What’s up with EFT Tapping?

Emotional Freedom Techniques (EFT), is a mind-body method of tapping on specific meridian points on the body while focusing on negative emotions to promote emotional healing and well-being. 

Tapping on acupressure points.

Tapping on acupressure spots related to meridian lines of Traditional Chinese Medicine feels deeply relaxing and when you’re also staying aware of pain it allows that awareness to move deeper and to release tension and trauma. 

It can seem unusual to tap on one’s eyebrow, below the eye, collarbone while reminding oneself of the painful sensations, emotions and thoughts, and it can be surprising when emotional or physical pain reduces.  This strange-looking process is becoming more well known and used, and it works!

Emotional Freedom Therapy

• Therapy using EFT is part of the new wave of somatic therapy.  It uses CBT techniques, such as building awareness, imaginal exposure, reframing of interpretation, and systematic desensitization.   

• To make a change, we may explore to find negative beliefs and thoughts holding a pattern in place, and the events that gave rise to these thoughts.  Where might you have learned you were not enough, or didn’t deserve.

• Sometimes current self-defeating patterns are rooted in trauma.  EFT can be used to address traumatic memories within a process to create safety and allow gentle change.

Tapping as Self Care

• Tapping is an easy, safe and effective self care that can be tried for any arising physical or emotional upset.  It does not replace medical care.

• Setting a daily time for 10 minutes of tapping can start to calm an overwhelmed nervous system for those struggling with stress or anxiety. 

• When you are feeling particularly strong stress or anxiety, finding a space to do some tapping in-the-moment is great first aid.

• “Rant and tap” can be helpful to release anger and bring new perspectives and clarity.

Research shows that EFT tapping works

 EFT tapping is well supported with clinical trials as well as a very large body of documented case studies.  Recent systematic reviews (Church 2022 ; Feinstein 2019) summarize the clinical evidence. 

As of August 2024, 99 randomized control trials, 95 pre-post outcome studies, 6 meta-analyses and 11 systematic reviews have been published on energy psychology methods, mostly EFT tapping in English-speaking, peer-reviewed journals. 

EFT meets APA criteria for evidence-based practice for depression, anxiety, phobias, post-traumatic stress disorder.  It has also been shown effective for physiological issues (e.g. pain, insomnia); professional and sports performance. Meta-analyses evaluating the effect of EFT treatment have found the amount of clinical improvement to be “moderate” to “large” and in some situations such as anxiety and depression this is larger than effect sizes for many medications.

Research shows tapping effective for:

• Pain

• Anxiety

• Depression

• Food cravings

• Trauma & PTSD

• Phobias

• Peak athletic performance

• and more

A real-world study (Andrade 2004) confirmed effectiveness.  5000 people with anxiety presenting to public health clinics in Ecuador were randomized to a treatment program that used either tapping or cognitive-behaviour therapy (CBT).  The tapping program had 25% more symptom free at treatment end than CBT (76% vs. 51%) with fewer sessions (average of 3 vs. 15).

EFT has been found to reduce cortisol, the stress hormone, improve biological markers of stress, and has shown beneficial effects in functional brain scans. Studies comparing EFT to the same process without tapping have shown that the tapping itself works. 

Evidence supports that EFT tapping is an effective therapy. 

Have you ever tried tapping?

• I have, and loved it!
• I have, but wasn't sure I was doing it correctly.
• I have not tried it, but am curious to learn more.

​Sources:

• Feinstein D. Energy psychology: Efficacy, speed, mechanisms. Explore. 2019 Sep 1;15(5):340-51.

• Church D, Stapleton P, Vasudevan A, O'Keefe T. Clinical EFT as an evidence-based practice for the treatment of psychological and physiological conditions: A systematic review. Frontiers in psychology. 2022 Nov 10;13:951451.

• Andrade, J., & Feinstein, D. (2004). Energy psychology: Theory, indications, evidence. D. Feinstein, Energy psychology interactive, 199-214​​