How EFT
(Emotional Freedom Techniques)
Help Release Anxiety
This case study illustrates how EFT (Emotional Freedom Techniques) can help release deeply held anxiety and perfectionism stored in the body—freeing both the mind and emotions to move toward greater confidence, self-acceptance, and peace.
When this young client came to me for her second session, she shared two significant experiences that had unfolded since our previous work together.
The first was physical. She told me that after our last session, she went home and had what she described as a huge bowel release. She laughed as she told me, saying, “It just kept coming and coming!”
To me, this made perfect sense. In our first session, I observed how she held much of her anxiety and grief in her gut—many of us do. The physical release mirrored the emotional release we had initiated—her body letting go of what it had been holding onto for far too long.
She also shared an emotional shift. “Since our first session,” she said, “I’ve been less tolerant of that perfectionist judge in my head. I even reached out to mend a relationship with someone I am working with. I haven’t heard back, but the point is—I said my piece. I apologized, left the door open, and now it’s on them. I had nothing to lose—only something to gain.”
That reflected a beautiful transformation: the courage to act from peace rather than fear.
During our second session, she mentioned an incident that had occurred earlier that morning in her dance class. She felt anxious and unable to enjoy the spotlight (in dance class, different groups do the combinations, so you always have the opportunity to watch others work). She couldn’t relax and was self-conscious—hyper-aware that others were watching (or maybe were), and she was thinking, “What if I screw up? What if I don’t get it right?” that kept looping in her mind. She constantly felt that she was being judged negatively.
I asked her to keep tapping gently on the EFT points as she shared. Then I asked if she had ever felt that same feeling before. She recalled two specific memories—one when she was seven years old, and another from her teenage years. We began with the younger memory.
She described being in the dance studio, rehearsing for a concert with other girls. Everyone else seemed to be picking up the steps quickly, while she struggled to keep up. At that moment, she felt anxious and inadequate. When I asked where she felt it in her body, she said, “In my gut and solar plexus.” The feelings were of anxiety, fear that she couldn’t “learn things quickly,” and the deep belief that she was “stupid.”
We began tapping through the anxiety and fear, allowing her body and nervous system to discharge the old energy of fear, shame, and self-criticism. Layer by layer, the intensity began to lessen until her fear was gone. She said she felt that she had to be perfect (another belief revealed). The intensity level of this belief was a 5. We tapped on this using reminder phrases such as "I have to be perfect, being normal isn't good enough, it is hard to measure up, I have to be better, I have to be perfect, I have to be better than everyone else, I'm not good enough."
We tapped on these until they no longer felt true. Remember, with EFT, we have to tap on the negative issues and beliefs before we can bring in the positive!
She now said she felt she couldn’t trust herself, that the need to ‘be perfect’ stemmed from receiving positive attention from her mom and teachers when she did well. Therefore, it was imperative for her to always be good and do well, looking at herself through other people’s eyes—learned behavior.
Now, she felt sadness that she couldn’t trust herself, heart: Intensity: 4,5.
We tapped on her sadness until it had released, and she no longer felt sad. I asked her to replay the event in her mind— imagining the other girls picking up the combination easily and quickly. She said she was now feeling guilty because she felt slow and stupid, at an intensity level of 4,5. We tapped that feeling down to a 0.
After this memory, we worked on the teenage memory as well. Over the time we worked together, she felt tremendous relief and confidence, the freedom to let things roll off her back, and to care only about her work, not whether anyone was judging her. She enjoyed her auditions, feeling kinder and more compassionate toward herself and less panicky when picking up combinations, and so she picked them up more quickly.
This case highlights how perfectionism and fear of judgment often originate in early childhood experiences. When those feelings are safely revisited and released through EFT and inner child work, the body lets go of stored tension, and we gain emotional freedom and genuine self-confidence.
