The result is a dramatic change in the management, cost, and delivery of services. One of the fastest growing appears to be Thought Field Therapy (TFT), and it will be the focus of discussion and representative of the other, similar approaches.įrom the pay for service platform of the 1970s, the health care system has shifted to a highly regulated managed care platform in the 1980s and 1990s. Many managed care organizations provide coverage for certain alternative therapies, and 58% of national HMOs planned to do so by the end of 1998 (Blecher, 1997).Īlthough Barnum had a name for them, what is leading fairly conventional therapists to unquestioningly adopt unconventional methods and abandon much of the scientific inquiry on which their professions are based? This paper will consider some of the forces that lead therapists to use these approaches, examine the assumptions that underlie the practice, and identify some of the flaws in the practice that should be thoroughly researched before they are applied to clients.
The influence has been strong enough to lead the North American Nursing Diagnostic Association to list "energy-field disturbance" among its other diagnostic categories. The technique, which, like other "energy" therapies has no clear empirical support, claims to be taught at 75 schools and universities, practiced at 95 health facilities, and has been taught to more than 48,000 health care professionals in 75 countries (O'Mathna, 1998). In September, 1994, a federal grant of $355,225 was given to the University of Alabama, Birmington Burn Center to test the use of Therapeutic Touch (TT) to manipulate the "human energy field" and heal injuries (Turner, 1994). These practitioners return home to apply these techniques and their accompanying beliefs on vulnerable, traumatized people, and often charge large fees for it. These treatments are becoming mainstream, as measured by their attraction of thousands of licensed social workers, psychiatrists, psychologists, and other health professionals to training workshops. It is extraordinarily powerful, in that clients receive nearly immediate relief from their suffering and the treatment appears to be permanent." So read testimonials on promotional brochures and websites for one of a new cluster of unusual psychotherapies, called "power therapies" due to their alleged rapid and strong results.
I have never seen any treatment so powerful.