(This is an article by Gene Monterastelli, a Baltimore based Energy Psychology (EFT) practitioner. Please click on his website to know more about his work)

I have heard that Energy Psychology (EFT) has been effective in working with kids with Autism Spectrum Disorders (ASD).  How can I use EFT with ASD?

Anyone who has the opportunity to get to know a family with a child with a child who has been diagnosed with Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD) knows how baffling and mysterious ASD can be. 

One of my regular clients has a son, "Nathan", who was diagnosed with ASD. About two years ago I approached Nathan's father, "Jason", and share with him that EFT can be very effective for clearing up substance sensitivities.  There have been a number of cases of ASD children having a radical improvement of symptoms when substance sensitivities had been cleared up.

["Defeat Autism Now! (DAN)" (a collection of medical doctors, research scientist, and parents) is leading the charge in showing how substance sensitivities can be related to the symptoms of ASD. Their protocol is very thorough dealing with but not limited to allergies, diet, digestive enzymes, vitamin and mineral, and the GI track. Each area is taken one at a time. Each child responds differently to each step, but it provides parents a doctors a methodical approach to deal with symptoms.]

With some skepticism Jason agreed to try surrogate tapping for Nathan's sensitivities. Using surrogate muscle testing I created a protocol for which substance to tap for and for how long to tap for each substance (eg times a day and number of days). To help reduce Jason's skepticism I told him, "Even if nothing comes of the tapping, you are going to be thinking loving thoughts about your son a few times a day."

Just as a coincidence the day Jason started tapping for Nathan, Nathan was taken to a language lab and tested at having the verbal skills of a 20 month old. He was six at the time. Two weeks later, when the language lab started for the school year, Nathan was asked to leave because his verbal skills now that of a 5 1/2 year old.

Seemingly over night Nathan started speaking in complete sentence and using three syllable words. The only change in those two weeks was the surrogate tapping of the parents.

Within three months Nathan's general practitioner had taken him off all of his behavior medications. Jason reported the GP saying, "I have no idea what you are doing, but don't stop."

Over the last few years Nathan's parents have been slowly working through the DAN protocol. As part of the process a number of months ago Nathan was tested for and diagnosed with "leaky gut" which is very common for children with ASD. In very simple terms, leaky gut is when there is microscopic holes in the lining of the GI track and particles of food slip through these holes passing directly into the blood stream without being properly processed.

Because of some other medical treatments Nathan was going through, they were not going to start the leak gut treatment for three months after the diagnosis. I asked Jason if he was willing to do another surrogate tapping experiment. Based of the success of clearing up the substance sensitivities he was excited to try.

I drew Jason a very crewed drawing of what the cells in the lining of the GI track look like and what is happing when leak gut occurs. Each night for a few minutes Jason would tune into Nathan and see the cells moving back together closing the holes while tapping.

Three months later when it was time to start the leaky gut treatment Nathan was retested for a base line.  In the three months that Jason had been tapping Nathan's leak gut improved dramatically. The doctors where quite surprised.

We are now looking at each of the steps of the DAN protocol to find ways that each of those steps can be surrogately tapped for.