Emotional Freedom Techniques (EFT) was developed from the ancient Chinese meridian energy system and brings together Ancient Eastern wisdom and modern Western philosophies in what is probably the fastest-growing new approach in the history of therapy.

It begins with the assumption that we are all energy configurations, and that when we experience negative emotions they are caused by a disruption in our energy systems. It uses tapping on key points on the body’s meridians while thinking of a specific issue or emotion to rebalance the energy. It is often descried as “emotional acupuncture without needles.”

Shifting energy changes the way our brains process information about a particular issue. So tapping while tuned in to the issue is like rewiring or re-routing the brain's conditioned negative response. It changes both feelings and thinking.

Part of EFT’s appeal is that anyone can learn it and use it for themselves. Yet its simplicity is, in a sense, deceptive. For it lends itself both to this simple, effective self-help and to sophisticated depth work on complex issues with skilled and experienced therapists.

Therapists with no experience of EFT are often concerned that it does not provide insight. Those who use it frequently would argue exactly the opposite. It lends itself beautifully to reframes. Even better, once the emotional static has been removed from the system clients often make their own spontaneous reframes. It also lends itself to practitioners bringing to it the learning and skills they have from other places. NLP, hypnotic language, an understanding of reframing all particularly enrich EFT work.

There are many ways to learn EFT. There is a free manual on the official website. www.emofree.com. Gary Craig has made a series of DVDs which are relatively inexpensive to buy and he permits buyers to make up to 100 copies to give away. He seriously wants to share what he has discovered with the world. Anyone who wants to is free to teach themselves.

However, Gary is keen for practitioners to learn EFT in group trainings and is concerned that what is described as an EFT training should be. So he recently introduced a syllabus at three levels which trainers have to follow for a course to be described as “Gary Craig- Approved content” training at that level. Masters on this site offer trainings, details of which you can find by going to their own websites via the links on the home page or on their individual profile page on this site.

When you qualify as a practitioner you can join the Association for the Advancement of Meridian Energy Therapies, the UK based umbrella organisation which has practitioners and trainers and much more on its website, www.aamet.org