I've been coaxed into trying EFT from a team of 'Wellness Professionals' and the head doctor. While I subscribe to the taking care of yourself from the inside out via tweaking diet and exercise, I noticed a couple things about the EFT technique. It didn't cost me anything, other than time that could've been dished out to other legs of the program. The more questions I asked, the therapist seemed to be a tad insulted.
This is just from the patient/user standpoint. It seems to me, that in repeating the motions and chanting a simple phrase or idea over and over, it zones a person out just a smidge and the focus seems to finely tune into that, just as the tapping in certain spots over and over causes the brain to tune in into to a slightly extraordinary state focus on the points being tapped. With those sense heightened, it leaves the person feeling relieved temporarily, but i think saying that this is actually therapy is extremely misleading. It also contradicts the "from the inside out" doctrine that wellness centers are known for, but that's the least of the matter. They've done studies in the past, trying to see if 'prayer' had any positive effects on the human mind, and got similar "surprising results", regardless of the religion. I think it's being exercised from the same part of the mind; positive effect, maybe..for the wrong reasons. In the short run, that's great...but in the long run...it's not an answer.. just a coping mechanism. Controlled neurotic behavior (see Catholic Mass).
That said, done enough it can be an escape from stress, regardless..but I don't believe it has anything to do with EFT, or that EFT is a bullshit attempt at blindly packaging a concept that's not understood, and has more to do with how the brain works during different levels of consciousness. Forcing myself to concentrate deeply on anything can have similar affects.
side note: Re: "2 of the 3 sources are dot coms".
while I haven't come across anything more than a xeroxed "workbook" regarding EFT in my experience, the info seems like it freely circulates on the net. I'd like to see more critical skepticism on the subject, but two of the links on -that- side of the fence are typed up on Geocities built websites. The only time I find info on a GC site it's usually some anonymous conspiracy theorist who's all over the map and has all of his sources retyped in some Comic Sans font, or some person with a grudge against one specific field of interest and a handful of retyped large font sources only supporting one side of the fence. I don't know why I'm even mentioning this, but this is a dot com site as well. It's not relevant.
