Interview with Dr. Fred Gallo

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 getting 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!