De Felice 1

Sarah De Felice

Dean Leonard

English 1201.509

30 Jun 2019

Annotated Bibliography

My topic is on the Emotional Freedom Technique (EFT). I would like to know how it

works and understand the process. I will discuss the research that has been done so far to

measure its efficacy and inner workings. I will look at the opposing views and weigh the

evidence to decide if EFT is a valid healing modality.

Bach, Donna et al. “Clinical EFT (Emotional Freedom Techniques) Improves Multiple

Physiological Markers of Health.” Journal of Evidence-Based Integrative Medicine, Feb.

19 2019. Directory of Open Access Journals, doi:10.1177/2515690X18823691. Accessed

20 Jun. 2019.

This article was written by Donna Bach and colleagues from the National Institute for

Integrative Healthcare for the Journal of Evidence-Based Integrative Medicine on February 19th,

2019. It includes a study done of the physiological effects of EFT and reviews meta-analyses of

EFT studies. It states that these studies prove that EFT is an evidence based practice and that its

effectiveness to treat psychological disorders is acknowledged to be true.

The purpose of this article is to inform the medical community that this study

confirms EFT to have positive effects on the body and mind. The audience is likely clinical

professionals in the same field as the authors.

Donna Bach is a naturopathic health practitioner that uses EFT in her practice.

She has been practicing various healing modalities for thirty seven years. Three of the authors of
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this article have Ph. Ds and write a variety of articles in the psychology field. The National

Institute for Integrative Healthcare claims that they are dedicated to finding empirical based

research for a range of methods like EFT.

I can use the information from these studies to support my stance that EFT has

measurable benefits. This article contains information that refutes the study in which my other

source claims was faulty. It explains that in the study where benefits were derived from tapping

wrong points, that the right points were inadvertently tapped.

Bakker, Gary M. “The Current Status of Energy Psychology: Extraordinary Claims with Less

than Ordinary Evidence.” Clinical Psychologist, vol. 17, no. 3, Nov. 2013, pp. 91–

99. Academic Search Complete, doi:10.1111/cp.12020. Accessed 20 Jun. 2019.

This article was written by Gary M. Bakker for the Clinical Psychologist of the

Australian Psychological Society on November 3rd, 2013. The main point of this article is to

show that the basis of EFT is unprovable and that the scientific data that supports the efficiency

of EFT is weak. The author compares EFT with other psychological methods that were once

accepted such as mesmerism and phrenology which are now pronounced false. He tells us the

extreme claims of EFT healing anything 90-100% of the time by practitioners. He says that

energy psychology is a pseudoscience based on meridian lines in the body that can’t be found by

science therefore is unscientific. EFT is compared to acupuncture and the studies that have found

the positive results to be purely placebo effect. Bakker outlines EFT studies that were based on

anecdotal, observational, and uncontrolled evidence versus EFT studies that were conducted with

a placebo condition (tapping on non-meridians), tapping on a doll, and no treatment along side

regular EFT treatment. In the former studies there were reported benefits and in the latter study

there were reported benefits for all except the group without any tapping. He suggests that the
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effect of EFT is a placebo effect and all studies that do not include a control group to account for

the placebo effect are not accurate studies.

The purpose of this article is to inform the audience that the research evidence for EFT is

weak in proving its efficiency and to discredit the research claiming that it is scientifically

proven. The audience is psychology professionals interested in EFT that would be reading

Clinical Psychologist. Bakker is writing from a skeptical point of view just after studies that he

considered to be lacking evidence were released. He wants everyone to be aware that this could

be a waste of time and money and that we would be better off not researching this anymore.

The author is Gary M. Bakker is a clinical psychologist and clinical lecturer at the

University of Tasmania. He is an author for The Skeptical Inquirer writing psychological

critiques. He has written many scholarly articles for Clinical Psychologist. The source is from the

Academic Search Complete database and Clinical psychologist only posts peer reviewed articles

in their journal.

I can use this information as a counter argument that EFT is only a placebo effect and

compare these studies without placebo controls to the studies in my other source that rule out the

placebo effect.

Boath, Elizabeth et al. “Tapping Your Way to Success: Using Emotional Freedom Techniques

(EFT) to Reduce Anxiety and Improve Communication Skills in Social Work

Students.” Social Work Education, vol. 36, no. 6, Sept. 2017, pp. 715–730.

Education Research Complete, doi:10.1080/02615479.2017.1297394. Accessed 20 Jun.

2019.

The authors of this study are Professor Elizabeth Boath and colleagues at the

Staffordshire University. It was published by Social Work Education on Sept. 6th, 2017. This is a
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pilot study that took forty-five social work students that are exposed to anxiety filled situations

everyday as participants to test if EFT was an effective intervention. The stress and anxiety

levels were measured before an anxiety provoking fifteen minute lecture. The participants

reported significantly less anxiety after EFT. Some of its qualities were described as calming,

relaxing, and helpful.

The purpose of this article is to inform the audience that EFT has been shown to be

beneficial in reducing stress and anxiety and that by being informed of this technique other

universities may apply it. The audience is other academic professionals and students interested in

stress reduction. The focus of this study was on social work students so the application of the

technique was narrowed for the stress of being a student and the field of social work.

This study was authored by Elizabeth Boath and colleagues at the Staffordshire

University, UK. Elizabeth Boath is the Professor of Health and Wellbeing at Staffordshire

University. She has been working in the field for over thirty years, with experience in health

research and social care, research and education. She has over sixty peer reviewed publications

and books, including EFT related material. This source is from the Education Search Complete

database and has been academically reviewed before publication.

This study is an example of EFT tested in an academic setting which I can use to show

that the technique has significant results and can be applied for more everyday stress rather than

trauma related stress.

Watts, Sarah. “I Tried EFT Tapping to Help Beat My Sugar Addiction — Here's What

Happened.” NBC News, 22 Apr. 2019, www.nbcnews.com/better/lifestyle/i-tried-eft-

tapping-help-beat-my-sugar-addiction-here-ncna960356. Accessed 20 Jun. 2019.

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This article was written by Sarah Watts for NBC News on April 22nd 2019. The main

point is to discuss her positive experience with EFT and share the research she learned along the

way. Watts shares that she was controlled by a habit of eating candy every night and decided that

it was a problem she wanted to change. She heard of EFT and went to find the research about it

from medical professionals. Dr. Larry Burk had found that EFT had a surprising effect of

reducing anxiety in a clinical setting. She includes a metaphor from Dr. Burk explaining that

anxiety is like a malware program and that when you tap while thinking of pleasant feelings you

change the program. She explains the three main views that researchers have about how EFT

works. They either think it is releasing blocked energy, it’s therapeutic to tap the body, or that

it’s a placebo effect. She goes on to say that by tapping on her sugar cravings she was able to

stop eating candy for two months and regulated her use after that.

The purpose of this article was to entertain and inform her audience. I believe the

audience is probably the general public of casual news readers and people concerned about sugar

addiction. The article was written for the general public to be a casual story, so it was short and

to the point.

The author is Sarah Watts, a journalist with work featured in The New York Times,

Cosmopolitan, The Washington Post, The Atlantic, and more. Throughout her article she links to

her sources that you can easily validate information from.

I can use her personal story of anecdotal evidence as an example of EFT working for a

normal person without the need for a facilitator or buying anything but only needing the

information to do it. The metaphor that Dr. Burk uses to show how EFT works is a good way to

explain the process of EFT to the audience.

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Stapleton, Peta. “Is Therapy Facing a Revolution?” TEDxRobina, 17 Nov. 2018, Youtube,

Uploaded by TEDxTalks, 7 Dec. 2018, www.youtube.com/watch?v=0Vu0Tibt1bQ.

Accessed 20 Jun. 2019.

In this TED Talk filmed in Robina, Queensland, Australia, Dr. Peta Stapleton describes

the history, process, and scientific findings for EFT. She starts with the history of psychological

treatment and how EFT was presumed a weird unconventional approach because acupressure is

not accepted in the academic field. She states that there have been many clinical studies that have

shown EFT to change your gene expression, reduces cortisol, and changes brain pathways. She

specializes in eating disorders and found that conventional treatments weren’t working. She was

introduced to EFT by seeing the results from a patient and has applied it ever since with much

success. She has been researching the clinical effects of EFT for the last ten years. She explains

that it’s been shown that the somatic element of EFT accesses parts of the brain in PTSD

sufferers that talking therapy alone cannot reach. It is shown that one hour of EFT changes

seventy two genes. When using EFT, the reduction of cortisol is ten percent greater than that of

sleep. PTSD symptoms were reduced in six sessions compared to the standard of eighteen

sessions of regular therapy. The results from tapping sessions have been shown to last years after

initial sessions.

The purpose of this article is to inform the audience that even though EFT does not look

like a conventional therapy, it has proven to be just as effective as one. The audience consists of

academic professionals and students in the field of psychology. This was written in the academic

field last year making the information current.

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Dr. Peta Stapleton is a Clinical and Health Psychologist working in her field for twenty

years. She currently does research at Bond University as Associate Professor and has taken part

in many published studies that can easily be found.

The speaker comes from a traditional science background and was very skeptical of EFT

until they saw the results. I can use her point of view to show that EFT practitioners are not just

uneducated people believing in pseudoscience. I can highlight the prejudice that EFT has had

because of its roots in eastern religion that prevents many from taking it seriously.

Weiner, Craig. “EFT and Memory: The Role of the Limbic System in Trauma Storage.” EFT

Universe, www.eftuniverse.com/research-and-studies/eft-and-memory-the-role-of-the-

limbic-system-in-trauma-storage. Accessed 20 Jun. 2019.

This article was written by Craig Weiner for Eft Universe. It was posted on

eftuniverse.com without a clear date of publication. The main point of this source is to explain

how the limbic system works to store traumatic memories and how you can see this process

while using EFT. Weiner states that tapping brings up the past memories that are related to

negative emotions. The limbic system processes and stores sensory information. It takes in

information and determines the level of threat, saving the most threatening information to later

be able to avoid it in the future. It processes the information by putting a sense of time like a time

stamp on it and then stores it. When under heavy stress, the stress hormones stop the time stamp

functioning which results in memories that are not labeled as the past, so they feel current. This

explains that when recalling a negative memory, a person can lose a sense of past or present and

become overwhelmed. When tapping these memories that are not properly dated, they may seem

unrelated but are connected by not being dated. Thus, when tapping on one memory it can easily
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bring up another traumatic memory. This also explains why patients can’t manually retrieve

traumatic memories because the limbic system did not date and store them properly.

The purpose of this article is to inform the audience of the neuroscience of memory to

understand why patients lose sense of now, recall unrelated memories, and can’t recall memories

during EFT sessions. The audience is EFT practitioners that are interested in understanding their

practice better.

The author is Craig Weiner, D.C. He is a Doctor of Chiropractic, an accredited master

certified EFT trainer, Matrix Reimprinting trainer, and a certified META Health practitioner. He

has been in his field for thirty years and develops continuing education programs for EFT

training. Although the webpage does sell services and DVDs, the content is not aggressively

marketed. The sources that were used in the article are cited on the page and lead to real studies.

I can use the information in this source to express that EFT has an affect that can be

observed and is explained by neuroscience.

Weiner, Craig. “Looking to Science to Explain the Effectiveness of EFT Tapping.” EFT Tapping

Training, 16 Mar. 2015, www.efttappingtraining.com/looking-to-science-to-explain-the-

effectiveness-of-eft-tapping/. Accessed 20 Jun. 2019.

This article was written by Craig Weiner for the Eft Tapping Training Institute. It was

published on efttappingtraining.com on March 16th 2015. The main point of this article is to

explain how EFT affects the processes in the brain and body. The author begins the article by

citing that fifty one peer reviewed studies involving EFT reported positive effects on

psychological and physical problems ranging from small to large improvements. It’s stated that

the use of acupressure points uses the piezo-electric effect, converting mechanical energy into

electrical energy, to increase the flow of electrical signals to certain parts of the brain, changing
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the way that the electrical information is translated. Weiner describes EEG studies that

demonstrate tapping’s effect on right frontal cortex hyper-arousal. Tapping after a traumatic

event made patients feel calmer, showing that tapping changed brain function. He explains that

using these acupoints calm the amygdala and reduce cortisol levels, reducing the stress load. A

second element in tapping is the “focusing on the negative” which Weiner explains as the

necessity to embrace our painful feelings because only after that are changes possible. Tapping

connects the somatic feeling in the body with the negative emotion. Evidence shows that this

connection has increased traumatic event recovery. The third component of EFT is a specific

statement of the environmental influence causing negative emotion. This is so that the memories

are more accessible by being able to picture it using the frontal lobes and does not further

overload the amygdala with the stress of multiple memories. Both the neural networks of your

brain and your body store memories. It is theorized that by tapping, you create new

electromagnetic signals which causes the re-wiring in your brain thus creating memory

consolidation. This changes the previously perceived memories as less intense upon recall or

even neutral. Tapping has shown to support neuroregulation, or relaxing the nervous system,

when used in a facilitator/patient relationship. The last component of EFT is the acceptance

statement. This is used to give a felt sense of acceptance in the body. Saying a negative statement

followed by an acceptance statement creates a strong dissonance in the mind that allows

preconditioned pathways to change.

I think this article was written to highlight the scientific studies that EFT has been

empirically measured by. The studies lend EFT credibility where it can be criticized as

pseudoscience by others. It also educates the audience, which I believe is mainly EFT
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practitioners, who are probably curious and want a better understanding of what they are

practicing.

The author is Craig Weiner, D.C. He is a Doctor of Chiropractic, an accredited master

certified EFT trainer, Matrix Reimprinting trainer, and a certified META Health practitioner. He

has been in his field for thirty years and develops continuing education programs for EFT

training. Although the webpage does sell services and DVDs, the content is not aggressively

marketed. The sources that were used in the article are cited on the page and lead to real studies.

This article gives a basic outline of the EFT process along with brief explanations of how

it effects the brain and body. I can use this to provide background information for my audience. I

specifically wanted to know how it works and the details of the pezio-electric effect, calming the

amygdala, somatic connection, and memory consolidation, attribute to explaining that.