Tapping therapy offers help for expats

Addictions, anxiety, depression, limiting beliefs, phobias, stress and trauma are just some of the problems that practitioners of Emotional Freedom Techniques (EFT) claim they can solve in one or several sessions.

Like traditional Chinese medical techniques such as acupuncture, EFT is based on the belief that our bodies have energy circuits (meridians) along which the energy of the psychophysical system flows. EFT involves gently tapping these meridians.

Diane and Alain von der Weid are stress consultants, and have used EFT at their practices in Montreux and Geneva since 2006. They also give consultations by phone or via Skype and MSN. Most of their clients – more than 50 per cent of whom are Anglophones – have problems related to stress, weight, depression and addiction.

“Many of them have tried other methods, such as psychotherapy, without success”, Diane von der Weid told Swisster.

EFT was developed by Gary Craig, a personal performance coach with no medical background, using a method practised by the Californian psychologist Roger Callahan.

According to Craig, disruptions in the human energy system are the direct cause of negative emotions that lead to psychological and physical problems. Unlike conventional psychotherapy, EFT focuses on balancing these disturbances rather than “treating” painful memories.

Craig and his followers hold that profound changes in a person’s emotional and physical health occur when the end points of energy meridians are tapped with the fingertips while a person tunes in to the emotions surrounding a traumatic event. EFT combines tapping with a short brain-stimulating sequence whereby patients are asked to hum, count and roll their eyes.

The Von der Weids offer individual sessions in English, Italian and French, and run training workshops. “We do a lot of work with nurses, psychotherapists and educators”, said Mrs Von der Weid.

Marc Muret, a Zurich-based psychiatrist and psychotherapist who uses alternative and complementary therapies, heard about EFT from a colleague and was sceptical. He read Gary Craig’s website, then learned the method using videos that Craig sells online and has now used it on patients for four years with positive results.

“In Switzerland, very few doctors use it because, for them, it is suspect as it is [also] practised by lay people ”, he told Swisster.

Muret sees EFT as a rapid way to process traumas without being too confrontational. “I work with traumatised people who react dramatically to their problems”, he said. “With EFT, you don’t just jump into the middle of the problem, you deal with it gently. Changes can occur without traumatic catharsis”.

Yet both Muret and von der Weid also said a specific trauma can often be resolved in a single session.

“That’s one of the differences between EFT and classic therapy – it doesn’t take years”, said Muret. He explained that if someone has been attacked and is just traumatised by that incident, the trauma can go in two or three minutes. If there are other issues connected to the attack, for example if the person spent a long time looking for help, it takes more time.

Von der Weid described EFT as “a very empowering method” because practitioners teach their clients to use it on themselves. Craig’s manual, which outlines the basic techniques, is available online free of charge.

“For bigger issues, it’s better to have someone with you, although some people can treat big issues alone”, Muret said.

Gary Craig claims that physical healings frequently result from emotional and energetic releases brought about by EFT. His presentation video includes the testimonial of Hank Hadley, a 54-year-old man who, as a child, severely damaged his back after falling 25 feet onto concrete. He underwent six unsuccessful back operations and lived in pain for years. He then developed multiple sclerosis (MS).

Hadley says in the film that EFT took him out of his wheelchair, off disability social security and back to work. He says he now has neither back pain nor any trace of MS.

Less spectacularly, Muret has effectively used EFT on migraines and whiplash injuries (neck injuries resulting from car accidents) and von der Weid has had “particularly good results” with tendonitis and back pain. Neither claim to be able to cure serious injuries or diseases.

We still don’t know exactly how EFT works, explained von der Weid and can never guarantee the results, a claim that would be "dishonest”.

Craig recommends that people with serious diseases continue to consult a doctor. “The danger is not EFT, but therapists who promise too much. A person with cancer should not stop chemotherapy”, said Muret.

Muret believes he achieves results faster than colleagues who don’t use EFT.

Swisster contacted three psychiatrists at the university hospitals of Geneva and Lausanne. They declined to comment because they were not familiar with EFT.