Recovery | The Arukah Project

RECOVERY Work

The use of EFT in recovery from addiction

EFT is proven to be of benefit in addressing addictive behaviours and the associated emotional and psychological triggers that contribute to addictive behaviour. Dawson Church and Audrey Brooks, 2013 examined the effect of EFT on 39 adults self-identified with addiction issues who attended a weekend EFT workshop targeting addiction. Their research found a reduction in psychological distress of 38% following this intervention, which was maintained even at the three month follow-up period. They suggested that EFT may be an effective adjunct to addiction treatment by reducing the severity of general psychological distress and their findings are consistent with those noted in studies of other populations.

A more recent study by Popescu in 2021 also focused on the use of EFT in addictions and Figure 1 shows the dramatic impact that the techniques have had on a 123 female cohort struggling with addictions. As can be seen in Figure 1 the women experienced a significant decrease in their anxiety, depression and trauma scores along with a reduction in compensatory behaviours. This study focused on the immediate effect of EFT and the long-term effectiveness of the tool over 3.5 years.

Click here to read more about Popescu et al 2021 study

Figure 1.

123 female clients over a 3.5 year period
Depression scores reduced from 79% at intake to 16% at last survey
Anxiety scored from 73% to 8%
Trauma symptoms from 76% to 30%
Suicidality from 53% to 11%
Binge eating from 33% to 11%
And compensatory eating disorder behaviours from 41% to 11%

Check out some of the highlights of our work by clicking on each image

No Wrong Door

In 2023 The Arukah Project received 12-month grant from the ‘No Wrong Door’ initiative from the Hampshire and IoW Integrated Care Board (ICB). The grant addressed mental health inequalities across the Portsmouth and IoW regions. The focus of our delivery was to work with those in recovery from substance misuse and alcohol abuse and those struggling with mental health challenges such as anxiety and depression that often go hand-in-hand with addictions.

The Nelson Trust

The Nelson Trust in Gloucestershire is a charity dedicated to transforming the lives of those affected by addiction, trauma, and complex social challenges. Founded in 1985, the Trust offers a range of services including residential rehabilitation, women’s community services, and outreach programs that provide holistic, trauma-informed support. It is particularly renowned for its innovative work with women involved in the criminal justice system, offering safe spaces and tailored interventions that address issues like substance misuse, domestic abuse, and mental health challenges. The Nelson Trust empowers individuals to rebuild their lives, strengthen their families, and reconnect with their communities, making a significant impact on both individual recovery and broader social change in Gloucestershire and beyond.

The Arukah Project has been working in partnership with the Nelson Trust, providing support for staff through the delivery of the Resilient Practitioner training program. The aim was to enhance their trauma-informed work by combining learning with somatic techniques to prevent staff burnout and compassion fatigue. Many of the Nelson Trust staff have their own lived experience of addictions and complex trauma and so the Nelson Trust felt that it was extremely important to equip their staff with effective emotional regulation tools to support their wellbeing.

WightAid Grant

The Arukah Project was delighted to receive a grant from the wonderful WightAID team. WightAid has a mission to support charitable projects that benefit island (Isle of Wight) people and places. They provided funding to allow Arukah to expand the initial Island pilot project, working with people in Recovery from substance and alcohol abuse as well as those who may have struggled with some form of mild to moderate mental health issue e.g. anxiety, depression, cPTSD.

With the WightAid funding, Arukah has been building a collaborative network on the island and creating some wonderful partnerships to support delivery and to ensure that the funding is used to benefit the island's people. The collaborations include

Two Saints – an organisation that provides vulnerable people with accommodation, specialist and mental health support. As part of the grant, we provided the Two Saints team leaders and staff with our trauma-informed resilient practitioner training and the feedback was fabulous:

“Very informative training and delivered so well. I never feel like I take much
away from training sessions but I most definitely did today. I loved your passion and knowledge.”

“I thought the training was incredible. The delivery was excellent and kept me engaged throughout. I love this type of thing and would like to explore the techniques further. Thank you”.

Following this initial training, there has been a request for more detailed training and teaching of the techniques.

Aspire Ryde – is an award-winning community hub that provides services from a redundant church building in the town of Ryde. Arukah has developed a partnership with Aspire to attend community activities such as the free community lunch, where Arukah team members chatted and shared the project and the somatic techniques with the attendees, many of whom have struggled with mental health challenges. The Arukah team have also attended Waves of Wellness sessions which combine the physical activity of paddle boarding and being in the sea with mental health support. As the grant progresses there is going to be training for the Aspire Team some of whom are in recovery and lead the youth activities within the church hub.

Somerton Lodge – is a favourite venue for the Arukah team run by John Elford. Somerton Lodge is a sober hotel and a fabulous venue for delivering training and meetings.

We will keep this section updated as the grant progresses.

Reframe Coaching

Reframe Coaching is a registered charity founded in 2020 that supports individuals who have suffered either directly or indirectly from a gambling addiction or gambling-related harm. They support individuals pre-support - for those who want to explore their (or their loved ones) relationship with gambling, aftercare – for those who have accessed treatment and would like further support and workplace advice – for employers who would like to safeguard their business, employees and the people they serve.

The Arukah Project has provided two services for Reframe Coaching.

1. Provision of a series of videos explaining EFT and detailing how the techniques can be used in recovery to reduce cravings and triggers. These videos have been uploaded onto the Reframe Coaching portal so that Coaches and Service Users can watch the videos at any time they feel that they need to.

2. Provision of a monthly online tapping group for Recovery Coaches and Service Users. The group provided support to the attendees allowing them to share different aspects of their recovery and embed the techniques.