Emotional Freedom Technique for Treating Gender Dysphoria
Eliza Rachael Harris
Gender Dysphoria is a conflict that a person feels between their biological sex and the gender in which they identify. Gender dysphoria is an illness in much the same way as depression and anxiety; disorders that can effect both psychological and physiological well being. It is not uncommon for a person with gender dysphoria to suffer from anxiety and depression. The Emotional Freedom Technique can be an effective therapy for patients with gender dysphoria. EFT is a viable healing technique that can allow gender variant people the ability to adapt to their chosen gender rolls.
According to The Guild of Energists website, The Emotional Freedom Technique, better known as "Tapping" is a form of energy psychiatry that was first developed by Dr. Roger Callahan in the early 1980's. The basic technique involves tapping with the index and middle finger on meridian points throughout the body in order to affect change in the mind and body. The Guild of Energests has a website with a plethora of information about EFT.*1 The Emotional Freedom technique can be an effective therapy for treating gender dysphoria because it is a method of reprogramming neural pathways (Neural Plasticity) in the mind body connection (Neuropeptides).
Neural Plasticity is the brains ability to change based on learning. Sara Lazar, Ph.D. is a prominent neuroscientist and leading Harvard researcher who studies the impact of Yoga and Meditation on various cognitive and behavioral functions. "Our results suggest that meditation can produce experience-based structural alterations in the brain. We also found evidence that meditation may slow down the age related atrophy of certain areas of the brain."*2 The Lazar Lab is a great of resource on the topic of the Neuroscience of Yoga and Meditation. Included are some links in which she describes her research.
In her book Emotional Freedom, psychiatrist Judith Orloff M.D. illustrates how emotions relate to the mind body connection. " To be happy. really happy, you must recognize and discharge difficult emotions because their energy may get lodged in your body. Positive emotions can accumulate too, though these augment well-being... Gifted neuroscientist Candace Pert, who discovered the brain's opiate receptors, believes our bodies' cells have the capacity to store memories and emotions in strings of amino acids called neuropeptides. In her book Molecules of Emotion she describes how these neuropeptides migrate throughout your system and attach to receptors in different physical locations. Muscles are havens for clogged angst. The anxiety you felt about... lives on in your body."*3 The physical action of tapping on meridian sites throughout the body may produce a psychological response in the neuropeptide receptor sites much in the same way that message does in that both actions may release chemical bonds within muscle tissue that facilitate in healing the physical and emotional body.
EFT, Yoga, and Meditation have a commonality between them as they are all forms of emotional psychiatry. In her book Emotional Freedom, Judith Orloff M.D. describes how she began to develop the field of emotional psychiatry with a quote from Carl Jung "Alchemy sets itself the task of acquiring this 'treasure hard to attain' and of producing it in visible form."*4
Working with emotional energy must therefore be a transformative experience and in order to achieve emotional transformation, one must first be able to identify emotions within themselves. Intuition holds the key to achieving emotional freedom. There are many methods of tuning into intuition: Dreams, Meditation, Yoga, Tapping, Ritual, Journaling and Reflections are some of the ways in which we can call forth our intuition. Another commonality between all of these methods of emotional freedom is that they provide us with much needed space in order to feel our intuition.
The Emotion Freedom Technique works by first allowing us the opportunity to identify physical feelings within our bodies, our feeling of the intuition, and then by tapping we are able to transform the emotional energy thus allowing the practitioner needed space in order to objectively view and process the intuitive emotion while simultaneously giving the body a means of processing the emotional energy. Tapping gives us the opportunity to intuitively feel and emotionally identify with our problems, which then activates those emotions which are physically locked in the body specifically in the neuropeptides, (according to neuroscientist Candace Pert), which sends a new signal the the brain about the emotion, thus (extrapolated from neuroscientist Sara Lazar), forming neural plasticity. The new perspective that has been learned by the tapping experience can then go back into the body and communicate with the emotionally and intuitively specific neuropeptides. It's a feedback loop in a positive way as opposed to the negative feedback loop that we all experience as a result of the negative emotional life experiences that are held inside. Tapping gives us a chance to turn the tide.
The Skeptics
The skeptics will argue that EFT is pseudoscience based on the placebo effect and written in peer reviewed journals without credibility. This author will concede the latter point while providing supporting arguments in favor of the placebo effect. Furthermore, the evidence presented in this paper is supported by the claims of the skeptics.
"EFT has no useful effect as a therapy beyond the placebo effect or any known-effective psychological techniques that may be used with the purported "energy" technique, but proponents of EFT have published material claiming otherwise. Their work, however, is flawed and so unreliable: high-quality research has never confirmed that EFT is effective."[*5]
Don't count out the effectiveness of the placebo effect; EFT is a tool that is able to utilize the benefits of the placebo effect in a multi faceted way addressing many issues, sometimes simultaneously. For example, when the patient is experiencing EFT there arrives an opportunity when while they are saying a specific affirmation or statement to themselves that a point of resistance is reached within the patients emotional experience, were they are experiencing a trigger to the words that are being said. It is this trigger that has been uncovered in the therapy process that is critically important to the healing process. At this point when another emotional layer is uncovered the practitioner should take note of the resistance; this is the direction in which the therapy should be directed.
The Placebo Effect in Clinical Trials
"It has also been clearly demonstrated that subjects who are being studied in a clinical trial objectively do better. This is because they are in a clinical trial – they are paying closer attention to their overall health, they are likely taking better care of themselves due to the constant reminder of their health and habits provided by the study visits and attention they are getting, they are being examined on a regular basis by a physician, and their overall compliance with treatment is likely to be higher. So basically, subjects in a trial take better care of themselves and get more medical attention than people not in trials. If for those not in a clinical trial, if they decide to do something about their health by starting a new treatment, they are likely to engage in more healthful behavior in other ways."*6
We are social by nature and people who are cared for in a loving environment full of encouragement, hope, and love will tend to feel better about themselves and thus be in a better position to heal and overcome illness. EFT provides an opportunity for experiencing genuine contentedness with others in a healing environment.
Subjective Perception
"A common belief is that the placebo effect is largely a “mind-over-matter effect,” but this is a misconception. There is no compelling evidence that the mind can create healing simply through will or belief. However, mood and belief can have a significant effect on the subjective perception of pain. There is no method to directly measure pain as a phenomenon, and studies of pain are dependent upon the subjective report of subjects. There is therefore a large potential for perception and reporting bias in pain trials. But there are biological mechanisms by which mental processes can affect pain. There are many non-specific factors that can biochemically suppress pain. For example, increased physical activity can release endorphins that naturally inhibit pain. For these reasons the placebo effect for pain is typically high, around 30%."*7
Subjective perception is critical when relating to Gender Dysphoria. A persons subjective perception of themselves and their conflicting gender rolls is the source of dysphoria. Feelings of self acceptance, self esteem, and self worth as well as experiences of depression, anxiety, and compulsion are all subjective perceptions that are held by most people with gender dysphoria. The skeptics admit that the Placebo Effect clinically proven to be 30 % effective in the reduction of pain. The inability to accept one's self as a transsexual, or as other gender variant persons, discrimination and abused faced by gender variant people contributing to low self esteem and low self worth, anxiety, depression, and compulsion about ones gender dysphoria are all forms of pain. Patients with Gender Dysphoria who receive the benefits of a 30% reduction of their pain based upon the Placebo Effect would have a significantly improved life than those patients without treatment.
Objective and Physiological
"But the more concrete and physiological the outcome, the smaller the placebo effect. Survival from serious forms of cancer, for example, has no demonstrable placebo effect. There is a “clinical trial effect,” as described above – being a subject in a trial tends to improve care and compliance, but no placebo effect beyond that. There is no compelling evidence that mood or thought alone can help fight off cancer or any similar disease."
This author concedes the point on the Objective and Physiological and would add that EFT alone in not sufficient in the treatment of Gender Dysphoria. There is an established medical treatment of Counseling and Psychotherapy along with Hormone Replacement Therapy, and surgical intervention for those who chose such treatments. EFT should be used in conjunction with these practices while working together with these treatment professionals in an collaborative manner in the best interest of the patient as part of the treatment team.
Subjective Effect on the Physiological
"Many people talk about the neuroendocrine system’s effect on the immune system. Again, here there is a physiological connection. Stress hormones do suppress the immune system, and it is probably true that extreme stress leaves us physically susceptible to disease for this reason. But the effects of moderate levels of stress are not established. Also, we cannot extrapolate from the risk of getting a cold to the ability to fight off cancer. You have to look at the evidence for each disease unto itself. So while this is a potential contributor, it is overall probably a small effect except in extreme situations."*8
One of the greatest benefits of EFT is in the post operative healing of the transsexual patient who has undergone Sexual Reassignment Surgery. It is at this stage with the ordeal of dilatation of the surgical site where physical pain management is needed. EFT as a pain reducer would also reduce the need for excessive medication which in turn would be beneficial to the patience overall health and healing. Post operative patience have compromised immune systems; EFT is beneficial to the neuroendocrine's system by supporting the immune system.
To summarize, Gender dysphoria can have a detrimental effect on a persons psychological and physiological well being. EFT is a form of energy therapy that can help in the healing of the mind / body connection. Emotional freedom techniques involve methods that enable the processing and transformation of the intuitive messages that our brains receive about the way we feel in relation to our emotions. The practice of emotional freedom involves the use of many tools in order to transform the way in which we perceive intuition. The placebo effect is just another tool in addition to many of the practices of Wizardry. Emotional therapy practitioners can use these forms of intuitive emotional alchemy, in order to effectively process negative emotional energy to change the way in which we perceive and express emotion. Emotional psychiatry according to Judith Orloff M.D. in her book Emotional Freedom is best explained as transformation being the great work of emotional freedom. Transforming fear into courage, frustration into patience, loneliness into connection, anxiety into calm, envy into self esteem, anger into compassion. In her book she quotes Shirlock Holms, "There's only so much room in our minds- negativity elbows out positive. Our brains can only hold so much. Its of the highest importance, therefore, not to have useless facts elbowing out useful ones,...to keep a clear mind and open space around you."*9
Work Cited
*1 https://goe.ac/history_of_tapping.htm
*2 Lazar, Sara Phd.
https://scholar.harvard.edu/sara_lazar/home
*3 Orloff,Judith M.D. Emotional Freedom Liberate Yourself From Negative Emotions And Transform Your Life 2009, New York
*4 Orloff,Judith M.D. Emotional Freedom Liberate Yourself From Negative Emotions And Transform Your Life 2009, New York
*5 https://sciencebasedmedicine.org/the-placebo-effect/
*6 https://sciencebasedmedicine.org/the-placebo-effect/
*7 https://sciencebasedmedicine.org/the-placebo-effect/
*8 https://sciencebasedmedicine.org/the-placebo-effect/
*9 Orloff,Judith M.D. Emotional Freedom Liberate Yourself From Negative Emotions And Transform Your Life 2009, New York