She ran to the swimming pool and sat there looking at the water, in
complete awe…, “I can’t believe it” said Dr. Callahan . This would not have been such
an event if it hadn’t been for Mary (not her real name), who had developed a phobia of
water so intense that she was unable to even watch water on TV, far less approach a
swimming pool.
So what was going on with her? Had she lost her mind? What was
happening? Dr. Callahan, clinical psychologist, had spent the last 7 years trying
everything possible on the planet, including hypnosis, NLP, and everything else he could
find, to help this woman.
And, that day, 7 taps under her eyes, and here she was able to stand by the
pool, looking, staring at the water, almost relaxed…
What had happened? Just a few minutes before that, Mary had told Dr. Callahan that
her anxiety began in her stomach. He remembered his training in traditional acupuncture
and thought of asking her to stimulate the first point on the meridian of the stomach,
which happens to be just under the eye.
And now, a few seconds later, she was staring at the pool in total disbelief! She felt OK,
the anxiety had suddenly dissolved. Nothing left. They must have both stood there for a
while, I guess, stunned by the results.
This happened 25 years ago. It was in 1980 in California. Since then, Dr.
Callahan has dedicated his life to the development and research of a new field of
psychology now called Energy Psychology: The marriage of traditional acupuncture and
psychology (without using needles!).
He called his technique Thought Field Therapy and used it for phobias and
wrote Five Minute Phobia Cure. He also quickly realized that the technique could be
used for other emotions and even cravings.
He began training therapist. The training was costly, though $100,000 and therefore, few
therapists were able to access the knowledge. One of them, Gary Craig, graduate of
Stanford, engineer, minister, and coach in self-development, followed his entire training.
Gary quickly realized the incredible possibilities and benefits this technique
could bring to the world. He made it his mission to simplify the technique and make it
available to as many people as possible. So he created Emotional Freedom Techniques,
now well known in the field as one of the most user-friendly Energy Psychology
technique. Gary didn’t protect his invention and on the contrary, shared it at a very
reasonable price with other therapists and lay people. Thanks to him this marvelous
technique is now available and in perpetual improvement and development.
Soon other therapists followed suit and created their version of the technique. Many
schools of Energy Therapy added different knowledge into the mix such as hypnotherapy,
NLP, yoga, etc…
How did I get involved in this new field? I read an article written by a psychologist
in Chicago who was using TFT (Callahan technique). I was in college at the time and had
a paper to write, so I asked to interview the psychologist (I don’t remember his name),
but he accepted. As it turned out, he had a TV show that evening and needed someone
to help him with his demonstration. I accepted. We worked on fear of public speaking,
and as I recall, this was the last time I ever feared speaking in public. The proof of the
pudding came when I had to give my first speech a few days later. I was so at ease that
I made the entire class laugh—on purpose. Do you know that public speaking is rated as
the single most frightening thing even before death! To this day, I still enjoy public
speaking. It did work!
I then went to a TFT seminar, but the training was long and expensive, I
stopped at the first level and never got to really use it. I didn’t give up on the idea,
however. I soon heard about Dr. Nims who had developed BE SET FREE FAST(BSFF), a
simplified version of TFT with hypnosis. I learned BSFF and got excellent results. I was
still looking for some tapping technique. This is when in 2001 I heard about Gary Craig
and EFT. David Lakes, and Steve Wells two doctors from Australia (one MD, one
psychologist) presented a workshop in Dallas. They trained us in EFT, incorporating the
use of humor and provocative therapy into it. I attended the training, and immediately
loved their humorous approach.
As Gary says “Try it on everything!”
So, I did. I decided that I would try my technique on the first person I could find when I
arrived. Well, it turned out that my mother in law visiting from France opened the door.
So, with no time to breathe, I asked her if there was anything that she needed help with
to practice my new skill. I was thinking that she would come up with some emotions,
fears, or phobias, but instead she came up with:
“Yes, when I turn my head to look behind me when I drive I have to close my left eye, if
not, I see double. I can assure you this was not my dream case study. I had no clue if
EFT could help. But, faking assurance, I began the session asking her to tap on her face
and hands. After two minutes, she turned her head, and turned her head again, and did
it one more time. I was waiting…I finally said. “So, what is happening? Can you see now
with both eyes?” ”Yeah”, she said, nonchalantly, almost reluctantly.
She then left. Puzzled. She didn’t expect any success, I guess …coming from
my part. You know how mother-in-laws are sometimes… However, I knew something
has puzzled her. I caught her several times that day quickly turning her head and
checking her vision… That was it. She was now able to see from both eyes when she
turned her head, and it is still the case today.
Unbelievable, yet pretty uncommon
We do have five-minute wonders (more often than any other therapy I have even
known) and this can be disconcerting for people. Sometimes they even try to find another
explanation for the results. Their mind has a hard time adjusting to the fact that
something has been able to change that fast, while for years it didn’t.
Now, since then, I have learned that this is not always the case and usually chronic
issues ask for much more work and persistence. This is why therapist are still necessary
(Yeah…). But still lay people may get very exciting results with basic knowledge of the
technique.
So, how was I going to introduce this strange-looking technique in a
traditional psychiatric hospital? I needed a very convincing case that would let me
have no doubt that this was worth it. This case would soon come. After treating her life
long dental phobia in 20 minutes, my private client asked me if I could try to help her son,
Joe, not his real name. Joe was a genius according to his IQ test, but he was very
unsuccessful in life. He was still living with his parents, had not gone to college, and was
watching TV all day long. He was suffering from several debilitating mental illnesses:
Diagnosed with OCD, ADD, Depression, Tourette syndrome, addiction to Xanax, and
chewing tobacco. He was also unable to save any money he earned at his father’s
company, he had no plan for the future, he was lost.
I thought if I can just help him a little bit, perhaps our goal could be to help
him go to sleep before 3 am and wake up before 3pm. I thought this would be a
good and useful result. After three EFT sessions, however, Joe came to see me to ask me
to stop. He needed a break, he explained. He went on telling me how so many things
had changed in three weeks, since we had begun working together, he needed time to
integrate his successes.
He spent his entire fourth session telling me how much better he was
feeling: he had slowly reduced his use of Xanax and had stopped when his bottle went
empty, he had been saving money, opening a bank account, looking for college options,
had sought help to stop chewing tobacco, had gone to bed before midnight, waking up
at 10am, had worked around the yard without having the mother ask for it, repaired his
old car, etc… he also enjoyed more control over the words he was using (Tourette
syndrom).
And he went on and on. I acknowledged that he did need a break.If you wonder what
happened to him afterwards, unfortunately, I will never know. He moved away soon
after, and I never saw him again.
However, this was the sign I was waiting for. There was no more doubt in my
mind. I would have the courage to use this strange- looking technique in my “traditional”
group therapy sessions at the hospital. I even convinced my supervisor of the benefits of
EFT. She became a fervent EFT practitioner, and I am now sharing EFT with you.
Who else is using it and getting results?
David Feinstein, Ph.D wrote in his latest article: “An Overview of Research in Energy
Psychology,” that the data is striking. “Perhaps unique among clinical innovations, in fact,
is that the number of cases documenting unusually rapid and powerful outcomes is
extremely large, with reports coming in from hundreds of therapists who represent the
full spectrum of backgrounds and theoretical orientations”(2005).
David goes on, “for example, 105 victims of the ethnic violence in Kosovo, after
receiving Energy Psychology treatments from an international team in 2000 over a period
of several months, experienced “complete recovery’ (self-report) from post-traumatic
emotional effects of 247 out of 249 memories of torture, rape, and witnessing the
massacre of loved ones they had identified (Johnson et al., 2001).” Other treatments had
not brought such a positive outcome, by far.
Which other “real” professionals out there are into EP?:
Dr. Carrington, former professor at Princeton University, now professor at UMDNJ, medical
school is an active member of the Association for Comprehensive Energy Psychology.
(ACEP). Dr. Mercola, (most visited website on the web for resources on natural therapies)
encourages his readers and clients to use EFT to help then follow his dietetic
recommendations.
Candace Pert, Ph.D, research scientist, author of the book The Molecules of Emotions;,
pioneers in the new field of Neuro-psycho-immunology, is supportive of the new field of
Energy Psychology and has reviewed and written forewords for important training
programs in the domain.
Are there professional articles written on EP?
Studies and articles are now being published in professional publications (Journal of
Clinical Psychology, Socialwork Today, The Psychotherapy Networker). Several professors
at large universities are leading research studies on the use of EFT for phobia, trauma,
and other chronic issues. Dr. Tiller, Stanford physicist, has written extensively on the
scientific principles behind Energy Psychology, and is a fervent practitioner of EFT.
The largest study so far, (described in David Feinstein’s article quoted before) has
been conducted over a 14 year period and involved more than 29,000 patients. It was
supervised by Dr. Andrade. He introduced Energy Psychology methods to 11 allied clinics
in Argentina and Uruguay.
One of the sub-studies, conducted over a five-and a-half year period,
followed approximately 5,000 patients diagnosed with anxiety disorders. The
results show that 90% received improvements using only Energy Psychology compared
to 61% with medication and Cognitive Behavioral Therapy, a difference of 30% between
both approaches.
Another study showed that EP was on average 3 times faster than
traditional approaches (3 sessions compared to 9 sessions)!
You may wonder if it is easy and effective why haven’t you heard of it
before? Developed in 1990, Emotional Freedom Techniques (EFT) is still a new and
revolutionary approach to emotional healing. Like every discovery in the human sciences,
it often takes decades before research studies are done, the therapy accepted by the
main stream, and traditional therapists trained to incorporate this approach in therapy
sessions. However, EFT is making headway. Thousands of doctors around the world are
using it in their practice, for both physical and emotional issues.
EFT is still a cutting edge technique and many years away from becoming
mainstream. The results are overwhelming, but there are still numerous fundamental
questions that are waiting to be answered with further scientific investigations.
So, if you want results and you are not afraid to try something new, you will
be delighted to learn about Energy Psychology and how it can help you lose weight and
dramatically improve your life.
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Houston Office/International Phone Sessions
Accelerating Emotional Healing
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