Emotional Freedom Technique and its use by Cognitive Therapists

Emotional Freedom Technique (EFT) has its roots in Thought Field Therapy (TFT) which was discovered in the 1908s by Dr. Roger Callahan, a Cognitive Psychologist and Hypnotherapist who was a specialist in helping clients with releasing their fears and phobias. Dr. Callahan had studied the ancient Chinese meridian therapy of acupuncture, which is used widely by many in the mainstream today for pain relief, relaxation and general wellbeing. He became interested in the link between using the meridian points of the body to help with emotional problems, such as phobias.

Whilst treating a client with a particularly intense phobia, without that much success, the client in question who had a severe fear of water, complained of feelings of nausea at the mere thought of being near water. As he had studied the meridian therapies and knew that by tapping certain meridian points on the body, he encouraged the client to gently tap under the eye (the stomach meridian) to relieve the nausea, whilst also thinking about their fear of water. After a few minutes of tapping the meridian and thinking about the fear, to his amazement the client declared that the fear had disappeared, there simply was no fear there, the nausea was gone and along with the fear, so much so that the client was able to demonstrate this in the treatment room by actively splashing themselves with water!

Over the years that followed TFT was refined and simplified and Gary Craig who had trained with Dr Callahan practiced TFT with his clients and further refined the treatment, eventually becoming Emotional Freedom Technique in the early 1990s.

It can be said that EFT is a 21st century method of an ancient practice of energy meridian therapy, some of which go back 3000 years. As EFT practitioners we are now applying these meridian principles to healing emotional issues.

Negative experiences that cause negative emotions or emotional imbalance disrupt the body’s energy system, causing a block in mind and body. For example, if you were witness to a particularly nasty dog attack as a child, your mind and body store the experience and the fear associated with it. In adult life, the mere sight of a dog can trigger the memory of that experience and re-create the same fear. This can be accumulative so that over time, the emotional response grows stronger until it becomes what we describe today as a phobia.

Each time something (seeing a dog) triggers the negative memory, an alert message is sent to the brain which in turn creates a pathway to a negative emotion, fear of a dog, and this becomes a circuit of impulses.

Emotional Freedom Technique can be applied to help release the fear from the body’s meridian system (energy) as well helping you to recognise and release the message sent to the brain that registers fear upon sight of a dog. By clearing the emotional and cognitive blockage you can become free of the fear.

Therapists that use EFT in their practice, use it as part of an overall approach to helping clients overcome fear, phobia, anxiety, poor habits and more. Combined with other cognitive practices such as CBT, NLP, cognitive hypnotherapy, and rapid cognitive processing, EFT is a powerful tool in the cognitive therapist’s repertoire.