There's something I always think is worth saying before talking about tapping: when you describe it out loud for the first time, it sounds strange. Touching points on your face and body while thinking about something distressing. Repeating phrases out loud. It's not the image most of us have of therapy.
And yet, what happens in the nervous system when it's done well is precise, measurable, and often surprisingly fast.
What EFT is and where it comes from
The Emotional Freedom Technique — known as EFT or tapping — combines two things that, on their own, already have decades of backing: stimulation of acupuncture points on the body, and cognitive-emotional work with the memory or situation causing distress. What EFT does is use both at the same time.
Dawson Church — founder of EFT Universe, which both researches and promotes the method — has driven much of the research in this field. His studies report measurable reductions in cortisol levels — the stress hormone — after a single tapping session, as well as changes in amygdala activity, the brain structure responsible for detecting threats and triggering the fear response. Controlled trials have documented significant improvements in anxiety, phobias, post-traumatic stress disorder, and even in physical markers associated with chronic stress.
This isn't esoteric. It has a neurophysiological basis that's increasingly well understood, and it connects directly with what Bessel van der Kolk has documented in his work on trauma: that the body holds onto experiences, and that transforming them requires including the body in the process.
What happens in the nervous system
To understand why tapping works, it helps to know something about how the amygdala operates. Its job is to register experiences that, at some point, meant danger — real or perceived — and keep them active as alert signals. The problem is the amygdala doesn't distinguish well between past and present: when something in the environment resembles that original experience, it triggers the same stress response, even though the threat no longer exists.
What tapping interrupts is that circuit. By stimulating acupuncture points while activating the disturbing memory, a signal of safety is sent to the nervous system — a kind of somatic message that says: "you're here, you're okay, there's no danger now." With repetition, that safety signal becomes associated with the memory, and the memory loses its emotional charge. It doesn't disappear — but it no longer hijacks you.
This mechanism fits very naturally with what Polyvagal Theory describes: a nervous system constantly scanning the environment for signals of safety or threat. Tapping doesn't ask the nervous system to convince itself of anything. It gives it directly the signal it was looking for. It also relates to Peter Levine's Somatic Experiencing, which describes trauma as an activation cycle left incomplete — one that needs to find a path to resolution through the body. Tapping can be that path.
What it's used for and how I integrate it into my work
In my practice, tapping shows up most often in very specific situations: phobias and specific fears, anticipatory anxiety before events that feel threatening, memories that keep carrying a disproportionate emotional intensity, blocks expressed as deeply held limiting beliefs — "I don't deserve this," "this always happens to me," "something in me is broken" — and states of panic or intense activation that need regulation.
One of the qualities I value most about tapping is this: it's a tool a person can learn to use on their own. It requires no equipment, no special conditions, no therapist in the room. That makes it especially useful between sessions — for those moments when something gets activated in everyday life and you need a regulation resource that doesn't depend on anyone else.
In the integrated work I do, tapping rarely operates alone. I often combine it with Internal Family Systems (IFS): first we identify which part is carrying the belief or memory causing the distress, and then we use tapping to reduce the emotional intensity of that charge. When the part is no longer in such a high state of activation, there's much more room for dialogue, for understanding, for moving toward something different. It also works well alongside the somatic exploration at the center of my approach: the body as a place of listening, not just of symptoms but of information.
There's something I find both unsettling and liberating about tapping: that an emotional disturbance you've carried for years can begin to release with something as simple as touching points on your face while naming it. Not because it's superficial — but because the nervous system, when it receives the right signal, already knows how to reorganize itself. It already has that capacity. Sometimes it just needs someone to remind it how to use it.
You can read more about how I work with the body in the articles on body-based therapy and Core Energetics, or explore What to expect from therapy? if you're considering starting a process.