Emotional Freedom Techniques (EFT) are probably the fastest growing alternative psychological approach on the planet.
Why? Because they work quickly and incredibly well for a wide variety of problems.
Naturally, anything this cheap, easy and effective is going to be highly controversial.
Where's the Science?
Many mental health professionals are wary of EFT. Many complain that there is no scientific support for its use. And yet, it works so well that it is growing like wildfire, with psychologists and other mental health professionals incorporating EFT into their practices in many countries.
EFT is essentially a form of psychological acupressure. It works with the same energy systems as acupuncture and uses methods similar to acupuncture. EFT may have been developed in the 1990s, but acupuncture has been around for over five thousand years.
There are hundreds of studies showing the efficacy of acupuncture in the treatment of a wide variety of illnesses, including psychological aliments. That doesn't include the vast number of untranslated studies in Chinese, some of them involving Western empirical methodologies, that overwhelmingly demonstrate the successful uses of acupuncture.
The real problem many Western psychologists have with EFT and other forms of Meridian Therapy or Energy Psychology is simply that they don't believe chi energy and meridians are real. And psychology has had to fight the image of being a pseudo-science for nearly a century, despite the fact that Freud tried to model the new science on mechanistic19th century biology.
For example, a study at the University of California at Irvine demonstrated that the action of acupuncture in the brain could be shown through fMRI imaging. When an acupuncture point on the big toe (used to improve vision) was stimulated, the fMRI showed the brain's visual cortex lighting up. Tradition psychologists ignore this kind of hard scientific support because they can't accept the theoretical mechanism (meridians).
These psychologists don't care that measurable changes in acupuncture meridian measurements can be found found in subjects tested after using Emotional Freedom Techniques.
They don't care about the measurements because they don't believe in meridians.
And they ignore the fact that EEG brain scans reveal that EFT significantly changes brainwave patterns to those associated with higher seritonin release.
They ignore the fact that Harvard Medical School proved that stimulating specific acupressure points can send signals to deactivate areas of the brain that are responsible for the experience of pain, fear, and anxiety.
In a similar fashion, traditional psychologists dismissed a major U.S. study of EFT in 2003, even though EFT worked well in the study... because there was no clear means by which the positive results took place.
Must be placebo effect, they say. It's an anomaly. Do more research. In the 2003 study, published in the Journal of Clinical Psychology, researchers said EFT worked, but for some other reason than meridians.
Did you know we don't even understand all the biochemistry involved in why SSRIs work? But we know that anti-depressants are no more effective than placebos... and we can't even tell how much of their effect is a placebo effect. That's O.K. though, because no one is hypothesizing meridian energy.
This debate is more ideological than practical, more paradigmatic than results oriented.
While the debate rages on, EFT is quietly being incorporated into more and more practices around the world, and more and more people are being helped by it. And every day more people successfully apply EFT on themselves.
In China, where acupuncture originated, anxiety and depression are treated as physical, not mental, illnesses. Acupuncture and herbs are usually prescribed. They think of acupuncture for depression as a physical intervention on a physical condition.
China is a country particularly interested in inexpensive and effective results, where patients still go into surgery in local clinics without any anesthetic other than acupuncture needles.
They feel no pain during surgery. That's a hell of a placebo effect.
