A Guide To Practicing EFT (Emotional Freedom Technique) Tapping

Your emotional well-being is a key piece of your overall health. As a functional medicine expert, I’ve seen the toll stress, anxiety, and trauma can take on the health of my patients.

The Emotional Freedom Technique, or EFT tapping, is a simple tool that may help you move past those feelings and restore emotional balance. If you’re new to this self-help method, I’ll share what the science says about EFT and whether you should incorporate it into your routine.

What Is EFT (Tapping)?

EFT tapping is a therapy technique that combines elements of ancient Chinese medicine, such as acupuncture, with modern psychology methods to (literally) tap into the mind-body connection.

The premise is that physical and emotional health is believed to be intricately linked to the flow of energy within specific meridian points on the body. You'll restore emotional balance by gently tapping on these points while focusing on replacement thoughts for negative emotions.

While acupuncture has existed for thousands of years, EFT tapping traces its origins to the 1990s. Doctors had been working on targeting acupressure points that didn’t puncture the skin for some time, but Roger Callahan’s Thought Field Therapy (TFT) laid the groundwork for EFT.

Gary Craig, a Stanford engineer and ordained minister, simplified TFT to make it more accessible to the public, patenting the new tool as EFT tapping. Since then, it’s been used to treat mental health conditions like depression, anxiety, and post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD). (1)

How To Do It

You can work with licensed therapists or explore EFT tapping on your own. The tapping technique can be used as a clinical treatment or a self-help method.

While there are few risks to EFT tapping on your own, a vulnerable person may want to start with a therapist in a clinical setting. EFT can bring up distressing events and past traumas, which can be challenging to navigate if you don’t have the tools to do so.

If you’d like to try it on everyday stressors and anxieties, follow the 6 steps in this brief tutorial to get started.

1. Identify The Issue

Begin by pinpointing the specific emotion you want to address. Whether it’s fear, anxiety, pain, or stress, identifying the emotion you want to get rid of is the first step in overcoming it.

2. Assign A Rating To Your Emotion

Rate the intensity of the emotion you want to overcome on a scale from 0 to 10, with 0 being no emotional distress and 10 being the most intense. Write down whatever number you gave your emotion so you can reference it at the end of the process.

3. Identify An Affirmation

Come up with an affirmation related to your issue, starting with an acknowledgment of the issue itself, followed by a statement of self-acceptance. This is your setup statement.

Here’s an example: "Even though I’m anxious about public speaking, I’m confident in my abilities and accept who I am."

4. Start Tapping

Standard EFT tapping targets 9 meridian points on the body in a specific sequence while focusing mentally on your affirmation. After setting your affirmation, you’ll start tapping those points on your head, face, upper body, and hands while repeating your affirmation 3 times.

The sequence goes as follows:

• Outside edge of the hand (karate chop)
• Top of the head
• Inside of the eyebrow
• Outer side of the eye
• Under the eye
• Under the nose (above the upper lip)
• Chin point
• Collarbone point
• Under armpit

5. Assess

At the end of your tapping session, reevaluate the intensity of your emotion on the 0 to 10 scale. The goal is to reduce the intensity of your emotion to as close to 0 as possible. If your emotion’s intensity started very close to 10, it’s normal to see it decrease, but not all the way down to zero (at first).

6. Repeat

If your number did not change or you want to continue getting closer to 0, repeat the tapping sequence from the beginning. You can vary your setup statement with each attempt if you like.

Tapping Acupoints

Tapping acupoints on the hands, face, and body is fundamental to EFT. While there are hundreds of possible acupuncture points on the body, there are only 9 EFT tapping points to focus on in each session:

1. Outside edge of your hand (karate chop)
2. Top of the head
3. Inside of the eyebrow
4. Outer side of the eye
5. Under the eye
6. Under the nose (above the upper lip)
7. Chin point
8. Collarbone point
9. Under armpit

The research suggests that these spots are connected to physiological responses in the body when stimulated. While we’re not exactly sure how they work, researchers have found that traditional acupuncture targets have a higher density of nerve endings. (2)

Tapping those spots as an alternative to acupuncture is another form of stimulation along those meridian points to prep the body’s responses to pain or emotional distress.

Scientific Evidence

Although EFT may seem unconventional, there is a growing body of evidence that shows the interventions go beyond anecdotes. Studies show they may affect not only emotional health but also physical pain.

1. Chronic Pain (Physical And Mental)

EFT can target chronic pain by addressing both the physical sensations and underlying emotional causes contributing to your pain. On the physical side, a clinical trial found that EFT was able to help rewire the brain’s response to pain in a group of chronic pain sufferers. (3)

Researchers aren’t sure exactly how this works, but imaging scans in patients who used EFT showed decreased connectivity in the brain’s pain-modulating areas. The result was a 21% reduction in chronic pain levels.

On the mental health side, by tapping on specific acupressure points while focusing on the pain and associated emotions, EFT can help release tension and reduce stress. The effect is similar to other mindfulness techniques like yoga and deep breathing.

2. Anxiety

EFT shines when it comes to its effects on anxiety. When compared to cognitive behavioral therapy (CBT), studies found that EFT improved anxiety levels in 90% of patients compared to 63% who used CBT. (4)

EFT may work more efficiently, too. That same study found that EFT reduced anxiety levels after just three sessions compared to 15 sessions of CBT. This is likely due to EFT's effect on your body’s stress responses. By acknowledging anxious thoughts and feelings, you’re rewriting negative thought patterns and focusing your body’s energy on positive replacement thoughts.

LISTEN: The Rising Anxiety Epidemic + How To Calm Your Mind With Food | Dr. Uma Naidoo

3. Depression

EFT encourages you to adopt more positive thought patterns and coping mechanisms. The combination of cognitive and somatic work in EFT tapping may help you more effectively manage depression symptoms like appetite changes, irritability, and insomnia.

Much like its effects on anxiety, studies show EFT may work just as well as cognitive behavior therapy in patients with depression. (4) It’s important to note here that managing depression must be individualized. EFT can be a positive tool in your healing, but what works for one person may not work for the next.

4. Stress

Research shows that EFT may calm the nervous system and reduce levels of cortisol, the stress hormone. (5) This can help regulate the body’s stress response and support greater resilience when managing chronic stress.

High levels of cortisol aren’t just bad for your mental health. Chronic stress can lead to high blood pressure, inflammation, blood sugar spikes, and bad sleep. That puts you at risk for all kinds of chronic health conditions, not to mention the havoc on your gut.

Worried about the effects of stress on how you feel? My book Gut Feelings digs into healing gut inflammation caused by stress, shame, and trauma.

5. Weight Management

EFT may help you break free from food cravings by rewiring the brain’s response to food cues. (6) This can make it easier to practice mindful eating techniques long-term. If you don’t feel those cravings as intensely, they become easier to manage.

The practice also targets emotional root causes like stress, anxiety, or low self-esteem behind overeating. Studies show that people who used EFT to support weight loss were able to maintain their weight more effectively beyond the initial first weeks of introducing the therapy. (7)

6. Phobias

EFT may help you work through phobias and associated somatic symptoms like an increased heart rate and sweating by desensitizing the emotional response to the feared object or situation. Much like its effects on anxiety and cravings in how it works, EFT helps rewire neural pathways associated with a feeling — in this case, fear.

Over time, the intensity of your phobia should decrease. Studies show EFT works just as well on its own as when paired with deep breathing when you’re working through your phobia. (8)

7. Trauma and PTSD

Systematic reviews show EFT has promise in helping people process and release traumatic experiences, specifically those with PTSD, without the risk of side effects. (9)

The technique seems to disrupt the brain’s fear response while reducing the emotional intensity of feelings associated with your trauma. Over time, this may decrease symptoms of PTSD.

With PTSD and any mental health issues, it’s important to get to the root of your symptoms or emotional distress. I always suggest seeking professional guidance from your healthcare professionals, a counselor, or a functional medicine expert to help you get there.

EFT can be a beneficial tool for overcoming negative emotions, but it’s important that any underlying problems are addressed, too. That includes taking steps to improve your gut-brain connection or being honest with yourself about toxic relationships in your life.

Are you ready for long-term balance? As one of the first functional medicine telehealth clinics in the world, we provide webcam health consultations and personalized medical advice for people around the globe. 

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