In this episode, what is Emotional Freedom Techniques, also known as EFT Tapping? Welcome to the Anxiety Road Podcast. This is the involuntary journey, finding treatment options and resources for people that have an anxiety condition, panic attacks and phobias too. This podcast is treatment agnostic. My name is Gena Haskett. My main goal for this episode is to help you make an informed decision about using emotional freedom techniques, also known as EFT tapping. This was a hard episode for me.
You see, some of this seems scammy, and other parts could be helpful if you understand where they came from and how they can be of use to you. I always want to stay on the side of science and evidence-based treatments. And there are some studies that suggest that EFT tapping can be helpful. Just not enough of them. For many people, this technique does work. Sometimes.
If you're new here,This is the podcast that looks at medical, behavioral health, meditation, relaxation, and X equals the unknown treatment options for those of us that have an anxiety condition or a mental health disorder. Couple of things before I get into this. There are multiple creators of this technique. There are people who have adapted elements of EFT added variations, slapped on a new name and trademarked it. There are health coaches, w ellness vendors, and licensed mental
health professionals. Some of those people have a copyrighted or trademarked version of an EFT technique. For the purposes of this eepisode, I'm specifically looking at the EFT technique that was released to the public domain in 2009 by Gary Craig. Most of the modern interpretations still use that format as a means of practicing tap, tap, tap. Another thing. Many of the original creators talk about a spiritual or an energy force as part of the true
healing process. I'm not touching that aspect of it with a 10-foot pole. So let's get to the definition. So what is this thing, Emotional Freedom Techniques?According to the EFT International Manual, Emotional freedom techniques or tapping is a body mind self-help method. It combines a gentle touch together with mindful and vocal attention to thoughts and feelings. From my observation, the techniques seem to include aspects of cognitive therapy, acupressure and mindfulness.
So let's. do an overview of the technique. Now, this is one time where video works much better than audio. I'm going to give you the general process, but I will have links to videos on the website blog thingy that will demonstrate the full process. So, in the beginning stages, you set your intentions. You Make a determination of what it is you want to do. And then you rate how strongly you're feeling about your concerns or your problem. Most people use a 1 to 10 scale.
You state what the problem is and what it is that you want to do. So this would be the time to create a statement of intent and of self-acceptance. Some examples could beI'm feeling fragile, but I accept myself. I've got the jitters, but I know I can do this. The next section are the tapping points. You literally tap areas of your body at specific locations as you affirm what it is that you want to do. You repeat your affirming statement and your self-acceptance
statement. The mindfulness comes in as the repetition of your intentions as you breathe, tap, and focus. You repeat the cycle until you feel better. At this point, you'll review how you're feeling and if you feel still strongly about your concern or problem, assess whether or not you really do feel better. So, who provides this treatment?Who are the treatment providers? There are certified people who have gone through a training
process and the full technique. Now again, this can include health coaches, wellness coaches, and similar for-profit businesses. There are licensed therapists, professional counselors, nurse practitioners, and other health-related professionals that combine their education skills and knowledge and use EFT as part of their treatment process. And then there's you. If you understand and follow the instructions,
you can do this yourself. There's nothing in the basic technique that you'll find on websites that's going to hurt you. Well, maybe if you tap too hard, but honestly, itit's going to be just fine. So I want to give you a few of my observational pros and cons. Statement one, EFT International Manual states that the practice can help relieve anxiety, stress, and phobias. And I say, yay, okay, sounds good to me. The con? I think it really depends on what you
have. The treatment for PSD is different than for obsessive compulsive disorder. Now for moderate anxiety, it really might be
helpful. For intense symptoms or PTSD based trauma, and again, it could be helpful, but you might need the assistance of a licensed therapist to guide you through the more intensive thingsyou might be experiencing, or you might need to access their services if you really tap into something, it's a poor choice of words, um if you're experiencing heavy emotions that are overwhelming you. Statement two, it claims that there are a number of issues, not just mental health problems, that it can
help you with. Now, on the surface, it seems like, wow, it can help me with all of these different conditions and that might be a good thing to you. A positive to me is that you don't really have to reach out to another person to perform the tapping. It reduces the scam factor. The cons? Ooh, well, they claim that EFT can help you with mental and physical health conditions. financial relationship, and apparently for the benefit of your pets. This is not how the human body or the
animal bodies work. There are domains of practice. You don't have a foot doctor who has a side gig as a psychiatrist. One size treatment does not fit all conditions. And if you see a long list of things that a treatment can cure or take care of, that is a sure sign that something may not be according to Hoyle. Statement three. It can be a way to practice meditation and self-awareness and affirmation. EFT tapping or touching your body certainly doesn't do you any harm.
That's a pro. But the con for me is that there just isn't enough clinical studies to prove that this technique works for anxiety. I could not find multiple double-blind studies with a large population. I'm talking 500, a thousand, 10,000 and those studies need to be done by different people across the world. Honestly, there's not going to be a Yelp page for a specific mental health technique. I have no way of knowing about the folks it didn't do a thing for.
There's no healing tracking mechanism that's accessible now multiple. Double-blind studies would kind of give me that information, but they don't exist. So let's make with the resources. I'm going to do the the cons first. There is the Skeptic Dictionary, and it gives a very detailed page about the creators, the practice, and what the site owners think about the technique.
There's also a comments page where folks go deep, way deep,and to the deep about how they feel about this particular technique. There is another website called Quackwatch. This is a website that's been in existence since 1996 and it takes a very critical look at the claims made regarding questionable health treatments. There is a section on the website that has a few thoughts about EFT and you may need to do a search on the page in order to find it, but it is absolutely there.
On the positive side, the BBC did a video story about the technique, how tapping therapy can help you calm your mind. The US non-profit Kaiser Permanente does have a page on emotional freedom technique. Nick Ortner has a YouTube channelthat also has a very clear video about what the technique is and how to perform it. You should know that this is a business that sells products that are related to EFT and EFT tapping. Gary Craig was one of the original creators of EFT tapping.
He used to have a website called emofree.com. It now redirects to another site called Palace of Possibilities. And the EFT International Freedom Tapping Manual. This is a 66 page PDF document explaining the concepts of the practice and how to go about it. So where does this leave us?Well, here's what's frustrating. On the surface it has all the indications of being a scam. But I can be honest with you. In 2024, I can tell you that I've been trying it and it works for me up to a point.
It is effective. I can do it on a walk or alone in my room. Now, it doesn't work for me if I'm having really intense symptoms. I had to be open to the experience. When I first heard about it many years ago, I was absolutely not open to it. and it would not have worked for me at that time. Now, it's part of my toolkit. As I continue to mention, there are licensed professionals that use this alongside their practice. And this could be very helpful to some
people that need a tactile practice. They don't want to read, they don't want to listen, but they may be open to physically touching points on their body as they're reciting an affirmation or a meditation. I would suggest that you view some of the videos to observe the technique. If it seems silly to you, don't do
it. If you're looking to an alternative to medication or therapy, this might give you an option to help control your symptoms and that might be worth a look and try to look at it with an open mind. I would say that. That might be the most important thing. Just look at it, see if it resonates with you. If it doesn't, leave it alone. And if it does, give it a try. In the privacy of your own home, it can't hurt you. Either way, the choice is yours.
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