How Tappers See Tapping
Posted June 24, 2021
Tapping on acupuncture points while saying specific statements aloud is a powerful tool for resolving mental, emotional, and physical difficulties. More than 120 clinical trials show the approach (which falls under the category of “Energy Psychology”) to be fast and effective in producing strong outcomes.
But how can tapping on the skin make a difference? It looks strange and seems like wishful thinking, yet informed estimates suggest that millions of people worldwide have experienced substantial positive change!
To unravel the mysteries of tapping, a new in-depth analysis by psychologist David Feinstein, Ph.D., examined the reports of more than 800 practitioners and clients who participated in 15 studies based on interviews or online surveys.
One of the least surprising but most encouraging findings was that the majority of the practitioners (therapists, counselors, and life coaches) agreed with the research demonstrating that tapping protocols are unusually rapid.
Single session cures of longstanding phobias and other conditions are not uncommon. In fact, one of the complaints expressed by the practitioners is that because improvements are often so fast, the technique is being oversold in some of the materials promoting it. This sets unrealistic expectations for clients and gives professionals reason to be suspicious.
Nonetheless, studies show significant improvement in serious conditions like PTSD in fewer sessions than conventional treatments like Cognitive Behavioral Therapy as well as higher success rates.
To put the speed of the approach into perspective, one of the therapists reported that before he introduced tapping into his practice, he would spend up to 4 years working with clients struggling with the effects of childhood sexual abuse. But with tapping, he estimated that equivalent types of progress “can be completed in 6 months.”
Any treatment that works with those who have experienced severe trauma may risk retraumatizing the person and doing more harm than good. However, the participants in these studies reported that tapping provided the most powerful tool available to them for guiding clients through trauma and the emotional wounds caused by abuse, assault, and even warfare, without retraumatizing them.
For instance, 12 licensed psychologists who use tapping were asked in a detailed survey about patients who had undergone severe emotional trauma in childhood. All 12 reported that although they might use other methods to help teach topics like assertiveness or coping skills, of the many approaches available to them, they found tapping to be the most effective not only for reducing fear, stress, anxiety, sleep difficulties, and the frequency of flashbacks, their clients were able to safely recall their traumatic experiences without being re-triggered.
An interesting theme that was highlighted in the analysis was the use of tapping for addressing physical illnesses. One of the cases reported was of a woman who was diagnosed with cancer in the area of her throat. She sought the services of a tapping therapist in part to help with her terror about the radiation and chemotherapy treatments.
This was accomplished in just a couple of sessions, but the treatment also uncovered a lifelong pattern of her not speaking up or speaking her truth.
In order to examine the links between her suppressed verbal expression (“shoving my truths down my throat,” “keeping what I need to say under my tongue”) and the cancer in the area of her throat, tongue, and vocal cords, the therapist asked her to imagine what was happening in and around her throat.
At first, she saw heavy black tar and cobwebs. As the emotional charges began to lift, the imagery changed until she had a sense of spaciousness and light moving through her throat area . . . the tar and cobwebs were gone.
This was reflected in her CT scans, which far exceeded her oncologist’s expectations, particularly since she had discontinued radiation against his advice and also refused a recommended course of chemotherapy. Rather than increasing in size, all the masses had shrunk, some up to 50%!
Besides speed, safety, and working with physical illness, other themes addressed in the analysis included where to focus the treatment, the use of language, the client-therapist relationship, dealing with resistance to tapping, suggested cautions, what to do when the therapist is triggered by a client’s issues, integrating tapping with other modalities, and the enhanced intuition and spiritual attunement that therapists reported after learning the approach.
This post is based on research and findings from David’s recent paper “Perceptions, Reflections, and Guidelines for Using Energy Psychology: A Distillation of 800+ Surveys and Interviews with Practitioners and Clients.” The full paper is published in the journal Energy Psychology and available to our readers (by special arrangements with the journal, which is not normally “open access”) as a free download.
If you have thoughts, ideas, insights, or experiences you’d like to share on this post or the full paper, please comment below. David will regularly review the comments and reply to those that move the discussion forward. Next month’s article will address one of the trickiest skill sets for tappers, and that is: What words do you use or ask your client to use to accompany the tapping?
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Thank you so much for sharing!
My pleasure. Happy to share and give back as so many have done for me.
I’ve been using EFT/Tapping as an integral part of my therapy practice for many years. Many of my clients are deeply affected by ACEs and have not responded well to any other forms of therapy by the time they’ve come to me.
Two of the most profoundly powerful flavours of EFT I use for deep and/or complex trauma, are Dr Phillip Davis’s Picture Tapping Techniques (Phoenixeft.co.uk) and Master Trainer Tanya prince’s Deep State Inner Repatterning (taniaaprince.com). DSIR allows clients to place their younger selves on a screen and with the support of an experienced practitioner, become a compassionate tapping mentor to the client’s younger self without being drawn into his/her emotional state to the same degree. Allowing them to be compassionately ‘there” to support their younger self while doing the work.
I’ve found that at times within DSIR, I’ve had the powerful intuitive sense we should ask the younger self, “would you like to give your hands compassionate permission to express what you’re feeling with whatever colour or colours of markers or crayons you feel drawn too? They can do anything they want and it will be perfect for that moment. It’s the one thing in their life they can’t do wrong. Whatever it is, will always be right for that moment” We’ve then continued on with PTT within the DSIR state and the results have typically been been extraordinary.
This allows my client to draw on the tremendous power of both techniques at the same time, while the “adult” client is compassionately there for their younger self. Without being significantly traumatized by the process. Should the “adult” self begin to feel overwhelmed, we tell the younger self we’ll be back but we have to take care of something first. Once that’s done, we return and continue on..
I use many aspects of EFT Tapping, Eden Energy medicine, EMDR, education, and some safe, effective neuro-technologies (ecosys.voxxlife.com) as appropriate for each individual client as we progress. Butt these two EP techniques when used appropriately have taken my practice to an entire new level of ability to help the deeply traumatized and/or confused client help themselves. Effectively and self compassionately..
Hope this is helpful.
Hi,
Great article.Thanks for sharing this.It is always amazing how the Mind and Body are so connected.I have found that using EFT in my Counselling Practice provides surprisingly good results.I would welcome more information on Procedures for using EFT for Physical Disease or Injury.I have had good success with Pain Relief.Long standing Trauma has also been overcome quickly and without relapse in 4 sessions.
Hi Phillip, Thank you for your kind words and the reports of how EFT has been effective in your practice. To your question, we are preparing an article on using tapping with physical disease, probably for our August e-letter. Stay tuned. David
Thank you Dawson ,Love the article , My background uses several energy methods ,though my chief preference is polarity therapy by Dr Randolph stone . As well as reiki and acupuncture and pressure , Tui Na [ Advanced chinese massage ] .My partner of 1 year has Cptsd Fibro myalgia ,anorexia nervosa, gastritis and scoliosis . I’ve yet to start using tapping with her ,and am grateful for the scope of your article and the framework it gives me in formulating a gradual and interactive tx system for us to use .
I have seen her progress from a traumatized bundle of nerves to a self confident and poised individual when she has me a backup and able to self regulate most of her panic triggers .
I am aware of how careful i need to be when approaching someone with such a mixed bag of conditions and also the issues of being her partner . I got her to this present stage by standing in as a self help/life coach , leaving the core decisions up to her and merely making suggestions .
Thank you Dawson and Donna/David
Do therapists who use tapping list that beside their name or do we need to call each one individually to ask if they use it?
Hi Carol, a decade ago, when tapping was a more novel approach, most therapists who used it indicated this clearly at least on their websites if not beside their names. Now as the method is in more common use by therapists identified with any of a wide range of theoretical orientations, it is less likely to be highlighted. Those who feel it is one of their primary tools are still likely to emphasize it. People looking for a therapist who uses energy psychology can also approach it in the other direction, looking at the directories of practitioners of organizations that provide training and certification in EFT, TFT, TAT, et cetera, to find someone who is local or Googling for tapping practitioners in their area.
I’m trying to think of the more atypical ways it’s worked in my practice and for me. I have used tapping successfully to clear the separation anxiety of a 5 year old when school counselors and traditional therapy had no impact and actually worsened it. EFT cleared a traumatic memory in one round of tapping with someone only by having them focus on the visual of the memory (no words used at all) that had been seared into her so severely she saw it in her mind’s eye continually for years. It cleared a highly empathic teenager in one round of what I call “empathic residue.” I cleared myself of trauma immediately after an attack by a feral cat that scratched, clawed, and bit me. Hope this might help!
Thank you, Monica, this is very useful for illustrating the range of application.
I’m mostly interested in a physical healing effects of tapping. The method intrigues me, but the most difficult question is what do I say when I’m addressing hypertension that comes and goes without any rhyme or reason, that neither my doctor, nor I can figure out.
Yes, the wording to use is less evident in some situations, such as with your hypertension, than others. And in such cases, you need to go into detective mode. Since your doctor isn’t finding a physical cause that explains the periodic bouts of high blood pressure, searching for underlying emotional triggers is worth pursuing. When your blood pressure rises, review in your mind or write everything that occurred in the short period prior to the incident. If you don’t see patterns, you could also prime your mind to find them. A set-up statement could be, “Even though I don’t know what is causing my hypertension, I am ready for new discoveries about it.” You could also tap on any physical sensations while you are experiencing high blood pressure (although many people aren’t aware of any symptoms, be alert for a pounding feeling in your head or chest or lighhtheadedness or dizziness). Clearing the physical symptoms often leads to new awareness about the situation. You can also tap on feelings about your hypertension with statements that address your frustration with or fears about it. Also useful in the detective work might be open-ended questions, such as “If I knew what was causing my hypertension . . . [continue to tap as you fill in the blank with the next three or four or five thoughts that come into your head]. Best wishes on this.
This is a great article
Hello! Love this article… thank you for sharing 🙂