EFT, stands for Emotional Freedom Techniques, and is an offspring of Thought Field Therapy (TFT), created by psychologist Roger Callahan, and refined by his student, Gary Craig. EFT is basically a simplified version of TFT. Practitioners of EFT often describe EFT as acupuncture without needles, and aptly so. EFT does not need the use of needles but instead requires the use of the fingertips to tap certain points in the body that correspond to the end points of energy meridian channels.



According to Chinese medicine, the body is criss-crossed by a number of energy channels, and when these channels are blocked, the flow of energy is disrupted, leading to an imbalance of energy in the body. The purpose of needles in acupuncture is to unblock these channels so that the harmonious flow of energy can resume. In the case of EFT, this is accomplished by tapping the energy meridians in order to restore the normal balance of energy.

The basic premise of this therapy is Gary Craig's discovery statement: ?the cause of all negative emotions is a disruption in the body's energy system?, which, can lead to other emotional, psychological, and even physical disturbances. In fact, EFT has been found to be helpful in helping individuals overcome over-eating, anxiety, depression, post-traumatic stress disorder, smoking and other addictions, and even cancer.

If you want to try EFT on your own, here is a series of steps than get you started. You must remember that if you want to use the therapy for the resolution of deeper and bigger emotional issues, you may require the help of a skilled EFT practitioner, somebody who has had extensive experience with the therapy with successful results. Therefore, if you are doing this for the first time better focus on recent emotional issues.

First, choose the emotional issue that you wish to work on. For example, you can focus on how stressed you are feeling at the moment. Rate your stress level, with 0 as the absence of stress and 10 as the highest level of stress. Next, you can start reciting the affirmation, which is a statement that expresses your love and acceptance of yourself despite the presence of this particular feeling of stress in your life. As you recite the affirmation start to tap the points in your body, starting from the top of the head, down to the inner corner of your eyebrows, outer sides of the eyes, under the eyes, under the nose, under the chin, on the collarbone, and on the underside of the arms. Tap each point seven times, and then move on to the next point. After you have tapped all points take a deep breath, and rate your stress level again on a 0-10 scale. You can do the taps using your index and middle finger of your dominant hand. Tap solidly and firmly, but not to the point that your taps will start to hurt.

Repeat the process of affirmation and tapping until your experienced intensity is zero.

This basic process of EFT is easy to apply, painless, and free. And once learned, it is yours for life.