Observations placeholder
EFT and fear of dentists
Identifier
006216
Type of Spiritual Experience
Background
A description of the experience
Temple, G., & Mollon, P. (2011). Reducing Anxiety in Dental Patients using EFT: A Pilot Study. Energy Psychology: Theory, Research & Treatment, 3(2).
Adult patients awaiting dental treatment were screened for self-reported anxiety using an 11-point Likert scale.
Those in the higher half of the range (n = 30) received a 10-min intervention consisting of a 4-min Emotional Freedom Techniques (EFT) explanation and 6-min treatment.
All patients reported a decrease in subjective anxiety, with a mean pretreatment score of 8.03 and a posttreatment score of 3.03.
Paired t tests revealed a statistically significant decrease (p < .001).
These results are consistent with other published reports of EFTs efficacy for anxiety. They suggest that even a very brief EFT intervention can reduce anxiety and that an additional controlled trial with both observer- and participant-rated measures should be undertaken.