Neuro Emotional Technique

Neuro Emotional Technique (NET) is a psychotherapeutic/chiropractic system that combines a number of techniques and principles from traditional Chinese medicine, chiropractic and applied kinesiology. It is an holistic approach to well-being focusing on imbalances in the structure of the skeletomuscular system, unresolved "negative emotional blocks", toxins in the body, and deficiencies in nutrition.
NET describes "negative emotional complexes" (NEC) as being stored in the body, and claims to help release or resolve them. It was originally formulated by chiropractor Scott Walker in the early 1980s, and dealt primarily with vertebral subluxations. Scott Walker claims that NET is not a form of Psychotherapy even though it deals with emotional blocks. Anecdotally, patients reported they were less stressed, happier, and felt more at ease after treatment with NET. Some reports in the chiropractic literature support the effectiveness of NET.
Criticisms
NET bases assessments of the structure, toxins, nutrition, and emotions of a patient on muscle testing, which has had been criticised in the past for not being scientifically valid. However, there is a growing body of research showing that muscle testing is sufficiently accurate for how it is being used in NET.
Research
When used to treat emotional trauma in a group of seven cancer patients, improvements of up to 88% were shown in symptom reduction. Another study found NET provided improvements in chronic neck pain sufferers over a control group receiving a sham protocol of NET. Another study found that following NET treatment a professionally diagnosed case of Separation Anxiety Disorder was no longer present, though further research is needed to validate any causal relationship.
;NET for arachnophobia: Compared with a no-intervention control group, statistical analysis indicates a significant advantage for the NET group in regard to state anxiety/subjective distress, reported fear, and avoidant behavior.
;NET can improve flexibility: Following NET, the general flexibility (as measured by the sit-n-reach test) of participants was significantly increased compared to that of either passive controls (p 0.015) or active controls (p 0.021).
;NET with athletes: In a case series, seven elite rowers were tested using the Max Power Test, one week before and one week after one 30-minute session of NET. Five of athletes performed better following the NET intervention. In another case series of 2 power-lifting athletes (1 elite and 1 novice), who were participating in major competitions within 2 weeks of testing, were assessed for cognitive and somatic anxiety levels pre- and post one 30-minute NET session. The results demonstrated reductions in reported subjective anxiety levels and changes in the salivary hormone profile of both athletes following the intervention, with the more remarkable changes occurring in the novice athlete. With these encouraging results, randomised, controlled trials are needed to determine NET's effectiveness before causality can be inferred.

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