Emotional Freedom Therapy may sound like a quack treatment but if it works, who cares? Devotees of EFT believe it can cure physical and emotional ailments. Niamh Hooper reports.
Tapping your way to freedom with your fingertips seems obscenely unrealistic and simple as a cure for those paralysed with fear, pain, guilt, grief or haunted by traumatic memories or held ransom by ailments such as migraine headaches or asthma.
But Emotional Freedom Therapy (EFT) is getting a lot of attention and with good reason.
People are freeing themselves from all manner of shackles - from phobias, smoking addiction, public speaking nerves, cravings, depression to Post Traumatic Stress Disorder - often within one session. Using the body's meridian points discovered by the Chinese 5,000 years ago, EFT is an emotional form of acupuncture that releases blockages - without having to have needles stuck in you.
"Even though EFT violates just about every conventional belief out there, the results remain remarkable. It isn't perfect, of course. We don't get 100 per cent, but it often works where nothing else will," its founder, American engineer, ordained minister and Neuro Linguistic Programming master practitioner, Gary Craig, says.
Why the recently developed technique works so well is still being investigated. In 80 per cent of documented cases there is an immediate, dramatic and lasting improvement.
It's even been used to help participants of Channel 4's series, Faking It. The services of Harley Street therapist, Andrew Cunningham, were used to help a 999 operator fake it as a TV director and a solicitor to become a rap singer.
So how does it work?
Dublin-based EFT practitioner Bridie Kelly says the idea behind EFT is that the cause of all negative emotions is a disruption of the body's energy system.
"These imbalances have a profound effect on one's personal psychology. By tapping to stimulate certain meridian energy points while the client is 'tuned in' to the issue, we can effect change in the organs. This enables the release of stored emotions, toxins and feelings, thus balance is restored and the body is allowed to heal itself.
"It usually works instantly. Other times people need to identify the cause of the disease or imbalance by removing the masks they wear - and more often than not they aren't aware they were wearing any."
Paul Coade's reversal of a fear that had crippled him was instant. Just the thought of how he would be perceived by others in a social setting would trigger the 21-year-old's body to become totally rigid. His breathing would become shallow, his face and neck would be flushed with embarrassment. He was unable to have a normal conversation because he felt everyone was judging him.
After one 15-minute intervention with Bridie, he wrote this poem:
An amazing thing has been given to me, I've learned to be emotionally free.
I've learned that I can tap right out a lot of disease, a lot of doubt.
A lot of things from my past were hurting from inside but now with all this tapping lark they have nowhere to hide!
This therapy is so easy and I don't even have to work, my mind reaches in, grabs those wounds from where they lurk.
I truly am delighted I've got a whole new way to be, I've had blocks locked in my mind but now I have the key.
Improvements never ending. I'm always on the go, now I'll go much faster with this new trick I know.
I am now free to live totally how I want to be,
Nothing standing in my way, no ball and chain on me.
"I've had this nagging anxiety and nervousness, this fear of looking bad when faced with any social situation if I wasn't with people I knew very well. I've been like that for the past 15 years and had tried unsuccessfully to get over it but since doing Emotional Freedom Therapy, I feel so light that I'm starting conversations with people I've never met before," the technician from Dublin's Clondalkin says.
"I've done the therapy on myself in relation to other things since and the effect has been the same there too. I feel light-hearted and flowing, totally new and refreshed. I even went tango dancing last week with two girls I met at an art exhibition. Before my session there's no way I would have even been at an art exhibition. This stuff is really powerful - take my word for it."
Paul isn't alone in his praise for the therapy derived from Dr Roger Callahan's Thought Field Therapy, developed in 1981.
James Martin (32) from Roscommon had suffered with asthma since he was 16. He always had chest infections, attended St Vincent's Hospital for tests for years and used inhalers every day up until four years ago. He decided to move to the warmer climate of Australia for a year. His condition improved there but he still needed his inhalers.
"When I push myself too far, my chest lets me down. But after I had a session I definitely felt better. A rash appeared the following morning which I feel was my body letting go. I still feel better now but it's hard to know. It's hard to believe it could have worked having had a weak chest for so many years," says the IT manager.
Asked about the therapy, GP Dr Liam Lacey, who runs a practice in Dublin's Castleknock, says: "It sounds OK to me but I don't think they'll publish it in The Lancet."
As a qualified acupuncturist for the past 24 years, Dr Lacey faced a decision 20 years ago on whether to pursue a career in alternative health or continue with the conventional route. He chose conventional medicine based on scientific evidence and was involved in the development of the Irish College of General Practitioners.
"But I do believe in the power of positive thoughts and the meridians and energy channels. There is scientific evidence for the effect acupuncture has on endorphins so this therapy could have merit. There's no scientific evidence to back it up as far as I know but who knows?"
The final word on the therapy goes to retired fire chief Los Angeles Fire Department Alan Cowen who has been at the forefront of horrific crashes and devastating accidents for 32 years.
"As a paramedic I saw first hand the worst of everything and personally treated thousands of patients, many of whom died tragically. I have seen the toll on paramedics and firefighters working under my command. In my own case, I had serious repercussions from the worst sights, sounds and smells from various plane crashes over the years.
"One that was particularly bothersome occurred on February 1st, 1991 at Los Angeles International Airport in which a large jet landed upon a smaller commuter plane while landing. The human beings who were incinerated have been re-visualized many times in my dreams and in flashbacks ever since the event. One five to 10 minute session of EFT seems to have completely cured me of any emotional after-effects of that event," he says. "In my view, EFT should be adopted as the gold standard in 'critical incident debriefing' for everyone in the emergency medical services system and fire services."