Episode 165
Donald Grothoff:
The Surprising Way EFT Unlocks Your Natural Healing Power
Looking for natural ways to support your healing journey?
EFT practitioner Donald Grothoff reveals how a simple tapping technique can unlock your body's natural healing abilities. After discovering EFT while helping his children with OCD and PANDAS, Donald now helps others use this powerful tool for processing trauma, managing chronic pain, and breaking free from fight-or-flight mode.
Learn the science behind EFT, master the basic tapping points, and discover a practical morning routine that combines breathing and tapping. Whether you're dealing with autoimmune challenges, chronic stress, or old trauma, this episode offers free, practical tools you can start using today to support your healing journey.
First Aired on: Nov 11, 2024
Episode 165
Donald Grothoff:
The Surprising Way EFT Unlocks Your Natural Healing Power
Looking for natural ways to support your healing journey?
EFT practitioner Donald Grothoff reveals how a simple tapping technique can unlock your body's natural healing abilities. After discovering EFT while helping his children with OCD and PANDAS, Donald now helps others use this powerful tool for processing trauma, managing chronic pain, and breaking free from fight-or-flight mode.
Learn the science behind EFT, master the basic tapping points, and discover a practical morning routine that combines breathing and tapping. Whether you're dealing with autoimmune challenges, chronic stress, or old trauma, this episode offers free, practical tools you can start using today to support your healing journey.
First Aired on: Nov 11, 2024
Table of Contents:
In this episode:
Donald Grothoff transitioned from web design to becoming an EFT practitioner after discovering its power in helping his children with OCD. Today he shares how this simple yet powerful technique can help unlock your body's natural healing abilities, from managing chronic pain to processing deep trauma.
Introduction
Donald Grothoff is an EFT practitioner and mindset coach whose journey into healing work began when two of his children were diagnosed with OCD, with one later being identified as having PANDAS (an autoimmune condition). Through his search for solutions, he discovered the transformative power of Emotional Freedom Technique (EFT) and has since dedicated his life to helping others heal using this and other complementary modalities.
Episode Highlights
Understanding EFT and Its Impact on Healing
Donald explains how EFT works using an analogy to electrical systems in buildings, highlighting how energy flows through our body impact our overall wellness.
- EFT works through tapping on specific acupressure points
- The technique affects spiritual, emotional, and physical aspects of health
- Regular practice creates long-term positive effects
- The pattern matters less than the mental processing during tapping
The Basic Tapping Points and Process
A comprehensive walkthrough of the main tapping points used in EFT and how to use them effectively.
- Start with the side of the hand
- Progress through eyebrow, side of eye, under eye, under nose, chin, collarbone, and under arm
- Finish at the top of the head
- Combine with specific phrases for maximum effect
EFT Applications for Different Conditions
Donald shares various ways EFT can be used to address different health challenges.
- Effective for habit change and behaviors
- Helps process and release trauma
- Addresses chronic pain patterns
- Supports fear and phobia management
The Movie Technique for Trauma Processing
A specialized EFT approach for processing traumatic experiences.
- Involves telling the story in different perspectives
- Includes running the scenario backwards
- Adds various elements like color to transform the experience
- Often results in significant reduction of emotional charge
Creating a Healing Morning Routine
Donald's recommended morning practice combining multiple healing modalities.
- Incorporates 4-7-8 breathing technique
- Includes physical and emotional check-ins
- Uses visualization with breathing for pain management
- Can be extended with tapping as needed
Notable Quotes
Our body works very similar to electricity in a house. We have to deal with all of those areas - our organs need it, our brain needs it, all of it does.
Donald Grothoff
Until we can get past that fight or flight response, everything else becomes null and void.
Donald Grothoff
Other Resources:
Connect with Donald Grothoff
Episode Transcript
Donald Grothoff:[00:00:00] I talked to them about what EFT really is. Think about the building that you're in right now. It has electricity coming into it, usually a big wire that's up above and that electricity has to go out to all the different things inside the house.
Donald Grothoff: Our body works very similar to that in the fact that we have to deal with all of those everywhere in our body needs it. Our organs needed, our brain needs it. All of it does.
Donald Grothoff: When we are in the midst of it, we have to figure out, what's going on and is there a problem somewhere in our body? And if it is, it's stopping the wiring. So we have to energy flow. So we have to use the tapping process to bring that back into good flow.
Julie Michelson:[00:01:00] Welcome back to the Inspired Living with Autoimmunity Podcast. I'm your host, Julie Michelson. And today we are joined by Donald Grothoff, Emotional Freedom Techniques Tapping Practitioner and Mindset Coach with Focused Healthy Family. Through Focused Healthy Family, Donald uses his skills in EFT, tapping, breath work, and mindfulness practices to nurture each patient, parent, or individual to the next level in their healing process.
Julie Michelson: In today's conversation, we are talking about EFT and how tapping can be used for spiritual, emotional, and physical health. It's a tool that everyone can use to [00:02:00] support their healing journey.
Julie Michelson: Don, welcome to the podcast.
Donald Grothoff: Well, thank you. very much for inviting me here. I enjoy it.
Julie Michelson: I am excited for our conversation and I would love for you to share a little bit about, I always say, you know, none of us, Most of us, at least in this wellness space, did not come to this space because this is what we dreamt of as children.
Julie Michelson: Um, so, you know, I know you're, you're doing a lot of things and, and, but, uh, all under the umbrella of focus, healthy family. And tell me a little bit about how you became the practitioner you are today.
Donald Grothoff: Okay. Well, um, I have three children and, uh, two of which have OCD. Uh, separately to, uh, not, not the same.
Donald Grothoff: The first one really threw us off base because we didn't know what, what it was. We, we didn't even understand what it was. [00:03:00] In fact, it started out as her coming down from the bathroom after a fun day of her, her, one of her friends there talking through things and, and working through things and doing stuff.
Donald Grothoff: And she came down to my wife and whispered something in her ear, and I was across the room from her, and the next thing I know, my wife said, what do you mean you can't step into your room? And I was like, oh my, what is this going to be about, you know? And it turns out that her room became dirty to her, and not just the same kind of dirty you would find in your house.
Donald Grothoff: We, we have dust bunnies all over the place in our house, so that isn't the, the dirty part of it. She couldn't step into a room and, um, her friend was in the room [00:04:00] at the same time. So it made for a very adventure, uh, evening for us. Uh, my wife had to find rugs throughout the house. So we could place them on the, on the way to her bedroom to get her to go to sleep that night.
Donald Grothoff: And we really didn't think much about it. We thought it was just a odd situation, something like that. But it just got worse and worse from that. And it, it led to a place, for me, I was non military, but I always say, Uh, I approached it in a military sense because I was just like, well, we can't do that.
Donald Grothoff: We're not, you know, the, uh, the next night or a couple nights later, we went through the same thing and one of my, uh, pants, like touched. Her, uh, sheet on, on the, on her bed and she went ballistic on it and just had to, everything had to be cleaned, all that kind of stuff. [00:05:00] And of course I'm, I'm like, it was 1130 at night.
Donald Grothoff: I wasn't about this, you know, hold on to that. And it just became a battle from there on. And, you know, um, my second one came after the first one. We thought we had it all settled out. And it started going down the same path and was like, Oh, my gosh, but we thought that we could get it all done. You know, we thought we'd had it all settled from the first, right.
Donald Grothoff: And that didn't work at all. Different kid, different, different kid, all of that. And we also learned too, that, um, what my first daughter went through was pandas and Which is a, which then led us to the whole idea of, of, uh, autoimmune kind of, uh, situation versus just a, a regular one. [00:06:00] And what we learned from that is how to, um, communicate, but also then I, like I said, I, I had been playing with the, the toying thing with the, the, the EFT.
Donald Grothoff: And, uh, so I, I, I, We learned that, got involved in that, got involved in that, wrapped into classes, right, finished all that up. And we learned those two factors, especially on our, what we're doing is learning how to communicate and using the EFT. So it kind of got us into that, that realm of the, of the, um, unknown and, and the, um, the space.
Donald Grothoff: situation, I guess.
Julie Michelson: Yeah. Yeah. And, and for listeners not familiar, and we're going to dig in, but EFT is emotional freedom technique, correct? Yes.
Donald Grothoff: Yes.
Julie Michelson: Okay. I know in our bubble, it's, [00:07:00] yeah.
Donald Grothoff: If you, you know, to understand that it's the, um, I like to write it down so I don't forget it, but the process of self tapping on the acupressure points are the, uh, meridians of the body.
Donald Grothoff: To help the spiritual, the emotional, and the physical parts of the body.
Julie Michelson: Love it. And it is, it is an amazing tool. So if, if you're listening and you, and you're not familiar with EFT, keep listening because, um, you know, there is, we know the nervous system is so directly connected with, uh, you know, our, our wellness overall, but also driving autoimmunity, um, you know, as, as one of the drivers.
Julie Michelson: And, and so, um, yeah. EFT can be a great tool. What I love about it is it's free and you can do it anywhere, you know, so, but [00:08:00] we'll dig into that a little more. Um, so your kids kind of led you. What were you doing before? I'm just curious. Career wise.
Donald Grothoff: I was, I was in, uh, my actually, I was in web design.
Julie Michelson: Okay.
Julie Michelson: Yeah. So big shift. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah.
Donald Grothoff: Yeah, very big shift because I mean, we got into the, the, the spiritual realm, uh, just because of some wanted to do something different, but not, not anywhere near the idea of taking on as a, as a profession.
Julie Michelson: Well, amazing. I love that's how, you know, that's how the universe works, whatever your plans are, might not, might not be.
Julie Michelson: Um, and, and so, you know, we were chatting really briefly before I hit record, um, because like, like I mentioned already, you're, you're not just, you know, singularly focused.
Donald Grothoff: Um,
Julie Michelson: and [00:09:00] so, you know, tell me a little bit about how, and I think you kind of already alluded to it, but, um, well, I want to dig in more to the, to the tapping and, and that direct connect, um, but, but tell me a little bit about the mindset coaching and, you know, how, how did all these things play together in your world?
Donald Grothoff: Well, um, I, I started to work with a doctor, um, here in Charlotte. I'm just outside of Charlotte, but, um, and he, he first started me on some of the basic stuff, but then I also went with another doctor who dealt with the immune system, even more so, and got myself involved with him, you know, with Lyme disease.
Donald Grothoff: In fact, I, I used to always say he was the, he was the one that I, I could never pronounce all the different things that he did because there were just [00:10:00] so many different things that he did, you know. Uh, but yeah, it got me into, into learning more and more and, and of course being in that practice and I also learned, you know, about the food and nutrition and I learned about, uh, all the different things that it's more than just.
Donald Grothoff: What my medical doctors want to say is it's not just about the heart. It's not just about this or that. It's about the whole person. And, uh, he helped me to learn, learn that. And then, like I said, getting into some of these bigger, more, um, uh, rambunctious kind of, uh, I don't know if that's a good word to use, but, uh, these, these different, uh, um, I can't even say the word now.
Donald Grothoff: Techniques, tools. Yeah, you know, learning them all helped me to understand how much better it is to go down that path. That path.
Julie Michelson: Yeah. We always say it's nice to have a big toolbox [00:11:00] versus, you know, typically if you go to your GP, it's diagnosis medication and that's the toolbox, right? So, um, yeah, which is, which is amazing.
Julie Michelson: Um, I, and I love, it's similar to kind of my entry into this whole world too, was exposure with. a practice doing cool stuff. And, and so you just kind of drink the Kool Aid, the healthy Kool Aid and go deeper and deeper.
Donald Grothoff: Well, what I, what I always tell patients too, is when, when they first sit down, is I, I talked to them about what EFT really is.
Donald Grothoff: Now, you know, I, I mentioned the, the, the, the method that, That I usually talk about, but I take it a further a step further, and I tell the client, I said, you know, think about the building that you're in right now, whether it be your house or apartment or whatever, it has, uh, electricity coming [00:12:00] into it, usually a big wire that's up above, and that, that electricity has to go out to all the different things inside the house.
Donald Grothoff: So it comes into the, the little wires that are inside. That help it connect all those different places. Well, our body works very similar to that in the fact that we, um, we have to deal with all of those, uh, you know, everywhere in our body needs it. Our organs needed, our, um, our brain needs it. All of it does.
Donald Grothoff: And when we are in the midst of it, then, um, we have to. Uh, try to figure out what's going on and is there a problem somewhere in our body? And if it is, it's stopping the, the, the wiring. And so we have to energy flow. Yeah. Yeah. We, and we have, so we have to use the, the tapping process. [00:13:00] To bring that back into, into, into good flow.
Julie Michelson: Is there a correct way to, to practice tapping? You know, is it, um, I always say with any practice, like you, you need the practice first. I have a lot of clients that'll say, Oh, Oh, no, you know, I'll do the breathing when I'm stressed, you know, when I feel stressed or I'm like, well, no, if you, if you don't have it, you can't grab for it.
Julie Michelson: But um, you know, what is your approach? What do you think is, is the most effective way to use tapping?
Donald Grothoff: Well, there's a couple of different questions there, but I know, um, you know, the first, the first is not to, one is I try to get everybody to do it every day and I know that that's a tough place to be.
Donald Grothoff: Because people, like I say, they think about, well, I'll do the breathing and I'll, I'll maybe tap a little bit when I, when I'm running into a situation, but the more you do it on a regular basis, the [00:14:00] better it is. Now, what a lot of people don't think about is the, the tapping and, um, how it, uh, how it works with itself, how it, uh, the more you do it.
Donald Grothoff: the long term effects of it are. So the more you do it, the more you put it into effect, I think it has a long term effect to it. And that long term effect is, um, a, a, uh, a response that, that allows you to kind of hold back things that are coming at you on a regular basis.
Julie Michelson: Can see that. And
Donald Grothoff: so, so the more you, the more you do it, the better.
Donald Grothoff: But now the other part of it is I tell people not to worry so much about the, the pattern. Okay. Even though it is, it's a good pattern. I tell 'em to, you know, the really, the big part of it is working through what's going on, up, up top. [00:15:00] Gotcha. Um, and try to use, you know, if they can use the whole process, great.
Donald Grothoff: You know, not a lot of times it's just a matter of using what you can and sometimes it's hitting a spot. Hmm. Uh, but it's, it's really working through what's going on up here
Julie Michelson: up in the brain. Can you, for those that are unfamiliar, can you walk us through the tapping points and kind of, um, obviously people watching are, are gonna, you know, get a better show, but if you can kind of verbally walk us through as, as you do it, um, that would be amazing.
Donald Grothoff: Okay. Well, a lot of times we start on the edge of our hand and again, I always tell not to worry about. Which hand to go on like that, and a lot of times when we start on the edge of the hand or this and either one, um, we start out with a phrase of either, you know, um, even though I feel like I'm, [00:16:00] you know, uh, have trouble with this situation.
Donald Grothoff: Uh, even though that may be true, I totally and completely love and accept myself. So we, we start out there and we'll go through that about three or four rounds of that. And then we move up here to the eyebrow and then under the eyes, or I mean side of the eyes, under the eyes, under the nose, on the chin, on the collarbone, underneath the arm, about four inches down, and then top of the head.
Donald Grothoff: Those are the Kind of the basics of the principle. I mean, there's a few like underneath the, the, uh, the breastbone. There's, there's spot here. Um, there's other ones that I show people a lot of times that aren't in the, in the realm, and that's this little area right here, or, you know, the, the hitting of the, the hands here.
Donald Grothoff: Um, so those are, those are the. [00:17:00] The points we use when we're doing the tapping.
Julie Michelson: Amazing. And, and let's, so you mentioned, I love that analogy by the way of like the electricity in a building. Um, let's talk a little bit about kind of uses for tapping. You know, um, I, I said throughout nervous system, um, but for people that are unfamiliar, um, you know, what is, where do you see people using tapping?
Julie Michelson: This technique is, I know, everywhere.
Donald Grothoff: Well, you know, because I mean, I started out, I think, uh, in the place of just fear are, well, actually, even before that, I was doing simple, uh, tapping for, um, uh, stress related or not stress related. ongoing, uh, like, uh, eating a candy bar, uh, or drinking a soda pop that [00:18:00] they're, they're just tired of, of getting.
Donald Grothoff: And so we, we did create habit change.
Julie Michelson: Yeah. Yeah. And
Donald Grothoff: it, um, you know, and it really worked of, of, of a lot of the things I've done with it. That, that one always, Worked within usually within about 10 minutes. I could get somebody to kind of change how they I do things Here's another one. Here's another one that forces I mean, that's any anybody that's doing this is doing is running into that But I mean that one of my favorite I guess favorite stories was when I was Working in, um, with, I was working with a group of senior citizens, senior citizens, excuse me, and one lady came up to me after when she was, I, I really need your, your help in this because I'm, I'm supposed to fly to [00:19:00] Australia in a couple of months, and my, my sister in law, my, my father in law, Is living there.
Donald Grothoff: And so she came in to work with me and we did a bunch of work around here at first, but then I was able to get her onto an airplane here in Charlotte. One of the, um, the race racing teams had a racing, uh, their own plane, and I was able to get her on the plane without they didn't charge me anything. It was really cool.
Donald Grothoff: They were really cool. And it was a big plane and we were able to. Um, get her past the, the, the mindset of the flight and using that and a couple other things that we did around it, uh, we got her onto, uh, into Australia without a flight, without a hitch.
Julie Michelson: Which is amazing because if you think about how long [00:20:00] that flight is,
Donald Grothoff: oh yeah, well it's
Julie Michelson: incredible.
Julie Michelson: I want to say
Donald Grothoff: it's like 24 hours, something like that. You know, just getting her there was amazing. And what was interesting about it was that, um, this lady, uh, my, my mother in law was moving up to the same place that this lady was living. It's it's just outside of Charlotte. And I was talking to her afterwards and I, and my mother in law said something about this, this lady that was, uh, her, her, uh, best friend at high school.
Donald Grothoff: And, uh, she. She was talking to her and she said, this, this lady said that there was some lady, some person that led her to go to Australia without hitching with their flight. And I said, well, I couldn't disclose the person's name. So I said, well, you know, just check with her who it is. And it ended up being the same lady, you [00:21:00] know, and it was kind of a funny, interesting kind of story.
Julie Michelson: It is a fun, full circle. Yeah. Yeah. I love that. That's,
Donald Grothoff: yeah.
Julie Michelson: So the, I mean, powerful, powerful tool, and you mentioned, again, you have more than one tool. Um, but if somebody were to incorporate tapping into their daily routine, I have no doubt what, there's notice, noticeable change. Um, So you mentioned the creating the habit change, you mentioned fear, what else do people use tapping for?
Donald Grothoff: Well, one of the, the, the other one, and this is more, I guess, about my tool is one of the tools that the emotional freedom techniques has is called the movie technique. And it's something that I, this, I, I've used, I've used for rape victims. I've used it for, um, I used it for one or two, uh, emotional, uh, [00:22:00] dealing with the, the brother who committed suicide and it's called, yeah, it's called trauma.
Donald Grothoff: And it is one that takes you through a series of steps to get through it. So it, it, it sometimes can take two or three steps to at least get through the whole process, but it's, it's a process of initially they tell their story, whatever it, if they can anyway, um, And in the process of that storytelling, they, they run through just a small segment of that, that, that segment.
Donald Grothoff: And then, and then I take it through, first, first we tell it in, uh, iVer, uh, the iVersion, you know, them telling it. The next one is them telling, but it's a different story. It's, it's them telling it as a, as a third party. And then you add, uh, you add, [00:23:00] um, you run it backwards, uh, you, you add color to it. You add a bunch of different things to it as you go through it.
Donald Grothoff: And then when you get to the very end of it, you ask them to go back to the beginning and ask the same story. And a good bit of the time when I do that, they don't, they can't remember the story. At least it's, it's not anywhere near what it was at the beginning. And it's one of. It's one of my favorite. I love it.
Donald Grothoff: It's a easy, not easy. I shouldn't say that. It's just a, a really wonderful way of handling situations. And I, like I said, I just had one about, uh, it's been about three months ago that we did one on. And like I said, to go from crying through the first, you know, the first section text takes a long time. And then when they get to the end, it's like, you know, [00:24:00] it either, it isn't there at all.
Donald Grothoff: Yeah. Or it's just doesn't have it. Or that charge is gone. Yeah. Yeah. The whole charge is gone to it. That's amazing. So that's, that's one of the, the brilliant factors that I have about, about doing the FT.
Julie Michelson: Wow. Which is, uh, thank you for sharing that. Cause we, I do, we tend to think of it as just the tapping,
Donald Grothoff: but
Julie Michelson: there's obviously so much more to it.
Donald Grothoff: Well, and, and, you know, you talked about mindset when I'm, when I'm in a, a mindset coach. It's not just about the tapping, you know, I talk about, uh, about, you know, different things about their lives, different things about them. I go through a lot of different strategies, including things like grounding, you know, getting them outside and grounding on stuff, uh, learning how to breathe properly.
Donald Grothoff: And of course, of course, the mindset is part of that, but it's. There's a lot more to it than just the mindset part of it.
Julie Michelson: Sure. [00:25:00] Well, again, we're the complex integrated beings. And so there's, there's never just one solution or
Julie Michelson: I love that you're incorporating a variety of tools and it is interesting and I just think it's the world we live in now. Almost every conversation I have, there's some piece that circles back to nature and to us. It's kind of moving a little bit back toward how we were created to live, even if it's not all day.
Julie Michelson: You know, even if it's like you said, you know, grounding, breathing, getting like stuff that we just innately did. That was always part of our day that now we have to be intentional about, um, but there's healing https: otter.
Donald Grothoff: But my, my wife is starting to join in with me and we are starting to, we've kind of evolved over into, um, the emotional, uh, the, we call it [00:26:00] sandwich generation. It's the, the people that are raising their kids, but also taking care of their aging parents. So we're, we're, I'm using my, all the different things I've worked into.
Donald Grothoff: Plus my wife is an occupational therapist and she's working through her part of it. Okay. So we're, we're working together with that.
Julie Michelson: Which is amazing. And so needed. And again, the, the stressors. Um, as you mentioned fear, I want to throw out the word also anxiety, um, as we all, and I love, or, and you did say stress.
Julie Michelson: I talked to so many people who say, oh, I'm not stressed, you know, so I don't care how you identify. We all have stress and if we're not intentionally managing it. It's managing us, I promise. Um, whether it's emotionally or physically or spiritually, it doesn't, it, it will manifest [00:27:00] to impact life in a negative way somehow, if we're not being intentional.
Donald Grothoff: Well, well, you know, when we talk, you talk a lot about immunity, which is what your focus is about. It all comes down to fight or flight really, which is what's underneath fight or flight. And you know, what, what I have found We've got to get past the first what it does to our brain, you know, it shuts down a lot of parts of our brain, so we don't have the immune system to help anything, you know, and what it's doing in our body with all the stressors and strains with our, our, the adrenalines and the cortisol and things like that, that are not helping us.
Donald Grothoff: And so we've got to get, we've got to, Just about anything has to get past that.
Julie Michelson: Right. Absolutely. And we can't heal in that state. Like, not only are things not working optimally, but we know, you know, if [00:28:00] you, if you don't make it away from, from the tiger, it doesn't matter if you heal, it doesn't matter if you digest lunch, it doesn't matter if you reproduce, you know, um, and so it's that, that kind of chronic exposure.
Julie Michelson: And I personally think that's, you know, one of. the immense benefits. Of course, there's the trickle down and you can't, we can't, we don't have enough time to talk about all of the benefits of using a technique like tapping. Um, but, but that alone, and then, you know, you get the ripple effect of just stepping out of that stress state for a moment.
Julie Michelson: Yeah. It's powerful.
Donald Grothoff: Oh yeah. And it, you know, until we, until we can get that past that, like I said, that everything else becomes Null and void until you get that, get past that.
Julie Michelson: What about pain? Do you, do you have clients that use tapping for, for chronic pain?
Donald Grothoff: Yeah, well, chronic pain is one [00:29:00] that's always kind of get me because what a couple of things about it.
Donald Grothoff: One is the, the, the pain that, um, people find. And I don't know if you see this, but when, when I get somebody that is, Um, going deep into themselves, uh, going after some emotional that's been way back from whenever, they, the body tends to throw out pain to stop them from going through that pain. It's protection.
Donald Grothoff: Yeah. Okay. Yeah. You know, so that's one place that I can, you know, definitely work with pain, you know, and I can't necessarily. Stop somebody broke, broke their arm and I can't go like this and boom, it's back together.
Julie Michelson: Please don't tap on someone's broken arm. That's rude. Yeah, no,
Donald Grothoff: but, but I can do, I can work on the physical part, you know, where they, they can't sleep well, you know, [00:30:00] uh, they, they're, they're stressed out about something.
Donald Grothoff: Uh, I can help in doing and making that faster. And that's where, you know, that's where I see part of what I help with them in pain.
Julie Michelson: Yeah. Which I love. And I, and I know from experience and clients experience again, cause we can't separate, we are not separate systems. Um, but, but if we use a tool like tapping.
Julie Michelson: Whether, whatever the intention is, whether it's to improve sleep, reduce stress, all the things you, you know, you, you said, like, you can even heal a broken arm faster. Of course you can, because you're getting into a healing state when you step out of the fight or flight or freeze. So it makes perfect sense.
Julie Michelson: Um, and, and I do see a reduction in the experience of [00:31:00] pain. We could say it that way. Um, for people with chronic pain, if they're using a tool and it doesn't, it's, there are a variety of tools. So, you know, if somebody is listening and you've played with tapping and, um, I would suggest play with it again, if it didn't resonate with you the first time, you know, try it differently, try it again.
Julie Michelson: Um, but whether it's tapping, meditation, breathing, you know, any tool that you're using on a regular basis as a practice can help reduce the experience of chronic pain and set you up to heal at the same time.
Donald Grothoff: Well, yeah. And well, the other part about the pain is, you know, somebody that, that started out 20 years ago with something and is still going with it at this time, the mind is way past.
Donald Grothoff: that, you know, it's not about the mind. I mean, at this point, they've probably got the, you know, a lot of different things going on that are physical pain because they've been doing it for [00:32:00] so long, but they've got something else going on that that needs to be worked on to get cleared, you know,
Julie Michelson: and I think of it as like being stuck in a loop almost, you know, um, and, and the amazing thing is.
Julie Michelson: We are designed to heal, you know, so, which is one of those kind of, you know, some of us have to experience it to believe it. I was that, I was that person. Um, but, you know, I went from 11 years of chronic pain to zero. So it's, it is possible without. Doing anything differently than what we talk about all the time on the podcast, you know, a little of this, a little of that.
Julie Michelson: And,
Donald Grothoff: you
Julie Michelson: know, if you're going to be in line for fast food every day, um, and your tap, you know, there, there's no one thing that's going to compensate for living a healthy lifestyle. Um, but we don't have to do all of it at [00:33:00] once.
Donald Grothoff: Yeah. And
Julie Michelson: so, I know, again, I love the portability of, you know, if, if we can, we always have the tools we need for tapping with us, you know.
Julie Michelson: Yeah.
Donald Grothoff: Well, and, and like you said, the other thing is, we mentioned before about the, the, the Um, I like to get somebody into more than one tapping process because I've had some that that have immediate feedback, but a lot of times it takes a two or three at least to get them to start seeing some change.
Donald Grothoff: So yeah, I think one change is going to kind of do your good. Is it necessarily the truth of it, you know,
Julie Michelson: we need to step away from looking for that magic solution, whether it's a bill or a, you know, the one thing. Um, and most of us, it took some time for us to get to whatever condition we're in. [00:34:00] So, you know, we're not talking about magic.
Donald Grothoff: Yeah. Yeah.
Julie Michelson: Yeah. I love that though. That's it's. And, and what about, um, you know, you mentioned your journey started as, as the parent, right? You started, your focus was as so many of us, um, you know, are, are we, we learn most from raising children in one, one respect or another, um, does D tapping, you know, what, I guess, is there anyone who couldn't tap, shouldn't tap, um.
Donald Grothoff: Not really, you know, I mean, to be very honest with you, I mean, there are people that, you know, we call them the, um, I know my mind's got, um, the, the, the, the one that, that says, yes, but there you go. Yes. But that was our yes. But, you know, if they're doing that, then they're probably not going to, you know, and that's, that's their thing, you [00:35:00] know, but everyone can tap.
Donald Grothoff: Yeah. I mean, there's no reason for it. It just, it, it seems very, uh, very logical to do, you know, but that's just me. I'm prejudiced.
Julie Michelson: Have you, you, I don't know if you work with, with children at all. Um, have you, or do you have knowledge or experience of, of kids untapping?
Donald Grothoff: Yeah, I've done some, I've done more lately, probably.
Donald Grothoff: It's been, uh, like I said, from my own children, but, um, I, I tend to like. In 10 years, if I use anything before that, I usually, before like 10 or so, I usually draw it back to the parents more than I do to the kids. I mean, I'll have fun with them and stuff, but I haven't done as much lately. No.
Julie Michelson: Gotcha. And well, and I always say any, any of these tools that we're giving kids, [00:36:00] hopefully helps them prevent needing to seek out somebody like yourself or me as an adult, like, you know, we can arm, we can arm our children with, with some of this and just make it.
Julie Michelson: a normal part of life. And, and they can avoid some of the pitfalls that many of us have fallen into. Yeah. So I love that. So we're at that point in the conversation and you've already sprinkled in lots of goodness. Um, but, but listeners are trained. What is one step that listeners can take to, and it could be anything, it doesn't even need to be something you've mentioned yet, um, but one step they can take starting today to improve their health?
Donald Grothoff: Well, the one step that I, I mentioned, um, to all my patients is, I do, this may be a, a, a, a message that may be [00:37:00] beyond, but I, I like to do a morning routine. And, In that routine, I like to do the breathing. So I, I, I incorporate the, I use it as what is it? Seven, uh, four, seven, eight. Now I don't, I don't tell anybody to do this right off the bat necessarily because it can be a little tough off the bat, but I, I close my eyes.
Donald Grothoff: I do the deep breathing as I do the deep breathing. I, I text and it doesn't matter which, which place I'm, I'm texting at, but I'm hitting a place. And what I, I tell people in doing is to go inside yourself in doing it. So two, two different things I look at. One is the emotional side and the other is physical side.
Donald Grothoff: On the physical side of it, I like to see what, what I'm [00:38:00] doing, you know, what's going on with, with me and what, where are my tensions at in my body. Um, and then on the emotional side, I look at how do I feel? You know, am, am I feeling something that's good, um, or if I'm not, and on both sides of those, what I do on the physical side of it, I will literally, and again, I've got my eyes closed, I, I imagine as I inhale the breath, I inhale it to where the pain is, even though I know that's not necessarily the truth.
Donald Grothoff: It doesn't necessarily go to my knee necessarily.
Julie Michelson: Right, but you can direct it there.
Donald Grothoff: Yeah, and then as I, as I exhale out, I imagine some of the pain going out with it. So that's on the emotional side. On the physical side, I look at, you know, how do I need to, to take care of this? If it's in a good place, then I, I [00:39:00] just, I'll take a few more minutes and I finish up.
Donald Grothoff: But if not, I take it a little further. And I use, uh, then I'll extend my, My sense into more of the tapping, the ease through whatever I might be going through so that it starts my day out at a better place. So that, that's one, one way that I could, I could give somebody right now that I think it doesn't involve a lot of tapping to it necessarily, but it does involve the, the, the breathing.
Donald Grothoff: And like I said, then it's just involved in going into yourself and figuring out how to handle that, how to, how to deal with that.
Julie Michelson: Which, which is, it's so important. I love the, the kind of all encompass. You're, you're hitting a lot of things. I like stacking that there's a lot of stacking in there, you know, because you're, you're not, you're doing a lot of goodness at once.
Donald Grothoff:[00:40:00] Um,
Julie Michelson: so it doesn't have to take a lot of time, but you're creating this check in stress management, setting your day up. And I think the check in is so key. So many people don't check in. with themselves emotionally, physically. Um, and, and it's such an important part of wellness is and healing. And so, um, I love it.
Julie Michelson: That's, uh, and you, you said it and I'm going to highlight again, like if you, if you don't have a breathing routine, you don't have to start with four, seven, you know, start, start somewhere. Um, and, and just, you know, You know, do it, just keep doing it. And, and I, I promise I always find with the, with the breathing too, you mentioned it with the tapping, you know, you might not feel something the first time, but it doesn't take a year.
Julie Michelson: Like that's for sure to notice [00:41:00] some change. And so, um, That's a, that's a great spoken like a, like a coach is a morning routine. I love it. Yeah.
Donald Grothoff: Yeah. It was
Julie Michelson: amazing. Don, I so appreciate your time, your wisdom, you sharing some of your journey with us. For people that are listening on the go and aren't going to check out the show notes, where's the best place for them to find you?
Donald Grothoff: Simply go to focused, healthy family. com. And just about everything is there, I think, including my phone number and all of that. One, uh, and one other thing that I, I hope if, uh, we have a podcast to focus, healthy family. com. And so we'll hopefully we're going to trip what we've done here and bring it on over to there and there too.
Donald Grothoff: So, you know, yeah. So all of that, uh, all of that. And of course we're on all the social media. I don't know. All the channels. Yeah. Yeah. All of them. It's hard, hard to keep up with all of them. But yeah, we're on [00:42:00] all of those too. So yeah, this was, this was wonderful.
Julie Michelson: Well, I thank you so very much for everyone listening.
Julie Michelson: Remember you can get those show notes and transcripts by visiting inspiredliving. show. I hope you had a great time and enjoyed this episode as much as I did. I'll see you next week.
​[00:43:00]
Donald Grothoff: Our body works very similar to that in the fact that we have to deal with all of those everywhere in our body needs it. Our organs needed, our brain needs it. All of it does.
Donald Grothoff: When we are in the midst of it, we have to figure out, what's going on and is there a problem somewhere in our body? And if it is, it's stopping the wiring. So we have to energy flow. So we have to use the tapping process to bring that back into good flow.
Julie Michelson:[00:01:00] Welcome back to the Inspired Living with Autoimmunity Podcast. I'm your host, Julie Michelson. And today we are joined by Donald Grothoff, Emotional Freedom Techniques Tapping Practitioner and Mindset Coach with Focused Healthy Family. Through Focused Healthy Family, Donald uses his skills in EFT, tapping, breath work, and mindfulness practices to nurture each patient, parent, or individual to the next level in their healing process.
Julie Michelson: In today's conversation, we are talking about EFT and how tapping can be used for spiritual, emotional, and physical health. It's a tool that everyone can use to [00:02:00] support their healing journey.
Julie Michelson: Don, welcome to the podcast.
Donald Grothoff: Well, thank you. very much for inviting me here. I enjoy it.
Julie Michelson: I am excited for our conversation and I would love for you to share a little bit about, I always say, you know, none of us, Most of us, at least in this wellness space, did not come to this space because this is what we dreamt of as children.
Julie Michelson: Um, so, you know, I know you're, you're doing a lot of things and, and, but, uh, all under the umbrella of focus, healthy family. And tell me a little bit about how you became the practitioner you are today.
Donald Grothoff: Okay. Well, um, I have three children and, uh, two of which have OCD. Uh, separately to, uh, not, not the same.
Donald Grothoff: The first one really threw us off base because we didn't know what, what it was. We, we didn't even understand what it was. [00:03:00] In fact, it started out as her coming down from the bathroom after a fun day of her, her, one of her friends there talking through things and, and working through things and doing stuff.
Donald Grothoff: And she came down to my wife and whispered something in her ear, and I was across the room from her, and the next thing I know, my wife said, what do you mean you can't step into your room? And I was like, oh my, what is this going to be about, you know? And it turns out that her room became dirty to her, and not just the same kind of dirty you would find in your house.
Donald Grothoff: We, we have dust bunnies all over the place in our house, so that isn't the, the dirty part of it. She couldn't step into a room and, um, her friend was in the room [00:04:00] at the same time. So it made for a very adventure, uh, evening for us. Uh, my wife had to find rugs throughout the house. So we could place them on the, on the way to her bedroom to get her to go to sleep that night.
Donald Grothoff: And we really didn't think much about it. We thought it was just a odd situation, something like that. But it just got worse and worse from that. And it, it led to a place, for me, I was non military, but I always say, Uh, I approached it in a military sense because I was just like, well, we can't do that.
Donald Grothoff: We're not, you know, the, uh, the next night or a couple nights later, we went through the same thing and one of my, uh, pants, like touched. Her, uh, sheet on, on the, on her bed and she went ballistic on it and just had to, everything had to be cleaned, all that kind of stuff. [00:05:00] And of course I'm, I'm like, it was 1130 at night.
Donald Grothoff: I wasn't about this, you know, hold on to that. And it just became a battle from there on. And, you know, um, my second one came after the first one. We thought we had it all settled out. And it started going down the same path and was like, Oh, my gosh, but we thought that we could get it all done. You know, we thought we'd had it all settled from the first, right.
Donald Grothoff: And that didn't work at all. Different kid, different, different kid, all of that. And we also learned too, that, um, what my first daughter went through was pandas and Which is a, which then led us to the whole idea of, of, uh, autoimmune kind of, uh, situation versus just a, a regular one. [00:06:00] And what we learned from that is how to, um, communicate, but also then I, like I said, I, I had been playing with the, the toying thing with the, the, the EFT.
Donald Grothoff: And, uh, so I, I, I, We learned that, got involved in that, got involved in that, wrapped into classes, right, finished all that up. And we learned those two factors, especially on our, what we're doing is learning how to communicate and using the EFT. So it kind of got us into that, that realm of the, of the, um, unknown and, and the, um, the space.
Donald Grothoff: situation, I guess.
Julie Michelson: Yeah. Yeah. And, and for listeners not familiar, and we're going to dig in, but EFT is emotional freedom technique, correct? Yes.
Donald Grothoff: Yes.
Julie Michelson: Okay. I know in our bubble, it's, [00:07:00] yeah.
Donald Grothoff: If you, you know, to understand that it's the, um, I like to write it down so I don't forget it, but the process of self tapping on the acupressure points are the, uh, meridians of the body.
Donald Grothoff: To help the spiritual, the emotional, and the physical parts of the body.
Julie Michelson: Love it. And it is, it is an amazing tool. So if, if you're listening and you, and you're not familiar with EFT, keep listening because, um, you know, there is, we know the nervous system is so directly connected with, uh, you know, our, our wellness overall, but also driving autoimmunity, um, you know, as, as one of the drivers.
Julie Michelson: And, and so, um, yeah. EFT can be a great tool. What I love about it is it's free and you can do it anywhere, you know, so, but [00:08:00] we'll dig into that a little more. Um, so your kids kind of led you. What were you doing before? I'm just curious. Career wise.
Donald Grothoff: I was, I was in, uh, my actually, I was in web design.
Julie Michelson: Okay.
Julie Michelson: Yeah. So big shift. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah.
Donald Grothoff: Yeah, very big shift because I mean, we got into the, the, the spiritual realm, uh, just because of some wanted to do something different, but not, not anywhere near the idea of taking on as a, as a profession.
Julie Michelson: Well, amazing. I love that's how, you know, that's how the universe works, whatever your plans are, might not, might not be.
Julie Michelson: Um, and, and so, you know, we were chatting really briefly before I hit record, um, because like, like I mentioned already, you're, you're not just, you know, singularly focused.
Donald Grothoff: Um,
Julie Michelson: and [00:09:00] so, you know, tell me a little bit about how, and I think you kind of already alluded to it, but, um, well, I want to dig in more to the, to the tapping and, and that direct connect, um, but, but tell me a little bit about the mindset coaching and, you know, how, how did all these things play together in your world?
Donald Grothoff: Well, um, I, I started to work with a doctor, um, here in Charlotte. I'm just outside of Charlotte, but, um, and he, he first started me on some of the basic stuff, but then I also went with another doctor who dealt with the immune system, even more so, and got myself involved with him, you know, with Lyme disease.
Donald Grothoff: In fact, I, I used to always say he was the, he was the one that I, I could never pronounce all the different things that he did because there were just [00:10:00] so many different things that he did, you know. Uh, but yeah, it got me into, into learning more and more and, and of course being in that practice and I also learned, you know, about the food and nutrition and I learned about, uh, all the different things that it's more than just.
Donald Grothoff: What my medical doctors want to say is it's not just about the heart. It's not just about this or that. It's about the whole person. And, uh, he helped me to learn, learn that. And then, like I said, getting into some of these bigger, more, um, uh, rambunctious kind of, uh, I don't know if that's a good word to use, but, uh, these, these different, uh, um, I can't even say the word now.
Donald Grothoff: Techniques, tools. Yeah, you know, learning them all helped me to understand how much better it is to go down that path. That path.
Julie Michelson: Yeah. We always say it's nice to have a big toolbox [00:11:00] versus, you know, typically if you go to your GP, it's diagnosis medication and that's the toolbox, right? So, um, yeah, which is, which is amazing.
Julie Michelson: Um, I, and I love, it's similar to kind of my entry into this whole world too, was exposure with. a practice doing cool stuff. And, and so you just kind of drink the Kool Aid, the healthy Kool Aid and go deeper and deeper.
Donald Grothoff: Well, what I, what I always tell patients too, is when, when they first sit down, is I, I talked to them about what EFT really is.
Donald Grothoff: Now, you know, I, I mentioned the, the, the, the method that, That I usually talk about, but I take it a further a step further, and I tell the client, I said, you know, think about the building that you're in right now, whether it be your house or apartment or whatever, it has, uh, electricity coming [00:12:00] into it, usually a big wire that's up above, and that, that electricity has to go out to all the different things inside the house.
Donald Grothoff: So it comes into the, the little wires that are inside. That help it connect all those different places. Well, our body works very similar to that in the fact that we, um, we have to deal with all of those, uh, you know, everywhere in our body needs it. Our organs needed, our, um, our brain needs it. All of it does.
Donald Grothoff: And when we are in the midst of it, then, um, we have to. Uh, try to figure out what's going on and is there a problem somewhere in our body? And if it is, it's stopping the, the, the wiring. And so we have to energy flow. Yeah. Yeah. We, and we have, so we have to use the, the tapping process. [00:13:00] To bring that back into, into, into good flow.
Julie Michelson: Is there a correct way to, to practice tapping? You know, is it, um, I always say with any practice, like you, you need the practice first. I have a lot of clients that'll say, Oh, Oh, no, you know, I'll do the breathing when I'm stressed, you know, when I feel stressed or I'm like, well, no, if you, if you don't have it, you can't grab for it.
Julie Michelson: But um, you know, what is your approach? What do you think is, is the most effective way to use tapping?
Donald Grothoff: Well, there's a couple of different questions there, but I know, um, you know, the first, the first is not to, one is I try to get everybody to do it every day and I know that that's a tough place to be.
Donald Grothoff: Because people, like I say, they think about, well, I'll do the breathing and I'll, I'll maybe tap a little bit when I, when I'm running into a situation, but the more you do it on a regular basis, the [00:14:00] better it is. Now, what a lot of people don't think about is the, the tapping and, um, how it, uh, how it works with itself, how it, uh, the more you do it.
Donald Grothoff: the long term effects of it are. So the more you do it, the more you put it into effect, I think it has a long term effect to it. And that long term effect is, um, a, a, uh, a response that, that allows you to kind of hold back things that are coming at you on a regular basis.
Julie Michelson: Can see that. And
Donald Grothoff: so, so the more you, the more you do it, the better.
Donald Grothoff: But now the other part of it is I tell people not to worry so much about the, the pattern. Okay. Even though it is, it's a good pattern. I tell 'em to, you know, the really, the big part of it is working through what's going on, up, up top. [00:15:00] Gotcha. Um, and try to use, you know, if they can use the whole process, great.
Donald Grothoff: You know, not a lot of times it's just a matter of using what you can and sometimes it's hitting a spot. Hmm. Uh, but it's, it's really working through what's going on up here
Julie Michelson: up in the brain. Can you, for those that are unfamiliar, can you walk us through the tapping points and kind of, um, obviously people watching are, are gonna, you know, get a better show, but if you can kind of verbally walk us through as, as you do it, um, that would be amazing.
Donald Grothoff: Okay. Well, a lot of times we start on the edge of our hand and again, I always tell not to worry about. Which hand to go on like that, and a lot of times when we start on the edge of the hand or this and either one, um, we start out with a phrase of either, you know, um, even though I feel like I'm, [00:16:00] you know, uh, have trouble with this situation.
Donald Grothoff: Uh, even though that may be true, I totally and completely love and accept myself. So we, we start out there and we'll go through that about three or four rounds of that. And then we move up here to the eyebrow and then under the eyes, or I mean side of the eyes, under the eyes, under the nose, on the chin, on the collarbone, underneath the arm, about four inches down, and then top of the head.
Donald Grothoff: Those are the Kind of the basics of the principle. I mean, there's a few like underneath the, the, uh, the breastbone. There's, there's spot here. Um, there's other ones that I show people a lot of times that aren't in the, in the realm, and that's this little area right here, or, you know, the, the hitting of the, the hands here.
Donald Grothoff: Um, so those are, those are the. [00:17:00] The points we use when we're doing the tapping.
Julie Michelson: Amazing. And, and let's, so you mentioned, I love that analogy by the way of like the electricity in a building. Um, let's talk a little bit about kind of uses for tapping. You know, um, I, I said throughout nervous system, um, but for people that are unfamiliar, um, you know, what is, where do you see people using tapping?
Julie Michelson: This technique is, I know, everywhere.
Donald Grothoff: Well, you know, because I mean, I started out, I think, uh, in the place of just fear are, well, actually, even before that, I was doing simple, uh, tapping for, um, uh, stress related or not stress related. ongoing, uh, like, uh, eating a candy bar, uh, or drinking a soda pop that [00:18:00] they're, they're just tired of, of getting.
Donald Grothoff: And so we, we did create habit change.
Julie Michelson: Yeah. Yeah. And
Donald Grothoff: it, um, you know, and it really worked of, of, of a lot of the things I've done with it. That, that one always, Worked within usually within about 10 minutes. I could get somebody to kind of change how they I do things Here's another one. Here's another one that forces I mean, that's any anybody that's doing this is doing is running into that But I mean that one of my favorite I guess favorite stories was when I was Working in, um, with, I was working with a group of senior citizens, senior citizens, excuse me, and one lady came up to me after when she was, I, I really need your, your help in this because I'm, I'm supposed to fly to [00:19:00] Australia in a couple of months, and my, my sister in law, my, my father in law, Is living there.
Donald Grothoff: And so she came in to work with me and we did a bunch of work around here at first, but then I was able to get her onto an airplane here in Charlotte. One of the, um, the race racing teams had a racing, uh, their own plane, and I was able to get her on the plane without they didn't charge me anything. It was really cool.
Donald Grothoff: They were really cool. And it was a big plane and we were able to. Um, get her past the, the, the mindset of the flight and using that and a couple other things that we did around it, uh, we got her onto, uh, into Australia without a flight, without a hitch.
Julie Michelson: Which is amazing because if you think about how long [00:20:00] that flight is,
Donald Grothoff: oh yeah, well it's
Julie Michelson: incredible.
Julie Michelson: I want to say
Donald Grothoff: it's like 24 hours, something like that. You know, just getting her there was amazing. And what was interesting about it was that, um, this lady, uh, my, my mother in law was moving up to the same place that this lady was living. It's it's just outside of Charlotte. And I was talking to her afterwards and I, and my mother in law said something about this, this lady that was, uh, her, her, uh, best friend at high school.
Donald Grothoff: And, uh, she. She was talking to her and she said, this, this lady said that there was some lady, some person that led her to go to Australia without hitching with their flight. And I said, well, I couldn't disclose the person's name. So I said, well, you know, just check with her who it is. And it ended up being the same lady, you [00:21:00] know, and it was kind of a funny, interesting kind of story.
Julie Michelson: It is a fun, full circle. Yeah. Yeah. I love that. That's,
Donald Grothoff: yeah.
Julie Michelson: So the, I mean, powerful, powerful tool, and you mentioned, again, you have more than one tool. Um, but if somebody were to incorporate tapping into their daily routine, I have no doubt what, there's notice, noticeable change. Um, So you mentioned the creating the habit change, you mentioned fear, what else do people use tapping for?
Donald Grothoff: Well, one of the, the, the other one, and this is more, I guess, about my tool is one of the tools that the emotional freedom techniques has is called the movie technique. And it's something that I, this, I, I've used, I've used for rape victims. I've used it for, um, I used it for one or two, uh, emotional, uh, [00:22:00] dealing with the, the brother who committed suicide and it's called, yeah, it's called trauma.
Donald Grothoff: And it is one that takes you through a series of steps to get through it. So it, it, it sometimes can take two or three steps to at least get through the whole process, but it's, it's a process of initially they tell their story, whatever it, if they can anyway, um, And in the process of that storytelling, they, they run through just a small segment of that, that, that segment.
Donald Grothoff: And then, and then I take it through, first, first we tell it in, uh, iVer, uh, the iVersion, you know, them telling it. The next one is them telling, but it's a different story. It's, it's them telling it as a, as a third party. And then you add, uh, you add, [00:23:00] um, you run it backwards, uh, you, you add color to it. You add a bunch of different things to it as you go through it.
Donald Grothoff: And then when you get to the very end of it, you ask them to go back to the beginning and ask the same story. And a good bit of the time when I do that, they don't, they can't remember the story. At least it's, it's not anywhere near what it was at the beginning. And it's one of. It's one of my favorite. I love it.
Donald Grothoff: It's a easy, not easy. I shouldn't say that. It's just a, a really wonderful way of handling situations. And I, like I said, I just had one about, uh, it's been about three months ago that we did one on. And like I said, to go from crying through the first, you know, the first section text takes a long time. And then when they get to the end, it's like, you know, [00:24:00] it either, it isn't there at all.
Donald Grothoff: Yeah. Or it's just doesn't have it. Or that charge is gone. Yeah. Yeah. The whole charge is gone to it. That's amazing. So that's, that's one of the, the brilliant factors that I have about, about doing the FT.
Julie Michelson: Wow. Which is, uh, thank you for sharing that. Cause we, I do, we tend to think of it as just the tapping,
Donald Grothoff: but
Julie Michelson: there's obviously so much more to it.
Donald Grothoff: Well, and, and, you know, you talked about mindset when I'm, when I'm in a, a mindset coach. It's not just about the tapping, you know, I talk about, uh, about, you know, different things about their lives, different things about them. I go through a lot of different strategies, including things like grounding, you know, getting them outside and grounding on stuff, uh, learning how to breathe properly.
Donald Grothoff: And of course, of course, the mindset is part of that, but it's. There's a lot more to it than just the mindset part of it.
Julie Michelson: Sure. [00:25:00] Well, again, we're the complex integrated beings. And so there's, there's never just one solution or
Julie Michelson: I love that you're incorporating a variety of tools and it is interesting and I just think it's the world we live in now. Almost every conversation I have, there's some piece that circles back to nature and to us. It's kind of moving a little bit back toward how we were created to live, even if it's not all day.
Julie Michelson: You know, even if it's like you said, you know, grounding, breathing, getting like stuff that we just innately did. That was always part of our day that now we have to be intentional about, um, but there's healing https: otter.
Donald Grothoff: But my, my wife is starting to join in with me and we are starting to, we've kind of evolved over into, um, the emotional, uh, the, we call it [00:26:00] sandwich generation. It's the, the people that are raising their kids, but also taking care of their aging parents. So we're, we're, I'm using my, all the different things I've worked into.
Donald Grothoff: Plus my wife is an occupational therapist and she's working through her part of it. Okay. So we're, we're working together with that.
Julie Michelson: Which is amazing. And so needed. And again, the, the stressors. Um, as you mentioned fear, I want to throw out the word also anxiety, um, as we all, and I love, or, and you did say stress.
Julie Michelson: I talked to so many people who say, oh, I'm not stressed, you know, so I don't care how you identify. We all have stress and if we're not intentionally managing it. It's managing us, I promise. Um, whether it's emotionally or physically or spiritually, it doesn't, it, it will manifest [00:27:00] to impact life in a negative way somehow, if we're not being intentional.
Donald Grothoff: Well, well, you know, when we talk, you talk a lot about immunity, which is what your focus is about. It all comes down to fight or flight really, which is what's underneath fight or flight. And you know, what, what I have found We've got to get past the first what it does to our brain, you know, it shuts down a lot of parts of our brain, so we don't have the immune system to help anything, you know, and what it's doing in our body with all the stressors and strains with our, our, the adrenalines and the cortisol and things like that, that are not helping us.
Donald Grothoff: And so we've got to get, we've got to, Just about anything has to get past that.
Julie Michelson: Right. Absolutely. And we can't heal in that state. Like, not only are things not working optimally, but we know, you know, if [00:28:00] you, if you don't make it away from, from the tiger, it doesn't matter if you heal, it doesn't matter if you digest lunch, it doesn't matter if you reproduce, you know, um, and so it's that, that kind of chronic exposure.
Julie Michelson: And I personally think that's, you know, one of. the immense benefits. Of course, there's the trickle down and you can't, we can't, we don't have enough time to talk about all of the benefits of using a technique like tapping. Um, but, but that alone, and then, you know, you get the ripple effect of just stepping out of that stress state for a moment.
Julie Michelson: Yeah. It's powerful.
Donald Grothoff: Oh yeah. And it, you know, until we, until we can get that past that, like I said, that everything else becomes Null and void until you get that, get past that.
Julie Michelson: What about pain? Do you, do you have clients that use tapping for, for chronic pain?
Donald Grothoff: Yeah, well, chronic pain is one [00:29:00] that's always kind of get me because what a couple of things about it.
Donald Grothoff: One is the, the, the pain that, um, people find. And I don't know if you see this, but when, when I get somebody that is, Um, going deep into themselves, uh, going after some emotional that's been way back from whenever, they, the body tends to throw out pain to stop them from going through that pain. It's protection.
Donald Grothoff: Yeah. Okay. Yeah. You know, so that's one place that I can, you know, definitely work with pain, you know, and I can't necessarily. Stop somebody broke, broke their arm and I can't go like this and boom, it's back together.
Julie Michelson: Please don't tap on someone's broken arm. That's rude. Yeah, no,
Donald Grothoff: but, but I can do, I can work on the physical part, you know, where they, they can't sleep well, you know, [00:30:00] uh, they, they're, they're stressed out about something.
Donald Grothoff: Uh, I can help in doing and making that faster. And that's where, you know, that's where I see part of what I help with them in pain.
Julie Michelson: Yeah. Which I love. And I, and I know from experience and clients experience again, cause we can't separate, we are not separate systems. Um, but, but if we use a tool like tapping.
Julie Michelson: Whether, whatever the intention is, whether it's to improve sleep, reduce stress, all the things you, you know, you, you said, like, you can even heal a broken arm faster. Of course you can, because you're getting into a healing state when you step out of the fight or flight or freeze. So it makes perfect sense.
Julie Michelson: Um, and, and I do see a reduction in the experience of [00:31:00] pain. We could say it that way. Um, for people with chronic pain, if they're using a tool and it doesn't, it's, there are a variety of tools. So, you know, if somebody is listening and you've played with tapping and, um, I would suggest play with it again, if it didn't resonate with you the first time, you know, try it differently, try it again.
Julie Michelson: Um, but whether it's tapping, meditation, breathing, you know, any tool that you're using on a regular basis as a practice can help reduce the experience of chronic pain and set you up to heal at the same time.
Donald Grothoff: Well, yeah. And well, the other part about the pain is, you know, somebody that, that started out 20 years ago with something and is still going with it at this time, the mind is way past.
Donald Grothoff: that, you know, it's not about the mind. I mean, at this point, they've probably got the, you know, a lot of different things going on that are physical pain because they've been doing it for [00:32:00] so long, but they've got something else going on that that needs to be worked on to get cleared, you know,
Julie Michelson: and I think of it as like being stuck in a loop almost, you know, um, and, and the amazing thing is.
Julie Michelson: We are designed to heal, you know, so, which is one of those kind of, you know, some of us have to experience it to believe it. I was that, I was that person. Um, but, you know, I went from 11 years of chronic pain to zero. So it's, it is possible without. Doing anything differently than what we talk about all the time on the podcast, you know, a little of this, a little of that.
Julie Michelson: And,
Donald Grothoff: you
Julie Michelson: know, if you're going to be in line for fast food every day, um, and your tap, you know, there, there's no one thing that's going to compensate for living a healthy lifestyle. Um, but we don't have to do all of it at [00:33:00] once.
Donald Grothoff: Yeah. And
Julie Michelson: so, I know, again, I love the portability of, you know, if, if we can, we always have the tools we need for tapping with us, you know.
Julie Michelson: Yeah.
Donald Grothoff: Well, and, and like you said, the other thing is, we mentioned before about the, the, the Um, I like to get somebody into more than one tapping process because I've had some that that have immediate feedback, but a lot of times it takes a two or three at least to get them to start seeing some change.
Donald Grothoff: So yeah, I think one change is going to kind of do your good. Is it necessarily the truth of it, you know,
Julie Michelson: we need to step away from looking for that magic solution, whether it's a bill or a, you know, the one thing. Um, and most of us, it took some time for us to get to whatever condition we're in. [00:34:00] So, you know, we're not talking about magic.
Donald Grothoff: Yeah. Yeah.
Julie Michelson: Yeah. I love that though. That's it's. And, and what about, um, you know, you mentioned your journey started as, as the parent, right? You started, your focus was as so many of us, um, you know, are, are we, we learn most from raising children in one, one respect or another, um, does D tapping, you know, what, I guess, is there anyone who couldn't tap, shouldn't tap, um.
Donald Grothoff: Not really, you know, I mean, to be very honest with you, I mean, there are people that, you know, we call them the, um, I know my mind's got, um, the, the, the, the one that, that says, yes, but there you go. Yes. But that was our yes. But, you know, if they're doing that, then they're probably not going to, you know, and that's, that's their thing, you [00:35:00] know, but everyone can tap.
Donald Grothoff: Yeah. I mean, there's no reason for it. It just, it, it seems very, uh, very logical to do, you know, but that's just me. I'm prejudiced.
Julie Michelson: Have you, you, I don't know if you work with, with children at all. Um, have you, or do you have knowledge or experience of, of kids untapping?
Donald Grothoff: Yeah, I've done some, I've done more lately, probably.
Donald Grothoff: It's been, uh, like I said, from my own children, but, um, I, I tend to like. In 10 years, if I use anything before that, I usually, before like 10 or so, I usually draw it back to the parents more than I do to the kids. I mean, I'll have fun with them and stuff, but I haven't done as much lately. No.
Julie Michelson: Gotcha. And well, and I always say any, any of these tools that we're giving kids, [00:36:00] hopefully helps them prevent needing to seek out somebody like yourself or me as an adult, like, you know, we can arm, we can arm our children with, with some of this and just make it.
Julie Michelson: a normal part of life. And, and they can avoid some of the pitfalls that many of us have fallen into. Yeah. So I love that. So we're at that point in the conversation and you've already sprinkled in lots of goodness. Um, but, but listeners are trained. What is one step that listeners can take to, and it could be anything, it doesn't even need to be something you've mentioned yet, um, but one step they can take starting today to improve their health?
Donald Grothoff: Well, the one step that I, I mentioned, um, to all my patients is, I do, this may be a, a, a, a message that may be [00:37:00] beyond, but I, I like to do a morning routine. And, In that routine, I like to do the breathing. So I, I, I incorporate the, I use it as what is it? Seven, uh, four, seven, eight. Now I don't, I don't tell anybody to do this right off the bat necessarily because it can be a little tough off the bat, but I, I close my eyes.
Donald Grothoff: I do the deep breathing as I do the deep breathing. I, I text and it doesn't matter which, which place I'm, I'm texting at, but I'm hitting a place. And what I, I tell people in doing is to go inside yourself in doing it. So two, two different things I look at. One is the emotional side and the other is physical side.
Donald Grothoff: On the physical side of it, I like to see what, what I'm [00:38:00] doing, you know, what's going on with, with me and what, where are my tensions at in my body. Um, and then on the emotional side, I look at how do I feel? You know, am, am I feeling something that's good, um, or if I'm not, and on both sides of those, what I do on the physical side of it, I will literally, and again, I've got my eyes closed, I, I imagine as I inhale the breath, I inhale it to where the pain is, even though I know that's not necessarily the truth.
Donald Grothoff: It doesn't necessarily go to my knee necessarily.
Julie Michelson: Right, but you can direct it there.
Donald Grothoff: Yeah, and then as I, as I exhale out, I imagine some of the pain going out with it. So that's on the emotional side. On the physical side, I look at, you know, how do I need to, to take care of this? If it's in a good place, then I, I [00:39:00] just, I'll take a few more minutes and I finish up.
Donald Grothoff: But if not, I take it a little further. And I use, uh, then I'll extend my, My sense into more of the tapping, the ease through whatever I might be going through so that it starts my day out at a better place. So that, that's one, one way that I could, I could give somebody right now that I think it doesn't involve a lot of tapping to it necessarily, but it does involve the, the, the breathing.
Donald Grothoff: And like I said, then it's just involved in going into yourself and figuring out how to handle that, how to, how to deal with that.
Julie Michelson: Which, which is, it's so important. I love the, the kind of all encompass. You're, you're hitting a lot of things. I like stacking that there's a lot of stacking in there, you know, because you're, you're not, you're doing a lot of goodness at once.
Donald Grothoff:[00:40:00] Um,
Julie Michelson: so it doesn't have to take a lot of time, but you're creating this check in stress management, setting your day up. And I think the check in is so key. So many people don't check in. with themselves emotionally, physically. Um, and, and it's such an important part of wellness is and healing. And so, um, I love it.
Julie Michelson: That's, uh, and you, you said it and I'm going to highlight again, like if you, if you don't have a breathing routine, you don't have to start with four, seven, you know, start, start somewhere. Um, and, and just, you know, You know, do it, just keep doing it. And, and I, I promise I always find with the, with the breathing too, you mentioned it with the tapping, you know, you might not feel something the first time, but it doesn't take a year.
Julie Michelson: Like that's for sure to notice [00:41:00] some change. And so, um, That's a, that's a great spoken like a, like a coach is a morning routine. I love it. Yeah.
Donald Grothoff: Yeah. It was
Julie Michelson: amazing. Don, I so appreciate your time, your wisdom, you sharing some of your journey with us. For people that are listening on the go and aren't going to check out the show notes, where's the best place for them to find you?
Donald Grothoff: Simply go to focused, healthy family. com. And just about everything is there, I think, including my phone number and all of that. One, uh, and one other thing that I, I hope if, uh, we have a podcast to focus, healthy family. com. And so we'll hopefully we're going to trip what we've done here and bring it on over to there and there too.
Donald Grothoff: So, you know, yeah. So all of that, uh, all of that. And of course we're on all the social media. I don't know. All the channels. Yeah. Yeah. All of them. It's hard, hard to keep up with all of them. But yeah, we're on [00:42:00] all of those too. So yeah, this was, this was wonderful.
Julie Michelson: Well, I thank you so very much for everyone listening.
Julie Michelson: Remember you can get those show notes and transcripts by visiting inspiredliving. show. I hope you had a great time and enjoyed this episode as much as I did. I'll see you next week.
​[00:43:00]
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My Guest For This Episode
Connect with Donald Grothoff
Donald Grothoff
Donald Grothoff -Emotional Freedom Techniques Tapping Practitioner and Mindset Coach with Focused Healthy Family
Under the umbrella of Focused Healthy Family Donald has a threefold practice:
The first fold is his EFT tapping practice, second fold is he is the Mindset Coach at Carolinas Natural Health Center, and the final fold is his practice with his wife, Gina.
In his EFT Tapping practice he uses his Emotional Freedom Techniques process to help individuals move past their anxiety and reshape their energy.
In all these folds of Focused Healthy Family he uses his skills in EFT tapping, breath work, mindfulness practices to nurture each patient, parent or individual to the next level in their healing process.
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