They wrote that the federal government should refrain from endorsing interventions when the research base is exceedingly weak and derives from largely flawed studies. Roger Callahan and his wife Joanne Callahan. There are treatments that have both shown success when subject to rigorously designed studies that have at least a potentially plausible theoretical rationale.” Thought Field Therapy is a proven, highly-effective, non-invasive brief therapy technique that was developed and refined over the last 35 years by the late psychologist, Dr. But in reality, it should be limited to ‘science-based’ therapies. Lilienfeld and Satel wrote that “acceptance into the registry is limited to ‘evidence-based’ therapies. The therapy was found to be promising for phobia, panic and generalized anxiety disorders and symptoms depression and depressive symptoms and general functioning and well-being.Īny improvement that patients showed using TFT was by accident, the placebo effect and a desire to please the therapist, the authors wrote. One of the two journal studies was conducted in Rwanda with genocide survivors diagnosed with posttraumatic stress disorder.īased on those studies, SAMHSA said TFT was found to be effective for trauma and stressor-related disorders and symptoms, self-regulation and personal resilience/self-concept. One was not peer-reviewed and the other two were published in obscure journals. The most common examples of energy psychology methods are: Emotional Freedom Techniques (EFT), Thought Field Therapy (TFT), Tapas Acupressure Technique.
The authors wrote that SAMHSA reviewed three studies dealing with TFT. The registry is aimed mainly at state-level programmers and lists intervention they can implement with the dollars for treatment services that SAMHSA has allocated to the states through block grants, Lilienfeld and his co-author, Sally Satel, wrote in the Forbes article, which was headlined “You won’t believe the government is supporting this crackpot Mental Health Therapy.” SAMHSA’s registry is designed to provide the public with reliable scientific information on mental health and substance abuse interventions. Specialties: Thought Field Therapy, Trauma and PTSD, Anxiety or Fears, Depression, Addictions/Substance Abuse, Chronic Pain or Illness, Eating Disorders. Moreover, there is not a shred of evidence that invisible energy fields exist in the human body, let alone that manipulating them helps to treat psychological problems.” In the spring of 08, for the third time, I contacted a local hypnotherapist for help with smoking. When the client gets clean - in body and in soul - then, and only then, so the thinking goes, are they ready for therapy. the following online directories to find addiction treatment services in your area. If you want to quit smoking, we hope that Michael’s story will inspire you. An overview of what addiction is, the various types of addictions. Lilienfeld, Ph.D., the Samuel Candler Dobbs Professor of Psychology at Emory University, wrote in the March 29 issue of Forbes magazine that “there is no good evidence supporting this ‘therapy,’ which draws vaguely on the traditional Chinese idea of a life force. TFT is very effective at helping people to quit smoking, along with many other addictions. He posits that tapping unblocks or balances the flow of qi.Ĭallahan states that the process can relieve a wide variety of psychological issues, including posttraumatic stress disorder, depression, anxiety, addiction, and phobia. A typical treatment session lasts up to fifteen minutes, and is not repeated. Callahan has also stated that TFT can treat or prevent physical problems, including atrial fibrillation. In 1985 in his first book on TFT, he wrote that specific phobias could be cured in as little as five minutes.The February decision by the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration (SAMHSA) to add Thought Field Therapy (TFT) to its National Registry of Evidence-Based Programs and Practices prompted a strong rebuttal from a leading psychologist.
In order to eliminate the emotional upset, Callahan says that a precise sequence of meridian points must be tapped. Callahan maintains that these perturbations are the root cause of negative emotions and that each perturbation corresponds to a meridian point on the body. Perturbations are said to be precisely encoded information contained in the thought field each deformation of a person's thought field is connected to a particular problem, and is activated by thinking about that problem.
Callahan terms his treatment "Thought Field Therapy" because he theorizes that when a person thinks about an experience or thought associated with an emotional problem, they are tuning into a "thought field." He describes this field as "the most fundamental concept in the TFT system," stating that it "creates an imaginary, though quite real scaffold, upon which we may erect our explanatory notions".