Emotional Freedom Techniques (EFT) is a psychotherapeutic alternative medicine tool based on a theory that negative emotions are caused by disturbances in the body's energy field and that tapping on the meridians while thinking of a negative emotion alters the body's energy field, restoring it to "balance." There are two studies which appear to show positive outcomes from use of the technique, but another study has suggested that it is indistinguishable from the placebo effect. Critics have described the theory behind EFT as pseudoscientific and have suggested that its utility stems from its more traditional cognitive components, such as distraction from negative thoughts, rather than from manipulation of energy meridians. Psychotherapy is an interpersonal, relational intervention used by trained psychotherapists to aid clients in problems of living. ... Alternative medicine has been described as any of various systems of healing or treating disease (as chiropractic, homeopathy, or faith healing) not included in the traditional medical curricula taught in the United States and Britain.[1] Alternative medicine practices are often based in belief systems not derived from modern science. ... Energy in spirituality, refers to a widespread belief in an interpersonal forces that are not recognized by scientists engaged in physical sciences. ... Meridian is: Meridian (astronomy): an imaginary circle perpendicular to the horizon. ... It has been suggested that this article or section be merged into Placebo. ... A typical 18th century phrenology chart. ...

Background

EFT was created by Gary Craig in the mid 1990s, and is meant to be a simplification and improvement of Roger Callahan's Thought Field Therapy (TFT) techniques. Craig trained with Callahan in the early 1990s. In 1993, Craig was the first person Callahan trained in his most advanced procedure, a proprietary procedure known as Voice Technology. Craig found through his experience that the sequence of tapping points did not matter and that special proprietary procedures were therefore unnecessary, so by the mid 1990s he had simplified Callahan's procedures. For the band, see 1990s (band). ... Thought Field Therapy, or TFT, is a fringe psychological treatment, developed by Dr. Roger Callahan. ...

Theory

Proponents of EFT claim it relieves many psychological and physical conditions, including depression, anxiety, post-traumatic stress disorder, general stress, addictions and phobias. More extreme claims have been made for multiple sclerosis and one proponent claims that "you can also use it for everything from the common cold to cancer.'" The basic EFT technique involves holding a disturbing memory or emotion in mind and simultaneously using the fingers to tap on a series of 12 specific points on the body that correspond to meridians used in Chinese medicine. The theory behind EFT is that negative emotions are caused by disturbances in the body's energy field and that tapping on the meridians while thinking of a negative emotion alters the body's energy field, restoring it to "balance." For other uses, see Depression. ... This article is about state anxiety. ... Post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) is a term for certain severe psychological consequences of exposure to, or confrontation with, stressful events that the person experiences as highly traumatic. ... In medical terms, stress is the disruption of homeostasis through physical or psychological stimuli. ... This article is about the concept of addiction. ... For other uses, see Phobia (disambiguation). ... For other uses, see Memory (disambiguation). ... For other uses, see Emotion (disambiguation). ... The concept of meridians (Chinese: jing-luo 经络) arises from the techniques and doctrines of Traditional Chinese Medicine (TCM), including acupuncture, acupressure, and qigong. ... Traditional Chinese medicine shop in Tsim Sha Tsui, Hong Kong. ... Energy in spirituality, refers to a widespread belief in an interpersonal forces that are not recognized by scientists engaged in physical sciences. ...

The theory states that negative emotions are built in the following stages: A negative experience occurs; negative emotions are felt in response to this negative experience, leading to inappropriate programming inside the body; and then the body's energy system gets disrupted due to these negative emotions. The contention of EFT is that in order to remove the negative responses, tackling the negative experience is not enough, because doing so cannot correct the energy imbalance. Rather, the energy imbalance must be restored along with curing the negative emotions.

The main difference between EFT and TFT lies not in principles, but in application. In TFT, a specific sequence of tapping points (known as an algorithm) is used for a particular problem. This sequence is determined using muscle testing, a procedure also used by applied kinesiology. It has been suggested that Diagnostic kinesiology be merged into this article or section. ... See also: Kinesiology (academic) Applied kinesiology (AK) is related to diagnostic kinesiology. ...

In EFT, the order and sequence of tapping points is deemed to be unimportant, and therefore there are no individual algorithms for different problems. Instead, a comprehensive algorithm is used for all problems, and no diagnosis or muscle testing is required.

Effectiveness

EFT has been the subject of three peer-reviewed publications as of 2007. For other uses, see Peer review (disambiguation). ...

The first study, published in the Journal of Clinical Psychology in 2003 (indexed in the Medline database) and funded by the Association for Comprehensive Energy Psychology, involved 35 patients with a phobia of small animals receiving a single treatment with EFT. The authors concluded that: For other uses, see Phobia (disambiguation). ...

The findings are largely consistent with the hypothesis that EFT can reduce phobias of small animals in a single treatment session. However, due to methodological limitations in the present study, firm conclusions about the efficacy of EFT must wait for confirmation from future studies.^[1]

This study seems to put EFT into the category of a "Probably Efficacious Treatment" (as opposed to "Well-Established Treatment") for specific phobias according to the APA Division 12 criteria. However, the APA Division 12 has not officially classified EFT in this manner.

The second study, published in The Scientific Review of Mental Health Practice in 2003 (indexed in the PsycInfo database), was conducted by Waite and Holder on 119 University students who reported specific fears or phobias.^[2] This study compared four groups: A group that received a single-round regular EFT; a second group that received the same treatment except that they tapped on points in the arm that are not part of the standard EFT protocol; a third group that received the same treatment except that they tapped on the corresponding meridian points on an inanimate object (a doll) and a fourth group that was asked to make a toy. The participants were asked to self-report their fears before and after treatment on a SUDS scale. Production Order Suds is a SpongeBob SquarePants episode from season one. ...

The first three groups did statistically better than the fourth group, but there were no significant differences between the three tapping groups. That is, the groups that tapped on sham points and on the doll did just as well as the EFT group, but all three groups did better than the no-treatment group. Since the group that used the doll was not tapping on meridian points yet still benefited equally, the authors suggested this as a falsification of the theory that EFT works because of the body's energy meridian system. For other uses, see Placebo (disambiguation). ... Falsifiability (or refutability or testability) is the logical possibility that an assertion can be shown false by an observation or a physical experiment. ...

The third study, published in Counseling and Clinical Psychology in 2005 (an erratically published journal not included in either the PsycInfo or Medline databases), a psychological test called the SA-45 was used to test the levels of psychological distress on 102 participants of an experiential Emotional Freedom Techniques (EFT) workshop and to examine the long-term effects. The SA-45 was given before the workshop, after the workshop, 1 month after the workshop, and 6 months after the workshop. There was a statistically significant decrease in all measures of psychological distress as measured by the SA-45 from pre-workshop to post-workshop which held up at the 6 month follow-up.^[3]. This study, however, does not show that EFT in isolation yielded positive effects, and lacked valid controls.

Criticism

EFT has been labeled as pseudoscience in The Skeptical Inquirer magazine, based on what the journal describes as its lack of falsifiability, reliance on anecdotal evidence, and aggressive promotion via the Internet.^[4] Gary Craig, the developer of EFT, has argued that tapping anywhere on the body will manipulate "energy meridians". Skeptics have asserted that such an argument renders EFT untestable via the scientific method, and therefore a pseudoscience.^[4][5] This argument is also addressed by the Waite and Holder paper, in which the participants tapped on a doll, rather than themselves. Waite and Holder have suggested that EFT's successes are likely to stem from "characteristics it shares with more traditional therapies", rather than manipulation of energy meridians via tapping. The 2003 study showed EFT, a modeling treatment and a placebo all produced a significant decrease in anxiety and fear over a control group.^[2] A recent article in the Guardian suggested that the act of tapping parts of the body in a complicated sequence acts as a distraction from, and therefore can appear to alleviate the root distress.^[6] A typical 18th century phrenology chart. ... Falsifiability (or refutability or testability) is the logical possibility that an assertion can be shown false by an observation or a physical experiment. ... Anecdotal evidence is an informal account of evidence in the form of an anecdote, or hearsay. ... Scientific method is a body of techniques for investigating phenomena, acquiring new knowledge, or correcting and integrating previous knowledge. ... For other uses, see Guardian. ...

References

A digital object identifier (or DOI) is a standard for persistently identifying a piece of intellectual property on a digital network and associating it with related data, the metadata, in a structured extensible way. ...

Further reading

• Fred Gallo (2000). Energy Psychology; CRC Press.
• David Feinstein, Donna Eden, Gary Craig (2006). The Healing Power of EFT and Energy Psychology: Revolutionary Methods for Dramatic Personal Change; Piatkus Books.
• William A. Tiller (1997). Science and Human Transformation: Subtle Energies, Intentionality and Consciousness; Pavior Publishing.
• Gillian Tarawhiti(2006). Gain Back Your Life with EFT;.
• Phillip Mountrose & Jane Mountrose: (2000) Getting Thru to Your Emotions with EFT; Holistic Communications

William A. Tiller, Ph. ...

External links

• Official site (run by Gary Craig)