Dr Peta Stapleton has 20 years experience as a registered Clinical Psychologist in the State of Queensland, Australia and has completed a Bachelor of Arts, Postgraduate Diploma of Professional Psychology and Doctor of Philosophy. Peta held academic positions at Griffith University for 14 years, teaching and coordinating psychological research trials into new therapies in the area of obesity and weight management and is now Assistant Professor in Psychology at Bond University. She still maintains her private practice, specialising in eating disorders, women’s health and adolescent issues.
Peta regularly contributes to the academic field with publications in the areas of nursing, morale, communication, psychological interventions and eating disorders. She regularly reviews for academic journals and offers supervision for new and existing Psychologists as well as students.
Peta is well known in her area of specialty within Queensland and is consulted for radio, television and print media interviews for her expert opinion. She has been awarded many honours including the Australian Psychological Society Elaine Dignan Award for research into women’s issues. Peta’s first book is now available as a free e-book; her second book DIY: Attract Money Subconsciously was released in May 2006 (www.michelleandersonpublishing.com.au). Peta recently released her third book as editor, Your Mind Power: Strategies for Behaviour Change (available through this website). Peta has served as the President of the Eating Disorders Association of Queensland numerous times and is a certified practitioner of Neuro Linguistic Programming, Timeline Therapy and the Emotional Freedom Technique.Peta is the founder of the Gold Coast Eating Disorders Association Inc., and facilitated the support groups for 8 years.
Peta has most recently been investigating the impact of a psychological technique in the treatment of food cravings (Association of Comprehensive Energy Psychology (ACEP). Seed Grant 2007. “Evaluation of the Emotional Freedom Technique (EFT) for Reducing Food Cravings: A Randomized Controlled Trial”). The 12 month results are below.
A Randomised Clinical Trial of a Meridian-Based Intervention for Food Cravings with 12-Month Follow-up
Peta Stapleton BA, PGDipPsy, PhD
Senior Lecturer, School of Medicine
Griffith University
Terri Sheldon, BA (Hons)
The Lakeside Rooms, Robina, Qld
Brett Porter, Assoc Dip. WR & W
The Lakeside Rooms, Robina, Qld
Acknowledgements:
Wedderburn for their generous donation of the Tanita scales for the duration of the trial.
The Lakeside Rooms for their clinical support and access to treatment facilities.
The Association for Comprehensive Energy Psychology for seed funding.
Objective: Food craving was hypothesised to be an important intervening causal variable in the development of obesity. This randomised, single-blind, clinical trial tested whether The Emotional Freedom Technique (EFT) reduced food cravings in participants under laboratory-controlled conditions.
Method: Study involved ninety-six overweight or obese adults who were allocated to the EFT treatment or 4-week waitlist condition. The waitlist condition received treatment after completion of the test period. Degree of food craving, perceived power of food, restraint capabilities and psychological symptoms were assessed pre- and post- a four week EFT treatment program (mixed method ANOVA comparative analysis), and at 12-month follow-up (repeated measure ANOVA with group data collapsed). Paired comparisons between time-points were undertaken using post hoc tests. The Bonferroni correction was applied for multiple comparisons.
Results: EFT was associated with a significantly greater improvement in food cravings, the subjective power of food and craving restraint than waitlist from pre- to immediately post-test (p<0.05). Across collapsed groups, an improvement in food cravings and the subjective power of food after treatment was maintained at 6-months and a delayed effect was seen for restraint. Although there was a significant reduction in measures of psychological distress immediately after treatment (p<0.05), there was no between group difference. Across collapsed groups, an improvement in food cravings and the subjective power of food after treatment was maintained at 12-months, and a significant reduction in Body Mass Index (BMI) occurred from pre- to 12-months.
Conclusion: EFT can have an immediate effect on reducing food cravings, result in maintaining reduced cravings over time and impact upon BMI in overweight and obese individuals. This addition to weight loss/dietary programs may result in assisting people to achieve and maintain reduced food cravings and lose weight.
There are specific EFT tapping podcasts available on this website, for your own personal use.
For more information on EFT, visit:
www.eftuniverse.com
For more information on the EFT and food craving study, please email Dr Peta Stapleton on the Contacts page.