EFT stands for Emotional Freedom Techniques™. The premise of EFT is that, unlike Western medicine’s focus on our bodies as a chemical system, our bodies also have an energy system. The cause of all negative emotions is a disruption or blockage in that energy system. These blocks include fears, phobias, anger, grief, anxiety, depression, trauma, worry, guilt and other restricting emotions that also contribute to physical problems. When you clear the disruption or blockage using EFT, you have physical and emotional freedom.

How EFT evolved is that one day, Dr. Roger Callahan, a prominent psychologist, was treating a female patient for a water phobia. She had had this fear all her life. After a year and a half, Dr. Callahan wasn’t making much headway. He decided to try some new ideas he had been studying. He had his patient tap under her eyes — an energy meridian point for the stomach. When she did this, he was astonished to find her fear of water completely gone in less than two minutes. Her water phobia went away and never returned.

Gary Craig, a Stanford University graduate and engineer with a lifelong passion for studying self-development techniques, was a student of Dr. Callahan’s. Craig developed the concept of EFT, a simpler algorithm. He surmised that instead of diagnosing an issue and “prescribing” a specific energy meridian point to tap, do a “complete overhaul” by doing a round of tapping on the body’s major energy meridian points. That way, a diagnosis wasn’t needed.

Using an automobile for an analogy, instead of requiring a computer or other instruments to diagnose the trouble with the car engine, do a quick, complete overhaul. Doing a round of EFT only takes minutes. A complete tune-up works wonders to balance your body’s energy.

Our bodies are electrical in nature. Your body constantly gets electrochemical messages to keep it informed about what’s going on. Doctors use instruments to record electrical activities in your body. There’s the electroencephalograph (EEG) to check the electrical activity of the brain. The electrocardiograph (EKG) records the electrical activity of the heart.

Several thousand years ago, the Chinese discovered a complex system of energy circuits, called energy meridians, running throughout the body. Meridians are the centerpiece of Eastern medicine and health practices. Recently, Western medicine has started to pay attention to energy flows and their effect on mental and physical health. EFT uses these energy meridians to clear energy blockages in your body, contributing to physical and emotional relief.