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Japanese Association for TFT and Dr. Ayame Morikawa is pleased to announce a new TFT study has been accepted for publication by Explore.

Here is the link for the full paper:  https://doi.org/10.1016/j.explore.2025.103117

Thought Field Therapy intervention to improve mental health during the COVID-19 pandemic: A Randomized Controlled Trial

The COVID-19 pandemic contributed to a significant rise in mental health issues, including a 70% increase in Japan’s suicide rate. Thought Field Therapy (TFT)  is an innovative treatment approach that combines elements of psychotherapy and Eastern medicine, based on the premise that psychological problems are encoded in the body’s energy system and can be addressed by tapping on meridian acupoints while focusing on the mental issue.  Prior research suggests that TFT can rapidly alleviate psychological distress.

The objective of this study was to evaluate the efficacy of online TFT as a rapid intervention for psychological issues.  Ninety-nine participants were randomly assigned to either the TFT intervention group or the WL group. Subjects’ emotional distress related to different issues (irritability, fatigue, anxiety, depression, and somatic complaints) was assessed using the Brief Job Stress Questionnaire, before and after the intervention. Follow-up questionnaires were completed by all participants after two additional weeks following the final intervention.  Subjective Unit of Distress Scale (SUDS) scores were also collected pre and post.

SUDS scores for 248 issues, including trauma and anxiety, showed a significant decrease from an average of 7 to 1.5 (on a 0 – 10 scale) following a single online TFT intervention (p < .01) with a large effect size.  Among the 88 participants who completed the TFT intervention, significant reductions were observed in all negative emotions measured, including irritability, fatigue, anxiety, depression, and somatic complaints (p < .01).

The authors conclude:  “This study demonstrates that a brief online TFT intervention, administered during the COVID-19 pandemic, effectively reduced subjective distress and improved general physical and mental stress responses. TFT also significantly alleviated negative psychological symptoms, including irritability, fatigue, anxiety, depression, and somatic complaints. Importantly, these benefits were sustained over a follow-up period of two to six weeks, indicating the durability of TFT’s effects…. Given TFT’s simplicity, low cost, and minimal time requirements, it holds promise as a practical mental health intervention, particularly in contexts where traditional face-to-face therapy is challenging.”

Ayame Morikawa, Masaki Fujimoto, Yuriko Kawagishi, Tomiyo Fukagawa.  (2025).  Thought Field Therapy intervention to improve mental health during the COVID-19 pandemic: A Randomized Controlled Trial.  EXPLORE.

 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.explore.2025.103117

https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S1550830725000084

Japanese Association for TFT
TFT Center of Japan

http://www.jatft.org

http://tftjp.com

TFT to be Used in Double-blind Randomized Controlled study with Women in camps for Internally displaced people (IDP) in the Kurdistan Region of Iraq

TFT practitioners have been bringing post-disaster trauma relief to places in the United States such as Charity and Oshener Hospitals after Hurricane Katrina, and training local therapists following the shootings at Columbine High School. TFT Practitioners in Japan also utilized TFT to help others in the aftermath of the Fukushima Earthquake and the resulting Tsunami. However, TFT practitioners have been especially active in low and middle-income countries such as Tanzania, Uganda, Rwanda, Mexico, and more recently the Kurdistan Region of Iraq where researchers found that Kurdish refugees responded better to TFT than CBT. Now, Professor and researcher Pegah Seidi will be leading a double-blind randomized controlled study with Women in camps for Internally displaced people (IDP). These camps are now home to just under one million IDPs from surrounding areas including Syria.

The study will begin during the second week of June, with the training of lay people residing in the camps to deliver the TFT interventions. The participants in the study will be adult women who are suffering from trauma. One group of participants will be an active waitlist group and receive relaxation exercises and the other group will receive the TFT treatments.  There will be post-testing one week after the treatments and follow-up assessments three months later. We are excited to be able to offer TFT to a group of people who have suffered through several wars and somehow survived. We will keep everyone posted as things progress and of course, donations are always welcome. This is going to be a lot of people to eventually treat!

Suzanne Connolly, LICSW, will be in charge of treatment fidelity and supervise.  She will register the study and ensure it meets high standards for finding a home in a top journal. She will help write up the study.  Please help us and contribute to this humanitarian and research project.  DONATE

Thank you to the Japanese Association for TFT.  They hired a professional company to translate it the TFT Foundation’s trauma relief tapping sequence into Turkish and we are most grateful.  Please share this with all you know who are experiencing fear and trauma as a result of the many earthquakes in Turkey and Syria.

TFT, bedendeki akupunktur noktalarına parmak ucuyla dokunarak kaygı, korku ve travma gibi psikolojik rahatsızlıkları çözme yöntemidir.

A group of Syrian volunteers visited a primary school in the county side which has been affected by the war and by the recent earthquakes.

Their purpose was to give hope and hope and pleasure to these young children.  One of the activities provided was led by TFT practitioner and trainer Zena Hammami.  She shared a song with the children, created by Abeer AlOsaimi, also a TFT trainer and practitioner.  In the song she tapped with them the 6PRS to become better and to remove blocks to heal from their trauma and fears. This is the first time ever TFT in introduced in the schools in Syria. This healing event was covered by Syrian TV. Zena’s hope is to provide these healing tools to all school children in Syria.

We are excited to share with you the addition of a Ukrainian translation of the TFT Trauma Relief Protocol.  After many months of searching for help, Herb Ayers put this together for those suffering trauma as a consequence of the war in the Ukraine.  Please share this with all who may be able to benefit from it.

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