The Best Therapy You've Probably Never Heard Of

By KoreySnider’s Portfolio | Contact Author

11 Min Read

Without a doubt our thoughts exist in some kind of form, and in a real way. The term Thought Field Therapy is most appropriate to what we are doing.

I'd like to first thank you and congratulate you on reading this article, Thought Field Therapy (TFT) which I'm going to refer as throughout this article, TFT has the potential and ability to change your life in positive ways. Like most people you have probably not even heard of TFT and I understand why you might be a little specticle about it might help you, I know I was when I first started using it. TFT is a therapeutic technique used to treat psychological problems. When I first started using TFT I couldn't believe how much a thought affected me, not only psychologically but physically as well. The TFT method has been developed and refined over the last thirty years by the late California psychologist Dr. Roger Callahan (1925-2013). The National Registry of Evidence-based Programs and Practices (NREPP) a searchable-online database of mental health and substance abuse interventions ( a service of the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Agency (SAMHSA) within the federal Department of Health and Human ServIce ) has listed TFT as an effective evidence-based practice for improving personal resilience/self-concept, for improving self-regulation, and for reducing trauma and stressor related disorders and symptoms. They have also listed TFT as promising, for reducing depression and depressive symptoms: for improving general functioning and wellbeing: for reducing phobia, panic, and generalized anxiety disorders and for reducing unspecified and other mental health disorders and symptoms.

What is Thought Field Therapy (TFT)

In TFT the client is asked to think about a specific issue that is troublesome. This is commonly an anxiety, a phobia, a trauma, a loss, or a feeling of anger or of guilt. The client is then asked to quantify the feeling on a scale of 0-10, with 10 representing the most intense feelings of upset. Next the client is asked to tap on his/her own body in specific places or energy points, in a specific order. The most surprising thing for clients and therapists alike is that it really does work. The client typically tries but cannot get back the original feelings of upset around the identified issue. TFT is now approved by the National Registry of Evidence-based Programs and Practices.

TFT Tapping Spots

How Long Does it Last?

Because most clients are understandably skeptical that tapping on accupuncture spots or energy spots on their own body will be of any help, neither the placebo effect ( the belief by the client and/or therapist that a treatment will work) nor positive thinking seem to play a part in the results achieved in TFT. In this regard, Dr. Callahan has commented that TFT "probably doesn't get its fair share of placebo effects" because people ordinarily don't have faith that the procedure will help. In spite of this lack of placebo effect, the most common questions asked by clients after successful TFT treatments are "How long will it last"? The answer to the first question is that the results appear to be permanent in many cases. Dr.Callahan's first patient treated with TFT was a patient he refers to as "Mary". "Mary" was treated with TFT over 30 years ago for a water phobia and remains, by her own self-report, "cured". Most therapists have witnessed the long standing results of TFT in their practice, studies conducted in Rwanda with victims of the 1994 genocide suggested that the positive effects of one TFT treatment administered by newly trained Rwandan Community leaders lasted and improved over the course of two years

How Does It Work?

Although TFT utilizes the same system as acupuncture, they are different in that TFT operates directly on the thought field or informational field (the negative or positive emotions and the accompanying sensations of a specific thought), while acupuncture is used for physical problems. The acupucture system, works in conjunction with the known central nnervous system, why does tapping on energy spots located along this system wwhile thinking of upsetting thougths help to get rid of those upsetting thoughts and accompanying feelings?

Dr.Roger Callahan, the originator and developer of TFT proposes that negative feelings are caused by what he terms "perturbations" within that thought field. The word perturbation refers to things disruptive, or disturbing. In biology perturbations are known as causes of both physical and emotional problems. When perturbations are healed, by tapping on designated energy spots, we may create a field that gets the electrical current moving in a healthy and vigorous way again thus decoding the negative messaging which had formally been encoded. Another way to think of it is relative to classical counter-conditioning. The person thinks about the negative in a safe and caring environment, taps on energy points eliciting the relaxation response and the negative feeling/emotion or experience is then paired with a neutral feeling.

TFT Demo

Enter Credit Information

What is the Duration of a TFT Treatment

If anyone claims they know how many sessions of therapy it will take to solve your particular problem, then that person is lying. Some simple problems can be resolved in one session,sometimes as little as 5 minutes, more complex problems can take many sessions. If you wish to estimate cost ahead of seeing a TFT practitioner, your budget should allow for a minimum of 5 hours consultation. TFT either works immediately or does nothing. If the treatment does not yield results in the first session, then TFT is unlikely to work for you. Unlike other conventional approaches you won’t have to undergo (and pay for) many sessions of treatment, only then to find out that your treatment doesn’t work!

Research

TFT has been used successfully in Rwanda and the Dominican Republic of the Congo treatings of the 1994 Genocide, TFT has also been used South Africa treating victims of discrimination, TFT was used in New Orleans at Charity Hospital treating victims of Hurricane Katrina, TFT used in Littleton Colorado treating victims of the shootings at Columbine High School, TFT was used in New York City treating victims of 9/11, TFT was used in Uganda and Mexico after the flooding in Tasbasco and in Haiti after the earthquake and hurricane.

(Study publications and more studies can be found on the internet by googling "TFT Research)

Conclusion

Without a doubt our thoughts exist in some kind of form, and in a real way. The term Thought Field Therapy is most appropriate to what we are doing. When doing TFT successfully, we are changing the energy in the informational field which is paired with a particular thought or memory. A field can be defined as a non-material region of influence. Our thoughts often do exert a powerful influence over our lives and often over the lives of others. Most of the time this is, of course, as it should be. We need to remember which things give us pain and which things give us pleasure. Sometimes, however the feelings accompanying those memories are not useful but, instead, get in the way of us having the lives we would like to have, of being the parents we would like to be, of being the partners we would like to be, or the workmates we would like to be. TFT can help us free ourselves and others of burdensome feelings and emotions which sometimes accompany specific thoughts and memories.