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Man Swears By Alternative Therapy Technique

Cheryl Bentley/SUNCOAST NEWS

Emotional Freedom Technique practitioner Jeanne Ranger taps on the meridian points of Roger Freeman to relieve him of physical pain during a session at the Unity Truth Center in Port Richey.

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By Cheryl  Bentley | The Suncoast News

Published: August 30, 2008

The shoulder and back pain from which Roger Freeman suffered for four years went away in 10 minutes.

Two months later, it has not returned.

Freeman used emotional freedom technique to rid himself of the pain that began as tennis elbow and for which his doctor had unsuccessfully treated with cortisone. Practitioners call EFT an emotional version of acupuncture.

In EFT, the body's energy meridians are gently tapped with the fingers to unblock energy. Impeded energy is the cause of negative emotion and physical ailments, they say.

EFT can be used by both individuals who have had a short training in the simple procedure or with a practitioner.

Proponents contend EFT has been successfully used for both health and emotional issues. It has been endorsed by New Age healers and authors such as Dr. Deepak Chopra, Dr. Norman Shealy and Cheryl Richardson.

Scientific studies of the technique have had mixed results. In a study reported by PubMed, a service of the U.S. National Library of Medicine and the National Institutes of Health, EFT produced greater improvement in patients suffering from fear of animals than did diaphragmatic breathing a form of deep breathing.

But in a Canadian study, although EFT eased anxiety and fear, it was no more effective than other treatments measured in the study.

Freeman attends EFT practice sessions at the Unity Truth Center, a church in Port Richey. The church does not sponsor the meetings but supports EFT's apparently successful results, according to its minister, the Rev. Barbara Williams.

"EFT is a way for you to get in touch with negative belief systems you have and replace them with love-affirming statements in tune with Jesus' teaching," Williams said.

The Unity group's facilitator, Jeanne Ranger, became an advanced EFT practitioner after an initial period of disbelief.

"I was extremely skeptical," the New Port Richey resident recalled. "Anything that sounds too good to be true always is."

But, Ranger said, she became a believer when tapping her energy meridians relieved her of physical pain. Later, she was able to deal with a traumatic childhood that included a stay in an orphanage. She had tried counseling to treat psychological issues stemming from her past, but it had not worked, Ranger said.

But through EFT, the distress she felt when remembering her childhood disappeared. Previously, Ranger noted, even talking about her past had been traumatic. "Now I can sit and talk to you - and no emotion. No emotion," she repeated, as if still surprised by its absence.

Ranger became an EFT practitioner through studying material bought from the California-based EFT Learning Center and passing subsequent tests.

"It has totally changed my life, totally turned my life upside down and right side up," she told attendees about EFT at a recent Tuesday night practice at Unity Truth Center.

At the session, Diane Atkinson volunteered to work on her painful neck by sitting with Ranger at the front of the room while Ranger tapped on parts of Atkinson's hand, face and collarbone.

After each tapping sequence, Ranger checked with Atkinson to see if the condition had changed. She began another round, repeating the new description of the condition.

In 10 minutes, the neck pain went from being what Atkinson considered the size of a walnut, then a sliver and finally disappeared.

EFT recognizes physical disorders often have an emotional basis. The emotional cause must also be tapped before physical symptoms subside.

In the case of Agnes Coldiron, a diabetic who attended the sessions, her blood sugar plummeted only after through tapping she discovered an emotional reason behind her diabetes and tapped on that.

"It's so simple," Coldiron reflected. "You blame this, and you blame that, but the bottom line is it's you."

EFT sessions are 7 - 9 p.m. the second and fourth Tuesday of the month at Unity Truth Center, 5844 Pine Hill Road, Port Richey. Sessions are free but love offerings are accepted. For more information visit www.emofree.com> or call Ranger at 727-375-7924.

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