Emotional Freedom Technique: Acupressure for Your Emotions
Are you struggling with a mental health issue and looking for an alternative solution? One method, Emotional Freedom Technique (EFT), may help shorten the length of time necessary for therapeutic treatment. Most noteworthy, this method accomplishes relief by simply by “tapping” on points of the body, related to meridians.
What is Emotional Freedom Technique?
Emotional Freedom Technique, or EFT, has been called “acupressure for your emotions.” Why? Because you utilize the meridian points of the body, tapping on them to stimulate those sites. As a result,the tapping resolves energy disruptions in the body that cause negative feelings or emotions.
How Does Emotional Freedom Technique Work?
Gary Craig, the founder of Official EFT, says there are five steps for the emotional freedom technique. These include:
- Identifying the problem: what are you struggling with?
- Testing the initial intensity of the problem using a scale of 0-10.
- Setup: acknowledging and accepting the problem.
- Sequence: tapping in a particular order that is aligned with the appropriate meridian.
- Testing the intensity: once again, testing the intensity on a scale of 0-10.
This formula is what Craig refers to as the “basic recipe,” for emotional freedom technique.
What are Meridians?
The study of meridians on the human body dates back to ancient Chinese medicine. Meridians are specific points on the body that correlate to a particular organ or region on the body. By applying pressure, as in acupuncture, or through tapping, you can treat a health issue. For instance, the thumb can affect the lungs. The spot just under the eyes connects to the stomach.
Essentially, the practice supports the idea that the parts of the body are connected to one another. Working with this idea, EFT can impact your health when a system is off-track.
What Does Emotional Freedom Technique Treat?
In addition to depression, Emotional Freedom Technique is used to treat a variety of physical and mental health issues. Gary Craig lists:
- Anxiety: for people who have certain fears, such as germs or being on an airplane.
- Trauma: for people struggling with post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) or have survived physical or sexual abuse.
- Pain management: for people with knee pain, shoulder pain, back pain, and headaches.
Research into Effectiveness of Emotional Freedom Technique
Researchers have been investigating how emotional freedom technique can help people who struggle with these issues. This has led to some interesting results. For instance:
- A 2013 study from Greece asked 35 patients suffering from tension headaches to practice emotional freedom technique twice a day for two months. The technique proved beneficial in helping the patients find relief.
- A 2016 study from Carolinas College assessed whether emotional freedom technique could help 39 nursing students achieve lower levels of stress and anxiety over four weeks. Moreover, the study found that emotional freedom technique effectively reduced stress and anxiety among participants.
- An Australian study, published in 2016, compared cognitive behavior therapy and emotional freedom technique for reducing anxiety and depression in adults. The study, completed with a control group as well, lasted a total of eight weeks. While it showed a significant initial reduction in depression and anxiety within the cognitive behavioral therapy group, those results decreased over time.
Interestingly, the emotional freedom technique group, despite an initial delayed effect, showed important results. The EFT group reported significant symptom long-term findings. Especially relevant, researchers recorded reductions at both three-month and six-month follow-ups.
- A third 2016 study, from Ohio State University, reported that 60 articles published in peer-reviewed journals regarding emotional freedom technique reported an effectiveness rate of 98% in treating psychological and physical issues.
The research is promising. Most of all, emotional freedom technique can be a helpful tool for those who are struggling with anxiety, depression, or have significant pain. And, by practicing emotional freedom technique, you can finally relax, achieve more calm, and find healing and relief.
Questions, Concerns, Thoughts?
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