Donna Eden, EFT endorser

EFT is easy, effective, and produces amazing results. I think it should be taught in elementary school.

Donna Eden

Co-Author of The Promise of Energy Psychology.

My Past EFT Decisions - Good & Bad

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Decisions

As you might expect, the rapid evolution of EFT had its share of growing pains.  It started out as a simple idea that I made available to the world at little or no cost.  From there, it expanded into new uses and spread swiftly around the globe.  I was completely unprepared for the dynamics that followed and was both heralded and criticized for each of the decisions I made to guide its growth.

Each decision was well thought out and represented the best information I had at the time. At no time were my decisions spur-of-the-moment or capricious.  Unfortunately, some of these decisions conflicted with the agendas of others, resulting in some unfounded rumors and wide misperceptions.  Some of those still linger today and create misinformation where none should be.  The synopsis below should bring clarity to all this.

In the Beginning - The Open Hand Policy

In 1995, I created the original EFT training on VHS tape.  It was called The EFT Course and I offered it to a small mailing list of therapists (20 people).  I said I would send it to them with no up front costs and, if they liked it, they would agree to send me $150.  Most of them took me up on the offer and most of those sent me the money.

At that time I had just retired from a previous investment business and thought this offer might attract a few therapists with whom I might act as an EFT consultant.  To me, it would be a fun sort of activity and, since I didn't need any extra money, I could do it for free.

But it quickly spread and I established a newsletter to properly communicate with everyone.  Within a few months, hundreds of therapists (and clients) were using EFT with enthusiasm.  This was a new experience for me.  I had no official credentials in the therapy field and no licensing whatsoever.  Yet highly credentialed people from around the world were asking me to give live workshops (therapists, PhDs, MDs ... everyone).

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Open Hand Policy

I had no road map for this and so performed the workshops and provided other services as best I could. I imposed no rules for EFT.  I just wanted to share it with the world so I gave a complete Open Hand Policy for its use.  No royalties or legal restrictions involved.  "Just blend it with other methods," I would say, "or innovate with it as you please."  People loved this idea.  Everyone heralded it and no one objected ... at least not yet.  Little did I know that this Open Hand Policy was sowing the seeds for major difficulties down the road. 

Beginning Credentials - EFT-CC and EFT-ADV

In the latter 1990's I was contacted by Patricia Carrington, PhD with the idea of creating credentials for EFT.  This was a strange request to me because, with my lack of experience in the therapy field, I didn't see the need for them.  But she was persistent and I allowed her to create Certificates of Completion (known as EFT-CC and EFT-ADV) for those who wanted to study and pass some comparatively light tests on the first two of our video sets.  At the time, they were our only video sets and no others were contemplated.  Thus I had no way of knowing that these Certificates would eventually become obsolete.

Note that these were NOT Certifications, nor were they intended to be.  They were Certificates of Completion which are commonly awarded in the field for attending a workshop, or in this case, passing an exam, but are not the same as Certification where actual skills would be evaluated. Nonetheless, people kept calling them Certifications and elevating them to a status far beyond their actual value.  Thousands of people paid an average of around $100 for these (I received none of this money) and proudly displayed them as letters behind their names.

However, the nature of these Certificates of Completion eventually came to the surface and the more sophisticated members of the EFT Community cried out for higher quality credentials.  Many of the holders of these certificates supported this new possibility while others complained that these designations might be demoted to the lower status they now deserved.  Any decisions I made along these lines was certain to disgruntle one group or the other.  I went for the higher quality and took the inevitable criticisms from those who disagreed.

The EFT Trademark - A Problem in Germany

One day in 2003, I received a call from an EFT friend in Germany informing me that a man in that country was attempting to legally register the EFT name as his Trademark for all of Europe.  I must admit to being naive in this as my response was, "Why is that a problem?"

"Oh my," said my friend, "That means he can dictate everything about EFT in Europe.  He can choose who could or could not use it.  He could charge royalties for its use and set himself up as the only source for EFT in Europe.  And neither you, Gary, nor anyone else could stop him."

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It cost $50,000 to secure the
Trademark for the EFT Community

I had no experience with this sort of thing and it was inconceivable to me that anyone would take such self-serving and greedy steps.  Nonetheless, I contacted an expensive European attorney who managed to thwart this attempt (fortunately, the attempt was not far enough along to become law yet).  I then registered and Trademarked the term "Emotional Freedom Techniques EFT" around the world for the sole purpose of keeping outside parties from gaining control over it.  Altogether, it cost me about $50,000 to secure this for the EFT Community.

Eventually, my trademarking efforts were misunderstood and, as you will see later, a few people spread the absurd rumor that I was going to use these Trademarks as a legal hammer over the EFT Community.

Sigh!

Workshop Guidelines

One year after the EFT Trademark issue, I invited EFT'ers from both Europe and the USA to my home to help me develop some workshop guidelines for EFT'ers to use.   This was in response to growing pleas that I do something about the inconsistency of the EFT workshops that were being given throughout the world.  Because of my original (and popular) Open Hand Policy, there was no way for me to legally monitor the quality of these workshops.  Again, I had no experience in handling a worldwide problem like this but was hoping that a set of well designed workshop guidelines would help.  So, for 5 days, I worked diligently with 15 dedicated EFT'ers to create these guidelines.

When they were completed, I published them on my website and they received wide accolades from the EFT Community.  Everyone was happy.  However, after another 2 or 3 years, complaints came in that the guidelines were ineffective in creating quality instruction and not all workshop presenters were teaching EFT well.  This was reflecting poorly on the guidelines I had approved.

Eventually, I had to remove these guidelines because they failed in practice.  Unfortunately, some had already begun issuing credentials such "EFT Level 1," "EFT Level 2," and "EFT Level 3."  These credentials were soon represented as certifications in EFT, which was not my intention when creating workshop guidelines.  This added to the growing problem that began with my original Open Hand Policy.

The EFT Masters

In 2005 I established The EFT Masters program.  The idea was a good one, at least on paper.  It was to raise the bar for EFT quality by rewarding some EFT'ers with this top level credential.  The requirements for acceptance were set high enough so that only the best (at that time) would qualify.  It was instantly popular but, unfortunately, unexpected problems soon showed up:

  • Resentments were publicly voiced by those who couldn't qualify.
  • The program was widely criticized for being too elitist.
  • Some problems occurred within the Masters group resulting in some Masters being dismissed.  This caused great concern and instability from within.
  • Numerous requests came from the Masters asking for changes and clarifications within the program.  There were wide differences of opinion on these issues and no answer was suitable for all.
  • Some of the Masters had their own agendas and used their high credentials to actually compete with EFT and/or the other Masters.
  • The program was not effective in qualifying people according to a consistent standard. Some of the EFT Masters continue to demonstrate and teach their own variations, often omitting important EFT principles.

In short, the program didn't work and became an administrative nightmare.  It was sucking up much of my life and causing persistent distress.  I had no choice but to resign from its administration and did so in late 2007.  Contrary to popular belief, I did not cancel the program.  Rather, with respect for their time and diligence in obtaining this credential, I turned it over to the Masters themselves so they could create their own rules and run it as they pleased.  They decided to establish their own website and to not allow anyone else into the group.  I have no say in their decisions but urge them to further their EFT education through this Tutorial.

Academic Certifications

By 2008 I was receiving repeated objections to the continued inconsistency in EFT workshops.  These included complaints about the "looseness" of my Open Hand Policy and the EFT-CC and EFT-ADV Certificates of Completion, which were becoming more obsolete as time went by.  By this time, we had 9 DVD sets instead of the original 2 and EFT had grown substantially in its sophistication.  Clearly, we had outgrown our earlier efforts at spreading the EFT word and so the hue and cry was to tighten up the Open Hand Policy and to create a meaningful EFT Certification program.  Presumably, this would solve our growing pains.

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Of course, the presumption here was that I knew what I was doing regarding Certification, even though I had no experience in it whatsoever.  It was also assumed that I could easily handle the endless questions and quality control issues that would go into this effort.  As I soon learned, creating a quality Certification program is a daunting task and, since I was basically giving EFT away via the EFT Manual and selling our DVDs for low prices, I didn't have the financing or available staff to create a full fledged, hands-on Certification.

Instead, Tina created a masterful Academic Certification.   It was a demanding multiple choice series of exams that far surpassed in rigor and content the previous EFT-CC and EFT-ADV designations. It had its share of growing pains and criticisms at first but, eventually, it garnered raves by the vast majority of its students.

Nonetheless, it was still not a hands-on Certification and skeptics would continually point out this weakness.  It was the best we could do under the circumstances and, despite the complaints, no one else was willing to offer a quality hands-on EFT Certification.  This left us with "hoorays" from those who were appreciative of the improvements and "boos" from those who thought we had fallen short.

Open Hand Policy Revisions

Also in 2008, I needed to tighten up the Open Hand Policy.  It was so loose that some people were using the EFT name to sell other products while others were engaged in various unethical EFT behaviors.  To deal with this I wrote up a common sense, easy to understand, revision of the Open Hand Policy and published it on my website.  I thought it would be well received but, instead, I got a lot of flack for it.  People didn't see that it was designed to restore credibility to EFT.  Rather, they saw it as me taking away some of the previous gifts I had given.  Looking back, this was fascinating.  It was as though they had forgotten that I had previously given them such a 100% massive gift.  They had forgotten that EFT had been given to them basically for free.  All they could see was the 10% of that gift that I needed to take back in order to preserve its integrity.

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As a result of this, some people began to spread the erroneous rumor that I was about to use the Open Hand Policy and the trademarked EFT name to "prohibit anyone from ever using the name EFT again."  This bizarre perception came from nowhere and was not based on anything factual.  Further, it didn't make any sense because for me to prohibit the use of the EFT name would destroy the entire purpose of my presence in this field.  I WANTED people to use the name.  Otherwise, the name would be useless and my 30,000 hours of efforts to spread the EFT word as well as my $50,000 expenditure to protect the EFT name from the less-than-honorable pursuits of others, would fail miserably.

My Temporary Retirement

By this time, my enjoyment of running the large EFT website was being partly replaced with irritations and criticisms from a small percentage of the EFT Community.  Also, my original Open Hand Policy had now brought EFT to millions worldwide but, with that, came worldwide demands.

Well meaning people from all over the globe had legal and ethical questions regarding EFT's use in multiple countries.  What about language barriers?  What about someone's illegal EFT acts in Korea?  Will I call so and so and help resolve an issue in The Netherlands?  Will I please give a workshop in Japan?  Do I have an EFT Practitioner that speaks Portuguese?  Will I sponsor an EFT association in Nebraska? And on and on and on.....

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Further, my favorite EFT benefit involves its use in spiritual pursuits.  Properly done, it can lead us into healing areas far more beneficial than what EFT, medicine or anything else this world has to offer.  However, that message was being lost behind the ever present chaos of running a large public website.  If I was going to advance in this area, I would need to free up my time.

Finally, my physicians told me that I had had a heart attack.  I had no symptoms and don't know when it happened.  Nonetheless, I needed to step aside from all those external pressures and thus retired from running the large EFT website in June of 2010.  Although I retired, I haven't expired.  My passion is now to share my various messages (including the spiritual ones) in this new website.  This EFT Tutorial represents one portion of my interests.

Also, upon my retirement from the large EFT website, I ended all the speculation about my EFT trademarks by putting the term EFT in the public domain. Further, my daughter, Tina, has established a full fledged hands-on EFT Training and Certification program through the Association for Comprehensive Energy Psychology (ACEP).  Others are offering similar programs with varying degrees of quality and costs.  For details, readthe EFT Certification article.

Newcomer Confusion and The Free Gold Standard EFT Tutorial

After my retirement from the large EFT website, the EFT Community divided into many smaller parts with agendas that competed for attention and the sale of various EFT products.  This was confusing to the EFT newcomer and so I built The Free Gold Standard EFT Tapping Tutorial as a gift to the EFT Community.  It is my life's work and the result of an investment of 30,000 hours and $2,000,000.  Further, it will be consistently updated with future innovations from both myself and others. See  $25,000 Reward for True EFT Innovations

Hopefully the above has given you some useful perspective on the EFT issues.

With respect to all, Gary

Copyright Gary and Tina Craig
All Rights Reserved