Exploring New Healing Opportunities for Veterans With Emotional Freedom Techniques

Veterans engaging in truly effective and transformative healing programs will be empowered to explore new strategies and techniques to address their recovery needs and goals. At Hawaii Island Recovery, each veteran recovery program is personalized to address the effects of mental health disorders, trauma, addiction, and the unique factors and combinations therein for effective and transformative care. Having options can empower veterans to create their most effective approach to treatment programs in Hawaii, with emotional freedom techniques being just one of these potential tools to add to a person’s program for sustainable change. 

Emotional freedom techniques (EFT), also known as “tapping,” are techniques developed to help individuals better address difficult thoughts, memories, or stresses in daily life. The technique involves tapping on specific areas of the body, mostly around the head and face, to help relieve stress or better process feelings of anxiety, depression, and more. While EFT is not a replacement for other forms of treatment, practicing EFT can provide veterans with new ways to cope with many challenges in daily life and add to a robust set of coping strategies. 

EFT can provide an additional layer of support to cope with the myriad of challenges common among veterans following service. For many veterans, treatment involves not just addressing the use of drugs or alcohol in civilian life but also the emotional needs of each veteran, such as trauma, survivor’s guilt, mental health disorders, and more. Effectively utilizing emotional freedom techniques can empower veterans to address and overcome the following:

EFT can also help veterans by promoting a healthier approach to managing emotional regulation. Regulating emotions can be difficult for many veterans, especially when they stem from trauma, grief, or survivor’s guilt, and having dedicated strategies to process these feelings can be a boon to further healing in treatment. Blending emotional support with physical sensations and direction can help veterans regain a feeling of control even amidst intensely difficult emotional turmoil that may persist in daily veteran life.

Likewise, emotional freedom techniques can add another layer to other proven resilience-building strategies and toolkits that can empower veterans to maintain the positive changes made throughout treatment at Hawaii Island Recovery, with the newfound agency being necessary for sustainable change.

Lastly, emotional freedom techniques empower veterans to engage in self-acceptance following traumatic events and experiences. This can be a difficult hurdle for many veterans in recovery. Learning to acknowledge stress and accept oneself regardless of past traumas can be a truly transformative experience and is necessary for challenging pervasive stigmas or barriers to an otherwise fulfilling civilian life. 

For many, emotional freedom techniques can be self-administered. However, when learning to use the practice effectively, it is important to first meet with one of Hawaii Island Recovery’s dedicated professionals to best understand and apply the strategy to each veteran’s unique situation. 

EFT involves tapping the body at specific points while gauging how a person feels in a given moment, especially during stress, anxiety, or while navigating difficult memories or past traumatic experiences. Veterans will learn to not only use this tapping at specific places and in a particular sequence but also do so while having a clear goal or mantra in mind. The goal of using EFTs is to comfortably vocalize challenges and express needs while exhibiting a degree of control while also ensuring a healthy flow of energy through the body, similar to the spiritual healing benefits of acupuncture therapy.

Working with dedicated professionals to identify a stress or problem, creating an affirming statement to address such stresses, and tapping the body all make up the core foundations of effective emotional freedom techniques. 

It is common to first engage in EFT with trained professionals to understand its benefits, learn the sequence and location of tapping, and explore challenging emotions in a safe space. However, many veterans may quickly be able to effectively utilize these techniques in daily life on their own, creating a new and available tool for not just navigating difficult memories or traumatic experiences but for coping with stresses of all kinds. For some, this can involve the stresses of transitioning to civilian life and professional advancement. Others may benefit from improved emotional regulation while coping with urges and cravings throughout their continued recovery from drugs or alcohol. 

Emotional freedom techniques are not meant to replace other forms of therapy or treatment like cognitive-behavioral therapy (CBT) or other effective techniques. Rather, they are intended to provide additional ways to manage stress, anxiety, depression, and difficult thoughts while continuing to engage in effective treatment. Each veteran will develop their personalized toolkit in recovery from addiction, trauma, mental health disorders, and more. EFT is one aspect of an otherwise comprehensive set of skills necessary for truly transformative healing at Hawaii Island Recovery. 

Emotional freedom techniques can be a great asset to veterans continuing to challenge and overcome the effects of trauma, addiction, and more. At Hawaii Island Recovery, we are committed to not just treating symptoms but creating a personalized treatment plan to empower veterans to be the catalyst of their own change, putting in the work to create a truly transformed and healthy approach to daily veteran life. Combining EFT with various other healing opportunities, social outlets, coping strategies, and spiritual healing practices can create this truly transformational approach to treatment, all while integrating veterans into a community of peers. For more information on how our treatment programs in Hawaii can help you, call to speak to us at (866) 390-5070.