Originally published in the Rising Sun EFT Newsletter. Sign up for my free newsletter at www.CreativeEFT.com
I recently was in touch with Gary Craig in an attempt to get some clarity on his Open Hand Policy. Many rumors were flying around and there has been a lot of fear and confusion. After my first conversation with Gary, in which he clarified that we can of course continue to call ourselves “EFT Practitioners” (which some people had doubted), Jade Barbee and I decided to put some things into writing and ask Gary to discuss our concerns with us. He was very receptive to this discussion and I believe that a lot has been cleared up. I want to share with all of you what we found out. First, Jade’s report on our talk, then the clarifications that came from this.
From Jade:
As personal EFT friends and colleagues, I wanted to let you all know that Betty Moore-Hafter and I had the opportunity to speak with Gary Craig on Saturday for almost 2 hours. Long story short, we went through the most worrisome language in the Open Hand Policy together in an attempt to clear up misconceptions and provide clarity for EFT practitioners in light all the big changes and events of late. The good news is that Gary voluntarily made improvements “on the spot”, specifically to what we felt to be the most troublesome language — most notably, the part where he continually said, in essence, *you may practice EFT, just let people know it’s not endorsed by EFT,* which was driving so many of us crazy and pushing everyone’s panic buttons. This language, which was also communicated in his blogpost, implied a new proprietary level of ownership. If, as it appeared, Gary was claiming ownership of EFT so completely and in a new way, what was left for me as both an EFT practitioner and innovator?
I’ll be honest with you. The conversation was quite tough. We offered what we believed were some valuable creative solutions. Gary listened but, for his own reasons, pretty much resisted most of our creative ideas. However, in the course of our discussion, something very interesting and positive unfolded. Although at times the conversation felt difficult, we took from it an unexpected feeling of peace, not because we necessarily got “what we wanted”, but because he genuinely stood firm with levity and effectively communicated to us an important consistency in his message. We also felt a degree of mutual understanding.
Our understanding from talking with Gary is that he is mainly concerned that we share our work ethically and honor the symbiotic relationship with Emofree.com. In other words, as long as I don’t pretend that EFT begins and ends with me and I point those I attract to Emofree for core EFT training, I can innovate to my heart’s desire and share my version of EFT in my own unique way — provided that I distinguish it from the standardized EFT training on the DVDs. This solid ground, which Gary is demonstrating his willingness to clarify, feels good to us. And since we’ve put quite a bit of equity into EFT, as many of you have, we have every reason to continue to identify as EFT practitioners.
In light of all the recent questions around the dissolution of the Masters program, the new certification and the Tapping World Summit, it was somehow heartening to know that his biggest concerns are literally incapsulated here. I was impressed that he literally jumped at the chance to change the wording in several parts of the policy.
When we approached Gary as not-yet-certified practitioners, it was from this position of wanting to certify, but unsure just what our common ground with him was. As Betty noted, and I too feel deeply “He gets it, Jade. He’s not going to pull the rug out from under us”.
From Jade & Betty:
Here are our concerns and, to the best of our understanding, the clarifications we received. Gary Craig’s complete Open Hand Policy is available at www.emofree.com/FAQ/open-hand-rights.htm.
1) There had been confusion concerning a part of the Open Hand Policy asking us not to use EFT as “letters behind someone’s name”. Some people were interpreting that to mean that we could no longer call ourselves EFT Practitioners. That is not the case. Gary added a new line to the policy to clarify:
“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”
2) The confusing language of *feel free to practice EFT but make it clear you don’t represent Gary Craig and EFT* has been changed all through the document. Now it reads as follows:
” 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 not necessarily those of Gary Craig or www.emofree.com.”
3) The one reference to “official EFT” (which had been in quotes) has been changed to “all about EFT”
“The challenge is that the workshop students expect to learn all about EFT from you, even though you cannot realistically deliver it. Why not?”
[Gary goes on to say that this is because you can’t cover all the material in the DVDs, etc.]
4) People have felt put off by the wording of the disclaimer Gary is requesting. We found out that we may be creative in how we word this. Personally we’re not fond of the negative language of “does not necessarily represent”. Well, we don’t have to use those words. When we ran Jade’s new disclaimer (below) past Gary, he said, “Beautiful.” He had no objections to either of these.
This is Jade’s: “My EFT approach is unique, yet draws heavily upon core EFT principles. For complete, standardized EFT training (including the free weekly EFT Newsletter, the free manual and inexpensive learning DVDs) visit Emofree.com”
This is Betty’s: “Betty’s creative approach to EFT is her own, yet it is deeply grounded in the core EFT principles as taught by Gary Craig. For complete EFT training, including the free manual and low-cost DVD sets, please see www.emofree.com”.
5) Some people have been worried about their website names which include EFT — are they still okay? Yes. We are welcome to continue using EFT to designate our work as long as we include the disclaimer Gary is asking for. For instance, Betty’s www.CreativeEFT.com is fine, as is Carna Zacharias-Miller’s www.MagicalEFT.com
6) People have thought that Gary is restricting us to “basic EFT” or the “original version” with the 9 gamut and hand points, as if this were the only “real” EFT. This is not the case! On the contrary, creative work based on skillful EFT is encouraged. Anyone who leaves the core EFT principles behind and changes things beyond recognition would no longer be doing EFT, of course, but otherwise, we can practice EFT in our own way as freely as ever. For instance, we talked with Gary about our Inner Theater approach. We believe that the EFT we do within this approach is firmly grounded in the core principles we learned from the DVDs — yet Inner Theater is a unique and different way of applying EFT. Gary is fine with this. As you may have noticed, he featured Jade’s article on Inner Theater in a recent newsletter. Another example: Betty’s article on Creative Language was featured in the two new books Gary put out this year, EFT for PTSD and EFT for Back Pain. Our creative innovations are encouraged and valued.
7) We urged Gary to more clearly acknowledge the value of the symbiotic relationship that has always existed between the founder of EFT and the dedicated practitioners who have furthered the development of EFT. It has in so many ways been a co-creation with contributions from us all in the form of case histories, personal EFT stories, new ideas for the art of delivery, etc. These contributions have always been valued and they still are (as demonstrated in the EFT newsletter). We hope that this will be made more clear in the policy.
A rewriting of the Open Hand Policy is forthcoming and Gary will be considering our suggestions as well as those of others. Please do submit your constructive ideas and concerns to temp@emofree.com. Again, you can read through the existing policy at: www.emofree.com/FAQ/open-hand-rights.htm
We hope this information is helpful to you. Please pass it on. We’ve just wanted to have truth, clarity and real information. When we all have that, we can make our own decisions based on what is right for us.
love,
Betty
