What is EFT Tapping? How well does it work?

"If you don't deal with your emotions, they will deal with you" — Gary Craig, Founder of EFT

Emotional Freedom Technique or tapping as it is more commonly called, is a revolutionary treatment method that offers healing from physical and emotional pain as well as disease. Without the use of needles, this form of acupuncture uses the fingertips to stimulate energy points in the body. Developed by Gary Craig, this is an easily mastered technique that can be performed virtually anywhere. This treatment sprang from the idea that “The cause of all negative emotions is a disruption in the body’s energy system.”

What is Emotional Freedom Technique like?

It is a combination of eastern acupuncture and western psychology. It is a very easy to learn; stress and anxiety reduction technique since it works on the stress response. The research shows that 1 hour of tapping can reduce the stress hormone, "cortisol" as much by 27-41%. 

There are 9 basic tapping points. These 9 points are end points of meridians and they send bioenergy to all the major organs of our body. Tapping on these points sends a safe signal to the body while we are expressing the negative emotions. Yes, you are allowed to accept and acknowledge your negative emotions. This is the healing modality which allows you to release the negative emotions that are blocking the energy system of your body.

To start the process of EFT, the person would say something like, “Even though I have this (fear) about (the time I was criticized for being clumsy), I completely accept myself anyway.” Often that will not feel true to a person, so they would modify the statement to say, “I am willing to learn to accept myself” or “I want to accept myself.” The client says the statement three times while tapping on the karate chop point or side of the hand. 

In the second part of this treatment, the client focuses on the feeling (fear) in the body and rates it at an intensity between 1-10. Then the client begins to tap on points around the face and body while saying “this fear” simultaneously. Several rounds of this can be done until the fear is rated at a zero on a scale from 1-10. Once that fear is gone, the therapist will guide the client to feel other fears that will then come up from different aspects of the same situation or emotional state.

How Well Does It Work?

To understand how well it works, you can look at the scientific evidence available in the form of research papers where randomized control trials (RCT) were performed to prove the efficacy of the technique. RCTs are the highest way of validating the results that people are getting from this technique.

The technique works depends on what level are you doing it. If you are very general in expressing yourself, then the results will be on the surface. But if you are looking for results, that are complete then you need to deep dive into the different layers of the problem. You need to reach to those roots of the problem where it started. For that you need reach down to the specifics of the problem. 

I have healed my chronic health issues like slip disc, insomnia and low BP using EFT as I reached to the core of the issues because of which my energy channels were blocked. Different techniques like movie technique, tearless trauma and sneaking up on the problem move us gently into the problems and remove the negative charge from them. Once all negative charges are removed, the dis-ease never comes back.

It helps to improve your confidence, self-esteem, self-worth, self-love besides healing depression, chronic pain, PTSD, cravings, trauma, stress, anxiety, public speaking, performance issues, fibromyalgia, migraines, headaches, cervical issues and more.