Thought Field Therapy Hall of Shame Awards

The promotions and claims for TFT and VT on the internet are getting so out of hand that I have decided that it's time to begin a TFT Horror File and Hall of Shame. Periodically, I will feature websites I have selected as the most egregious examples.

I have no choice but to award the top dishonors to Roger Callahan, for continuing to train people in the Thought Field Therapy Voice Technology, even after my peer reviewed study has been accepted for publication, showing that VT does no better than randomly selected treatment points.  Furthermore, there is no valid scientific evidence in the form of independently conducted controlled studies that it does what he claims it does. Callahan just trained another person, a lady who uses the title "Profesora" from South America (the "Profesora's" degrees according to her bio are in philosophy and education and she is certified in NLP). I wonder if Callahan bothered to inform her of this study, before taking her money (presumably he still charges $100,000 for this training, according to his website -- see www.tftrx.com ).

Dishonorable mention goes to the following website, for a skillful and clever reframe, presumably to appear scientific. Since the term "meridian system" has fallen out of favor and is now pretty widely recognized as a pseudoscientific claim for a
system that has never been proven to even exist, this clever chap from the UK has decided to describe TFT as tapping on the Autonomic Nervous System. This one is a real howler for anyone with even minimal knowledge of science.
See:
http://www.tft4u.co.uk/page2.htm

"While thinking of their problem, we then ask the client to tap on
specific points on the Autonomic Nervous System that carries messages around the body. The tapping has to be in a specific sequence, and this is the clever part. By tapping on the Autonomic Nervous System we deactivate the perturbation. In other words we `switch off' the negative response, so after treatment a person can have exactly the same thought but will no longer become upset. The negative response is simply `switched off'."

This would be rather humorous if they weren't targetting people with serious problems.

Dishonorable mention in the Professional category goes to this
website, by a psychiatrist and a psychologist who are VT  practitioners and call themselves "energy coaches" (to avoid legal hassles, possibly?). As people with professional credentials, they really should know better.

http://www.withyourvoice.com/Voice%20Technology.htm

These two have decided that social phobia, and a host of other problems are caused by toxins and have a much more sophisticated sounding explanation than the other website (although just as nonsensical):

http://www.withyourvoice.com/Social%20Skills.htm

"Recent advances in research have demonstrated that in many cases social withdrawal inclinations that will inhibit the development of social skills are the ill side-effects of particular foods shown to be toxic to some individuals. In some cases, urine examination reporting high levels of morphine-like peptides will prove what foods are toxic. Keeping away from certain foods will dramatically improve the "innate" propensity to social withdrawal and shyness."

Recent advances in research? Of course, he offers no specific
references that I could find. As John Stossel would say, Give me a break!

Then there's this website by two Reiki practitioners who, as far as I could see, have no legit mental health licensure/degrees at all and list cancer and heart disease as conditions they deal with.

http://www.triuneinstitute.com/TFT/TFT%20The%20Physical.htm

If a licensed mental health professional made the kind of claims being made on this website, they wouldn't have their license for long (and this is in the state of Arizona, where the Board of psychology does go after people). Even for unlicensed practitioners, I don't know how they're getting away with the following claims about heart disease:

"Heart disease symptoms, heart health stress. Discover a revolutionary new approach to improve heart disease, heart stress and heart health as measured by Heart Rate Variability. Thought Field Therapy (TFT) is a new treatment for heart disease and prevention of heart disease symptoms related to stress, anxiety, depression and other mental disorders."

A new treatment for heart disease??? Did I read this correctly?

and

"Our treatment for heart disease and heart stress is non-invasive and balances the body's autonomic nervous system and improves Heart Rate Variability. It can give those with heart disease a second lease on life. Learn more about Thought Field Therapy and heart disease, heart stress and heart health and how to recognize and deal with the many heart disease symptoms. We can assist in heart disease prevention and monitoring of healthy hearts or treatment for heart disease in those that may already have it. "

Have I misread something here? It looks to me like they're claiming to treat heart disease, yet I see no evidence that they are MDs. 

There were more websites that richly deserved these dishonors, so I apologize for having overlooked them and making people feel left out. It's just that there were so many deserving candidates it's hard to know where to begin when selecting the winners in this category. I'll have to do this again soon.

Comments

[Curiousreader]

I think that it is very interesting that despite all the work you have done INSIDE of TFT that you should take such an elitist view of yourself and "western medicine" as the be-all and end-all of healing practice. If you are so disgusted with the claims of TFT (and I am not saying they are correct) then why in the world did you follow them so passionately before? Just because you have "seen the light" when it comes to the questionable effects of this therapy, doesn't mean that you should act and post with such vehemence and disrespect. You may not agree with their tactics, but you should also credit them with the desire to make people better. Intentions are important. As a "passionate seeker of the truth" you should relax and see that these 'pseudoscientists' are working from good intentions with albeit imperfect method. Don't let the closed-minded elite at the top of the American medical field unbalance your desire to help. They do not actually know everything, and there is merit to things they do not understand in all their self-claimed genius. You won't be able to convince the TFT practicioners of your message or anyone else, for that matter, of anything as long as you pretend to be superior in knowledge and intellect. You managed to keep your head and not get sucked into Callahan's crowd, can you keep yourself from getting sucked into the whining, negative, and vicious skeptic circles? I wish you the best, and commend you for having the courage to stand up and say you were wrong to what was then your peer group. I know you have the passion and honesty to continue to do that.

[Monica Pignotti]

This anonymous "curious reader" obviously hasn't read me much or he/she would readily see that I have repeatedly emphasized that the TFT people do have good intentions. I suggest you listen to the interview I did on NPR where I very clearly stated as much (I was told by several people that they thought I was far too kind). Instead, you appear to have read one blog entry and made an unwarranted sweeping generalization about me and then proceeded to personally malign me, the very thing you accuse me of doing.
That being said, unfortunately, good intentions do not prevent people from causing harm to others and as anyone who has studied the phenomenon of destructive cults knows, they do not prevent people from rationalizing and compromising their principles, such as honesty. I am calling things as I see them and will continue to do so. If you are truly curious and honestly want to find out about me and my story rather than just have an agenda to personally malign me, I recommend you read my writings and the links I have posted here. I have been very open and up front about my history with TFT and have clearly stated the reasons I supported it and the reasons I have left. The impression I get is that you are not open to listening to what I have to say because that information is out there on the internet for anyone interested to read, so I won't waste further time repeating what I have written about previously. You have an obvious agenda and major axe to grind against skeptics (portraying them as "whining, negative, viscious") and are not here to try to really understand what my experience has been. I have never said I was superior to anyone and I have certainly never said that Western medicine was the be all and end all of healing, nor have I ever said that they "know everything" -- again, you obviously haven't taken any time to really read what I have written and are using this forum to grind your own axe.
From everything I've observed, people in the scientific community in general do not pretend to know everything or be geniuses -- that is the territory of pseudoscientists. Perhaps you should follow your own advice and acknowledge that people in the scientific community and the medical establishement that you personally attack also have good intentions.

[rhoni]

Monica

I have read your comments and those of the curiosreader and would like to make a comment. I dont agree with anyone attacking anyone, neither curiousreader attacking you or you attacking him so I will just put across facts as far as I see them. I am not trained in TFT but have used the techniques that Mr Callahan has provided. After a number of years going to see a number of doctors and therapists to help me with my anxiety problems which were impacting heavily on my life, the techniques worked for me. Modern Western medicine is good in some circumstances, however, western scientists and therapists etc. do not seem to like to 'admit' that some other method that they cannot prove or disprove may actually work. Even if this method only works for 5% of people that try it, that is a better life for those people. If western medicine cannot help and alternative can, then it should not be knocked. Those that pay the $100,000 to learn have made that choice and if they change their mind in thinking that it is not worthwhile, they should take responsibility and not blame anyone as no one is forced to part with that amount of money and if research is undertaken after the course was taken then, unfortunately, more fool them as they should have done this beforehand. I am happy with the results that I have achieved and feel that if I had paid $100,000 to improve the quality of my life in this manner - its worth it.

[Monica Pignotti]

Rhoni, if TFT had only a 5% success rate that would be great cause for concern because that would mean it did worse than placebo. Placebos generally have around a 33% success rate and if the conditions create high expectancy (as they often do in TFT trainings) it can be even higher than that. The real problem here is that we can't possibly know what the actual success rate of TFT itself is without doing controlled studies. Without studies comparing TFT to a placebo or another treatment, we don't know if the success was due to treatment factors unique to TFT or to more general factors common to placebo effects. At the risk of sounding like a broken record, I will once again state the principle that the burden of proof is on TFT proponents to support their claimed success rates.

I consider it highly unethical for Roger Callahan to be charging what he does for VT and worse, to be charging clients $3000 up front for 5 hours of VT when he has no evidence to support his claims and my study falsifies them. You seem to want to put all the blame on the consumers but even if they did have responsibility, why would that alleviate Callahan of his responsibility as a professional, especially when it comes to clients? Is that fair? I think not. When it comes to the client-therapist relationship, clients can be highly vulnerable, suffering, and desparate to find relief, which doesn't put them in a frame of mind where they can be objective. Even though I strongly encourage clients to be good consumers and take responsibility that isn't always realistic to expect this will be the case. That is why in all professional codes of ethics, the primary responsibility rests with the professional offering the services, so I stand by every word I have written here about Roger Callahan.

As for the $100,000 for training professionals, it appears that the free market has spoken because he has only trained three people in the past two years (two of them a couple who presumably paid together). None of the three are credentialed mental health professionals (the latest one according to her bio at tftrx.com is a former hairdresser who quit her job to be a TFT therapist) and according to the listing I see on the website, it appears that no mental health professionals have trained in VT for several years now.

[lee]

Monica,

I sat on a tube once when smoking was in the process of being banned from public transport,a guy sitting next to me put his unlit cigarette in his mounth.
Out of the corner of my eye I saw a rather large lady reach into her bag retrieving water pistol,not a small one you understand?but one of those capable of multiple squirts,confronting the guy she let loose,drenching him and a woman sitting next to him reading court papers.
The tube fell silent,breathing heavilly the pistolier announced"that will teach him, I smoked for 21 years and I hate smoking"
We now pulled into Tottenham crt. rd tube.
The solicitor sitting next to guy who had nothing to do with her gripe, politely got up, put her soaking papers into her case,walked to the door and beat the large woman over the head with her case.
The guy meanwhile got his voice back and announced to everyone that he also is a non smoker having been one for many years and now liked to keep the unlit cigarette in his mouth.
You Monica remind me of that woman,nothing like a reformed smoker is there?

[Monica Pignotti]

Looks like we've got a true believer here who feels that by smearing me it will take the attention off the wrongdoings of his/her guru. Poor analogy, Lee, since the gentleman in your example wasn't actually doing anything harmful and Callahan is exploiting vulnerable clients by charging them $600 per hour for a therapy that has no evidence to support his claims. Your use of this example implies you feel that there is nothing wrong with Callahan continuing to charge $100,000 for his Voice Technology and it's comparable to someone sitting on a train with an unlit cigarette in his mouth. That speaks volumes more about you and the sort of values or lack thereof that you have, than it does about me, Lee, that you would feel that my calling Roger Callahan out on his bogus $100,000 VT that he charges his clients $600 per hour for is analogus to a guy on the tube with an unlit cigarette in his mouth. The fact that you feel it was unreasonable and fanatical for me to criticize Callahan's bogus VT says volumes more about you than it does about me. You're probably one of his followers and if that is the case I have to warn you that when Callahan's secret about what the VT actually is comes out, which it inevitably will someday, you're really going to feel silly for defending him. Then Callahan's joke will be on you. Rest assured that you smears will not intimidate me.

Hello, Monica. I unfortunately don’t really have the time to go looking at your past articles and talks to better understand your position. Sorry. However, I have read an earlier paper by you that seemed favourable of TFT. Anyway … what I tend to sense, though, is that your main complaint is about the sum of money being charged by Callahan for a treatment you believe still needs more critical research in order to verify its purported effectiveness. But … you don’t completely deny that TFT has had some success in some areas of treating various types of disorders, do you? Or do you? That’s what I’d like to know. And at this point, what’s your opinion about EFT? Thank you. Karl

[Gene L Engel]

I am not a follower of Thought Field or any of the other so called Power Therapies. In 1990 I attended a workshop series by the Nebraska Adlerian Society and learn of a technique for understanding early recollections. It was developed by a therapist by the name of Robert Wilhite from Mountain Grove, AR. I believe that Bob has passed away now but his development is very effective in helping individuals with trauma related problems. I have used this technique in my own practice and hs found it very effect in reducing the intensity of nightmares, dreams, and flashbacks in one to three sessions and many times this entire proces can be done in a half hour. It is very straight forward. I would like to find someone who would be willing to research the technique and provide a report on it effectivness.

[Citizen Deux]

I would classify any practicioner of mental health therapy - operating outside of a state licensed program - to be a criminal. This includes the clergy, who are typically exempt from state rules and regulations. Folks like this clown, www.eftcenter.org, should be censured, fined and possibly jailed.

I believe there is sufficient evidence to grant TFT and EFT a similar efficicacy to CBT. Given that, EFT and TFT are substantially similart to CBT to be "indistinguishable" and thus fraudulent by their nature.

Having made all these sweeping statements - let's begin with a pet peeve of mine. First of all, there is no "Western medicine" anymore than their is "eastern medicine". There is simply medicine. Its effectiveness must be repeatable and universally applicable. It can not rest on non-repeatable elements - otherwise it is simply random.

Anecdotes, no matter how compelling, are not proof. Nither Mr. Wilhite's techniques or Callahan's nonsense rise beyond pure statistical chance.

Simply put, extraordinary claims require proof.

[Citizen Deux]

Sorry - bad URL

[Alexis Kenne]

Cardiovascular disease (CVD) is the leading cause of death in both women and men in the United States. Although many women believe that they’re more likely to be diagnosed with breast cancer, their risk of CVD is actually significantly greater. Cardiothoracic surgery also involves the treatment of the heart, (cardiovascular disease), and lungs (lung disease). Heart disease symptoms may not always be evident, but usually there are symptoms that can alert you to a potential problem. A classic symptom is chest pressure or left arm discomfort, which occurs during stress (physical or emotional), and goes away with rest, or with nitroglycerin, a medication that dilates blood vessels. Heart disease symptoms differ in intensity and some symptoms might not develop until after there’s been extensive damage to a person’s heart and blood vessels. Some people experience only a few of the symptoms of a heart attack.

[James Davies]

So has anybody actually carried out a controlled study on the effectiveness of TFT yet? If not, why not?