To answer this question, we need to look more closely at how TFT differs from all other techniques and why it is totally on-line with reality in its ability to produce cures for psychological problems.

TFT is a revolutionary new psychotherapy discovered over 25 years ago by the Clinical Psychologist, Dr. Roger Callahan PhD.  It is able to cure psychological problems quickly and painlessly because it directly addresses the “root cause” of the upsetting emotion - and - is also acknowledging and working WITH the inborn intelligence of the mind and body to be healthy, instead of concentrating on the hard and fast facts of the outwardly  manifested sickness and dis-ease

Unlike most scientific discoveries, where a theory or hypothesis is first formed and then later proved to be fact by practical experiment, Dr. Callahan had the facts of TFT suddenly presented to him first and, after learning their meaning, was then able to create this new therapy which is therefore totally on line with reality.

In exactly the same way, Alexander Fleming had to learn the meaning of the fact presented to him one morning when he discovered that one of his Petri dishes was not just growing mould but was producing a chemical capable of killing bacteria.  This observation eventually led to the discovery of penicillin.

This necessarily means that any theory we have to explain the process of TFT is secondary to the highly reproducible facts and Dr. Callahan has made it generally known that he is very willing to examine any theory, which is more able to explain the facts better than his present existing theories.

Dr Callahan posits that the root cause of psychological problems cannot be due to neurological function or malfunction in the brain because to change anything for the better, let alone cure a problem as is common with TFT, then we should have to be working with neurones and synapses in the brain.  This we accept is not possible as the brain is effectively “hard wired”.

He further claims, as common fallacy, that upsetting emotions are caused by disruptions or blockages in the body’s energy system.  In fact these emotions are caused by the exact opposite of disruptions.   The body reacts to very exact and specific instructions and the emotions react to a precise control system.  It is the information given to this control system that is the underlying cause of the negative emotion.

The fact that an attuned disturbing thought field (that is one which we consider contains perturbations supplying the information causing the upset) can be transformed into a non-disturbing thought field within a matter of minutes, in a highly predictable way, demonstrates the operation of a control system for the negative emotion.  Disruptions or blockages would effectively prevent this control of the negative emotion and a cure would not be possible.

Today’s accepted practices all use cognitive therapies to improve a psychological condition over time and do not, of course, ever claim to cure a problem.  This is because they teach a coping technique, which goes nowhere near the root cause of the difficulty, and so a cure is not possible. 

Over 30 years ago, before his discovery of TFT, Dr. Callahan was one of the pioneers of Rational Emotive Behavioural Therapy, a form of Cognitive Behavioural Therapy, which he used in his practice.  He does not need these techniques now, especially as he feels CBT actually teaches patients how to suffer more than they thought they could!!

Thought Field Therapy explains that the underlying cause of negative emotions is information contained within an energy field outside the brain. The concept of a field was introduced by Michael Faraday – a genius of science – and can be defined as an invisible non-material structure in space which has an effect upon matter.

We call this field a Thought Field because it can be tuned at will, (as in the tuning of a radio), according to whatever the person cares to think about.  If the tuning of a particular thought field causes emotional upset, this is because within that field there is information present in the form of perturbations.  Perturbations are isolatable aspects of a thought field which are responsible for triggering all negative emotions. These perturbations (dictionary definition: “a cause of mental disquietude”), far from being a "disruption", are the generating structures which determine the chemical, hormonal, neuronal, cognitive and brain activity commonly associated with negative emotions.

The evidence of our therapy leads us to propose that a perturbation is the cause of all negative emotions.

Dr. Callahan was shown 25 years ago that by tapping on specific energy meridians, a psychological problem can be cured: 

He had been treating a woman called Mary Ford for eighteen months using every cognitive and behavioural method known to try to help her extreme phobia of water.  One day, at a time when he had been learning about the energy meridians in the body, which were first discovered in China about 6000 years ago, he noticed that Mary was suffering very real fear.  Knowing that the stomach meridian started under the eye, he told her to tap just under her eye.

He wasn’t expecting much, but to his amazement, she immediately said that the fear and sick feeling in her stomach had completely gone!  She then volunteered that she believed her fear of water had also gone!  Not believing her, he suggested she went out to his swimming pool to test this idea.  All her past reticence at this idea had completely gone and she positively ran to the very deep end of the pool, bent down and splashed water on her face, ecstatic at her total lack of any fear!

At that precise moment Roger Callahan had absolutely no idea why the instant cure had taken place, but knew that his life’s work would now be to discover how to harness this amazing curative process.  Fifteen years of research using causal diagnosis and working with thousands of people has resulted in our present therapy.

He discovered that while the client is thinking about their problem, (that is the particular thought field containing the perturbation information is attuned), if precise energy meridian points are stimulated in a precise order, the perturbation is immediately subsumed and can no longer deliver its information to the brain and so no further upset can be experienced.

This is not dissimilar to the action of a combination lock - it’s necessary to enter the correct numbers in the right order.  This treatment effect usually happens in minutes, often leaving the client feeling incredulous and endeavouring to bring back the emotional upset that had been present for so long!