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What is EFT?
EFT stands for Emotional Freedom Technique. This is a technique born from TFT (Thought Field Therapy) developed in the 1980's by Dr. Roger Callahan. Dr. Callahan was a psychiatrist by trade, and was finding himself getting increasingly frustrated with his inability to effectively (and rapidly) help his patients overcome their emotional issues. In particular, he had this female patient who had an intense phobia to water. After years of therapy and barely any progress, he recalls managing to get her to sit close to a swimming pool. She was still terrified and described how her terror was being felt in the pit of her stomach. Dr. Callahan had been reading up on Chinese Medicine and the meridians (energy pathways around the body), and had the spontaneous idea to get this patient to tap under her eye (a meridian point associated with the stomach) for a few minutes. To his amazement she said she felt better. So much so that she started running towards the swimming pool! This incredible story inspired Dr. Callahan to study this tapping concept further and develop tapping sequences for various types of behavior issues as well as physical ones.
EFT comes into the picture thanks to Gary Craig, a student of Dr. Callahan's. Through his persistence that there had to be an easier approach to TFT, his research led him to discover that it wasn’t necessary to have precise tapping sequences for each type of ailment. Instead, he found that with one specific sequence of tapping on various points could end up working just as well and could be used for all types of problems.
Why the tapping? It is believed that we have an energy system around our body (the Chinese spoke of a meridian system already over 5,000 years ago). According to EFT “the cause of all negative emotions is a disruption in the body's energy system.” If we use the water phobia patient from above, her stomach meridian was experiencing the energy imbalance and manifesting as the intense fear. Through the tapping, pulses were sent to her meridian and balanced it out, and consequently eliminated her fear.
EFT is an easy, non-invasive, effective technique that can be applied to all sorts of ailments: phobias, trauma, anger, weight loss, anxiety, addictions, pain relief, allergies and many more.