Rabbi Immanuel Yosef Legomsky MA, has been researching and practically integrating mind/body therapies in Israel since relocating from the USA in 1987. In 2002, he started www.IsraelTraumaCare.org to give free psychotrauma care to terror victims, and train facilitators to serve the public. He focused on EFT (Emotional Freedom Therapy) as the tool of choice and has trained nearly 600 facilitators. Now, Rabbi Legomsky is networking with physical medicine specialists to offer a comprehensive 6-month residential program for adult women to cure emotional disorders. This program will provide total care, and feature daily sessions of NeuroCARE EEG Neurofeedback,EFT and NLP (Rabbi Legomsky and wife are Trainers), together with complete mind-body exercise, Bio-Identical Natural Hormone Treatment, a personalized Vitamin/Mineral/Nutrition regime, occupational therapy, and spiritual healing. The goal is to refine and provide a model that can be replicated to heal emotional disorders worldwide.
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This is a show I feel compelled to comment about. Years ago boxer Evander Holyfield was medically disqualified from professional boxing because he could not pass his physical, physicians said he had a defective heart and that there was a danger of sudden cardiac arrest if he were to place himself under extremely physically demanding conditions. Sometime after receiving this devastating news Holyfield went to a well known faith healer named Benny Hin and received prayer for healing. Afterwards he went back to the boxing commission with a clean bill of health from a qualified doctor and went on to fight another day. What happened? Was he healed by Benny Hin? Or was his own faith so powerful that his mind was somehow able to heal his heart? Was the original diagnosis incorrect? I don’t know but I do know that Holyfield believes that god healed him through his anointed servant Benny Hin and I also know that many have died or become very ill after believing they were cured by a faith healer when in fact they were not. When there is a death because a faith healers prayers were ineffective in curing whatever problem inspired invocation of god’s assistance the blame is usually shifted to the person receiving the healing. Typically they are accused of not having enough faith i.e. god would not heal them. I am a psych student with an emphasis on the hard science side of the discipline so my standards of evidence are quite rigorous when it comes to evaluating the claims of any therapeutic model. There are few therapeutic models I have seen that are more ridiculous than EFT. I have observed this technique performed and have read a good deal of literature on it at the request of a friend who wanted my opinion about it. Are there people who use this method who seem to benefit? Of course there are, just like there are many people who show significant improvement to their health in drug trials when all they received were sugar pills. When someone seeks out therapy there is almost always a great deal of relief after just one session with a therapist because of the subjects anticipation and expectation of receiving benefit both in the short and long term. There is something very powerful about being willing to face our inner demons that has benefit in and of itself. However the proof of treatment orientations effectiveness is ultimately in the measured longitudinal efficacy of that treatment in the lives of those exposed to that particular protocol. Do people have miraculous emotional healings? Of course they do and it happens under all sorts of circumstances religious and otherwise but personality resistant forms of mental illness are in my opinion never healed miraculously and the ability of someone to bounce back from trauma is his highly variable. With the former in mind I should state that there are many folks who practice such techniques who sincerely want to help their fellow man, I just hope that when they run into someone who they cannot reach they have the courage to send those patients to people who use methods that have produced positive results with a statistically significant degree of confidence.
EFT is not a faith healing technique. It doesn’t work for every single person – neither does any treatment medical or psychological – but it does work for so many so powerfully. In my own practice, so many people have had “miraculous” results that I can only say I’ve got personal magical powers or, the technique itself really works. Since I never had any magical powers before I began to practice energy psychology, I’m going to attribute the therapeutic success to the intervention.
Hi Rick,
EFT (the Emotional Freedom Techniques) *is* just a tool/technique and I agree that nothing/no one should ever get in the way of a client receiving the best healing option available to them. I often refer clients to different professionals with-in and outside of my field.
I appreciate your opinion about EFT, especially since you have read about it and seen it demonstrated.
I have my own experiences with and opinion about EFT. For 7 years now I have been a practicing Hypnotherapist and NLP Practitioner.
Three years ago I began integrating EFT into my Hypnotherapy sessions and today I practice EFT 100% of the time. I also now do all of my sessions over the phone which is an interesting shift because hypnosis on the telephone was not possible. Quite difficult to tell if someone was in trance or laying on the floor sleeping! 🙂
I’ve heard scientific explanations why/how energy therapies like acupuncture and EFT work however, I don’t spend much time researching these topics because I would rather be teaching and doing EFT with folks to help them learn to help themselves to improve their physical, mental and emotional health.
I feel… EFT does not cure or heal anything — It allows us to identify and shift the
limiting beliefs, unhelpful negative emotions and core issues that keep us stuck or sick. EFT helps our body and mind to utilize its own natural healing ability to move us towards overall health and well-being.
If this is considered faith healing… then I am all for it! 🙂
The Rabbi is doing incredible work and listening to this interview brought tears to my eyes… because I know the power of applying EFT with myself and my clients.
I’ve heard Gary Craig, EFT Founder say… “Getting involved in EFT right now is like being on the ground floor of a healing high-rise.”
I’m in the elevator and heading up… and even at lease lower floors, the view is quite simply AWESOME!
I sense that EFT is a big part of some major earth changes that are in process right now and I feel blessed to be part of it!
Peace to you, Karen
It sounds like Rabbi Legomsky is doing great work for traumatized citizens in Israel. I would have liked to hear his considerations of the plight of their Palestinian neighbors. I’d be most curious to know how the Rabbi relates his views on treating trauma to Israel and its place in the Middle East. Just how wide should we cast our net when treating the individual. Can EFT and other treatments be used to treat societies at large? Perhaps we cannot see a country as an individual but can we use the insights from treating individuals to address the traumas and fractured psyches of nations?