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My recent Wired In blog on the use of EFT (Emotional Freedom Techniques) for relief of cravings has generated a bit of interest, and that prompted me to put together some additional information on the background and applications of this therapeutic tool.
EFT is a brief therapeutic intervention and a self-help tool developed in 1990s by Gary Craig, an engineer and a personal development coach, from the work of Dr Roger Callahan on Thought Field Therapy.
EFT is typically seen as a complementary therapy, and is sometimes called “acupuncture without needles” or “emotional form of acupuncture”, but I prefer to see it as a powerful psychotherapeutic approach, which has the benefit of being “portable”, with clients being able to use it for themselves independently.
I am passionate about introducing EFT to the recovery field, as I believe it can truly revolutionise addiction treatment, empowering both clients and staff, relieving both physical and emotional pain, and giving people practical tools to help themselves.
In addiction treatment field, EFT can be used in the following ways:
It is also a fabulous stress management and personal development tool for workers and carers. Does all this sound too good to be true? I certainly used to think that too.
I came across EFT some years ago on a training course, where another fellow student enthusiastically told me about a new technique he had discovered. Polite but reserved, I agreed to be the “guinea pig” for the EFT demonstration, and when it was completed a couple of minutes later, I was puzzled and a little irritated.
There was absolutely no way that the odd-looking procedure could have any impact on my issue (instructed by my colleague to be as specific as possible, I focused on an emotional reaction which I found impossible to control, despite years of applying what I saw as the most sophisticated psychological tools).
I forgot about this experience almost immediately… That is, until about 5 weeks later, when I became aware that my problem had disappeared.
At the time, I was employed as a drug worker and, a little later, drug treatment manager at a women’s prison, and, having gained more experience with EFT, I was enthusiastic about teaching it to both prisoners and staff.
One of the Listeners I taught EFT (as you may know, Listeners are prisoners trained by Samaritans who “listen” to other prisoners in distress) wrote a note to me to say that the two women she had demonstrated EFT to had been able to stop self-harming. Another woman was astonished how quickly the technique had helped her to relieve the overwhelming negative emotions associated with the break-up of her relationship.
I saw prisoners use the technique for relief from anger, anxiety, and pains and aches associated with withdrawal.
One of the girls cured herself of obsessive-compulsive cleaning rituals, without anyone’s help (if any psychiatrists are reading this, they will probably think that this is nonsense, as OCD is quite a challenging condition to treat, even for experienced professionals).
Yet another wrote me a passionate note to say that in 16 years of seeing doctors, psychiatrists, social workers, EFT helped her more than anything else to deal with her severe childhood traumas. She wanted the prison governor – and the world – to see her letter.
Like me, most addiction professionals, as well as substance users, who first learn the EFT technique are sceptical. It is a rather peculiar-looking procedure, with a series of acupressure points stimulated by tapping with the fingertips, and specially worded affirmations which are typically said out loud.
Some may have seen Paula McKenna use a similar technique on TV and associate it with “stage hypnosis” or “trickery”.
There are some beginnings of scientific research that show promising results with EFT even though it is difficult to conduct controlled studies of these types of therapies. Some references and abstract to papers on EFT can be found here.
Data on specific applications of EFT for addictions is rather scarce, with only one research paper published on the subject (Church, 2008), though there are numerous case studies reported on the main EFT website, and addiction-related EFT stories appear in the press every now and again (e.g. Hamilton, 2009).
I am especially excited, however, about the possibilities of using EFT for treatment of trauma, with an increasing number of reports published on successful outcomes with PTSD for combat veterans and disaster survivors (Church, 2009; Craig, 2009; Feinstein, 2008b, The Herald, 2007). To me, this aspect of work is of vital importance as so often we find traumatic past experiences to be one of the important causal or maintaining factors in addictions.
It is still not clear how EFT achieves results, which are often rapid and dramatic (though by no means all cases are a “one-minute wonder”, some require persistence and hard work). Most EFT Practitioners rely on the explanation based on the meridian system, and balancing the chi in relation to a specific issue/problem, as in acupuncture, but for many health professionals I work with and come into contact with this sounds like a lot of mumbo-jumbo.
There are a number of other theories, none of them proven, how EFT may work. For example, Argentinean Dr Andrade who conducted EFT trials with thousands of anxiety patients with some promising results, and David Feinstein proposed a neurological explanation (Feinstein, 2008a).
The acupuncture/acupressure points have a particularly high concentration of mechanoreceptors and free nerve endings. It appears that the signal that is generated when tapping eventually reaches the amygdala, hippocampus, and other parts of the limbic system where the emotional problem “resides” (and which plays such an important part in addictions), whilst the problem is “activated” through imaginal exposure (with the individual focusing on the issue in their mind) – with the tapping signal seemingly disrupting established patterns, and the hyper-arousal is thus reduced. Enhanced serotonin production is also associated with tapping the acupressure points.
If this sounds like a sales pitch, I will not make an apology for it – I do want to sell EFT to the recovery community, as I dream of it being freely available and accessible to everyone who wants to use it (and not everyone will want to, as it is true that no individual tool or approach suits everybody).
More research is urgently needed in this area, and if any treatment agencies are interested in taking part in a study on EFT as a therapeutic intervention, I would be delighted to hear from you.
References
Church, D. (2008) The Effect of EFT (Emotional Freedom Techniques) on Psychological Symptoms in Addiction Treatment. Presented at Science and Consciousness, the Tenth Annual Energy Psychology Conference, Toronto, Oct 24.
Church, D. (2009) The Treatment of Combat Trauma in Veterans using EFT (Emotional Freedom Techniques): A Pilot Protocol. Traumatology, March 15:1.
Craig, G. (2009) EFT for PTSD. Energy Psychology Press.
Dinter, I. (2008) Veterans: Finding their way home with EFT. International Journal of Healing and Caring, September 8:3.
Feinstein, D. (2008a) Energy psychology: a review of the preliminary evidence. Psychotherapy: Theory, Research, Practice, Training, 45 (2), 199-213.
Feinstein, D. (2008b) Energy psychology in disaster relief. Traumatology, 141 (1), 124-137.
Hamilton, J. (2009). Tap on head cured my chocolate addiction. The Sun, 27 May 2009.
The Herald (2007) Hands-on treatment offers hope for victims of trauma. The Herald, 4 June 2007.
Masha Bennett is a freelance Psychotherapist and Trainer who used to work as a Drug Treatment Manager at one of the women’s prisons in the UK. She divides her time between seeing clients, managing an innovative Well Being Centre in Stockport and teaching her favourite therapeutic intervention and a self-help tool, EFT (Emotional Freedom Techniques), to professionals and the general public in the UK, Russia, Norway, Latvia and some other countries.
The next workshop on EFT for Addiction treatment will take place in Manchester on 11-12th July 2009.
You can get in touch with Masha at masha@eft4addictions.co.uk or through her website www.eft4addictions.co.uk.
I trained with Masha and fully validate her experiences of EFT as this has been true for me. It is life changing.
One of my first case studies was an agoraphobic who had worked with CBT teams. She had hardly left her home for ten years. After 4 sessions of EFT she had started a new life. Her partner had given up work to be with her in their home as she had felt suicidal on a daily basis through her anxiety. He has now returned to work and she had started taking the children to school and even driving the car. It is a powerful simple technique.
As an energy therapist it can be tricky to be loud and proud – often what you do flies in the face of conventional therapies and people can be distrustful of new things – especially when they are simple.
People can mis- interpret actions of therapists as sales pitch – however when you work with an amazing therapy that really helps people very quickly you do want to shout it from the rooftops. At the same time one doesn’t want to be seen as an evangalist.EFT works alongside other therapies and each have their place.
I have resolved to be loud and proud about my work in 2010 as I feel that I am doing a dis-service to people who could live a better life because of EFT intervention, if I do not share it. I want to raise awareness and my mission is to tell as many people as possible so they have a choice. There is little in the way of emotional support and mental health knowledge when visiting our first port of call at our GP’s surgery. Most of our social and work network is a no go area when it comes to helping with these issues.
Masha is a compassionate , sensitive and caring therapist and has done so much for our EFT community. I know that she seeks to bring different worlds together in therapy communities by using the language that they understand and finding evidence so they can believe.
In addition to that I would add – try it for yourselves. I would be happy to demonstrate the therapy for groups/individuals. There are no negative side -effects so there is nothing to lose and absolutely everything to gain.
For me this therapy symbolises acceptance of the self. We need to allow our feelings to flow instead of seeking ways to avoid them. This therapy allows us to unlock the emotions we didn’t allow ourselves to feel during events in our past and to continue to allow them. The tapping gives the client a way to do this themselves and offers a change of direction.
Life offers events that are challenging to every individual – it is how we deal with them that determines our well-being. Tapping (EFT) and it’s framework allows people to circumnavigate these challenges and build inner strength. They don’t need a phd to do it – that is the beauty of this simple and effective universal healing technique. As with any skill you can turn it into an art and there are no limitations to it’s application.Try it today and see for yourself.
In the interest of keeping things balanced, i thought it might prudent to offer an alternative view point of EFT. The Merseyside Skeptics Society have an article which examines EFT on their website.
as per the above entry…
http://www.merseysideskeptics.org.uk/2010/01/got-tapped-2/
Sure, there is plenty of criticism/skepticism of EFT around, not surprising with such a weird looking procedure – and one that has been developed and especially popular among alternative and “new age” practitioners – there is a lot of hype about it and some less than helpful website and video materials around that understandably raise
some people’s eyebrows.
EMDR (Eye Movement Desensitisation & Reprocessing) had very similar reception in the past, branded “snake oil” and variously ridiculed by the skeptics community. Nevertheless, it is currently recommended by the National Institute for Clinical Excellence, alongside CBT, as the most effective treatment for Post Traumatic Stress Disorder.
I am trained in EMDR and CBT as well as EFT, and from my own clinical experience believe that EFT works in a very similar manner to EMDR (the mechanism of which is not yet entirely clear), but is easier and quicker in application, and can be self-administered by patients for self-help between the therapy sessions. Forth Valley NHS trust has conducted clinical trials in 2009 comparing the efficacy of EMDR and EFT – which have both been used in Forth Valley for some years – the results should be published this year and should make an interesting read.
Comparing EFT with CBT (the latter being the preferred treatment on the NHS) from my own clinical experience, that of numerous colleagues, and from a range of research papers – EFT and related therapies are generally superior to CBT for treatment of anxiety disorders – both in the efficacy and speed of treatment, as well as relapse rates (a number of papers discussed in the following article http://innersource.net/ep/images/stories/downloads/Research_in_EP.pdf )
Pucker loads of information for all to absurb, Question? Nothing I can see in what the BACP Accredited Counsellors say about the subject.
Not quite sure what you mean Martin, can you clarify? There are quite a few BACP counsellors who practice EFT; I am not a BACP counsellor myself but registered with UKCP as a accredited psychotherapist.
Masha, many thanks for your quiery? the reason I ask this is that nothing i have read which is loads and loads what you have kindly put out for us addicts, shows nothing with BACP mentioned.
I personally always ask any councellor to see their certifcates, it is our right – as you must agree there has been loads of councilors that have done more damage than good towards anyone seeking therapy.
BACP are the national recognised board for accredited councillors.
This sounds like a new concept in this country.
Hi masha, thanks for responding. One of the main reasons i would question the use of EFT in our field (or in most other fields for that matter), is my concern that this does indeed appear to be promoted as an ‘all-cure’. I noted in the World Centre for EFT website that EFT is advocated for a vast range of illness, both physical and psychological. For instance, and im quoting directly from the main website here..
‘EFT doesn’t use the conventional approach to diabetes (i.e. drugs) and looks instead for (1) unresolved emotional issues (anger, anxiety, fear, guilt, or trauma) and/or (2) a disrupted flow of the body’s subtle energies.’and
‘We urge you to bring EFT to the attention of your physician(s) as it may may substantially reduce or eliminate diabetes symptoms while reducing the need for drugs.’
they do then advise the reader that
‘nothing contained herein should be considered a medical claim or medical advice’ (but i think at this point, the damage has been done)This is just one example of the claims being made by Gary Craig. This is highly dangerous, given the potentially fatal consequences of mistreatment of diabetes. There are other silmilar examples of higly dubious claims in relation to a wide range of health needs to be found on the website.
I agree with you dizietwood, on the need to be very cautious when advocating alternative cures for physical heath issues. I would never dream of suggesting to a client to stop or reduce their medication, even if they ask for my opinion about it, and will always direct them to their doctor for any medical matters. The great majority of EFT practitioners who I personally know would do the same.
Yes there are some rather dramatic claims being made about EFT in various souces, some are less plausible than others. This is why I am really interested in encouraging further research of this method – together with proper regulation – to ensure that it can be used safely and appropriately (it is already used by many thousands of people in the UK and millions around the world anyway)
I work primarily with psychological conditions, but in my own clinical experience, EFT is extremely effective for pain management – I have personally not used any painkillers in the last 6 years or so, and there are some fairly rational explanations for its efficacy in this area, as stimulation of acupressure points has been shown to lead to endorphin production (and acupuncture is now recommended by NICE for treatment of back pain). I am aware it has been used in Christie Hospital for quite a few years for pain and anxiety management in cancer patients.
Hey Masha
Great blog and well done on putting this out there into a community that really needs all the help that it can get!!!
I have worked with hard to reach clients in the depths of addiction for a number of years now and have used many strategies, techniques and therapies to help and enable clients to create opportunities and empowerment for them selves, thus creating hope and a step in moving forward and in the right direction.
But after many years I became frustrated, not only with the system but with the whole process of addiction. Having moved through it my self and gaining full recovery I still could not work out how or when I did it, when did I decide enough was enough, why I got into it and heard many other similar questions form hundreds of other addicts.
As you are fully aware like any other being who is addicted to a substance or behavior I had millions of attempts in giving up, followed by treble the amount relapses.
So when I discovered EFT & Matrix Reimprinting it was like a blessing in disguise. EFT seemed to have all the answers for those in the moment situations such as emotions and urges whilst Matrix Reimprinting completely sealed the deal and answered all the questions I and others longed for.
Matrix Reimprinitng has now taken over my practice and I use other energy techniques for my clients personal journeys too but this really is a key component to anyones practice.
Great leaders such ad Bruce Lipton, David Hamiltion,Max Planc, Rupert Shldrake and many more are the Einstein’s of todays world and one thins they all have in common is the Meercat, they keep it Simples! Which is just what this area of concern needs.
Im glad I noticed your blog on here and will try my best to put some stuff up from time to time so please take a gander some time at my blog, and let others know too..
Good work and thanks for being you
Love and light
Brett
My G.P. tried this several years ago and o this day ive never come across anything as effective in blocking compulsive thoughts,Good luck with bringing this to the general publics atention. Matthew…
Hi Matthew, glad you’ve found EFT useful, it is a fantastic tool in my experience, I don’t know anything quite like it that works so well both as self-help and a psychotherapeutic approach. Not sure that it “blocks” compulsive thoughts though – I feel that it actually works by relieving the anxiety and tension that could to lead to compulsive thoughts.
I’ve actually just printed an introductory booklet, “Pocket Guide to EFT for Addiction Treatment, Self-help & Recovery” – you can download an electronic version here http://www.practicalhappiness.co.uk/pages/documents-downloads.php, I will also be happy to send a professionally printed version to anyone who would find this useful.
Masha
