Tapping, or Emotional Freedom Techniques (EFT), is a brief intervention that involves tapping on the endpoints of acupuncture meridians, or acupressure points, to produce a calming effect.  The technique combines elements of cognitive therapy, exposure therapy and somatic stimulation (the tapping part).

EFT has also been called “Psychological Acupuncture” and it can be used to improve the symptoms of depression, anxiety, panic, stress, PTSD, and food cravings, but you need cognitive behavioural therapy (CBT) or psychotherapy to get to the underlying causes of the problem/s. EFT has also been referred to as Energy Psychology.

EFT/Tapping presents the brain with two competing stimuli, 1) saying the problem out loud which induces a stress response and, 2) Tapping on acupressure points which calms the Amygdala, a part of the brain which acts like the smoke-alarm for stress.  When you apply the technique of EFT, it’s like applying the brake and the accelerator at the same time in the brain.  The brain responds by switching off one of these competing responses and it is the stress response and not the relaxation response that gets switched off.

When applying EFT to a problem, after a short period of time, usually only a matter of days, the brain starts rewiring itself and no longer produces a stress response to the stressor or problem (trigger) that was Tapped on.