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Thought Field Therapy & Emotional Freedom Techniques: Innovative Trauma Treatment

In Thought Field Therapy (TFT) and Emotional Freedom Techniques (EFT), a client tunes into their emotional distress and then taps on a sequence of accupressure points. What happens next is truly amazing. The client’s distress is rapidly reduced or even eliminated often in just a few minutes. TFT & EFT have been found by clinical observation to be helpful in the treatment of:

Fears/ Phobias
All types of Traumas
Anxiety
Anger
Grief and Loss
Depression
Obsessions
Cravings

Thought Field Therapy was developed almost 20 years ago by California Psychologist, Roger Callahan. Callahan, a specialist in the treatment of anxiety and phobias, had learned the Applied Kinesiology technique of manual muscle testing to test the energy flow in the body. He observed that clients would become physically and energetically weak when they tuned into negative or distressing thoughts and become strong if they tuned into a pleasant experience. In 1980, Callahan first tried his accupressure technique with the client, known as Mary, who had a severe water phobia that had not responded well to the traditional treatments. Mary would talk about the horrible feeling she got in her stomach as she thought about water. Using muscle testing, Dr. Callahan had discovered that her stomach meridian was out of balance. He instructed Mary to tap at the end of the stomach meridian, located under the eye. The water phobia disappeared instantly and to this day has not returned. From this initial observation and years of clinical experience, Dr. Callahan developed the treatment sequences for many specific problems such as trauma, anger, fears, and phobias. He also went on to develop a device called Voice Technology that can read the energy disruptions in a client’s voice and diagnose a treatment plan to correct the problem.

Gary Craig, a performance consultant, trained with Dr. Callahan at the highest level of TFT. He developed Emotional Freedom Techniques (EFT) by creating a single comprehensive treatment sequence based on Callahan’s treatment points. A single sequence of accupressure points is tapped for every problem. Gary Craig has also supported the use of EFT by creating an excellent web site (www.emofree.com) that details case reports where EFT was successfully used with a large variety of problems.

Research on the efficacy of TFT and EFT is currently under way in the U.S., Australia and Canada. Dr. Lee Pulos, of Vancouver is conducting a pilot study with motorcycle accident surviviors using TFT. With initial impressive results for reduction of trauma symptoms, he plans to expand the project. Australian psychologist Steve Wells’ study with EFT and trauma victims has also found significant results demonstrating the efficacy of EFT. Drs. Lambrou & Pratt have also found significant changes in the heart rate, blood pressure, muscle tension and increased sense of self-efficacy in agoraphobia subjects using EFT vs the control group. Further research is important and necessary to support the clinical observation of EFT’s efficacy.

For an excellent introduction to the field of energy psychology, check out Fred Gallo’s 1999 book Energy Psychology: Explorations at the Interface of Energy Cognition, Behaviour and Health (ISBN # 1-57444-184-1). This comprehensive and well-written text goes into the origins of the use of energy to heal, looks at the foundations of the current work in energy psychology and discusses in detail how to use accupressure tapping to alleviate emotional and physical issues. Other helpful books on the use of energy include: John Diamond’s (1985) Life Energy: Using Meridians to Unlock the Hidden Power of Your Emotions; James Durlacher’s (1994) Freedom from Fear; Delores Kreiger’s (1993) book on Therapeutic Touch, Accepting Your Power to Heal; Michael Talbot’s The Holographic Universe & the interesting and technical book by William Tiller (1997) Science & Human Transformations: Subtle Energies, Intentionality and Consciousness. Most of the developers of the energy psychology techniques also have created manuals that describe and teach the techniques. For information on how to get a manual, check out the individual websites. The costs of these manuals are between $25—35 US.