Background

Thought field therapy (TFT), also known as energy psychology, uses "thought fields" and qi (or chi) to diagnose and treat psychological problems. Qi is a concept from Chinese philosophy that means "life energy." Advocates believe that imbalances in qi may lead to medical problems. The technique of TFT requires a patient to think about a medical condition or a painful experience while specific acupuncture meridian energy points are sequentially tapped by the fingertips of a TFT practitioner. TFT is most commonly used on patients with chronic conditions that do not respond to conventional healing methods.

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Safety Safety definitions

Pregnancy And Lactation: There is insufficient reliable evidence about the safety of TFT in pregnancy and lactation. However, there is no reason to expect safety issues.

Effectiveness Effectiveness definitions

There is insufficient reliable evidence about the effectiveness of TFT.

Natural Medicines rates effectiveness based on scientific evidence according to the following scale: Effective, Likely Effective, Possibly Effective, Possibly Ineffective, Likely Ineffective, Ineffective, and Insufficient Evidence to Rate.

Dosing & administration

Adverse effects

Interactions with pharmaceuticals

None known.

Interactions with herbs & supplements

None known.

Interactions with foods

None known.

Interactions with lab tests

Interactions with diseases

Mechanism of action

TFT is based on applied kinesiology. Applied kinesiology is a chiropractic diagnostic method that uses manual muscle-strength testing for medical diagnosis in order to give feedback on the body's functional status. The theory behind TFT is that emotional conflicts and trauma from early childhood remain in the unconscious mind throughout adulthood. Advocates suggest that these emotional issues may go back as far as intra-uterine and birth traumas; they may also include traumatic events that occurred during infancy, childhood, and adolescence. Emotional experiences are thought to cause imbalanced qi. In theory, imbalanced qi may lead to vasoconstriction, chronic biochemical and electromagnetic changes, alterations of the immune system, and illness.

Roger Callahan, the developer of TFT, believed that thoughts or experiences associated with an emotional problem were contained within a "thought field." Proponents of TFT claim that these emotional problems may lead to physical illnesses if untreated. They suggest that a thought field becomes activated whenever a person thinks about his or her problem. Associated negative emotions correspond to meridian points on the body, which were called isomorphism by Callahan. In order to eliminate the patient's emotional upset, a precise sequence of meridian points must be tapped. Callahan theorized that the process of tapping unblocked or balanced the flow of qi.