APA no longer approves CE sponsorship for Thought Field Therapy

APA's Continuing Professional Education Committee has determined that instruction in thought field therapy (TFT) does not meet its definition of appropriate continuing-education curriculum for psychologists.

TFT is a controversial practice in which practitioners instruct patients to tap points on their own bodies to treat such problems as trauma, anxiety and depression.

The new policy, approved by the committee in September, applies to all the committee's approved sponsors of continuing education (CE). In a recently distributed memo, all 600 have been alerted that, effective immediately, sponsors may not offer continuing education credit under the umbrella of APA Sponsor Approval for any courses on TFT.

Jo Linder-Crow, PhD, APA's director for continuing professional education, said the decision is not an APA policy statement; rather it is a decision of the CE committee that applies to the appropriateness of program content as it relates to continuing education. The committee reports to APA's Board of Directors through its Board of Educational Affairs.

"This is not to say that thought field therapy CE can't be offered," says Linder-Crow. It merely means that the CE committee no longer approves it. The committee defines appropriate curriculum content for CE credit, and TFT does not meet the definition in the judgment of the committee, she explained.

--B. Murray



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