Category: <span>EFT Research</span>

EFT Research (Part 10): Borrowing Benefits, Group Treatment

I am back with another study, and this is called Borrowing Benefits: Group Treatment with Clinical EFT Is Found to Be Associated with Simultaneous Reduction in PTSD, Anxiety and Depression Symptoms. This was published in the Journal of Evidence-Based Integrative Medicine in 2018.

Let me begin by explaining a little bit about borrowing benefits. Borrowing benefits is a phenomenon where you will find a reduction in the intensity, the emotional intensity of your own issues if you are tapping along with a group, a video or a live demo, and especially where the client’s issues are similar to that of yours. Also, borrowing benefits can be used as a strategy where you set an intention to work through your issues. In this process, you will be picking up an issue, giving it an intensity and putting it aside, and then you will be focusing your attention fully on the person that you are tapping with. After the session is over – the tapping is over – you will find a reduction in the intensity of your own issue. This is called borrowing benefits.

This study was to demonstrate the relationship between PTSD, depression and anxiety, and the sample size was 81. 81 people participated in five two-day workshops, and all groups used borrowing benefits, where the facilitator was working with the client while the group was applying self-tapping. The participants were assessed on 9 specific conditions, the Positive Symptom Total and the depth and breadth of psychological distress, the General Symptom Index. Physical pain and addictive cravings were also measured, and reductions were observed on all measures, and gains were maintained at six-months follow-up with the exception of the Hostility subscale.

Use of Borrowing Benefits in EFT training classes: 

This shows that borrowing benefits definitely works, and I have seen it in my trainings where if I am doing a demo with a trainee and I ask the group to note down an issue, give it a number, put it aside and focus their full attention on the demo and tap along with us using the words that we are using in that demo, there is a reduction in the emotional intensity of their issues even though they weren’t actively focused on it.

Link to video:

EFT Research (Part 9): The treatment of Combat Trauma in Veterans

This study was about – The treatment of Combat Trauma in Veterans using EFT: A pilot protocol, and it was published in the Traumatology journal in 2010.

There were 11 veterans and family members who were assessed for PTSD and these veterans were from the US military service personnel coming back from Iraq and Afghanistan with PTSD. These measurements were taken 30 days prior to the treatment and right before the treatment, and the participants were given EFT intervention for 5 days. When the post test was done, there were significant improvements in the symptom assessment, and the PTSD checklist military.

The gains and the improvements were maintained at the 30-day and 90-day follow-ups. These improvements were in General Symptom Index, anxiety, somatization, phobic anxiety and interpersonal sensitivity. A one year follow-up of seven of the participants was done, and same improvements were observed. After EFT, the group no longer scored positive for post-traumatic stress disorder and the symptoms severity had already reduced and the gains had helped. 

Watch the video here:

EFT Research (Part 3): Single session reduction of the intensity of Traumatic Memories

This is a journal article that was published on Traumatology Journal on APA, and this is also available on the www.eftinternational.org website.

This research is about single session reduction of the intensity of Traumatic Memories in abused adolescents after EFT – a randomized controlled pilot study. The subjects (16 males between the age of 12 to 17) were chosen from an institution to which juveniles are sent by the court, if the judge believes that there has been a physical or psychological abuse at home. The assessments were done using the Subjective Distress and Impact of Events Scales. And, this also measured two aspects of post-traumatic stress disorder which was intrusive memories and avoidance symptoms.

The experimental group got one session of EFT and the wait-list control group got no treatment. 30 days later, the participants were reassessed and obviously, there was no improvement in the wait-list group since they did not get any treatment. The experimental group where the EFT intervention was applied for one session, in the post test scores that were taken, the results showed that they were non-clinical on the total score as well as on the Intrusive and Avoidant Symptoms subscale and the Subjective Distress Scale.

Quoting the article here,

“These results are consistent with those found in adults and indicates the utility of single session EFT as fast and effective intervention for reducing psychological trauma in juveniles.”

You can watch the video here:

EFT Research (Part 2): Efficacy of EFT in reducing Public Speaking Anxiety

This research on Efficacy of EFT in Reducing Public Speaking Anxiety was published in Energy Psychology: Theory, Research and Treatment in 2011.

When it comes to public speaking anxiety, there are a lot of people who have it. It helped me tremendously too. Now, I conduct trainings, webinars and I make these videos, and I don’t experience that same kind of anxiety.

In this study, there were 36 volunteers with public speaking anxiety and they were assigned randomly to treatment groups and wait-list control group. There was one treatment group and one wait-list control group.

The self-report measures were taken before, during and after a 45-minutes EFT session. A 45-minutes EFT session was conducted. There were changes in scores that were taken before and after the EFT, and it showed reduction – a significant reduction in the public speaking anxiety on all subjective and behavioural measures.

 Isn’t that exciting news? That means that if you have public speaking anxiety, you don’t have to live with it. There is something you can do about it. 

You can watch the video here:

EFT Research Series (Part 1): TBI symptoms improve after PTSD remediation with EFT

This research was published in the Traumatology Journal in September 2014 . 

 A group of 59 veterans who had clinical levels of PTSD (Post Traumatic Stress Disorder),  received EFT (Emotional Freedom Techniques) in a RCT which is Randomized Control Trial. In Randomized Control Trial the subjects are randomly assigned to either the experimental group, the group that receives the new intervention that is being tested, or the control group which is the group that receives the conventional treatment.

After six sessions of EFT,  it was noticed that a 86 percentage drop was there which was below the clinical threshold. Also, the results stayed subclinical, below the clinical threshold in the three and the six-month follow-ups that were done. The traumatic brain injury reductions were noticed and the symptoms reduced after three sessions, and there was even more reduction after six months, around 41 percent, which is a pretty significant change.