Bringing EFT into Greek Primary Schools
GUEST WRITER: How can Primary School teachers help their students tap into learning and wellness using EFT (Emotional Freedom Techniques)? Marina Koutra answers that question by sharing practical advice, resources, and real-life examples from her journey of bringing EFT in Greek schools.
In this article you will learn:
- why and how Marina started introducing EFT in Greek schools
- how bringing EFT in Greek schools increased her students’ emotional self-regulation, focus, and productivity in the classroom
- how EFT can reduce friendship problems in the classroom and the playground
Marina is a classroom teacher, EFT practitioner, and author of 6 educational children’s books for Primary School students. She has brought EFT into the classrooms of 5 colleagues and 4 Primary Schools. She is keen to continue her work of bringing EFT in Greek schools, working with teachers and schools who want to use this stress management tool to help their students progress in their social, emotional and academic development.
Read on to learn about the results Maria has got from bringing this stress management tool to schools in Greece.
EFT IN GREEK SCHOOLS (GRADE 3): THE JOURNEY BEGINS
George, one of my 3rd Grade students, rushed into the classroom crying and asked for my help. He had just had a fight with his best friend. He looked devastated.
Right before, I had been asked to go immediately to the Principal’s office with all the other colleagues. So I only had a few seconds to take care of little George, so I quickly showed him where to tap on one of the main EFT tapping points (the collarbones)
“Tap here”, I told him and pointed around his collarbones, “It will help you breathe. I will be back.”
I rushed to the Principal’s office. At the end of the impromptu staff meeting during break, I was back in my classroom. George looked fine and he said that he was fine, too. We proceeded with our lesson.
A week later, George got up from his chair and went to one of the classroom corners where the dustbin was, to throw a piece of paper. He was tapping on his collarbones as he walked.
“What is the matter, George, I asked.
“We have an English test”, he replied.
By that time, I had been using EFT for a few years to calm myself down, to relieve my anxiety and to help myself cope with many difficulties that arose in the classroom setting. So I was more than eager to introduce EFT to my students and to my colleagues, but I was really afraid of how they would react. I knew of no one else using EFT in Greek schools. Many people had never even heard of it.
“Well”, I said to myself, “by showing that one kid just that one tapping point, I got results and got some feedback, too…I have to give it a try”.
Sophia was another of my students whose behaviour worried me in that class. Most of Sophia’s interactions with her classmates would end in arguments, or even a full-fledged fight. She spent most of the break and class time chasing some of the boys, yelling a lot, disturbing the lesson, and protesting a lot. Thank god I had a good relationship with her mother, and so I asked her if I could use EFT with Sophia.
Sophia and I sat on one of the benches in the school yard. She shared her thoughts and feelings. About two years ago, one of the boys had revealed to the other classmates that she was very fond of one boy in the class. She was still furious and very ashamed. When I asked her how mad and ashamed she was, when she thought of that memory. She said that she was mad and ashamed 100/10 on a scale of 0 to 10 (with 10 being the most mad and ashamed you could possibly be). We started to tap on that.
We only did two rounds of tapping using the standard EFT procedure when Sophia mentioned that these feelings were gone. “I don’t care anymore if he said it!” she said, and went off to play.
While at school, Sophia stopped chasing the boys and arguing with them so often. She was also calmer in class. I got some feedback from her mother, too. She noticed that Sophia was now using EFT before going to sleep sometimes.
EFT IN GREEK SCHOOLS (GRADES 1-5): WHOLE CLASS APPROACH
I was eager to find out how I could apply EFT in a whole-class approach, rather than just an individual student approach. How could I use EFT in my classroom and in the Greek Primary School where I work? I wanted to take it a bit further. And so I did, as part of a postgraduate course in creative writing in Aristotelian University in Thessaloniki. During this course I wrote and illustrated a story about a child who learned how to do EFT, to present it to the students in my school.
Parental permission was acquired, and I introduced EFT in six Grade 1-5 classes at my school (Grades 1-5, two classes in Grade 5) during a 1.5 hour period. Two weeks later, I followed up by asking the students to write down about this experience.
I introduced EFT as a technique that people can use when they feel upset, angry or sad etc. to help themselves.
I proposed that we could give it a try together to see how it could go, and that they (the students) could tell me afterwards how it felt.
I used a projector to project the illustrated story onto the classroom board, and then we tapped!! All students used EFT by themselves.
Inevitably, not everyone was as thrilled as I was, but many children were!!
Here are some of the comments the students wrote, two weeks after that experience.
GRADE 1-5: STUDENT VOICE TWO WEEKS AFTER THE EFT INTERVENTION
1st Grade student (see below): “The movement that you showed us helped me with some things. For example, it helps me at night when I dream.” This student said that he was using EFT before sleeping, because he was afraid of the nightmares he had.
2nd Grade student (see below): “EFT helped me to calm down a lot and since then I am very happy and I like it a lot. With love.”
3rd Grade student (see below): “I liked this story a lot because I learned that when I get mad or I am sad I can tap and be ok, I can also use it before I sleep. I liked it because I can relax and become my real self, that is I give all my attention to myself.”
4th Grade student (see below): “It was very nice. I had a great time. I now also practice this exercise at home.”
5th Grade student (see below): “This technique helps me understand who I am and it helps me know that everything will be okay. I feel grateful that you are the one who taught us the technique, our favourite teacher. I thank you from the bottom of my heart. It helps me with problems I face outside of school.”
The examples that I have just shared with you all occurred within the span of 3 months, with the support and approval of the school principal. A very important step in applying EFT in schools is having a supportive administrator, which I am very grateful to have had, as well as some helpful colleagues that were supportive and agreed to let me enter their classes. Since then, I have visited three more Greek Primary Schools to work with more students and introduce them to EFT, pre-pandemic, and I’m keen to continue my work with Greek Primary Schools once the pandemic subsides.
IMPACT ON STUDENT BEHAVIOR, WELLBEING AND LEARNING
In one of the classes, I was entering twice a week. The class was called Flexible Zone, and I used it mostly as an arts and crafts class, since those students liked crafts a lot. The students in this class asked to start the lesson with some EFT first, almost every time! During break times, some of the students would also come to me and ask for some help when they had quarreled. Applying EFT in these cases demanded only a few moments. They just needed someone to remind them of the tapping points, to model it for them and tap along with them.
Overall, what I experienced in my classrooms is that the children who adopted EFT avoided fights and demanded a peaceful environment in the classroom. They also used it to stay calm, focus more on their work, and to reduce friendship problems.
What was also promising was that I was getting some feedback from some parents. For example, one child fell from his bike on an evening excursion and he used EFT to self-soothe after the fall. Another child proposed EFT to his mother one day when she was very frustrated preparing the family’s meal. Meanwhile, some children introduced it to their older siblings to help them with exam anxiety.
The funniest thing that happened was that there was a student (a girl) who had anger management issues. This student used EFT to calm herself. And every time her teacher shouted during the lesson, she stood up and used EFT (she did EFT to the teacher) to calm her teacher down! That happened in my school.
I also got some feedback from one of the schools I visited in June 2020. One day during the autumn of 2021, the students in one of the classes got very upset and agitated about some incident, and they asked their teacher to use EFT before the lesson to help them calm down.
BRINGING EFT INTO YOUR CLASSROOM: HOW CAN EFT HELP YOUR STUDENTS?
Every class is a unique case. This academic year (2021-2022) it seems as if there is an even greater need to use EFT in schools; many teachers have observed that more learning and behavior problems occur than usual during the school day, probably as a consequence of the pandemic.
If you have not tried EFT yet, you might consider the following:
- start by doing EFT for yourself (EFT is a great tool for teacher burnout)
- talk with someone who has already used EFT (you may gain valuable insights)
- get some EFT training (you will know EFT better and you will gain confidence)
- invite an EFT expert into your classroom (he/she may help you to get started if you still don’t feel secure to start by yourself) or
- invite someone who has already used EFT in his/her classroom (you may gain insights and avoid mistakes)
Once you give it a try by yourself and you feel inspired to explore how you could apply EFT into your work with students:
- start small,
- start with one kid who’s coming back to you from break time feeling upset about friendship problems,
- present EFT through a video or a children’s book
- start by only telling them one point to tap, rather than going all in with the full 8 point sequence
- follow your class’s needs. Once children get to know EFT and recognise that they can use it as a tool to help them feel relaxed at school they will probably ask you to use EFT every time they will need it
- if your students agree, create a tapping routine (you may like to use EFT at the start or at the end of the day)
- do not, by any means, present EFT as obligatory; it won’t always be possible to use EFT when they are mad or after a fight (keep that in mind)
EFT can help both you and your students. You can work with your own general stress , and release anxiety from the years you have worked in education so far, and so on. By using EFT regularly to self-regulate, you will find that you will gradually start to respond in new ways to your students’ reactions too. So your students will also benefit. They will have a technique to self regulate.
Now that I am about to finish this article I have to say that I had to spend some time to find how to end it and decide what would be suitable for closing it up. Well to be honest no idea seemed right. But that is probably the best way to experience it. After all, EFT is a never ending experience!!
LEARN MORE ABOUT EFT
You might like to have a look at the following, research, videos and websites:
RESEARCH
- Reynolds (2015) “Is acupoint stimulation an active ingredient in Emotional Freedom Techniques (EFT)?” A controlled trial of teacher burnout. Energy Psychology: Theory, Research, and Treatment.
- Other EFT Tapping Research Studies.
- Margaret Therese Lambert (2020, PhD Thesis) “The Tapping Project: Introducing Emotional Freedom Techniques (EFT) to Reduce Anxiety and Improve Wellbeing in Primary School Students”.
VIDEOS
- (2021) “News Story: EFT Tapping in Schools, Research Trial”
- (2021) “How Teachers Are Using EFT in the Classroom”
- (2014) “EFT Tapping for Stress Relief in Classrooms – The Tapping Solution Foundation”
- (2013) “Tapping Sing Along for Pre-School and Older”
- (2013) “Stress Relief For Children – Tapping Solution Foundation in Schools”
- (2012) “EFT Tapping for Children – Mini Class on Emotional Freedom Techniques”
- (2012) “New Earth Curriculum: Emotional Freedom Techniques to Music”
- (2010) “EFT with Kids – 1st Grade Teacher talks about using EFT with students”
WEBSITES
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Marina Koutra is a Primary School Teacher, children’s book writer and EFT practitioner. She has been working in the Greek Public Education System since 1997. She came in touch with EFT in 2008, and in 2019 she completed her second post graduate degree in creative writing in the Aristotelian University of Thessaloniki through which she created a children’s book in Greek that introduces EFT to kids. Marina is currently in the process of publishing this book, which will be out soon.
