NL: Hi everyone. My name is Natalie Ledwell and this is The Inspiration Show. Today we have a very special show because I actually have two guests with me today and they’re in different locations, one is in Melbourne, Australia and the other one is in Queensland, and then of course, I'm here in LA. And so it's quite a global situation, but today what we're going to be talking about is EFT, which is Emotional Freedom Technique or tapping, and how these two amazing women are using tapping and how they’re getting some progress with it in Australia right now and especially how they’re working with children as well. So before I get into the juiciness and introduce my guests, just make sure that if you are watching this on YouTube, don't forget to click the link underneath this video once you finish watching the show, so that you can take my 30-second quiz so we can see what's holding you back from success. So please help me welcome my special guest, Dr. Peta Stapleton. Hi Peta, how are you?

PS: I’m well, Natalie.  Thank you.

NL: And Kate Helder, how are you Kate?

KH: Very well, indeed and thrilled to be here with you today. Thanks, Nat.

NL: Wonderful. So we may start with you first, Kate. Can you tell us a little bit about your background, you are with the Heart Mind Connect organization. So can you tell us a little bit about that and how you got into doing this kind of work?

KH: Ok so I was fortunate enough to meet up with Peta, being a very well-known EFT researcher. It was in November 2014 and at that time, I just launched a product called Toolbox Time, which is a deck of cards to help people with self-care work, and EFT was part of that. Peta walked past our stand in an exhibition, saw the EFT there, and came and said hello. It was just one of those moments that was driven by other forces other than I would've ever imagined. And Peta and I just connected then and it was probably only I think a couple of months later that I said to Peta, “I’d really love to run a big event here in Australia with EFT featuring in there.” And then a few months later, we formed Mind Heart Connect, the company, and we were actually also able to collaborate with Lori Leyden in this way from The Tapping Solution Foundation and it's all sort of really just come together very quickly and I’ve very excited to have this event coming up in May.

NL: That's right. So what about you Peta? So I know that you know you're a doctor and you have done a lot of research into EFT. So tell me what's fascinating about that and what really drew you to that.

PS: Yeah, look EFT has been in my life for about 15 years personally, but we had the opportunity about 10 years ago to start to research it. So I’ve very much been looking at it in that weight-food craving kind of area because of our obesity issues out there, so it's been fabulous. The outcomes have been outstanding, like nothing you've ever seen compared to traditional therapies in that area, certainly getting weight-loss, self-esteem, increased anxiety, things like that, so it's been amazing. I'm obviously based at a university here in Queensland, so we get lots of opportunity to explore this, and like we said in the beginning, even with children and students now.

NL: Right. So tell me, when you're doing these studies, what kind of things are you measuring?

PS: Yes, so if we are looking at things like weight, we will look at things like food cravings, anxiety levels, depression, things like that, because we know all those are playing a role in people's weight issues and certainly all our results are showing that tapping immediately affects things like anxiety and food cravings. So people literally sit there five minutes later after tapping on the food and don't feel like eating at it. You've got to see this to believe it. It’s outstanding.

NL: Yeah, I know. Actually, another person is also going to be at this live event you’re doing is Dr. Joe Dispenza. I was with him last weekend and Dawson Church was also speaking at this event, who also does a lot of work like this as well. So to say, it's an understatement to say how effective EFT tapping really is in these situations. So Kate for those people who aren't familiar with EFT or tapping, can you explain what it is?

KH: Ok, I think that's probably something better that you actually get the professor to explain it to you, but I'll just add here before Peta does. When I was first introduced to it, I thought it was the really kooky-looking technique and it was only just through a friend saying, “Come on Kate, you're obviously annoyed about something. Here tap with me.” And I thought, “Oh my goodness, this girl is seriously off her rocker.” But that's how I came to it. And I think certainly as a technique, it does look a bit odd, but certainly when you feel the benefits of it, you really want everybody that you know and love and care for to at least have the opportunity to experience what it is. So Peta can go into the actual process, which would be much better than me.

NL: Yeah, because there’s actually some science behind it, isn't there Peta?

PS: Absolutely, so we tap these two fingers on pressure points, you know, some of them are in our face, top part of our body, and we have those pressure points affected if we have a massage and things like that. But at the same time, we focus our mind on what our distress is, or like Kate mentioned what she tapped on initially, that feeling. So we know that as we tap on that pressure point, it sends a signal to the stress response center in our brain, which quietens that down so we know that that's why you feel calmer after doing tapping or that's why the food craving decreases. And Dawson, who you’ve mentioned, I mean, they're doing research now that shows the cortisol level or stress hormone in our body dramatically declines at a physiological level. So we've got the hard science that's building. We know that it's deregulating stress genes. So genes that make up our DNA now, I mean that's hard to dispute when we look at that kind of evidence to sort of say these tapping on these acupressure points does way more than just calm us down.

NL: Yeah. So tell me a little bit - I can’t speak more highly about EFT and I actually teach it with some of my programs as well - but tell me, how are you using it with children now? You know, what benefits are they starting to get from it too?

PS: Yes, so a couple of years ago now we had some local schools in the Queensland area approach us. So they had heard of the success we were having in the food and weight area, and wondered would it help students with anxiety levels, with exams and things like that, and of course, we knew that it helped with anxiety so we said yes. So we went into three different schools, over 250 students, and they got to participate and learn tapping, or EFT, for things like exam-anxiety, their worries about failing, procrastination, handing in assignments. So what we did was we track them and followed them up a year later and found that every one of those variables we measured steadily improved. So of course, we've actually just interviewed some of them recently for some of our other programs coming out, and the students were saying, “I can’t remember what I did the tapping on because I don't worry about it anymore.” So we're rolling that out in more schools now and we're actually starting to teach teachers how to use it every day in the classroom.

NL: Yeah because that's the thing it's one of those techniques that you can pull out any time you are feeling anxious, that you are feeling stressful. I know the way that I use it in the program is when people have limiting beliefs that are coming up and got all these programs and these beliefs that we've been carrying around for 30 or 40 or 50 years and then we use tapping to be able to eliminate those and program something differently. So what about you, Kate? What were the different ways that you were using tapping with your programs?

KH: So, when I was first introduced to it, for me, it was the ability just to be able to utilize the tapping whether it just be with younger kids, often a 11-year-old boy, just to be able to pick him up from school and he's really annoyed because somebody said something really unkind in the playground. To be able to cut through that belief that they're hanging onto in a matter of minutes. And I mean even while you're driving the car and you can tell your kid to tap on points, that’s not that hard. So I love it in the school environment and with Peta’s program with tapping in the classroom, seeing that roll out in schools in Australia and hopefully globally too would just be the most wondrous thing. And I think for me, anything that I sort of turned my attention to when I left my previous life at age 36, it was all about self-care and self-directed things that we could do. And I’ve studied lots of different things, but there was always this little gap, it was always coming back to that emotional element and it just thrills me when I read books by Deepak or Dr. Joe’s work and everything, like giving the science and the validation to such a simple technique. And I think that's what Peta and I really want to be able to share with people, is that you don't have to know all the ins and outs just to get some benefit. There can be benefit there for everybody and it doesn't matter where they are in their community, in their workplace or even just with their own family at home.

NL: Yeah. It's definitely one of those things you can kind of do anywhere, anytime. So Peta, I know that we've talked about a lot of the benefits that happen as a result of this, and like you said, we’re just tapping on these points like acupressure points, so physiologically, what's happening when we do that? Because it looks so simple.

PS: It does. And what we understand today is the amygdala, which is the stress part, it’s deep in the back of our brain, it's been around for so many hundreds of years at a evolutionary level just to protect us, send out that stress response. But this tapping technique definitely calms that down and what happens then is obviously things like cortisol (stress hormones in our body) reduce as well. So it is why people can start to yawn as they're tapping through and starting to feel more calm and relaxed. They actually start to yawn because that amygdala is not sending that response out anymore. So it is such an amazing tool and given I teach all of the traditional ones here, and at really high levels, Masters programs, EFT really has so much more over those, and we really are saying there’s this fourth wave of therapies coming through here. And at a clinical level, this fourth wave has reintroduced using the body again.  So we're using the body to release some of those things - limiting beliefs like you said - but those really strong distressing feelings.

NL: Yeah, absolutely. Yeah and you know like we said, we mentioned Lori Leyden, who's a girlfriend of mine who I’m actually going to be meeting up with a little bit later today. She actually uses this technique for trauma healing in Rwanda and she's spending a lot of time in Sandy Hook as well. So let's get back to this live event that you're doing, Kate. I know that you're organizing this in Queensland, like I said I've got a few friends that are going to be speaking there. So tell us a little bit about the event and you know what's the purpose, what is it that you know you'd like to be able to create with this event?

KH: So really when we were pulling the event together, it was more about being able to build that bridge between members of the community who might not necessarily look at any of the mindfulness practices or certainly EFT, and by having a group speakers where three are EFT experts and three are not, it's just a really nice balance. With Dr. David Hamilton there as well from the UK, he's just the most wonderful man and the work that he's doing all around happiness and kindness and its effect on our physiology once again. And then, obviously with Lori with her work with Rwanda and then in Newtown is just phenomenal. Local neuroscientist here in Australia, Dr. Helena Papovic and Brad Yates as well tapping expert, and then obviously Peta and Dr. Joe Dispenza. So on the Friday, we've got the independent workshops with all those keynote speakers, and then on the Saturday, the full-day plenary, you get to hear from everybody and their knowledge and everything. And then on the Sunday, we've got the format of masterclasses where people will break off into groups, into their area of interest. So for example, it might be with trauma and therefore they go into a group we found Dr. Lori Leyden to do the work with her. The other thing too was really creating a sense of community and there are a lot of people out there doing the most incredible work in so many different avenues, whether it be in mindfulness and meditation, or yoga, or with EFT tapping, it was bringing everyone together in a physical space where they can connect, they can look at their areas of expertise, or the areas they’d like to work in, and to start to hang out with those people and individuals and collaborate and create something quite wondrous as well. So that's really the main reason for it is to really create that sense of community and tools for people to be able to go out into the workplace, home and community, to create a far more joyous life for all of us really.

NL: Yeah, wonderful. So it sounds like that for the people that will be attending that they will actually walk away from that event with the specific techniques that are going to help them with whatever challenge they're facing, which is just you know that that's life-changing. So what dates are the event?

KH: 5, 6, 7 of May and there is a three-day ticket or a two-day ticket and a VIP special, and the Early Bird Special finishes on the 20th of February. So if people want to get in and grab the Early Bird and save 15%, it's a good time to do it now.

NL: Wonderful. So guys if you're watching this video online, just click the banner to the side, it will take you straight through to the website where you can find out all the details about the event. And if you're watching this on the app, you'll just click the banner underneath that will go through to that. So thank you both Kate and Peta for joining me today and thank you for putting on this event this is going to help a lot of people. It's in Queensland, the event in May?

PS: Yep.

KH: Yep.

NL: So make sure that if you are in Australia and you can get to that event and you have any of the challenges like I think we've listed about 50 of them here in the show already, that you'd like to have help with, I know that EFT is a really effective way to do that. So thanks again ladies for joining me.

KH: Right, thanks Nat.

PS: Thanks, Nat.

NL: Hey guys, I encourage you to share this video, please get the word out there by clicking the Facebook and the Twitter share buttons on this page. Don't forget to click on the banner to go through to find out about all the details you need about the event. Click the link underneath once the show is finished if you're on YouTube so you can take the quiz to see what's holding you back from success. And if you're watching this online, leave your email so that we can send you the Manifesting With The Masters e-course for free. So until next time, remember to live large, choose courageously and love without limits. We’ll see you soon.