I tell people that in some ways it doesn’t matter where we start on an issue. Each aspect of the issue is like a corner of a net. It doesn’t matter where on the net you pick it up. When you start hauling it in from that point, the whole rest of the net comes, along with whatever is caught in it. In some way all of it is connected.

However, sometimes the client doesn’t know what is wrong, or what is causing the way they feel, and so being more general might be a way of beginning in this case. If you are alert you will pick up all the cues and clues you need to begin to narrow the focus of the work. Often during the tapping something will pop into the person’s head, to their surprise and maybe astonishment – buried memories, insights, beliefs, as if some inner part has relaxed enough to offer up something that is caught in the web.

An imaginative way to begin when the client doesn’t know where to start is to ask him or her to make up a story about a little boy/girl who had a similar sort of problem/feeling, and just let the story tell itself with whatever comes into their mind. The story usually has some relevance to the person’s life and the issue. It can be a good source of EFT tapping phrases.

Another way of beginning generally that elicits specifics that I like to use is a template that I have adapted from NLP trainer Michael Banks. I call it “Creating a Map of the History of Your Future.”

It involves beginning with listing a general array of concerns. Then I ask the question, “Imagine that we have been working together for three months or so. Put yourself into that time frame and notice: what are you doing, what are you saying to yourself, how are you holding your body, etc. that lets you know that you are changing in ways that feel good to you?”