*EVOLVING THOUGHT FIELD THERAPY

John H. Diepold, Jr., Victoria Britt and Sheila S. Bender

W. W. Norton, 2004, 381 pp., $35.00 h/b - ISBN 0-393-70405-x

Reviewed by Daniel Benor

Meridian Based Therapies
The authors have worked together for many years, developing several systems of treatment for a broad spectrum of psychological and physical problems. Thought Field Therapy (TFT) was developed by Roger Callahan in the 1970s. This involves touching or tapping on prescribed series (algorithms) of acupuncture points that are specific for particular problems.

Prior to starting a series of these interventions, a person assesses her level of distress on a scale of "0" (not at all" to "10" (the worst I could feel at this moment as I focus on this issue). While tapping, a person will focus mentally on an affirmation. For a fear of heights, this could be: "Even though I'm afraid of heights, I love and accept myself, wholly and completely." After a few minutes of tapping, she will again check her level of distress. Often, the intensity will have distinctly decreased to some degree. This process is repeated until the distress level is zero.

In a brief period, many people can eliminate their symptoms and transform their lives. Being trained in psychology, medicine, psychiatry and research, I was highly sceptical when I first heard of this (and related) forms of therapy. I expected that if symptoms were rapidly eliminated, people would have them recur or would develop other symptoms - in the service of unconscious conflicts and needs. Having been an observer and active participant in these Meridian Based Therapies (MBTs) for five years, my opinions have drastically changed. I have seen hundreds of people cured of problems - major and minor - with relatively brief interventions.

Diepold, Britt and Bender bring us an excellent summary of their variation on this system of treatment, which they call Evolving Thought Field Therapy (EvTFT). They summarise succinctly the history of TFT and explain the ways in which they have taken this further. Diepold, in particular, has pioneered new approaches that involve breathing to augment the therapeutic effects of treatment. In addition, muscle testing derived from Kinesiology is used to identify issues and attitudes that may impede or facilitate therapy.

This book will be of interest to anyone who wants to understand the burgeoning field of MBTs. Innovations in MBTs that may be generalisable to other forms of psychotherapy include:

  • Reversals - Bioenergetic patterns that can be identified through particular manoeuvres, indicating that a person is unlikely to respond to treatment. These reversals can be normalized so that treatment can then proceed. Awareness of these subtle-energy impediments to treatment may contribute to enhanced effects of any therapy.
  • Elators - Positive feelings that contribute to negative outcomes, such as the cravings that people habitually satisfy - to their detriment. These can be treated rapidly and effectively with EvTFT (and other MBTs).
  • Partializing problems - Identifying and treating what appears to be the key log in the logjam that prevents a person from resolving a problem; then addressing whatever other logs appear to be similar keys, eliminating each in turn. Systematically focusing on these issues and eliminating their hold on a person can markedly facilitate the therapy.
  • Using Kinesiology - Identifying which acupressure points are appropriate to address particular problems. This could be used to identify any forms of therapy that might be appropriate in a given situation.
The most serious weakness of MBTs lies in the paucity of formal research to validate its efficacy. There has been only one published pilot controlled study by Roger Wells, in Australia, showing that EFT produced significant reductions in phobias to small animals (Wells et al 2003).

Countering this criticism is the personal research that anyone can do to validate that MBTs are effective in addressing physical and emotional distress. While TFT and EvTFT require tapping on various series of acupressure points that are specifically prescribed for problems, and in EvTFT following the explorations through Kinesiology to identify which are the correct points, there are other systems that provide generic points to tap on for any problems.

A system that I developed, the Wholistic Hybrid of EMDR and EFT (WHEE), is a much simpler approach that anyone can use to check whether MBTs are effective (Benor). Other than this brief article, however, there is nothing written to expand on how WHEE can be helpful.

Gary Craig developed Emotional Freedom Technique (EFT). An enormous series of problems successfully treated with EFT are described on his website (www.emofree.com ).

This book is a helpful contribution to the field. It is clearly written and well organised, with illustrations to identify acupressure points and muscle testing methods, ample case examples to clarify numerous problems appropriate for this rapidly effective therapy, an excellent index, and ample references for further perusal.

References
Benor, Daniel J. Self-healing: Brief psychotherapy with WHEE, a hybrid of meridian based therapies and EMDR, other approaches, 2000: www.wholistichealingresearch.com/Articles/Selfheal.htm
Wells, S., Polglase, K., Andrews, H., Carrington, P., & Baker, A.H. (2003). Evaluation of a Meridian-Based Intervention, Emotional Freedom Techniques (EFT), for Reducing Specific Phobias of Small Animals. Journal of Clinical Psychology, 59 (9). 943-966. www.emofree.com/Research/wellsphobias.htm
Published in International Journal of Healing and Caring - On line, 2004, V.4, No. 3, September 2004. www.ijhc.org

Daniel J. Benor, MD is the author of Healing Research, V. 1 - Scientific Validation of a Healing Revolution - see www.wholistichealingresearch.com/Books/Series.asp
Healing Research, V. 2 - Consciousness, Bioenergy and Healing www.wholistichealingresearch.com/Books/Series.asp#v2
(10% author's discount on V2. paperback and CD-ROM worldwide, and free postage in the US)