Unlocking Your Awesomeness: Interview with Serguei Levykin Part 1

Today’s interview is with Serguei Levykin an EFT & Neuro-Linguistic Programming Practitioner, Hypnotist, and Life Coach. Serguei excels at helping people clear their emotional blocks to have a happier life. I was excited to ask him a few questions about his work, hypnosis, and techniques he teaches to help people quell stress!

When did you first discover Emotional Freedom Techniques?

The first time I had heard about Emotional Freedom Techniques (EFT) was in 2003, when I attended the annual Anthony Robbins’ Leadership Training in San Diego. This event is usually taught entirely by Tony’s staff, however Tony occasionally used to make an appearance if he wanted to share something interesting and important that he had been experimenting with. 

Our group got an introduction to TFT (Thought Field Therapy) and EFT directly from Tony, although I didn’t quite get it on that occasion, perhaps because it was so radically different from everything else that was taught in the course and there wasn’t enough time to explain it properly.

A couple of years later I got a better explanation from Rod Sherwin from Melbourne, Australia, whom I knew from crewing Tony Robbins events together and who had then recently become an EFT practitioner. I was so intrigued that I ordered a full set of Gary Craig’s EFT DVDs shortly after.

What made you want to become an EFT practitioner?

Ever since I first discovered the power of hypnosis to change people’s habitual behavioral patterns, at a stage hypnosis show that I attended when I was in primary school, I have been passionate about finding ways to help people overcome their limitations and achieve their full potential.

I had studied a lot of self-development materials and popular psychology books and attended a lot of workshops and seminars before finally achieving my dream of studying hypnotherapy several years ago. I have also completed my Neuro-linguistic Programming certification around the same time, and studied coaching.

To apply my new skills I spent a couple of years training with and volunteering at Lifeline, a government-funded telephone counseling service for people in crisis situations, and I practiced on friends and family. I still did not have the courage to go professional though, until I absorbed myself in applying and learning EFT.

Its simplicity, ease of use and efficacy blew me away. It helped me resolve several personal issues and I knew I could help a lot of people with this tool. I realized that I had enough training and experience to start working with people, but I was still lacking some formal training in EFT, so I signed up for AAMET approved Level 1 and Level 2 courses, and found a mentor and that was the start of my professional EFT practice.

Do you feel when you first started as a practitioner people were skeptical about trying EFT? Was there something specific you said or did that made them more willing to give it a try?

At the time when I started working with EFT people were becoming more aware of EFT and tapping, so it made the job of convincing them easier. With the skeptics experiential approach seems to work best. Usually I mention and refer them to the existing research on EFT and then suggest that we try to use EFT  on an issue that they have unsuccessfully tried other approaches with. Most people that I have worked with have been open-minded enough to try it and to experience the results for themselves.

What kinds of things do you typically help people work through with EFT?

The majority of people that I have worked with so far needed help with stress and anxiety, relationship and heartbreak issues, getting clarity on what to do with their lives at the times of transition, as well as resolving traumatic memories and events from the past that caused fears in the present. These have included fear of dentists, fear of public speaking, fear of making changes, as well as fear of flying and of snakes, and many more. We all fear something and EFT is one of the best tools for overcoming fears and phobias.

Next Step

This is the first part of Serguei’s interview, don’t miss the 2^nd part which will be posted Saturday August 24, 2013. Thank you, Serge, for all the amazing information! You can visit Serguei’s website here.

I so agree with what Serguei says about us all fearing something, because we do! It's a natural human response to danger, or what we deem dangerous. Fear can lead to so many other detrimental issues from phobia's to health problems. This is why I recommend at least trying Emotional Freedom Techniques (EFT) to start releasing the fear.

Please visit my YouTube Channel for helpful EFT videos.