With those treatment approaches as background, we may then approach the energy therapies. Quoting from a book by James Durlacher (Freedom From Fear Forever, 1994):

“Some five thousand years ago the Chinese began observing a phenomenon of energy in the body that they eventually called CHI (pronounced chee), which means ‘life force.’ They found this energy flowed through the body…. They found that there were no anatomical channels (tube-like conduits) as there are with arteries. However, the energy seemed to flow along particular lines or pathways [which they] called meridians. 

They found there were points along these energy meridians that, when stimulated, could balance or transfer energies to make them flow freely and evenly, restoring normal function to various parts of the body.” 

 In 1966, a chiropractor by the name of George Goodheart reported that:  

“…another way of stimulating the various points of the energy meridians was to percuss (tap) the point with the finger tip. He described the procedure as a way to relieve pain and presented his results in 1979 at the annual summer meeting of the newly formed (1974) International College of Applied Kinesiology.” (p. 41) 

Shortly afterwards, a psychologist by the name of Roger Callahan contacted George Goodheart, took the applied kinesiology training, and began to adapt applied kinesiology to psychological problems. In 1981, he published a paper called “A Rapid Treatment for Phobias,” and Thought Field Therapy was born. 

Now, as was previously mentioned, the Chinese found that specific meridians were associated with specific emotions. Thought Field Therapy is based on the premise that the cause of all negative emotions is a disruption in the body’s energy system, and that these negative emotions can be eliminated by tapping on various (acupressure) points on the energy meridians to restore the energy balance while thinking of the disturbance, just as proposed in Chinese medicine so many years ago. That in itself was hardly original; however, Callahan does seem to have added one important piece to the puzzle of emotional disturbance and its treatment, and that is the idea of Psychological Reversal. It was his experience that tapping at certain places on the energy meridians was successful in rapidly eliminating emotional disturbances in approximately 60% of cases. In trying to understand why the success rate wasn’t higher, he came to a couple of conclusions: first, that progress was being blocked by a kind of low-self-esteem-related self-sabotage and, second, that this self-sabotage – which he called “psychological reversal” – could be eliminated, at least temporarily, by having the patient say “I accept myself even though I have this problem” (stating the specific problem that the client consciously wants to eliminate) while tapping or rubbing on certain energy-system-related points on the body. 

Callahan began offering training in this new method, which he called Thought Field Therapy (on the grounds that “the trauma is encoded in the Thought Field”), and an engineer by the name of Gary Craig was one of the first people to invest in that training. However, Craig disagreed with Callahan on a few basic points and is now promoting a variation of Callahan=s Thought Field Therapy which he calls Emotional Freedom Technique (www.emofree.com). The main differences are as follows: Callahan (TFT) says that disturbances (perturbations) in the thought field function as triggers for the physiological, neurological, hormonal, chemical and cognitive events which result in the experience of specific negative emotions; and that a perturbation and the negative emotion that it controls can be eliminated by tapping at particular points on the energy meridian(s) while attuned to the thought field associated with that particular negative emotion. Callahan (TFT) determines the location and the tapping sequence by various diagnostic procedures or uses algorithms that are likely to work for specific problems. Craig (EFT) says that the above may be true but that, if you routinely correct for any potential psychological reversal and then tap on enough meridians in any order, you will eliminate the disturbance regardless of the kind of emotional problem. The standard EFT procedure simply uses the more common tapping points starting at the top and working your way down the body (upper body only), and repeats the process until the problem is eliminated. This method is not universally effective but it does tend to work in about eighty-five to ninety percent of cases; and when it does work, the effects are very dramatic.  

Callahan Tapping Procedures Instructions 

1. Recall the most emotionally-charged example of the situation. If there is more than one emotion associated with that situation, you should: 

a. deal with one emotion at a time, and

b. finish with that emotion before going on with the next one.

As a general rule, you might focus on shock/fear, then pain/hurt, then anger/rage, and so on.

  2. Muscle test while asking, “Do you want to get rid of the distress associated with this situation?” and “Is it all right to get rid of it now?” If the answer is, “No,” the person is “psychologically reversed” (usually there is a limiting belief of some kind). You can temporarily disconnect the reversal by doing “reverse tapping” (Reverse tapping involves tapping the outer edge of the hand between the little finger and the wrist — about where you would do a karate chop — while saying, “I accept myself even though I have this problem,” three times).

  3. Associate into the memory, or focus on the pain itself. Then step back out and rate the distress (You can substitute any emotion) on the Distress Scale (Anyone at the 10+ level can expect to feel worse before they feel better).

THE DISTURBANCE SCALE 

  10. The disturbance is as bad as it could be. It is more than I can stand. 

    9. The disturbance is almost intolerable.

    8. The disturbance is very severe.

    7. The disturbance is severe.

    6. The disturbance is very uncomfortable.

    5. The disturbance is uncomfortable, but I can tolerate it.

   4. The disturbance is noticeable and bothersome, but I can deal with it.

   3. The disturbance is slight, and I have it under control.

   2. I am rather calm and quite relaxed, and feel no particular disturbance.

   1. I am perfectly calm and relaxed.

4. If the distress is severe, begin tapping before associating into the memory again.

5. The Setup: “Even though I have this ________, I deeply and completely accept myself.”

6. The Sequence: Associate into the memory again and concentrate on being in it, just as if it were happening right now, while carrying out the tapping procedure. Replay it over and over again — from the initial shock until you are okay again. If the energy keeps moving around (e.g., the submodalities of the experience shift), keep tapping until it stabilizes. If you do a tapping point and there is no negative energy on it (e.g., nothing happens), then skip that point the next time around on that emotion.

6. Reduce the emotional charge to a rated one, two or three, for each emotion separately for each memory. It doesn’t all have to be done in one fell swoop. Cycle through the procedure until you have dealt with each of the negative emotions associated with the distressing memory.

The Tapping Points 

    1. Eyebrow: Where it meets the nose.

    2. Beside the eye: About one-half inch back from the orbit.

    3. Under the eye: On the top edge, just beneath the eyes, close to the nose.

    4 Under the nose: Between the nose and the upper lip.

    5. Chin: Half way between the lower lip and the point of the chin.

    6. Collarbone: The K27 point, the indentation just under the two bony ridges near the midline of the body, on the right side of the body.

   7. Armpit: On the tips of the ribs opposite the nipples (or, for women, about the middle of the bra strap).

   8. Thumb: On the outside edge of the thumb, by the base of the nail. 

  9. Index finger: On the thumb side of the index finger, by the base of the nail.

  10. Middle finger: On the thumb side of the middle finger, by the base of the nail.

  11. Little finger: On the inside edge of the right little finger, by the base of the nail.

  12. Karate Chop: The side of the hand that would perform a karate chop.

  13. The Gamet Point (so-called because there are a gamut of things to do while tapping there): The indentation just proximal to the knuckles of the pinky and ring fingers. You can switch hands on this one during the tapping, if necessary.

– tap with the eyes open.

– tap with the eyes closed.

– tap with the eyes looking down to the right (Note: Just the eyes; not the entire head).

– tap with the eyes looking down to the left.

– tap with the eyes circling smoothly clockwise.

– tap with the eyes circling smoothly counter-clockwise.

– tap while humming a tune out loud.

– tap while counting to forty by twos.

– tap while humming a tune out loud.

If the emotion on the memory does not reduce as expected, it means either of two things: 

(1) the client keeps slipping into “psychological reversal.” In this case, have the client rub the upper left chest about midway between the sternum (breast bone) and the armpit, to suppress the reversal until the procedure can be completed. An alternative is to tap on the Karate Chop point.

(2) the client has switched from focusing on one problem to focusing on another. For example, she may have been working on some phobia and has switched to thinking about how angry she feels about the limitations that her fear has placed on her.