UNIVERSITY OF NORTHEASTERN PHILIPPINES

Iriga City
School of Graduate Studies
A/Y 2022-2023

MASTER OF ARTS IN EDUCATION MAJOR IN GUIDANCE AND COUNSELING

TECHNIQUES OF COUNSELING

Name: KEN PAUL V. BALCUEVA

EMOTIONAL FREEDOM TECHNIQUE (EFT)

Instruction: Read the attached professional reading materials. Make your summary note on
EFT.

During the mid-1990s, Gary Craig developed the Emotional Freedom Technique (EFT) as
a counterpart in the Thought Field Therapy (TFT) whom developed by Roger Callahan, an
American Psychologist, during 1980’s. EFT was modified and improved Callahan’s
methodology to a streamlined edition.
Anxiety, depression, phobias, pain, and other psychological disorder are the main factors
that are being treated in this technique. Based on the studies conducted, the EFT is an
effective treatment to combat those factors that have been experienced by the client. In
fact, these techniques have been utilized by the Military veterans suffering from
posttraumatic stress disorder and who have been coming back and forth from the world
war. It was reported that it was successfully implemented through a series of sessions with
the effects of 3 to 6 months to the clients experiencing these cold effects.
Emotional Freedom Technique is a brief exposure therapy and an evidence-based practice
combining cognitive and somatic elements and focuses on resolving emotional trauma that
might underlie a presenting condition. This intervention allows the client to state their
negative cognitions, identified a particular traumatic event and paired with a statement of
self-acceptance also known as “setup statement”. A Likert-type scale was being utilized to
rate the degree of emotional intensity as to the client have identified a part of the body
where the feeling of distress was focused. “Tapping” is the simplest word to describe this
technique. EFT is associated with tapping the identified acupressure point (acupoint) of
the body which are on the endpoints of the “energy meridians” identified in Traditional
Chinese Medicine. The points tapped are the outside fleshy edge of the hand, the inside
end of the eyebrows, the outside of the eye sockets, below the pupil of the eye, the middle
of the upper lip just below the nose, the center of the chin just below the lower lip, the
inside end of the collarbone, and under the arms.
The studies believe that these meridian points can actually relieve stress when tapped. On
the other hand, the emergence of speculation about the mechanism to explain its
effectiveness had been in the frontline to counter its efficiencies. However, other suggest
more conventional biological mechanism that could explain underlying reason why EFT
has been an effective therapeutic intervention for anxieties, depression, and other
psychological disorder.