Thought-Field Therapy (TFT) is a treatment designed for rapid resolution of symptoms or memories causing distress in a person’s life, often to an extent that the person is hampered from coping with the symptom or memory and fails in properly addressing certain tasks. TFT is a self-treatment that combines tapping of acupuncture treatment points with mental focusing on disturbing symptoms or memories.
It was developed by clinical psychologist Roger Callahan over 30 years ago and has had no reported negative side effects. It has been found to be effective in treatment of Post Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD) and helpful with anxiety, anger, phobia, rage, excessive guilt, grief, depression, addictive urges, and chronic pain management. To be effective, the subject will be asked to think about distressing thoughts which may cause stress in the client. The treatment will then proceed with a set algorithm of tapping as the distress level decreases to a point where relief has been achieved. Clients may have multiple issues/stressors brought about in separate fields of the client’s thoughts, i.e., stress over grief over the multiple deaths of family members, an addictive eating or drug use disorder, and an unreasonable fear of dogs. The TFT service would treat each distress issue separately, given separate sequences (algorithms) of tapping points while concentrating on each field of thought which brings about such distress.
Treatment would proceed with an explanation of Thought Field Therapy to the client and obtaining consent to treat from the client. In this process, a description of the initial condition(s) to be considered for treatment will be identified. These conditions will include Abnormal Clumsiness or Awkwardness, Addictive Urge/Behavior, Anger, Trauma, Depression, Embarrassment, Environmental Toxin Correction, General Anxiety/Stress, Guilt, Obsession/OCD, Panic/Anxiety Disorder, Phobias/Fear, Physical Pain, Rage, Stress, Grief and Shame. An initial assessment will be done with the client to determine what stressors will be addressed and in what general order. Confidential treatment files will be maintained.
The degree of stress the client experiences initially will be determined by the client in what is called a Subjective Unit of Distress. The client will be asked to express the degree of distress on a scale of 0 to 10, the most distressful being a 10 and a 0 being non-existent. Following a series of tapping which the client will self-administer under the guidance of the therapist, the client will be asked to assess the point of distress if it has moved. Only until the level of distress as determined by the client has dropped to 2 or less will the therapy be considered completed. At this level, the client should be able to manage any lingering distress as well as self-administer the therapy if the distress should return to a point where tapping is necessary.
We find that one’s addictive behavior is often the most difficult to have a long term effect, but by encouraging the client to continue with such tapping sequences on a daily basis or as often as the addictive urge returns, even the longest running addiction can be overcome.
Service Rates:
Initial Assessment: $50
Resolution of single distress issue: $30
Resolution of additional distress issues within same session: $15
Initial session (including initial assessment) will not exceed 90 minutes.
Subsequent sessions will not exceed 60 minutes.
Therapists are available Tuesdays, Wednesday, and Fridays. For appointments, please call Hale Na`au Pono at 696-4211.