photographs by Lynn Cunningham

Tapping is about connection. It is a bridge from pain, frustration and never enough, to satisfaction and joy. It is a simple way of taking care of yourself and creating balance over and over again.

Tapping is a stress reliever that can be done just about anywhere at any time. It is similar to acupuncture, except there are no needles required. Instead of needles, you use your fingers to tap on energy points that are close to the surface of your skin. You pick a problem you would like to give attention to and you tap while focused on that problem.

How do you focus on the problem? While tapping the energy points, you speak out loud about the frustration and emotions you’re experiencing related to the problem. Yes, it seems weird in the beginning, but once you begin to relax you will find it helpful. Often it takes a few rounds of tapping to begin to experience the benefits.

There is a basic direction for the tapping points that you will easily learn, this will free you up to focus on the problem rather than the direction of tapping. It won’t take long before you automatically know the tapping points.

Don’t worry if you skip a point or two, just keep tapping. You can’t do it wrong. Let me say that again a little differently, You Can Not Do It Wrong. Below is a diagram of the tapping points.

Where did Tapping come from?

Tapping was discovered in 1996 by psychologist, Dr Rodger Callohan. Dr Callohan was studying acupuncture and eventually combined several acupuncture points with finger tapping and traditional cognitive, talk therapy. He discovered tapping the energy points highly effective for calming emotions and relieving phobias. He began to document his work calling it Thought Field Therapy. Soon he was teaching others this technique, and they too were having success.

If you’d like to read more about how Dr Callohan discovered Thought Field Therapy while attempting to help a woman release her extensive water phobia click here.

Thought Field Therapy (TFT), was based on various algorithms determined by the distressful presenting emotion There was an algorithm for each emotion that outlined a specific tapping pattern. For example, there was a particular pattern of tapping points for the feeling of rage which was different from the tapping pattern used for the emotion of jealousy, or despair, or overwhelm.

Gary Craig, was a Stanford engineer graduate, with a passion for personal development. He became an enthusiastic student of Dr Callohan, recognized the incredible power of this de-stressing procedure but felt he could simplify it to make it accessible for everyone.

Gary Craig created Emotional Freedom Techniques, also known as EFT or Tapping. He posted the EFT process and information online for all who were searching for ways to improve their life. It slowly grew from a rare and strange self care tool to one that is more familiar and now accepted and practiced by health care providers, therapists and non-health related people for managing stress. EFT is the tapping technique that I use in my work with people.

Is there Science to support this or is this wishful thinking?

There is plenty of science. When I began to study tapping in 2009 there were about 10 published studies. As of 2019 there are over 100 bodies of published work.

They range from randomized controlled trials to meta analysis and case studies.

EFT has been studied in more than 10 countries, and a variety of universities both American & abroad. Some American Universities include Harvard Medical School, University of California at Berkeley, City University of New York, Walter Reed Military Medical Center, and Texas A&M University.

Two of the largest health care providers in the nation, Kaiser-Permanente, and the Veterans Administration (VA), have recognized EFT as an effective treatment for anyone, including combat veterans, people who have experienced traumas from car accidents, domestic violence, sexual abuse, natural disasters and other traumatic incidents. Large and small traumas can become a heavy load with the passage of time. The lingering effects of trauma may impact a person’s health presenting in big and obvious ways such as flash backs, nightmares, and despair and in less obvious ways such as phobias, inability to lose weight, stifled emotions and chronic illness. EFT can be a tool for releasing the traumas large and small that influence how you live.

EFT is also approved for continuing education units through the American Medical Association, American Psychological Association, American Nurses Credentialing Center, and the National Association of Social Workers.

Here is one example of recent findings. The Journal of Evidence-Based Integrative Medicine, in 2019, published the following paper, Clinical EFT (Emotional Freedom Techniques) Improves Multiple Physiological Markers of Health. The link is below.

https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC6381429/