when and where you do EFT with young people will build a record that can be used by others.

• point interested parties to online communities and resources such as our discussion forums, the School Made Much Easier site and the vast directrory of testimonials under the search topic 'children' at emofree.com. The experiences of others like themselves will help to answer many of the questons and concerns of newcomers to EFT.

• be sure that teachers and parents realize that they can and should use EFT to clear their own issues to best serve the interests of their kids (from experience you will typically get resistence here from the same people who are sceptical to start off with and it can be the deal breaker to earning the adults' support if they stay in rheir sceptical, fear-based place. This is where gentle persistence and coming equipped with good support materials and references can make the diference. Again, obtain copies of the materials that working professionals are creating on this subject and quote from them freely. For example, coming into a presentation with a reference book or an information leaflet on tapping language for some specific issues and bringing in a Tappy Bear to illustrate the points and soften the one on one fears of adults or children can open doors that just won't be opened by verbal presentations asking new comers to tap.)

• finally, be prepared for the fact that like any new procedure, EFT is not going to fit into every youth environment that those of us who understand it and use it see as prime new territory. Change is slow, the competition for attention and acceptance is great and, in truth,  energy medicine techniques really only go where the energy to attract them exists. Treat new opportunities as fragile environments and tread lightly. If a teacher or parent is pushed beyond their comfort levels they will close off to listening and the children will be the losers. Kids are generally attracted to EFT. Let's try to be change agents for their parents and educators to support them learning and using this remarkable technique.

Those wishing to pilot EFT in their own schools, youth groups, teams, pediatric health care facilities  and elsewhere should contiunue to check back here for updates on a number of pilot projects starting up or already underway. These forums are the place to share your work for the good of all. Anyone with a school or youth group open to doing a formal pilot that would be documented can contact me for more information on our eft4Kids projects and filming. And stay tuned for videos of this summer's field work. 

Be well,

 Hi Eric,

 Thank you so much. You've given me an enormous host of information to consider. This is great stuff. I thank you for your generosity.

Much appreciated,

Andrea