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August 15, 2025 26 mins

From functioning alcoholic to emotional freedom expert, Helen McConnell's life transformation began with a terrifying realization: "I'm going to lose it all." Though outwardly successful with the elegant BMW, beautiful condo, and executive career, Helen's inner world was crumbling under addiction. Her powerful pivot started with sobriety through AA, but something still felt missing.

The true revelation came years later when Helen discovered Emotional Freedom Technique (EFT) – commonly known as "tapping." Within just two minutes of trying this simple practice, she experienced what she describes as an "energetic release" of decades of stuck emotions. This moment led Helen to not only transform her own life but to dedicate herself to helping others find similar freedom as a certified EFT practitioner.

This episode features a live tapping demonstration that showcases the technique's remarkable efficiency. Host Ivana experiences a dramatic reduction in tension about an upcoming speaking engagement after just one round. The physical release was visibly apparent as stress literally "dumped out" of her body.

Discover how this deceptively simple practice could transform your relationship with stress, trauma, and emotional barriers. Ready to experience what Helen calls "participating in a miracle"? Listen now and tap into your own emotional freedom.

Guest Bio:
Helen is an exceptionally skilled and gifted practitioner of emotional freedom technique with a true passion for empowering all professionals, and especially women. She is a  leading tapping expert and her expertise lies in helping people  achieve success and enjoy their lives to the fullest. With a focus on stress reduction, Helen teaches simple tools that effectively eliminate stress and all its symptoms. Her dedication to her clients’ well-being shines through in her work, as she guides them on a transformative journey towards a more balanced and fulfilling life.

Connect with Helen:
YouTube, LinkedIn, Book,

Online Resources:
"How to Tap", "What if I Could Stop Worrying So Much?" , "Tapping for Neck Pain, Stress & Tension"

Connect with Theresa and Ivana:

Theresa, True Strategy Consultants: tsc-consultants.com
LinkedIn @treeconti, Insta @tscconsultants

Ivana, Courageous Being: courageousbeing.com
LinkedIn @ivipol, Insta @courbeing

SITP team, Step Into The Pivot: stepintothepivot.com
LinkedIn @step-into-the-pivot, YouTube @StepIntoThePivot


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Transcript

Episode Transcript

Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:00):
Hello everybody, Welcome to this week's episode
of Step Into the Pivot.
We are so happy to have youhere and so happy to have
today's guest, Helen McConnell.
Helen, thank you so much forjoining us today.

Speaker 2 (00:13):
Thank you so much, Teresa, and even I'm delighted
to be here.
Truly Awesome.

Speaker 1 (00:19):
So I'm excited for today.
I know you're going to tell usyour story and I know we're
going to get to the.
I know you're going to tell usyour story and I know we're
going to get to the point whereyou're going to talk about how
you kind of have this emotionalfreedom, how you focus a lot on
stress reduction and some of thetools you use.
But I think for us to get there, we're going to talk a little

(00:41):
about your story.
So, ivana, I'm going to let youkind of move us right into
Helen's story.

Speaker 3 (00:47):
Yes, thank you, teresa.
Hi, helen, so great to see youhere.
I have the benefit of seeingyou fairly often in our
neighborhood.
We don't live too far away fromeach other and we often take
lovely walks together where wediscuss some of the things that
I am so excited to bring to ourlisteners.
I met you, helen, when I wasready to move some significant

(01:10):
trauma out of my system and yourname came highly recommended as
a leading expert in tapping, avery specific technique that you
practice and that you teach,and I used it and it worked.
So this is like we could juststop right here and be like yep,
anybody wants to hear a directtestimonial, absolutely.

(01:34):
This is something, thetechnique we're gonna talk about
tapping emotional freedomtechnique.
You taught it to me and it'ssomething that I use regularly.
But today we're really here tohear your story and your
personal pivots and how tappingshowed up in your life as a very
important tool.
But we're curious to know youhave had so many different

(01:57):
transitions and changes andpivots and you talk about them
so bravely and courageously.
Please take us into your storyand tell us about you know who
you are, where you come from andwhat your big pivots were
leading up to tapping.

Speaker 2 (02:11):
Well, as you were saying that, I was thinking well
, I guess if you live longenough, you will have pivots in
your life.
I mean, life gives us pivots.
I didn't.
I can't honestly say that Iplanned all my pivots.
I don't think I planned any ofthem.
But when I was younger, when Iwas in my teens and 20s, I was
an alcoholic and a drug addict.
I mean, I guess you would say Iwas a functioning alcoholic and

(02:35):
drug addict, but I was boththose things and somehow in
there I managed to have a careeras an executive manager.
And you know, I guess the drugsand the alcohol and all the
emotions that went with thatreally kind of pushed me maybe
guilt or shame or whatever, Idon't know.
I worked really hard and Idrank a lot and did a lot of

(02:58):
drugs.
So one day I was, one day I was29 years old and I was driving
in my elegant BMW in Hawaii,where I lived and that's where I
grew up, and I had all thesethings in my life.
I had a great condo, I hadbeautiful clothes, I had this

(03:19):
job, I had this nice car, I'dalready been married and
divorced once and I was drivingsomewhere.
I don't remember.
But I remember thinking, oh myGod, I'm going to lose it all,
like that was the impetus forthe initial pivot, I think was
losing all my stuff.
I mean, I was probably going tolose my life too, but that was

(03:39):
not the first thing that came tomind.
So at that point I knew enoughto know I knew about AA and
stuff and I thought I don't needthat.
I don't need that, I can dothis on my own.
And I even wrote in a journalI'm an alcoholic.
Oh my God, I'm an alcoholic.
But I don't want to go to anyof those stupid meetings.

(04:00):
I was already judging them asstupid, even though I'd never
been to one and fortunately, orunfortunately, I couldn't stay
sober on my own.
I tried, I tried everything,but probably a year later I
asked a friend of mine at workif she could help me because I
knew she was in AA.
And when I asked her I said Ineed help, I'm an alcoholic.

(04:24):
She was in AA and when I askedher I said I need help, I'm an
alcoholic.
She cried out of joy and Ilaughed out of relief and she
took me to a meeting.
And in that moment, at my veryfirst meeting, was very unique
situation and I had one of thosemoments where it was totally
life-changing.
This AA meeting had a thousandpeople at it, it was an AA
conference and it was just whatI needed and I did everything I

(04:48):
could to try to get out of goingand get out of staying.
But once I got there, I waslike something shifted.
Immediately.
The first night I went out tomy car afterwards and I actually
said, thank you God, I hadnever said anything like that in
my life, and so that was thebiggest initial pivot that I can

(05:10):
remember, because the very nextday and the day after that, all
the time after that, when Iwent to work on Monday, people
said what happened to you?
Like they could see the change.
So when we have a big pivot, abig change that involves
spirituality and emotion andstuff like that, it shows on our

(05:30):
physical feature, in ourphysical features.
So I guess I thought, okay,this is good, I really enjoyed
it, I loved AA.
I kept going and and you know,from 29 until I don't know when,
I stayed sober, I never wantedto drink again, I had stopped
using drugs, um, all this stuff,and so I thought I had it all

(05:53):
together and it was, uh, quite afew years after that that I
discovered tapping, eft tappingand if you don't know what that
is, I just encourage you to justlook it up.
Look up EFT tapping.
And if you don't know what thatis, I just encourage you to
just look it up.
Look up EFT tapping so you canfind out what it is.
But it came to me in an emailand I remember thinking before

(06:17):
that that even though I'd beensober a long time by then 20
years or 25 years, I don't knowI had four kids by then.
I was a single mom, I had my ownbusiness, I was doing things on
my own and I thought I waskeeping it all together, but I
was feeling still kind ofsquirmy and uncomfortable inside
, despite the 12 steps ofAlcoholics Anonymous and all of

(06:41):
that stuff.
I worked hard at those steps, Idid everything and all of that
stuff.
I worked hard at those steps, Idid everything.
And then this email came to meand it was a tapping email it
was.
It had a video attached saidjust tap along with this and see
what happens.
So I tapped along and tapping.
If you know, it's super simple,I mean, it's so simple.
So I was tapping with the galon the on the video in the email

(07:03):
and I remember getting justlike two minutes into it and
just feeling this huge releaseof what I now know is an
energetic release, like stuckenergy.
It was probably, you know, 30years or 40 years of energy that
just went whoosh so and it wasrelief and release and I thought

(07:28):
this is cool.
I want to learn more about this.
I mean, I've done lots of things.
I've tried all kinds oftherapies and things to try to
be OK with myself.
But it wasn't until that momentwhere I thought, wow, this is
the tool I've been looking formy whole life to get to the

(07:48):
physical, emotional, spiritualall in one fell swoop.
So I did look into it, I foundout more about it.
I became just a rabid fan oftapping and decided to study it.
I went for training, I decidedto become a practitioner and
that's when my life reallyreally began to change.

(08:09):
I was using it as a kind of anovice.
I wasn't really, I didn'thadn't hung my shingle out yet,
I hadn't gotten certified, but Iwas using it.
And I remember the day that Ihad the other pivot.
I mean I've had lots of them,but I was working, I was a
manager and I was attending thispanel discussion where I worked

(08:31):
and I don't know if you've everhad this type of experience
where the panel says anyquestions and in my mind I'm
like oh yes, I have a question,but I was too.
I was so afraid to raise myhand, turns out, I had a fear of
public speaking, which I knew,but I would.
Before I even raised my hand, Icould feel my voice getting all

(08:52):
shaky and my body was startedto shake.
So I remembered in that momentto start doing just a little
tapping.
No one would have known what Iwas doing, but I started tapping
around the tapping points andall of a sudden my hand shot up.
It was like of its own volition.
It was like I wasn't really incharge anymore.

(09:13):
My hand just went woo and theycalled on me and I here's the
first amazing thing I asked thequestion with a voice that was
steady and firm, no nervousnessin my voice at all, which
doesn't happen to everybody.
But if you have any kind offear of speaking in public, the
voice is one of the firstindicators that, like, oh God,

(09:33):
I'm really nervous.
But my voice didn't sound shakyand I wasn't nervous and I
asked the question.
And the second sort of miraclething that happened was I heard
the answer and I know that I'dbeen in that position before to
ask a question in a publicsetting like that.
And once I asked the question,I can't even hear what's going

(09:56):
on.
All I have is this noise in myhead.
But that went away that day andI thought oh, my goodness, I
have to get this tapping out toeverybody on the planet who's
afraid to speak up.
So that just was the moreencouragement for me to get my
certification in practice.
And public speaking is just oneof the many, many things I've

(10:20):
used tapping for in my own lifeand in the lives of my clients
and literally with strangers.
I've tapped with strangers.
So the traumas that I grew upwith and I did have I mean, you
don't become an alcoholic for noreason I had quite a few
traumas as a child and I livedin a family of that was just

(10:46):
very dysfunctional and I wasable to tap away all of that old
trauma.
So one of the things I loveabout tapping is, you know, even
though you and I've talkedabout this a lot, like, oh, I
wish I'd had this when I wasyoung, like, wouldn't it have
been?
What would it have been like ifI tapped on this when I was
young?
Well, it would have been great,but I didn't.

(11:07):
But now I can go back and tapon my younger self and help her,
help release all that stuff.
I've done a lot of that, so,and that, in a very rapid
nutshell, brings me to where Iam today.
I did get certified.
I am a certified EFTpractitioner.
I've been practicing for about,I want to say, 15 years and

(11:31):
I've worked with so manydifferent people on so many
different issues.
So to me, when I describetapping and what it's good for,
it's good for anything that ailsa human, which is, I mean, it's
emotional freedom.
Technique is its true name.
And so we, as humans, we haveemotions involved.

(11:54):
In literally everything we do,every decision we make, every
step we take, there are emotionsinvolved, and that doesn't mean
we have to tap all that stuffaway, but a lot of our old
emotions and traumas and stufflike that are really holding us
back even now.
So my goal in life is to helppeople get free so they can have

(12:15):
the really joyful, free life.

Speaker 1 (12:20):
Yeah, amazing story.
You're right.
I mean I love that you talkabout how you know that there
were a lot of traumas, likeearly on, right, that that now
you're working on freeing andand how that works, and I know,
even as gonna wants to talk alittle bit more about the
tapping, but sometimes we don'tknow kind of what causes that to

(12:44):
happen just at that moment andto push you that.
Because clearly to me, based onwhat you said, that's what
pushed you to realize, hey, youneeded to stop drinking, you
needed to stop doing drugs.
I mean, do you agree with that?
Do you have any idea of whatpushed you that way that day?
And maybe you don't Like I'mjust, I'm just curious about it.

Speaker 2 (13:14):
I don't.
I don't know exactly that daywhat pushed me, but I would me
in my life.
I would say that there was somekind of divine intervention.
I mean, I don't know how elseto say it, and the way it all
came about is truly amazing.
I couldn't have planned itmyself.

Speaker 1 (13:25):
Well, you know, maybe that was, you know, some divine
intervention telling you youneeded to make this change or,
like you said, you were going tolose your life, like maybe.
I'm a firm believer in that.
Sometimes those things happenand I think you and I've talked
enough to know that you probablyare too right that that some
things push us that way andsometimes we just need to listen

(13:45):
to it and listen to our body orlisten to what the what the
universe is telling usAbsolutely and what I have found
over the years because tappingworks like on a layer.

Speaker 2 (13:57):
You can layer it like .
You can just get more and moreresilient as time goes on if you
do it consistently that I knowpretty much when my body's
trying to tell me something andI didn't use to know that I used
to just react, not not respond,and I think that's one of the

(14:17):
most beautiful things we get.

Speaker 1 (14:19):
Yeah, and I know even as going to ask you some more
questions about tapping, and I'dlove I want you to do that, but
, like you even did it before westarted this podcast, you felt
you needed it to relax and getready to tell your story.
So you know you, you showed methen how, how you use that.

Speaker 2 (14:38):
Yeah, I want to.
Before I started, I could kindof feel my brain getting a
little bit nervous.
I this I'm not afraid to speakin public, but there's still a
part of me that says what, if,what, if, what, if.
And so I just calm myself down,doing a little tapping, a
little deep breathing, and I canfeel it.
Just, you know, it just sort ofwhooshes and balances out.
Yeah, I use it for everything.

Speaker 3 (14:59):
And it took only seconds, like we're really
talking about to our listenerswhat Helen is describing.
She did that as we were justgetting organized and it was
like I mean, maybe a minute anda half maybe, so that's I love
that and I was thinking we don'thave a lot of time left.
But because of that I thinkit's really cool to give one

(15:20):
round of tapping a go, because Ihave an actual situation where
I could use it and by doing somaybe we can verbally also
present to our listeners the keytapping points.
So, as you know, some folkslisten to this only on audio.
Those of you who check out theYouTube channel, you can see
Helen tapping.
We're also going to put in theshow notes at least a couple of

(15:43):
different videos that Helen hasout there to teach the whole
technique.
But I think it's really a greatcoincidence that I actually
have coming up in about a week apublic speaking situation that
I am not scared of.
So I would not classify it asI'm afraid of public speaking.
I have a lot of experience,I've done it, but something's

(16:05):
just not quite, you know, readyand relaxed and I could use a
little support around it.
So I'll let you take over hereand we can do express round.

Speaker 2 (16:16):
And I'll do my best to describe the tapping points
and, if you're listening, I'mgoing to encourage you to tap
along and just notice whathappens.
Even if you're not, if youdon't have a public speaking
event coming up, think ofanything that's bugging you and
tap with us and repeat our wordsand notice what happens in your
body.
It is profoundly powerful.
So the first thing I would askyou, even with this event coming

(16:41):
up, when you think about it,and with tapping we focus on the
negative because we want tobring it up and clear it out
what do you notice in your bodythat tells you that you're not
quite you know what was the wordyou use not quite relaxed about
it?

Speaker 3 (16:58):
I noticed that I breathe shallowly and my jaw is
really tense when I think aboutit and that I am sort of like
fluttering up and out of my bodywhen I consider it.
It's easy for me to pinpointthat because I've been training
myself to quickly like tune intothese sensations.
The sensations are, in anutshell, of like I kind of like

(17:19):
just want to leave.
I don't want to do it.

Speaker 2 (17:22):
I just want to get out of there.
Yeah Well, that's kind of agreat way to say fight or flight
.
We want to leave, we want toflee the situation, even though
your conscious mind says, no,this is nothing to be afraid of,
I mean.
But your body, something inyour nervous system from God

(17:44):
knows, from when you were twomaybe is telling you this could
be a problem.
So I'm just going to invite youon a scale of zero to 10.
How tense does your jaw feelright now?

Speaker 3 (17:57):
Oh, tenser than I thought.
So when I brought this up I wasall like, cheerful, we're just
going to do tapping for ourlisteners.
But now that we're doing it forreal, I'd say it's a seven.

Speaker 2 (18:07):
Okay, yeah, and I like to measure.
Only it's subjective and it'sjust so we can see if we make
any headway.
Okay, yeah, right.
So I'm going to use some wordsand I'm not going to get too
much into it, but everybody,just do what I do with evena tap
along.
First of all, I want you totake a nice deep breath, gentle
breath in and exhale and kind offeel where you are right now.

(18:33):
For you, you're sitting in achair, just feel your butt in
the chair and we're going tostart tapping by tapping on the
side of our hand.
We used to call it the karatechop point, now we just call it
the side of the hand, but thathelps you know where it is.
And we're going to say thesewords and you're going to repeat
after me.
You can say, even though I feelthis tension in my jaw, Even

(18:53):
though I feel this tension in myjaw.
And my breathing is a littleshallow.

Speaker 3 (18:59):
And my breathing is a little shallow.

Speaker 2 (19:02):
When I think about this upcoming speaking event.

Speaker 3 (19:06):
When I think about this upcoming speaking event.

Speaker 2 (19:10):
I choose to accept myself and how I feel.

Speaker 3 (19:14):
I choose to accept myself and how I feel.

Speaker 2 (19:16):
Okay, and we usually do it three times.
Just say, even though I feelthis tension in my jaw, even
though I feel this tension in myjaw when I think about this
speaking event.

Speaker 3 (19:29):
When I think about this speaking event.

Speaker 2 (19:31):
I choose to accept all of me.

Speaker 3 (19:35):
I choose to accept all of me.

Speaker 2 (19:37):
And one more time, just say, even though I feel
this tension in my jaw- Eventhough I feel this tension in my
jaw.

Speaker 3 (19:43):
Even though I feel this tension in my jaw.

Speaker 2 (19:45):
Add a seven.
Add a seven when I think aboutthis event coming up.
When I think about this eventcoming up.
Okay, I choose to accept myselfcompletely.

Speaker 3 (19:58):
I choose to accept myself completely.
All right, now we're just goingto dive right in, just go to
the top of the completely Allright.

Speaker 2 (20:01):
Now we're just going to dive right in, just go to the
top of the head and we do whatwe call a reminder phrase, just
so we can remember what we'retapping on.
You can say this tension in myjaw, this tension in my jaw On
the eyebrow, thinking about thisspeaking event.
Thinking about this speakingevent Side of the eye, this
tension in my jaw, this tensionin my jaw.

(20:23):
Under the eye when I thinkabout this upcoming event.

Speaker 3 (20:28):
When I think about this upcoming event.

Speaker 2 (20:30):
Under the nose, this tension in my jaw, this tension
in my jaw On the chin, at abouta seven, at about a seven On the
collarbones, this tension in myjaw, this tension in my jaw,
this tension in my jaw.
Under the arm when I thinkabout this speaking event.

Speaker 3 (20:49):
When I think about this speaking event.

Speaker 2 (20:51):
Okay, so that's what we call one round of tapping,
and I'm going to stop, because Inoticed, even like exhaling,
her body just went.
Did you feel that, or was that?

Speaker 3 (21:02):
huge.
Oh my gosh, it was just likethat thing that you were
describing this.
Whoosh, all this like stress,just sort of like dumped out of
my body.
It was already feeling so muchbetter, I was starting to feel
so good, just by starting tolike, with the tapping points,
like, like and just the andreally I'm saying it like that,

(21:22):
I know it sounds weird.
Yeah, like, it's like thisconnection is just so
appropriate, so right, it's solike.
Oh my God, I'm paying attentionto myself.
Already, a dropped, you know.
But then, by the point we cameto the collarbones, I was just
like oh, I wish so.

Speaker 2 (21:39):
So just to kind of firm things up a little bit I
don't always do this but putyour hands on opposite shoulders
, so your right hand on yourleft shoulder, left hand on your
right shoulder, and just kindof smooth down your arms.
This is called havening.
It's an actual kind of goesalong with tapping to help you
just go.

(21:59):
Oh my God, I needed a hug andI'm now I'm giving myself a hug.
It's kind of like that.

Speaker 3 (22:04):
Yeah, All right.
And then I want to say here,Helen, you know cause I've used
this also, you know so much ofour longing for connection is,
you know, we tap in withunintended tap, into these young
, young States where you justneeded to be held when you were
tiny.
And it really is not importantright now that I know like what

(22:25):
version of me is crying forwhich parent.
That's not the point.
But there is something herethat's really benefiting from
this kind of like self parenting.
So when I do this, it justfeels like I'm basically really
letting myself know that there'sthis like mature energy here
and I'm okay.
It feels okay to feel okay.

Speaker 2 (22:43):
Our culture that we live in just really frowns on a
lot of touching and hugging.
I'm a big hugger, so you know,but a lot of people, especially
in the business world, are notbig on hugging.

Speaker 1 (22:54):
Well, I'm a big hugger, so everybody knows that
about me.
So, yeah, I think, because itis connection, right, it is all
those kinds of things, and Ithink what you've just showed us
.
And even, as you said, she wasgoing to ask you where your
tension went, you said it was aseven.
Is it less?
Now, that's what I was going toask.

Speaker 3 (23:14):
Absolutely a two.
And this was just after oneround.
I think if I and I can do alittle more when we're finished
recording, I'll do one moreround.
It's amazing Like so fast todefinitely definitely shift it.

Speaker 1 (23:25):
Well, you, I could almost see it, Like, if you're,
if people are watching us onYouTube, we could almost see it
and I could see how that canreally like change our whole
thought process and our wholething.
So, Helen, thank you for beinghere today.
I would love to ask you wealways ask a final question,
which is how is this pivot, astep forward?
So do you want to just tell usin one sentence or in your own

(23:47):
words and maybe it's not asentence, maybe it's longer than
that you know how you thinkthat this really helped you and
helped you move forward?

Speaker 2 (23:56):
It completely changed my life, my perspective, my, my
work, my work, the reason I'mhere.
It changed it.
I mean, I didn't even know whyI was here, but this helped me
find it.
So I do believe that I'msometimes I'll think maybe I
should stop doing this and findsomething else to do, but then
my heart and my soul just saysno, this is what you're here to
do.

Speaker 1 (24:17):
If it works for you and it's working for others, why
would you change that?

Speaker 2 (24:23):
I absolutely love helping people, especially when
they have trauma and they getpast their trauma.
Oh my God, it's like I get toparticipate in a miracle.

Speaker 1 (24:32):
Awesome.
I know you're doing amazingwork and it's been an absolute
pleasure having you here today.
I wish we had more time.
Thank you so much for beingwith us today.
We really do appreciate it.

Speaker 3 (24:42):
Yeah, thank you so much, Helen.
And on the note of more timeabsolutely so easy to have more
time with Helen.
She's got amazing resources,free resources online, so check
it out.
We put it in the show notes.

Speaker 1 (24:54):
Awesome and for our listeners.
Thank you for being here todayand remember, if you have.
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Football’s funniest family duo — Jason Kelce of the Philadelphia Eagles and Travis Kelce of the Kansas City Chiefs — team up to provide next-level access to life in the league as it unfolds. The two brothers and Super Bowl champions drop weekly insights about the weekly slate of games and share their INSIDE perspectives on trending NFL news and sports headlines. They also endlessly rag on each other as brothers do, chat the latest in pop culture and welcome some very popular and well-known friends to chat with them. Check out new episodes every Wednesday. Follow New Heights on the Wondery App, YouTube or wherever you get your podcasts. You can listen to new episodes early and ad-free, and get exclusive content on Wondery+. Join Wondery+ in the Wondery App, Apple Podcasts or Spotify. And join our new membership for a unique fan experience by going to the New Heights YouTube channel now!

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