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Interview with Dr. Fred Gallo - Hosted
by OneBody.Com (August 31, 2000)
<OneBody Kate> Good day and welcome
to OneBody.com's Special Guest chat. Today at OneBody.com we
will be chatting with Fred Gallo, PhD and author of Energy
Tapping: How to Rapidly Eliminate Anxiety, Depression, Cravings,
and More Using Energy Psychology, a unique book that
will help you learn how to use your body's energy system to
better manage your life. This healing technique is based on
the ancient Chinese Art of Acupuncture.
<OneBody Kate> Hello everyone. Thank you for joining us,
Dr. Gallo!
<Fred Gallo, PhD> I am happy to join you too!
<OneBody Kate> Would you like to tell us a little about
yourself and your practice?
<Fred Gallo, PhD> Yes, I am a clinical psychologist and
have been in private practice since the 1970's. I see many different
patients, children, adults and teenagers. I have been interested
in many different approaches in psychotherapy over the years.
Since 1992, I have been working in an area we call Energy Psychology.
In this area I have studied different approaches including thought
field therapy, behavioral kinesiology, applied kinesiology,
and many other approaches. Recently, I have developed my own
approach which is called Energy Diagnostic and Treatment Methods
or EDxTM. I have written quite a few books in this area. My
first book is called Energy
Psychology, which was published in 1998. This year I
released 3 other books. One of them is called Energy
Diagnostic and Treatment Method. The second is Energy
Tapping, co-authored with Harry Vincenzi and the third,
Neurophysics of Human Behavior,
co-authored with Mark Evan Furman.
<OneBody Kate> Dr. Gallo, let's discuss Energy
Tapping. What exactly is it?
<Fred Gallo, PhD> Energy Tapping is the title of the book,
but it relates to a method of treating psychological and physical
problems. It involves having a person tune into a problem or
think about a problem and tap into specific acupuncture meridian
points at the same time. It causes the problem to dissipate.
In most cases, if a person thinks about a trauma they have experienced,
it causes a terrible emotion to occur. The tapping, makes the
terrible emotion go away. It essentially balances out an energy
system which is fundamental to the emotion. The person can think
about the event, but it no longer bothers them. Some people
might think of this as related to an established form of therapy
called, systematic desensitization, which was pioneered by Joseph
Wolpe. The difference is that energy tapping works much faster,
often within the course of a few minutes to resolve a trauma.
<OneBody Kate> What conditions has this therapy worked
for or helped?
<Fred Gallo, PhD> It works for a wide range of conditions.
Some of the one's that are most effectively treated with this
approach would include any type of trauma or post-traumatic
stress disorder, phobias, depression, and any number of anxiety
disorders including panic. I find that it helps with all kinds
of emotions including anger and rage, irrational guilt feelings,
loneliness, rejection and so on. I found that I can help a number
of people with physical pain conditions.
<OneBody Kate> Can you give an example of how this therapy
works?
<Fred Gallo, PhD> As one example, I will describe a specific
case of a woman who had been raped when she was 13. She had
been in treatment for this problem many times without results.
As a result of this trauma, she had developed a very negative
view of herself, a drug and alcohol problem, depression, made
many suicide gestures and she wasn't being very successful occupationally
or with her relationship with her husband. When I saw her and
discussed this trauma, understandably she became very emotional
when discussing this with me. I helped her to settle down and
then had her briefly think about it again, tell me how much
it bothered her and give me a rating between 0 -10. If I recall
correctly, she said it was 100. Then, I had her try not to think
about it as much while she tapped on different locations of
her body, such as the beginning of an eyebrow, under her eye,
under her collar bone, etc. Each of these points are acupoints
on different meridians of the acupuncture system. Essentially,
this caused her energy system to become more harmonious and
easy flowing. There are other ways to describe this theoretically,
but the results were the most important. Within 8 - 10 minutes,
she no longer felt disturbed about the trauma. Actually, she
was bafflingly calm. She vividly saw what happened , but it
no longer bothered her.
<OneBody Kate> What happened to her, theoretically? Why
did this sudden apparent healing take place?
<Fred Gallo, PhD> First of all, I would like to say that
not only did she feel calmer but the view of herself changed
to one of not being self degrading. Many profound conclusions
resulted from this. She was no longer suicidal or depressed.
She progressed rapidly after this, removing the trauma was essential
for her. Everything that is in our world or universe has a structure
to it. Our bodies, molecules, and even thoughts have certain
forms and shapes to them.
<Fred Gallo, PhD> Thought, which I think is important
in this trauma that we treated, has a form that occurs in many
dimensions. Thoughts are not disembodied. They have a chemical
and cognitive aspect to them. While this is all going on there
are areas of the brain that are being activated and this activation
occurs energetically in the form of electricity and electromagnetic
forms. If we can change the form, we change the meaning and
the experience. An interesting thing about a thought is that
the energetic form is an electromagnetic form and there is a
very delicate balance in holding that in place. If the shape
of the form is going to be changed it cannot have too little
or too much energy. If you have too much energy either way the
scales get tipped out of balance. For example, whenever I have
a person tap on one point and trauma exists at another point
at even a subtle level, it disturbs the delicate balance. We
are changing the structure of it. As a metaphor, if I write
the word 'God' and I change the letters around I could have
the word 'dog' . I have changed the form and shape, therefore
the meaning changes. If we do the same thing to the trauma we
have changed the meaning of the trauma by injecting energy into
the location of the trauma. An interesting thing is that after
the treatment of the trauma is completed, the person still remembers
the event clearly. However, the emotion of the trauma is no
longer bothersome. Basically, we take away the negative emotion
with this method. I think that one of the mistakes made in the
past was to conclude that the memory was equivalent to the trauma.
But, now it seems that the trauma and the memory are different.
It seems that the trauma is more tied up with the emotion and
the energy that produces the emotion.
If you have just joined us, we are speaking with
Fred Gallo,PhD and author of Energy
Tapping: How to Rapidly Eliminate Anxiety, Depression, Cravings,
and More Using Energy Psychology, a unique book that
will help you learn how to use your body's energy system to
better manage your life.
<OneBody Kate> Lance: Does this therapy replace traditional
therapeutic approaches?
<Fred Gallo, PhD> I think that this therapy adds to traditional
therapeutic approach. I think that there is still a need for
a traditional therapeutic approach, but there are certain aspects
of it that are in the dark ages. For example, there is no need
for a person to get all caught up and distressed to feel better.
It is not necessary for them to emote to feel better. Sometimes,
traditional therapeutic approaches to treating traumas involve
emotional reliving and that does not seem to be necessary. Also,
while I think that changing your thoughts about events is very
useful and a very important part of traditional therapy often
just changing the underlying energy field results in a change
of the thoughts. I thinks that thoughts and emotions are joined
together.
<OneBody Kate> Jenne: Would this therapy benefit someone
with social anxiety disorder, who can't take the popular drugs
for it?
<Fred Gallo, PhD> Absolutely, I will give you a few examples.
I had a female patient recently who had been on medication for
12 years for her social phobia and general anxiety. In her case,
the medications helped her to cope but did not cure the condition.
A few months of therapy with energy psychology has resulted
in her not needing medication any longer. I find that some people
cannot tolerate some of the psychotropic medications. Some people
don't even want to consider that approach, they want therapy
instead.
<OneBody Kate> Jenne: How can I learn more about this
therapy?
<Fred Gallo, PhD> You can read my book, Energy Tapping,
which is published by New Harbinger Publications at www.newharbinger.com.
If you want more of a professional explanation, read my book,
Energy Psychology, published by CRC Press at www.crcpress.com.
My book, Energy Diagnostic and Treatment Methods, published
by W. W. Norton & Company at www.wwnorton.com,
goes into more depth about how to tailor this kind of treatment
to the individual. Another book, The Neurophysics of Human Behavior,
published by CRC Press at www.crcpress.com, delves into the
natural science of this and related energetic and neurocognitive
approaches. My forthcoming edited volume, Energy Psychology
in Psychotherapy: A Comprehensive Source Book, covers a wide
variety of related treatment approaches. It is being published
by W. W. Norton & Company at www.wwnorton.com.
Then of course, there is my web site: www.energypsych.com.
If you look through readings at that site, you will find a protocol
for treating a problem free of charge.
<OneBody Kate> Tom: How widely accepted is energy psychology?
<Fred Gallo, PhD> It is not as widely accepted as traditional
approaches for obvious reasons. I have personally train a few
thousand professionals with this approach. I think there are
probably over a few hundred thousand people who know about it
and some research studies are starting to come out. It is often
difficult to get innovative studies to be published in traditional
journals however. Most psychotherapists who know about this
approach find it useful. Most therapists integrate these techniques
with other therapies they find to be helpful.
<OneBody Kate> Jenne: Would these techniques help young
children?
<Fred Gallo, PhD> I have treated a number of young children
with this approach with problems like fear of storms, animals,
being in their bedroom at night, and children that have been
going through their parents divorce. I find that children are
much more receptive to this kind of approach than adults. I
never run into resistance from children, they think it is kind
of cool. This is very different than many adults' perceptions.
<OneBody Kate> Dr. Gallo, this therapy has a history relating
to acupuncture, is that correct and can you talk a little about
the connection?
<Fred Gallo, PhD> The only connection between this therapy
and acupuncture is that we are both dealing with a meridian
system. The difference in this therapy as compared to acupuncture
is the person has to tune into the emotional issue. In acupuncture,
the person's energy system or symptoms are being evaluated and
needles are placed into key acupoints to balance their energy
system. In energy tapping, we do not use needles and the patient
does the tapping. The patients learns how to do this for themselves
in the future. I should point out that there are other procedures
involved besides tapping acupoints. For example, there are certain
procedures which involve the person putting their body into
a certain position and making certain statements while tapping.
At times, instead of tapping, I have them touch their different
acupoints and take a deep breath. Sometimes, patients discover
that simply imagining the tapping after they have learned to
stimulate the meridians, works for them.
<OneBody Kate> Well, it looks like our time is almost
up, Dr. Gallo. Thank you very much for sharing your therapy
and your book. Do you have any final thoughts for our audience?
<Fred Gallo, PhD> Realizing that we are low on time if
anyone would like to ask me any specific questions my email
address is fgallo@energypsych.com.
If you want to learn more about this approach then I would suggest
to get a copy of Energy Tapping, which is becoming
an increasingly popular book. Thanks for the opportunity today!
<OneBody Kate> Thank you for coming everyone! Have a wonderful
day!
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