One of the more unusual schools of therapy to emerge on the American scene in the past decade has been Thought-Field Therapy. Perhaps the easiest way to understand it, is to imagine that it is form of acupressure therapy; and that it requires you to tap certain parts of your body whilst entertaining certain ideas. Led by Dr Roger Callahan, TFT has certainly proved controversial in gaining a level of acceptance amongst some of the professional bodies, despite it’s claims of possessing overwhelming evidence of good outcomes. What I offer below is a sample of their technique for overcoming food, alcohol, tobacco cravings. Try it out on yourself.
- Rate your urge (food, alcohol, etc.-pick one) from 1-10. 1 would mean no urge and 10 would mean maximum urge. Probably, it is somewhere between 1-10. Keep thinking of your urge as you do the routine.
- Put your index finger and middle finger of your writing hand together and tap 5-10 times on the following body areas. Keep thinking of your urge as you do the routine.
- First, tap under your eye (on the high cheek bone under the eye, not on the eye or eye lid) 5-10 times. Keep thinking of your urge as you do the routine.
- Next, tap under your arm (put your index and middle fingers touching your arm pit, then go down 4 inches. This will put you about nipple level for a man and bra level for a woman. Tap on your side, not your breast). Tap 5-10 times. Keep thinking of your urge as you do the routine.
- Now, put your index and middle fingers on the indentation at bottom front of your neck-right about where the chest begins. Slide your fingers down about 1 inch and over 1 inch. Stay under the clavicle bone. This is called the collarbone spot. Tap here 5-10 times. Keep thinking of your urge as you do the routine.
- Then, make a fist. On the back of your closed hand, find the groove between the ring and little fingers behind the knuckles. Tap on that groove continuously while you do the following routine: Keep thinking of your urge as you do the routine.
- A. When you start your eyes are open (keep tapping).
- B. Now close your eyes (keep tapping)
- C. Next, open your eyes (keep tapping).
- D. Without moving your head, look down to the right (keep tapping).
- E. Without moving your head, look down to the left (keep tapping).
- F. Now roll your eyes to the right in a circular motion (keep tapping).
- G. Then, roll your eyes back the other way in a circular motion (keep tapping).
- H. Count out loud to 5 (1…2…3…4…5) [keep tapping].
- I. Hum (not sing) 4-5 bars of happy birthday (keep tapping).
- J. Count out loud to 5 again (keep tapping)
- Now, repeat steps 3,4,and 5: Tap 5 times under your eye on the high cheek bone; then 5 times under the arm on the side-4″ down from the arm pit; and finally, tap 5 times on the collarbone spot (indentation in the neck-down 1″ and over 1″). Keep thinking of your urge as you do the routine.
- Now, rate your urge for the item you were thinking about when you began this exercise (food, alcohol, etc.)
You are done! Hopefully, your ending urge level is much lower than your beginning urge level.
Well, what do you think – is it nonsense?
(April 2000)
2015 Comment: What will happen when TFT meets Embodied Cognition?