What is Thought Field Therapy?

Thought Field Therapy (TFT) is a new technique for the rapid elimination of all types of emotional distress. It works rather like acupuncture by stimulating the body’s energy meridians. No needles are used — instead the patient finger taps on various parts of the body. The results are amazing as emotional problems frequently disappear in minutes.

How was TFT discovered?

TFT was invented and developed by Dr Roger Callahan, one of America’s most distinguished and experienced clinical psychologists. After using conventional therapies like behaviour therapy for thirty years Callahan was dissatisfied with their poor results and became interested in an alternative therapy called Applied Kinesiology, which involves the body’s energy meridians.

In 1980 Callahan was treating a patient called Mary who had a phobia of water. After eighteen months of treatment with various therapies, including hypnosis and behaviour therapy, Mary was little better. Then one day Callahan took a shot in the dark. He knew Mary described her fear as being felt in the stomach and he knew that the stomach meridian passed beneath both eyes. As Mary thought of her fear he tapped beneath one of Mary’s eyes. Instantly Mary’s phobia vanished and has stayed away to this day, more than twenty years later.

Callahan repeated this technique with other phobia sufferers and found it only worked with a small minority of patients. However he knew he was onto something and years of research, experimentation and development followed resulting in what we now know as Thought Field Therapy.

Eventually Callahan discovered that most emotional problems — including anxiety, depression, phobias, traumas and obsessive compulsive disorder — could be cured by tapping on the correct parts of the body in the right sequence.

He discovered menus of tapping sequences (called algorithms) which had an 80% success rate in treating various emotional problems. Dr Callahan had in fact tapped into nature’s own healing system—a series of ‘healing codes’. Later still Callahan invented the Voice Technology form of TFT which has a success rate of 97%.

How Does TFT Work?

TFT is based on a new theory about the cause of negative emotions. Conventional medicine assumes the mind and brain are the same thing and that emotional problems like anxiety and depression are caused by structural or chemical abnormalities in the brain which can only be corrected with drugs.

However, for decades there has been an alternative view — that the mind and brain are separate. Dr Callahan theorises that the mind is contained in a sort of field which surrounds the physical body in the same way that an electric field envelops a live conductor. According to this theory, when we think of a problem we tune into a part of this field, called a ‘thought field’. It is rather like tuning a radio into a radio station. Furthermore Dr Callahan believes unpleasant emotions are caused by negative information patterns in thought fields which he terms ‘perturbations’. By tapping on the correct meridian points in the right order these perturbations are subsumed and the negative emotion disappears. In effect, with TFT we are picking the lock which controls negative emotions — we are entering a PIN code which turns off these problems.

What can TFT be used for?

TFT can be used to treat almost anything which might otherwise be treated with hypnosis — anxiety, depression, phobias, addictions, pain, psychological trauma, grief, insomnia, jealousy, panic attacks and many other problems.

In addition TFT can be used to treat other problems which were previously hard to treat with conventional therapies — such as jet lag and difficulty in visualising. In the last few years TFT has also been found to helpful in treating cardiac problems through its beneficial effects on Heart Rate Variability. Some patients with postviral fatigue and Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder have also benefited from TFT. New uses for TFT are being discovered all the time. For example, it has been found that colds and flu can be successfully treated with Voice Technology TFT.

Success Rates

TFT algorithms are successful with 80% of clients. By using TFT diagnostic techniques the success rate increases to 95%. The highest success rate is achieved using Voice Technology which is successful with 97–98% of clients.