Traditionally, the start of a year is a time to assess our lives, our past, our present and, of course, our future. We do our utmost to free ourselves from negativity of the past and attempt to think positively and creatively about the future. However, with today’s frightening headlines in our fast-paced and chaotic world, we may find ourselves or loved ones filled with fear, stress and anxiety. Emotional and physical traumas may further deplete a person’s physical energy as well as cause a multitude of other issues. Thought Field Therapy (TFT) works with the body’s own energy system to create relief and can help release negative emotions and feelings.

Noted clinical psychologist Roger Callahan began exploring alternative therapies in the early 1980s, searching for a faster and better way to help those suffering from emotional distress. After years of research, he developed TFT, which integrates the sciences of acupuncture, the meridian system and applied kinesiology with associated emotional problems to successfully eliminate negative and often debilitating emotional and physical responses. While stimulating specific meridian points in a precise order while thinking about the upsetting issue, we utilize the power of the body’s own energy system to help us heal.

Scientists have discovered that we have an electromagnetic circuitry or system of meridians throughout the body. This energy, or meridian system—known to the Chinese for over 5,000 years—appears to act as a governing force in healing and growth as well as a control system and pathway for negative emotions. There are 12 major meridians linked to the major organs of the body; specific emotions are associated with those particular organs and meridians. Scientific evidence has shown that significant negative emotional or traumatic events experienced in life—especially those associated with fear, anxiety, shock, traumas or loss—can often be the root cause of illness, anxiety, depression and pain. These traumatic imprints can become “locked” within the meridian system, causing imbalances of energy or “dis-ease” in the body.

Research indicates our thoughts and emotions can significantly affect not only our physical health but also our mental well-being. Neuroscientists working with psychologists and immunologists have discovered that emotions such as love, hate, happiness and fear directly influence the nervous and immune system. These emotions cause the body to create chemicals and hormones that can either enhance or drain our energy and performance. When we think negative thoughts, experience stress or feel anxiety, the brain signals the release of chemicals which can weaken the immune system, making the body more vulnerable to disease. Negative emotions can actually cause more negative thinking which, if not treated, could result in emotional or physical pain and illness. Wellness is directly connected to our “thought fields”, our automatic thoughts and responses to past, present and life itself.

It is estimated that we have approximately 65,000 thoughts each day and approximately 95 percent of those thoughts are the same thoughts we had yesterday, and the day before that and the day before that. Each thought we have—positive or negative—creates an automatic response in the body. Every time we think about a problem or remember one, we produce a “thought field”, which is energy that runs through and perhaps outside the body. This energy is automatically activated in the system as the movement of our eyes helps us to access information.

In conversation, as a person is thinking about what he or she is going to say, they often look away from us. They may be looking up or down or to either side in order to access a thought or memory. This is because our eyes act very much like the cursor of a computer. When we use a mouse and point the cursor to the desired location, we can access the file we need. Similarly, as we think about a problem, the eyes automatically move up or down or to either side in order for the mind to access an image or picture. As this is happening, we associate into the emotion or thought; an automatic response or feeling is sent through the pathways of the meridians. Our thoughts—positive or negative—will influence how the chemicals or hormones will affect the body, either enhancing or depleting it of energy. With this in mind, we can understand how persistent anxiety, stress or negative thoughts and feelings may cause us to exhaust precious life-force energy and may therefore become unable to fight off “dis-ease” or illness.

In some cases, negative emotions can even cause our energy system to “short circuit” and actually reverse the normal polarity of the body. This reversal in energy is known as a psychological block and is called psychological reversal in TFT. It can cause you to be angry or in a bad mood, to have destructive or negative thoughts or behavior—such as depression, illness, insomnia, confusion and reversal of concepts as with numbers or directions. It can also cause self-sabotaging behavior, including over-eating and addictions; it may produce other negative patterns of behavior, which prevent us from having what we really want. This psychological block may cause pain or chronic conditions that may be difficult to heal and may even prevent healing from taking place. Taking less than one minute to complete, TFT can help eliminate the psychological block and allow healing to take place.

Multiple studies have been done to examine the effectiveness of TFT on different conditions and in different environments. Statistically significant results were obtained with all problems and symptoms treated with TFT in a 1999 study at Kaiser Behavioral Health Services. These problems included anxiety, depression, alcohol abuse, anger and anxiety due to medical conditions, bereavement and chronic pain, along with other ailments.

The TFT Foundation has provided free trauma relief and used these procedures around the world—from Africa and Kosovo following wars and genocide to New Orleans after Hurricane Katrina to Haiti after their earthquake. They have completed four studies demonstrating the effectiveness and in the process, thousands of disaster sufferers and victims of war were helped using TFT. The outcomes are recognized in the International Journal of Emergency Mental Health in recent Rwandan genocide recovery studies. A new documentary film about the work TFT has helped to accomplish in Rwanda has recently been released. The film entitled, From Trauma to Peace, was an official selection at a number of film festivals in 2015.

Diane Bahr-Groth, CH, TFT-Adv, is director of Mind-Body

Transformation Hypnosis Center in Stamford. She specializes in weight management, stress, fear, pain reduction, smoking cessation and success. Her office is located at 1177 High Ridge Rd, Stamford. Connect at 203-595-0110 or MindBodyTransformation.com. See ads, pages 22 and 33.