This phase is often considered the preliminary phase because it sets the stage for the actual treatment and what particularly the treatment is meant to alter. Participants identify and rate their own level of fear of the particular instance that they are in the therapy to treat. Several breathing exercises help relax the patient once the fear has been identified.
During the treatment phase of the emotional freedom technique, participants relax on a chair while they try to focus on their most feared circumstance. This is often a difficult phase because it deals with reliving a particular experience that was traumatic for the patient for a long period of time. While the patient focuses on the experience, the specialist applies pressure to specific areas of the patient's body to stimulate nerve activity.
In the post-treatment phase, patients are then asked to rate the intensity of their fear again to determine how effective the treatment was. If the level of fear is similar, additional treatments are scheduled, and the treatment intensity is increased to longer periods of time and more pressure on specific points relating to the fear.
Though the emotional freedom technique is most frequently used for the treatment of underlying or traumatic fears, it can also be used to stave off food cravings, implement positive goals, reduce pain in certain areas of the body, and otherwise remove negative emotions. For all of these different treatments the procedure is the same, patients are merely asked to focus on different traits, behaviors, qualities or objects.