Introduction To TFT

First a story. Callahan was a psychotherapist who had a “traditional” practice; while at the same time studying applied kinesiology. One of his clients was a woman called Mary who had a phobia of water. Callahan had worked with her for over a year using cognitive and behavioural approaches to try and relieve the problem. This had achieved only limited success.

Mary had commented on uncomfortable feelings in her stomach even just thinking of water. From his Applied Kinesiology training, Callahan knew that there was a meridian of energy associated with the stomach which had an acupuncture point just beneath the eye. He decided to tap that point with his finger to see if he could relieve the feelings in the stomach. The story goes that after a few taps Mary exclaimed that it had gone and they went out of the house and down to Callahan’s swimming pool! There she proceeded to reach down and splash her hand in the water. The phobia had disappeared completely. This heralded the birth of Thought Field Therapy. Some 20 years later, Mary is still free of the phobia and has appeared on various US TV stations telling this story.

Callahan recognised that simply tapping one point would not always produce the desired results so he proceeded to develop procedures, or algorithms, for tapping different sequences of points depending on the problem to be resolved. Callahan maintains that the correct sequence of points is important. This became the basis of Thought Field Therapy ™ or Callahan Techniques™. Therefore there are different points and sequences for issues such as trauma, addictive cravings, pain relief, anxiety, depression, panic, phobias etc.

How it works

According to TFT™, emotional problems exist because there is disturbance or “perturbation” in the thought field of energy. Before tapping any points, the client has to think about the problem or “tune in” to the specific thought field. The tapping then clears the perturbation and restores balance. By balancing the thought field in this way, the emotional problem is released.

When it doesn’t work straight away

Callahan discovered that treatment could be inhibited if the polarity of a person’s energy were in a state of reversal; something he called “psychological reversal” or PR. He developed ways of correcting PR, making the overall effectiveness of TFT™ even higher.

If a problem returns after treatment then a TFT™ diagnostically trained therapist will suspect energy toxins being present, and test for whichever toxin is causing the problem. Energy toxins can be anything you come into contact with, either through eating, drinking or inhaling. Once identified, the toxin can be avoided so that TFT™ treatment can be resumed successfully.

Callahan has also developed an approach called Voice Technology™ which he claims improves success rates, by being an even more accurate diagnostic tool.

Further Developments

Some of the people who trained with Callahan in the early days went on to adapt the techniques. Gary Craig, for instance developed Emotional Freedom Techniques (EFT) which gives less importance to the notion energy toxins and the TFT™ diagnostic methods. However Callahan continues to maintain that the highest success rates will only be achieved when the correct sequences are used and diagnostic methods are available.