EFT for PTSD Helpful Treatment For Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder


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Acupoint tapping reduces ptsd reactivity.Source: (c) photography33 www.fotosearch.com

PTSDpost traumatic stress disorder, is akin to choking. When food gets stuck during the process of swallowing we call it choking.  When the emotions that are raised by an intensely negative experience do not get digested by the mind’s usual means (talking about it, dreaming about it, coming to a way of understanding it that makes it digestible) the negative emotions continue to emerge as quickness to angeranxietymarriage problems, flashbacks and other means for a very long time after the triggering incident.

Fortunately, while ptsd symptoms can be long-lasting, new energy psychology treatments can be short to administer and thorough in the relief they bring.  Attempts therefore are currently underway to establish these treatment methods as standard procedures for treatment of military-induced ptsd. Still, most conventional therapists and veteran treatment facilities do not yet use these new techniques.

Acupoint Stimulation: The Tapping Cure

The most intensively researched of the new energy therapies is the group of treatment methods referred to as acupoint stimulation, also known as tapping treatments. Interestingly, these techniques, though usually administered by a mental health professional, can also be self-administered as in the several teaching videos you can find with an internet search for EFT tapping.

Psychologist David Feinstein PhD conducted an excellent broad meta-study of acupoint tapping (EFT) research reviewing 3000 studies of tapping techniques. Published in the Review of General Psychology (August 12, 2012), this excellent article focused on the 50 or so studies that met Dr. Feinstein’s criteria for presenting clinical outcomes and having undergone peer review.  

Dr. Feinstein concluded that EFT (Emotional Freedom Technique) and other similar protocols for tapping with fingers on acupuncture points successfully released the emotional pain associated with traumatic memories.  It did so faster, with less secondary trauma, with longer-lasting results,  and more comprehensively than most traditional treatment methods:

These studies consistently demonstrated strong effect sizes and other positive statistical results even after only just one or several treatment sessions. Investigations in more than a dozen countries by independent research teams have all produced similar results.

Best of all you can do the tapping yourself!

There are many good website for learning how to do the this tapping treatment yourself, on yourself.  My favorite is the one by Gary Craig.  This site teaches the technique via both a free video and detailed instructions. Nick Ortner also has a helpful website.

Use of tapping techniques in Europe

From Norway, Mats Uldal wrote in response to initial publishing of this blogpost:

In Norway we have been treating more than 10000 people in my clinic the last 16 years. I have developed a direction of TFT called Simplified TFT with advanced questioning techniques (AQT) and I can wholeheartedly say these techniques work.

I have been doing trauma work on Kosovo war survivors, Katrina survivors in New Orleans, human trafficking survivors in Moldavia, and violence and poverty survivors in Uganda all as part of a large-scale 2012 study. If you want the best for your clients, free yourself from your scepticism and try for yourself. When you start using it, tapping proves itself…article continues after advertisement

The Bottom Line

Energy psychotherapies are to traditional psychotherapy as the alternative physical therapies like acupuncture are to medical treatment. We do not really know how or why they work, but the potency of their healing impacts are clearly evident.

I have written this posting in hopes that all who work with people who have suffered trauma from disasters, including vets and prisoners of war, or who suffer with chronic feelings of anxiety, anger or other negative emotions, will take these new energy psychology healing methods seriously.   An internet search generally can lead you to mental health professionals with these skills in your area.

Susan Heitler, PhD, a Denver Clinical psychologist, is author of multiple publications including From Conflict to Resolution for therapists and, for couples, The Power of Two.  A graduate of Harvard and NYU, Dr. Heitler’s website PowerOfTwoMarriage.com teaches the skills for success in relationships.