When it comes to measuring progress in EFT (Emotional Freedom Techniques) in a quantitative way, there are two complementary methods: “SUDs” and “VOCs.” It can be useful to know both, and to understand the difference between them. While these are valuable for quantitative assessments, it’s important to remember that qualitative ways of measuring progress also exist and can offer additional insights.
Before diving into definitions, let’s briefly revisit the “banana bread analogy” from a previous video. Think of the issue you want to address as a whole loaf of banana bread. Tackling it all at once is overwhelming. Instead, you can slice it by selecting a recent or future specific event related to the issue. For instance, if the issue is a “fear of public speaking” (the whole loaf), a specific event (or slice) might be “next week’s presentation at work.”
Defining SUDs and VOCs
“SUD” stands for “Subjective Units of Distress,” a 0-10 scale used to measure the current emotional intensity associated with a specific event. We can’t generally “tap away” our anger, but we can lessen the anger we feel in particular situations.
“VOC” stands for “Validity of Cognition,” or in simpler terms, “How true does this feel right now?”. Usually, we use a 0-100 percent scale to gauge this. It’s used to measure the overarching issue or “the whole loaf of banana bread”.
Watch the following video if you’d like to know more about how to apply these assessment tools in your EFT tapping: