by Erika
(Copperopolis, CA)
I find it believable that repeating the types of phrases used in EFT, and having your therapist touch you, could be useful in treating depression. But is there any evidence that the sequenced meridian tapping makes any difference? Or is it perhaps more for "show" -- a useful gimmick that works as a placebo, by convincing the patient that therapy is "more than just talk."
I looked for peer-reviewed, properly-controlled scientific journal articles on the topic, and didn't find any. Doing therapy with and without a tapping session is not a controlled study, as the patients are aware of what group they're in, and probably want to please their therapist, whether consciously or subconsciously.
What convinced you that this technique works, and that tapping along the meridian is necessary for it to work? I'm curious what outcome you would predict, if the following study were done:
1000 people with the same symptoms get identical talk therapy sessions that end with either a real or a "mock" tapping session. None of the patients are familiar with tapping before starting the study. The mock tapping session would consist of the same repetition of phrases for the same period of time as the real sessions, but the patient would be tapped in irrelevant, "non-meridian" locations. I predict there would be no difference at all between the groups. What do you think?
Ben's response:
Thanks for your skepticism Erika. I appreciate the questions. I've been using EFT for about 8 years and in my 23 years of working in the mental health field have never found anything quite like it for helping people. I used to find myself often feeling very poorly equipped to help to truly alleviate a person's emotional pain when they were intensely overwhelmed or unable to let go of something. I could be reassuring, calming and they might feel better talking to me,