At the Center for EFT Studies, we teach the original Gary Craig EFT Training, also known as Classic or Gold Standard EFT.
As Gary himself is no longer able to teach the original Gary Craig training, we do our best to honor his legacy by teaching the best EFT Certification training we can, integrating Gary's original teachings with new, modern, cutting-edge techniques.
For this reason, it is important to dive into the History of EFT and its incredible beginnings.
So let's talk about the history of EFT, also known as the Emotional Freedom Techniques or EFT Tapping.
In 1991, Stanford-trained engineer and personal performance coach Gary Craig changed the world.
It all started with a class in, “Thought Field Therapy” which was taught by Dr. Roger Callahan and was an offshoot of training he had taken in “Touch for Health” which was devised by John Thie and George Goodheart.
Each man learned from the other and built one upon the other. As Gary himself said, “I’m standing on the shoulders of giants.”
Together they created the backbone of what would later be considered “Energy Psychology.
The legend goes that Dr. Callahan, a clinical psychologist with more than 40 years of experience, had a patient named Mary, who suffered from a severe water phobia. Her phobia was so severe she couldn’t even bathe or go out in rainy conditions without experiencing distress. Like many clinical psychologists before him, Dr. Callahan was having little success in helping Mary.
On this fateful day, having just returned from training in a modality known as Touch for Health with instructor and Touch for Health founder John Thie, Callahan opted to try something new.
During the session, which took place poolside at Callahan's home, Mary indicated that she felt distress in her stomach when she looked at or even thought about water.
Having just returned from the seminar, and having learned that the meridian point under her eye was related to the stomach, he guided her to tap on that point.
Almost instantly, Mary experienced relief. Within minutes she was able to get into his swimming pool without any symptoms whatsoever.
And thus Thought Field Therapy was born. Over the course of the next decade, Callahan developed a set of “algorithms” for tapping on specific acupuncture points, with each specific algorithm being appropriate for specific ailments and dysfunctions.
The algorithms were effective but complicated and required use of special machinery, all of which was extremely expensive. These hurdles blocked the growth of Thought Field Therapy.
However, his discoveries were to have an incredible impact on Stanford-trained engineer named Gary Craig.
Something even better was on the horizon
In 1991, after completing the Thought Field Therapy training with Dr. Callahan, Gary Craig himself began a series of experiments. He began to examine, deconstruct, and experiment with the algorithms.
Though his research, he went on to streamlined the process, creating what is now known as the Basic Recipe in The Emotional Freedom Techniques (EFT). His streamlined approach was more accessible, usable to even the most casual observer. With time, his results proved to be equal or better than Thought Field Therapy, without the complicated algorithms or high costs.
So in 1995, Gary Craig's EFT Training was born.
Over the course of the next 30 years, EFT spread across the planet like wildfire, largely due to its amazing efficacy and to the Gary Craig EFT Training.
The obvious results on issues heretofore considered to be “incurable” was noted by many; especially considering the low cost, the lack of negative side effects, the sheer speed, and seeming simplicity of the technique.
Within a few years, Gary managed to train thousands of practitioners, from laypersons to counselors and doctors. He went on to create standards in EFT Tapping practitioners through his cooperative efforts with renowned practitioners Ann Adams and Patricia Carrington. These standards are upheld today through all credible, accredited EFT Certification programs.
His research conducted at the Veteran's Administration demonstrated the incredible efficacy of the technique with even the most chronically-affected clients of trauma and PTSD.
In March of 2010, Gary shocked the world by announcing his retirement. The stress of managing this fast-growing enterprise had taken its toll and his doctor announced that he had, quite surprisingly even to him, experienced a “small heart attack.”
That in combination with his growing frustrations over events going on in the community that he could no longer manage or contain, and his desire to experiment with new ideas, led to his retirement.
In an act as classy as the man himself, he “gifted EFT to the world.”
In his retirement, Gary was free to continue his experimentation with EFT, eventually creating a variation of the technique he called Optimal EFT, which combined his love of EFT Tapping with his love of A Course in Miracles.
While Optimal EFT certainly has a devoted following, it's affect on the world is not likely to ever rival his greatest creation, the Emotional Freedom Techniques.
EFT Certification training was taken over by the community itself based on the detailed training guidelines that Gary himself created.
Some teachers, like myself, continue to teach Classic EFT, which is based heavily on the original Gary Craig EFT Training, but which has continued to grow and develop in the decades since his retirement.
Other teachers have created alterations of the classic Gary Craig EFT Training, including variations such as Clinical EFT, Matrix Reimprinting, Faster EFT, Meridian Tapping Therapy, and the like.
EFT Training has grown and evolved as new information, research, and techniques have been developed.
At the Center for EFT Studies, we continue to teach Classic EFT while adapting the training to include cutting-edge techniques, always seeking to improve EFT and take it firmly into the future.
