Emotional Freedom Techniques (EFT)
Also known as “needleless acupuncture,” EFT is a powerful recent (1970’s) discovery in energy psychology/energy medicine that stimulates certain meridian points of the body by tapping on them with our fingertips. The premise is that all emotional and physical issues are the result of a disruption of the body’s energy system (unbalanced energy meridians). Properly done, this frequently reduces the therapeutic process from months or years down to hours or minutes.
TFT (“grandfather” technique of EFT) Now Listed in National Registry of Evidence-Based Programs & Practices
“Thought Field Therapy, the grandfather of energy psychology, was listed as an evidence-based practice in the SAMHSA registry (NREPP). It was found to be effective or promising in 6 different areas. This is a big deal.”
SAMSHA stands for the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration. It is the agency within the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services that leads public health efforts to advance the behavioral health of the nation.”
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From Trauma to Peace documentary now available in short version
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Watch the 2.5-minute video here
Thought Field Therapy was found to be effective for:
- Trauma and Stressor-Related Disorders and Symptoms
- Self-Regulation
- Personal Resilience/Self-Concept
(Robert Schwarz, PsyD, DCEP, February 2016)
Another Study Shows EFT is Effective for Treating PTSD:
“In 2015, the Journal of Traumatic Stress Disorders & Treatment published a randomized controlled study of 60 Iraqi male students, comparing the effectiveness of emotional freedom techniques (EFT) and narrative exposure therapy (NET) for treating PTSD.
EFT was found to be ‘significantly more effective than NET in reducing anxiety and depression symptoms, and these reductions remained fairly consistent over 12 months.’ The NET group showed a significant decrease in avoidance and re-experience, while no significant difference was found in hyper-arousal.
“The effect size of EFT was higher than NET and the control group whether in PTSD overall or PTSD clusters.” [our emphasis]
The Veterans Stress Project–Using EFT for Veterans with PTSD:
American Psychological Association Journal, Review of General Psychology:
“A literature search identified 50 peer-reviewed papers that report or investigate clinical outcomes following the tapping of acupuncture points to address psychological issues. The 17 randomized controlled trials in this sample were critically evaluated for design quality, leading to the conclusion that they consistently demonstrated strong effect sizes and other positive statistical results that far exceed chance after relatively few treatment sessions. Criteria for evidence-based treatments proposed by Division 12 of the American Psychological Association were also applied and found to be met for a number of conditions, including PTSD.” (Feinstein, 2012)
The Power of Tapping for Weight Loss/Eating Habits: A Research Review
EFT/Tapping intervention programs for weight loss show marked improvements–short-term and long-term–in participants, including:
- Weight
- Food cravings
- “Power over food”
- Restraint from food cravings
- Emotional eating
- Uncontrolled eating
Read more results and research reference here
VIDEOS & AUDIOS (see video demonstrations of EFT technique at bottom of page)
Watch this Introductory Video with EFT Founder, Gary Craig (video)
Another Introductory Video (video)
The Science Behind EFT, Dawson, Church, PhD (audio)
How to Rewire the Brain with EFT, Nick Ortner (video)
EFT for PTSD with Veterans, Veterans Stress Project, Gary Craig (video)
EFT for PTSD with Veterans, Veterans Stress Project, Dawson Church (video)
Your body’s houses an electrical charge in every cell and organ, in the electrical pathways of the nervous system, and the electromagnetic fields surrounding every organ and the entire body.
With psychological issues, any disturbing experience you have causes your brain to send out electrical signals that lead to the expression of an emotion (fear, anger, depression, sadness, etc.), or a perception, or a behavior that is not appropriate for the current situation. This “triggering experience” may be a recurring experience, such as being confronted or tested, or it may be internally initiated, such as a recurring memory, image, or thought. Typically, treatment of extreme or inappropriate responses to situations has been with either medication, psychotherapy, or cognitive or behavioral therapies. A new approach is to work directly with the energies that maintain the pattern in your brain’s response to the triggering experience. This is the approach used in the newly emerging field of Energy Psychology.
After gathering information from the client about the start of a problem and its physical and/or psychological effects or associations, energy disturbances can be identified and corrected through a variety of basic and advanced tapping techniques. For instance, if every time you think about a particular situation, certain parts of your brain become overstimulated–leading to emotional or behavioral responses that you are dissatisfied with– you can think or talk about the issue & emotion while you tap or massage trigger points that alter the dysfunctional response that is occurring in your brain related to that issue. This process retrains your body and brain–often in minutes–so that the thought or situation no longer causes the overreaction. These trigger points are the ones that have been discovered and mapped out in acupuncture, though EFT does not use needles to stimulate these trigger points.
While some critics dismiss it as nonsense, it is the only aspect of psychology that uses the word “cure” and has the scientific evidence to back it up. In this exclusive interview, a local psychotherapist, who is also a founding father in the field, outlines the latest science on the human energy field.
Clinical Research Articles on EFT and Energy Psychology
Energy Psychology: A Review of the Preliminary Evidence, David Feinstein, Ph.D.
Six Pillars of Energy Medicine, David Feinstein, Ph.D. & Donna Eden
Multiple Research Studies on the Use of EFT on Various Issues
Library of Research Studies–Association for Comprehensive Energy Psychology
Video Demonstration of Basic EFT Technique
Video Demonstration of 9-Gamut Technique
Alternative Faster EFT Technique, Robert Smith (video)