TFT
What is Thought Field Therapy? Thought Field Therapy (TFT) is a new technique for the rapid relief of all kinds of emotional distress. It works rather like acupuncture by stimulating the body’s energy meridians to resolve problems with the body’s emotional control system. However no needles are used. Instead the patient taps on various parts of the body with their fingers. The results are frequently amazing as emotional problems often disappear in minutes.
What can it be used for?
TFT was originally developed as a treatment for phobias and traumatic stress. Further research has meant that it can now be used to treat a wide variety of problems including stress and anxiety, panic attacks, depression, obsessive compulsive disorder, grief, acute trauma and PTSD, anger, guilt, pain, sexual problems, addictions (including food, alcohol, tobacco, drugs, gambling, nail-biting, etc.) and much more.
How was TFT discovered?
TFT was discovered in 1980 by Dr Roger Callahan PhD, one of America’s most experienced and distinguished Clinical Psychologists. Dr. Callahan was dissatisfied with conventional therapy techniques which he found to be time consuming and largely ineffective.
He became interested in an alternative therapy called Applied Kinesiology (AK) which addresses the body’s energy meridian system and realised that some of its techniques could have an application in the rapid and efficient diagnosis and treatment of negative emotions.
The first patient treated with what we now know as TFT was a middle-aged lady called Mary, who had a severe phobia of water.
Dr Callahan had treated Mary for 18 months without much success using conventional methods. One day, with little or nothing conventional left to offer, he experimented with his newly found technique. He knew Mary had described her fear as being felt in the stomach, and he also knew that the stomach meridian began under the eyes. So he simply tried finger tapping under Mary’s eyes. Her phobia promptly vanished and has stayed away to this day.
Dr. Callahan soon discovered that this simple treatment was ineffective with most other patients but the success rate steadily increased as a result of years of research and experimentation. The end-product was what we now know as Callahan Techniques® Thought Field Therapy, or TFT for short.
How does it work?
According to Dr. Callahan’s theory, whenever we think of something, we are effectively tuning in a specific “Thought Field” in much the same way as a TV must be tuned in to receive a specific channel.
Held within that energy field are the coded information patterns used by the mind and body to generate the entire emotional experience associated with that thought. This is why the experience is always identical – the same “instructions” are followed each time. Dr. Callahan has named these “perturbations” (from a dictionary definition of the word – “a cause of mental disquietude”).
By tapping on the correct meridian treatment points in a specific sequence these perturbations can be deactivated, thereby “switching off” the emotional experience. The individual can now think about what troubled them as much as they like as memory remains unaffected – but the negative emotion (anxiety, anger, guilt, etc.) associated with it will no longer be present.
How does the success rate of TFT compare with other therapies?
The simple answer is that there is no comparison! The 80% success rate enjoyed by Algorithm Practitioners is far better than that achieved by most experienced and competent practitioners of other therapies.
For example, the overall success rate of hypnotherapy in stopping people smoking (measured at 6 months post-treatment) is only around 30%, with a few highly competent hypnotherapists managing 70%.
Some traditional therapies are so ineffective that no success rates have ever been published!
How many treatment sessions might be required?
TFT treatments either work immediately or do not work at all. Therefore, for a simple problem, a single session lasting 30 – 60 minutes is usually all that is required, possibly with a follow-up session some time later.
You may also be provided with self-help instructions for use at home if your therapist considers that this will be of benefit.
However, you should note that more complex problems often require further treatment as layers of the overall problem reveal themselves.
Whether or not you will need additional sessions cannot be reliably predicted and so you should be prepared for this eventuality.
That said, it is rare for more than five sessions to be needed.
In comparison, traditional psychotherapies sometimes require you to continue therapy for weeks, months or even years – and often without any improvement.
Will the treatment last?
For most problems, if the correct tapping sequence is administered then the problem will disappear and the effect will endure over time. One exception is in the treatment of addictions or obsessive / compulsive disorders where the tapping sequence may have to be repeated whenever the urge to indulge returns, for about three weeks.
If you have TFT treatment for something other than an addiction and the symptoms return this usually indicates exposure to a toxin. Your therapist should be able to help you identify this substance so that you can avoid it in the future.
