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What is the EFT “open hand” policy and what rights do I have regarding the EFT materials, workshops, certifications, credentials, organizations and the practice of EFT?

Last updated: September 2, 2009

By Gary Craig

Introduction to our “open hand” policy
Workshops
Certification and Credentials
Websites, Associations, Groups and Logo info
Films, books and other publications (including websites)
Other Important Items

Introduction to our “open hand” policy

I like to think of the EFT community as a worldwide family and that is why EFT is offered with an “open hand” policy to everyone.  Subject to the ethical, common sense requests in this document, you are free to teach it and spread the word in any ethical manner you choose.  Further, all the EFT basics are available in our freely downloadable EFT Manual and, if you choose to expand your EFT education, you can purchase our affordable DVDs and copy them up to 100 times to give (not sell) to others.

Over the years, I’ve discovered that this open handed distribution system has obvious benefits for everyone … but has many significant challenges as well.  First, with so many diverse attitudes and abilities among the EFT Community, EFT has been spread in an inconsistent manner.  While some of this has simply reflected individual variations and personalities of the presenters, some of it, unfortunately, has been downright unethical or embarrassing.  These inconsistencies, if left unattended, will tend to erode EFT’s credibility in the world. 

Accordingly, if we are going to maximize the EFT experience for the ultimate good of all, there are some common sense ethical items that need to be observed. These are discussed below, complete with a historical background for better understanding.  In essence, I wish to grant the freedom to ethically practice EFT, give workshops and create books, etc. so long as it is made clear to the public that your EFT activity represents YOUR own ideas, angles, versions etc. and that you acknowledge www.emofree.com as the source of EFT.

This way the public will have clear disclosure about this central issue and can make more informed choices.  However, these ethical procedures need clarification and that is why I develop them in more detail below. Note: this discussion is a work in progress and may be revised should new opportunities or challenges present themselves. Obviously, I cannot forsee every EFT activity out there and thus I retain the right to handle some cases on an individual basis. Further, please check with us at info@emofree.com to clear any large EFT activities.

Workshops

As indicated, you are free to give workshops on any EFT topic you choose and you are free to blend EFT with other techniques in your workshops.  HOWEVER, as freeing and delightful as this sounds, years of experience has taught me that it is loaded with problems for the EFT community UNLESS certain ethical standards are observed.

The Challenge

The challenge is that the workshop students expect to learn all about EFT from you, even though you cannot realistically deliver it.  Why not?  Two reasons:

(1) There is not enough time in a live workshop to teach EFT in the same detail as given in our DVDs.  For example, you cannot take students into a VA hospital for working with vets on war trauma … AND … put them all in a car to drive around San Francisco for a traffic phobia … AND … put someone in a swimming pool for treating their fear of water, etc. 

(2) Even with the best intentions, no two people teach EFT the same in a live workshop (even if they are using the same guidelines).

So, with limited time, it is human nature to customize workshops by adding in your favorite variations and by emphasizing certain facets of EFT while de-emphasizing others.  Everyone does this and the result is that people tend to “learn EFT” in these diverse workshops and then proceed into the world teaching it to others with differing versions of what they believe is the “EFT Truth.”  And NO ONE (including me) is able to teach EFT in a live workshop in the same detail as given in our DVD Training Libraries. 

This can spread confusion among the EFT Community as these diverse “students” often speak with each other using different terms and concepts. They then contact me asking, “Who is right? They are unaware that they have learned a condensed or otherwise altered version from you UNLESS you tell them.

This has become a major problem over the years and serves to erode EFT’s worldwide credibility.  Under these circumstances, it appears to journalists, scientists, academia and the public that there are no EFT standards and, unfortunately, this perception can close major doors to the proliferation of EFT.  Further, I’ve heard a growing number of complaints about this dilemma from quality EFT’ers for years.

Also, in times past, I published Approved workshop content for Levels 1, 2 and 3.  The effort here was to create consistent EFT education but these workshops were never designed for Certification or credentials of any kind.  Nor did we ever train or Certify any presenters. While there were some excellent workshops given under these guidelines there were, unfortunately, way too many poor and unethical ones.  Two glaring problems arose from this:

(1)   The consistent education goal was only met by a sparse handful and many students, including students of the poorly run workshops, erroneously used their “graduation” from these workshops as credentials.

(2)   These independent workshop presenters were erroneously considered by the public as EFT Certified Trainers (including those who delivered poor and unethical workshops under the EFT name). 

Complaints abounded under these circumstances and, on balance, it was a fiasco.  In retrospect, it was one of my biggest blunders.  That’s why it was discontinued and it is yet another reason why proper disclosure is necessary in your workshops. 

Someday I may develop a program to certify EFT trainers and thus create workshops that are standardized and directly sponsored by our website.  If so, this would be a first as I have never before Certified or trained trainers to teach EFT. Others may have certified EFT trainers but such certification or training was done independently of EFT under our “open hand” policy and were not officially supported by EFT.

So, my choice under these circumstances, was to either ignore the problems and watch us sink into a swamp of unprofessionalism … OR … come up with a solution that allows us to maintain both the necessary standards AND the open hand philosophy.

The Solution

The solution to this involves common sense and should be easy. However, it requires the ethical cooperation of everyone to pull it off. 

Creating the necessary standards is easily met by our DVDs because they take anyone from beginner status through mastery while giving every student exactly the same teaching.  The concepts, details, examples, etc. are identical for every student.

But, as noted, the individual workshops vary all over the place and they are impossible to monitor for quality and consistency.  And, obviously, it would be legally idiotic for me to endorse, impliedly or otherwise, workshops that I haven’t seen and cannot monitor.  However, this gap can be appropriately filled with a common sense disclosure that truthfully displays the integrity of what you are offering.  What is needed is a clear up-front statement in your workshops, advertisements, certificates and handouts that distinguishes your EFT version from what is taught on our DVDs.  Here is a suggested phrase:

”We feel this workshop will generate extraordinary benefits for all attendees.  However, EFT is a very flexible process and thus this workshop represents the views of the presenter(s) and not necessarily the complete, standardized training offered at http://www.emofree.com”    

So, there it is.  Teach EFT in whatever manner you choose but just ethically inform your students that your workshop is conducted independently of me and the EFT website.  You don’t have to use the exact language above but it should be made crystal clear to your audience that:

1. You are putting forward YOUR version of EFT and not necessarily mine.
2. Complete resources and training for EFT can be found at http://www.emofree.com 

Word it in attractive ways but just make sure the essence of the disclosure is clear.  Tell them of the many benefits of your workshop such as hands on training, supervision, follow-up and your own creative ideas. Tell them that you are condensing EFT into your “Readers Digest Version” and adding your own helpful hints.  But do not state or imply that you are replacing the official EFT as taught through our DVDs.  That would be misleading and unethical because you cannot possibly cover the 140 hours in our DVD Libraries in a live workshop.  Further, you cannot do it as inexpensively nor can you offer instant replay, a lifetime reference, limitless borrowing benefits videos, direct teaching by the founder, standardization, official EFT certification, etc.

Properly understood, this is a major opportunity.  There is a big market for  workshops offering condensed versions of EFT and for workshops that augment our DVDs with your creative ideas.  I only ask that you properly portray (and deliver) what you are offering.

The only conflict I see here is for those who want to hide this disclosure and thereby maintain the illusion that I am personally supporting their activities.  This is human nature for some, I suppose, but it is not consistent with the goals of the EFT Community.  Further, it will not likely work in the long run as students will, in time, discover this omission and confront the presenter(s) with it.

To coordinate with this, I have placed parallel comments on the EFT website so that everyone will have the same information.  Please go to http://www.emofree.com/learneft.htm for details on how we will refer potential attendees to you via the internet.

Please know that I am human and I am doing the best I can to provide solutions here.  Thus, I don’t profess to have all the answers and I realize that some will disagree with my decisions.  Accordingly, I choose to be flexible and willing to listen to other ideas.  So, if you can think of a better solution, please let me know.  However, please think your ideas through carefully before submitting them.  Make sure they will solve the problem for all and that they are reasonable to administer without creating a financial drain that will force us to raise prices or impinge upon our “open hand” policy.

Certification and Credentials

Another important foundation to our credibility is our Certification program.  It represents a major step forward and provides demanding exams that thoroughly test the students’ command of the EFT material.  It provides the centerpiece of the EFT education process because it is consistent, thorough and demanding.  However, some challenges arose due mostly to our early history and my lack of understanding of the Certification process.  Let me explain.

The Challenge

I brought EFT out to the public in the mid 90’s and, at that time, I had no idea how large it was going to get.  Nor did I know how substantially we would expand on our original basics with such important topics as The Palace of Possibilities, Specialty Uses, Borrowing Benefits, Serious Diseases, etc.

In the late 90’s we had produced two DVD sets and I didn’t see far enough ahead to know that we would eventually produce nine.  At that time, my dear friend Pat Carrington, PhD proposed that people be given some credentialing via some testing on the DVD sets.  I agreed and Pat proceeded to develop, on her own, two credentials based on our DVD sets.  I did not participate in them financially or otherwise. They have become known as EFT-CC and EFT-ADV and were quite popular (note that ADV stands for ADVANCED—as time went on, this became misleading). 

Interestingly, these credentials were Certificates of Completion and NOT CERTIFICATION.  Despite Pat’s concerted efforts to make this distinction, about 90% of the people passing these tests erroneously call them Certification. 

Time went on and we continued to expand EFT into grander vistas.  And, gradually, EFT-ADV became outdated as an ADVANCED credential.  After all, how could people now call themselves “advanced” when all they did was pass a relatively easy test on only the first two out of nine DVD sets?

I need to take responsibility here because I should have recognized this discrepancy long ago and worked with Pat to bring it to a close.  However, that is hindsight.  I was too busy trying to spread the word and getting more advanced uses for EFT into the EFT Community.  I simply dropped the ball and did not realize how people coveted these credentials.  In hindsight, I should have seen this coming.  After all, these credentials were relatively easy to get and people could (1) call themselves “advanced” and (2) use EFT behind their names in a manner that erroneously suggested Certification.

Along the way, I kept getting complaints that some practitioners listed on our website (including those with EFT-CC and EFT-ADV credentials) were providing poor, if not unethical, services.  This threw a bad light on our EFT Community and needed to be minimized.  The same goes with the inconsistent, and often poor, education that came out of the Level 1, 2, and 3 workshops. It would be irresponsible of me to let proceed any further.

The Solution

Our Certification Program was born so it could replace the misleading hodgepodge of “credentials” mentioned above.  I put my daughter, Tina, on the task and she created demanding, but fair, exams based on our DVD Training Libraries.  The resulting credentials are known as EFT Cert-I, EFTCert-II and EFTCert-Honors.  The exams are much more rigorous than EFT-CC and EFT-ADV and require a far greater degree of mastery.  Further, they are much more focused on Official EFT than the former “Approved Workshops.”

Thus, with one set of high quality EFT Certifications, instead of several questionable designations, the public will have a consistent standard of excellence by which to help evaluate EFT practitioners and we will have eliminated a public source of misleading information.

For consistency and to avoid any future misleading of the public, the EFT Certification Program will be the only source of Certification for EFT.  All others must be discarded and considered misleading.  This means that no other form of typical credentialing (such as letters behind someone’s name, on a seal, etc.) can include the terms EFT or Emotional Freedom Techniques.  With any level of EFT Certification, you are entitled to declare yourself a Certified EFT Practitioner, as long as you also display your current designation (EFTCert-I, EFTCert-II, or EFTCert-Honors).  

Non-certified EFT practitioners may use the term "EFT Practitioner" in their signature lines so long as it appears under your name and not after it as typical credentials might appear (e.g. Joseph Moore, PhD, MD, MFT, etc.). Thus an acceptable use of EFT Practitioner for a non-certified practitioner would look as follows...

Joseph Moore, PhD
EFT Practitioner

Those using the EFT-CC, EFT-ADV, EFT Level 1, EFT Level 2 and EFT Level 3 or any other non-official form of EFT credentialing are requested to discontinue using them.  I realize this is different than my much softer, previous, stance and I apologize for any inconvenience.  However, as clearly stated above, these designations have obviously become misleading and there is a compelling need to clean this up in the public interest.  Please cooperate as the misleading nature of such designations may create confusion within the public.

Websites, Associations, Groups and Logo info

It has been my privilege to watch EFT spread around the globe.  The dedication involved has been inspirational as many people have voluntarily translated portions of our website into languages that their countrymen can understand.  I take that as an immense compliment and wish to encourage more growth along these lines.

While I honor this enthusiasm, I must also set forth some ethical guidelines so that we minimize any misleading of the public.  It is fine with me if you form EFT centric websites but please do not form formal associations or groups under the EFT name. These often end up being political problems and, in the long run, provide more potential for harm than good.

Also, to be fair to the public, proposed language for your website might look something like this…

“This EFT oriented website is provided as a public courtesy to help expand the use of EFT in the world.  While Gary Craig and emofree.com encourage such efforts, they cannot evaluate or endorse the multitudes of them that exist.  Thus this website represents the good faith ideas of its founders but not necessarily those of Gary Craig and www.emofree.com"

You might also try something like this...

""EFT is a very flexible improvement tool that can be used for just about everything.  I/We are using my/our version of it here and have had extraordinary results and urge you to contact me/us for more.  The original version and complete training can be found at http://www.emofree.com"

You may adjust the above language to blend in with your activities but please make sure the essential disclosures are clear and appear in normally sized fonts near the TOP of all prominent pages so they are easily seen.  Examples would be your Home Page if your site is EFT centered or an EFT introductory page if EFT is only part of your site. Misleading the public is a real no-no if we are to assure proper growth.

Also, you may use any written piece from the EFT website (except the Study Guides) so long as you give proper credit to both the author and its source (www.emofree.com). You may quote small pieces (less than one page) from the EFT Manual but may not place the EFT Manual on your website. Translations of the EFT Manual are prohibited unless special permission is granted by Gary Craig.

Logo and Promotional Material

EFT Logos are still available for your use on websites and promotional material with similar standards as above regarding ethical representation.  In the past, we have offered pre-designed business cards, brochures, flyers and certificates with a prominent EFT logo. Unfortunately, they have contributed to the overall confusion because they lead the public to believe that practitioners are directly representing EFT with their business.

Accordingly, we have removed those pieces from the website and request that you no longer use them to market your practice. Instead, two versions of our logo are still available for you to use, provided that they are used as a secondary graphic, rather than the sole image representing your practice. In other words, have your own material and/or website designed with logos, art and colors that represent your individual practice, then add the EFT logo as a secondary graphic wherever you are describing your EFT services. Just to be clear, that includes any certificates you offer to workshop participants.

You are encouraged to use the EFT logo on your business material provided that you are, in fact, using EFT in your practice, and provided that you are using one of the two versions available for download in the Resources/Promo Material section of our website. They are to be used exactly as they appear and are not be modified in any way. 

Please be advised that both the terms EFT and Emotional Freedom Techniques are Registered with various governmental authorities and thus the ® symbol has been included in the EFT logos, and must be not be removed. You may not use the World Center for EFT logo seen on the emofree website for any purpose. Use of the EFT logos applies in general to business cards, letterhead, advertisements, brochures and related materials. However, many people also have websites, so please follow the additional guidelines below.

Also, some well meaning people have chosen to display one or more pictures of me prominently on their website and promotional materials. While I realize this is usually intended to provide the proper credit to me as the founder of EFT, it often communicates to the public that "this website is endorsed or connected to www.emofree.com" in some way.  That would be misleading since I cannot possibly evaluate or monitor your activities.

Unfortunately, the public looks for a quick answer and often they don't read very carefully, so any disclaimer you may have next to the picture is usually overlooked and the first impression stays in their mind. Accordingly, you may continue to use that picture as long as it is not displayed "above the fold" on your home page (above the fold means visible without scrolling down).

Films, books and other publications (including websites)

You may create your own youtube videos, films, books and other publications regarding EFT so long as you make it clear that these works represent YOUR views and experiences and not necessarily those of Gary Craig or EFT.  Here is the suggested wording.

This EFT oriented [film, book, publication] is provided as a good faith effort to expand the use of EFT in the world.  It represents the ideas of the [producer, author, etc] and does not necessarily represent the complete, standardized EFT training offered at http://www.emofree.com”

In addition, all videos (including those on youtube) or other publications designed to teach EFT must contain MAJOR and PROMINENT disclaimers regarding safety, viability, etc. This includes reprints or replications of existing work. For example, this statement currently exists at the bottom of every page on the EFT site...

Important note: While EFT has produced remarkable clinical results, it must still be considered to be in the experimental stage and thus practitioners and the public must take complete responsibility for their use of it. Further, Gary Craig is not a licensed health professional and offers EFT as an ordained minister and as a personal performance coach. Please consult qualified health practitioners regarding your use of EFT.

We have other disclaimers and disclosures as well and they are provided as both a courtesy to the public AND as a legal necessity. Please create a similar statement for your works. Also, depending on the context of your publication we may contact you with more rigorous disclosures or ask you to discontinue using your creation. As a general rule, if you are trying to teach an unseen public ANY healing technique without appropriate and clear disclosures, you are treading in dangerous legal waters. Please contact us at info@emofree.com if you have any doubts about your creation.

Also, if you HAVE already published some EFT items, please adjust your next editions, reprints, replications, etc. to reflect the above.

Other important items

• Please don’t go where you don’t belong.  There is a small percentage of the population (I’m estimating around 3%) whose emotional or physical frailty is such that they should not attempt ANY healing method without the presence of a highly qualified health professional.  If that’s not you, then please refer the client to appropriate professionals.  Further, EFT is not put forward as a replacement for proper medical advice and physicians should be consulted where appropriate.
• This document is a work in progress and will need to be adjusted as circumstances shift.  Accordingly, you should re-visit these pages from time to time to acquaint yourself with any updates.
• And...let me add the obvious. The responsibility for how you use EFT, and its results, are yours to bear. I can take no responsibility--or bear any liability--for your actions.
• I am also assuming you have complied with the rules and regulations of your country, state, local authorities or licensing boards regarding your use or teaching of EFT. If you have not, then please consult a qualified attorney and properly comply before applying or teaching EFT.
• You may not use EFT materials or the EFT name to promote other products or services, and I reserve the right to revoke the privilege to use EFT materials or the EFT name by anyone whom I believe is using it in a misleading or unethical way.
• You may quote me and make fair use of extracts from anything I have written or said so long as you quote me within proper context and reference www.emofree.com as the source.
• The EFT manual is freely downloadable from...
  
  http://www.emofree.com/downloadeftmanual.asp
  
  ...and may be copied freely and given to anyone. You may give it out to clients, at workshops or anywhere else where the true intention is to spread the word. You MUST, however, give the entire manual...not just part of it ... including the chapter entitled "The Legal Stuff". You MAY NOT, however, place the manual on your own website as a download for others. People are welcome to download The EFT Manual, but it must be downloaded from the EFT web site.
• Our videos on discs contain the right to copy them up to 100 times to give (not sell) to others. This applies only to the originally purchased videos and does not apply to the copies made therefrom. The copies cannot legally be copied again for distribution. Also, any copies given to others must also include a copy of the written instructions (if any) that accompanied the original videos. This helps answer any technical questions recipients may have and thus keeps them from calling me.