What’s your opinion on EFT and “The Secret”?
I was randomly told about it by a customer at work, and I have been researching it A LOT for about a week. The whole EFT deal seems to have merit. It’s an out there theory but in either case…it’s not a bad idea to get rid of negative feelings.
In case you don’t know what it is, I got most of my info from www.tapping.com and www.emofree.com
Tags: opinion, bad idea, tapping, eft, LOT, negative feelings, secret, What'sRelated posts:
I believe there is merit in all psychological processes, and they should always be present with medical treatment as well. But, I also strongly believe medication is IMPERITIVE to being treated. Almost all mental disorders have scientific basis to changes in the brain — you can’t fix that with will and good intentions alone.
My profesional opinion about EFT? I love it. I teach it to almost all of my patients (I’m a psychiatrist). I find it strange that not many people know about it. It works so well, on almost anything. It certainly works with anxieties. I have had great success using it with patients trying to quit smoking or even chewing tobacco.
I also love the idea behing “the secret”. I think it does have much merit. We are, after all, all energy. Truly thinking positively and believing in it has tremendous benefits.
This is a quote about EFT from the emofree site you mention:
“The cause of all negative emotions is a disruption in the body’s energy system.”
So according to EFT, it’s not that fear relates to a danger, realistic or not, or to a biological bias toward feeling anxious. It’s not that anger relates to a past or present injury, reasonably blamed on the target of that anger or not, or to a biological bias toward anger. It’s not that sadness relates to loss, reasonably proportional to that loss or not, or to a biological bias toward feeling sad. It’s all magical, theoretical disruptions to chi, which can be cured by tapping places similar to accupuncture. You don’t have to learn to manage your emotions. You just fix them. I understand the appeal.
Now I’m sure this works for some people if they buy into that belief system. All sorts of alternative therapies have placebo effects. Even mainstream therapies do. But what do you lose with this approach?
Psychotherapy can teach you how to turn fear into prudence, letting go of excess fear rationally, not by magic or denial, but by learning skills that will stay with you. It can teach you to turn anger into determination. It can teach you that losses can be replaced or even lead to a better way to live.
Now hopefully anyone getting EFT would be sensible enough to get conventional therapies, too. But what is gained by the EFT? Nothing that I can see, and what is lost is understanding your emotions for the good they do us. Evolution gave us all sorts of emotions because they serve a purpose. We divide them into positive and negative because we find joy, love and contentment easier to accept than fear, anger and sadness. The latter ones are not evil spirits in some mythical energy system within us. It pays to become familiar with all your emotions, to understand the message each one gives us, to be able to put that message into productive words, not make it all go away with denial.
If you want to be numb, you could just drink. Maybe EFT is better than that, but there are rational, empirically proven therapies that are surely better. You don’t say what problem is making you investigate EFT. Maybe it’s so minor that it wouldn’t hurt to try EFT, but if it’s something that is a disruption to your life, I urge you to get conventional evaluation and treatment instead.
Seems a bit too good to be true…