EFT Tapping for stress: 7+ Things you maybe didn't know.

A wealth of information for you, if you are thinking what you can do to help yourself manage stress and you've heard that EFT Tapping could help.

Anybody from age 3 to 103 can learn the basic Emotional Freedom Techniques (EFT) Tapping procedure within 10 minutes or so

You first learn which 9 acupoints to tap lightly with fingertips – it’s easy; you can’t miss the points. Until you know them by heart, you just follow on a diagram to remind you where they are. Then you learn a simple formula for how to make up a statement that sets up your system to receive the tapping (set-up statement) and how to use a reminder phrase at each tapping point to keep your system tuned-in to the tapping. You also learn an easy way to monitor your progress (Subjective Unit of Distress Scoring – SUDS). See how easy it is to learn with EFTDevon – you’ve probably already picked up three of the main EFT ‘technical terms’!
Most people experience a level of calm from tapping within the first few minutes of starting to tap

I love to take 5-10 minutes to demonstrate how to tap (do a round of EFT) with people who haven’t yet tried it. We usually target some sort of tension they feel somewhere in their body, often neck and shoulders. If I had put a pound in savings for every time someone said to me at the end of that first round, “I do feel calmer/more relaxed”, I would have a sizeable savings account by now! Just recently, within a presentation via Zoom to health service managers, I was asked to lead a demonstration, at the end of which one GP said with surprise, “It usually takes me 30 minutes of yoga to feel this relaxed – and that was in just 5 minutes!” Another manager observed that prior to the tapping he had going through his head somewhat anxiously how he would manage to fit in the other six meetings he was supposed to get to that afternoon, but after the tapping he was feeling quite chilled about it. They were bowled over by the potential of tapping for workplace stresses.
I have been in practice purely as an EFT Practitioner (ie not combining it with counselling or anything else) since 2005. Because back then many people hadn’t heard of EFT, I always offered a form of money-back guarantee, to enable people to try it without financial risk – if at the end of the first session you feel you got no benefit or EFT holds nothing for you, then you don’t pay me for the session. I still offer that guarantee and to this day (2021), no one has taken me up on that and not paid. Put simply, EFT Tapping is there for everyone; it always helps to some degree at least and usually significantly!
When you are feeling overwhelmed with too much to do, EFT Tapping brings clarity

You’re probably well aware of all the good advice that is out there for managing your time, your schedule, your to-do list, but sometimes everything can just feel unmanageable and overwhelm you. This is the time to tap. Just sitting with, recognising and allowing that feeling and tapping with it straightaway brings in more calm; then comes like a sigh, a letting-go, followed by a sense of clarity – you are free once again to think straight and access your personal resources; all the good sense you have anyway, all the principles you have learned, but which you got temporarily disconnected from by the feelings of overwhelm are back at your disposal.
Always at your fingertips – literally!

I count EFT as an essential life skill, something everyone will benefit from learning. Once you have learned the basics, you have this tool always there in your own fingertips with which to either reduce the intensity of - or even completely release - any unwanted emotions, such as overwhelm, fear, anger, anxiety, sadness, grief, jealousy – it can be applied to anything! Emotional First Aid becomes always available to you. Just as with ordinary First Aid, you can learn the basics or you can do detailed advanced courses or work together with an expert. Do be aware, if someone tells you EFT didn’t or doesn’t work on something they tried it on, the most likely reason will be that they didn’t know enough about how to apply it to their particular challenge or circumstances. At EFTDevon, I have courses available at various levels or you can work with me in person to apply EFT Tapping to your personal issues or challenges.
Some stress is good

The term “stress” gets a bit of a bad rep; we tend by default to think of feeling bad and overwhelmed when we think of stress. However, actually we all need to feel just a bit ‘pushed’ beyond our comfort zone, to feel excited, that we’re taking on a surmountable challenge. This adds to our motivation and enjoyment both in our work or our home projects. This type of stress is known as eu-stress and it helps us be more productive. It is when eu-stress tips over into di-stress and overwhelm that we need to use EFT Tapping.
Reducing your level of unproductive, unhelpful stress is just the tip of the iceberg

There is so much more you can use EFT for. You can learn how to apply it to whatever is getting in your way, to make anything easier, to perform better, to “get yourself out of your own way” and be in “flow”. More specifically, in the health field, there are now well over 100 peer-reviewed research papers published. There has been successful EFT research into EFT for anxiety disorders and phobias, pain reduction and chronic illness management, depression and more. The UK National Institute for Health and Care Excellence (NICE), within its guideline review process for Guideline NG116 (Post traumatic stress disorder) found EFT both clinically effective and highly cost-effective for the treatment of PTSD.
There is Harvard research showing that stimulation of acupoints calms the area of the brain associated with emotional arousal, fear, anxiety and the fight-flight-freeze response

In EFT we tap with fingertips to create a piezo-electric stimulation of the endpoints of most of the 14 acupuncture meridians. We tap endpoints or near-endpoints because these are the points where the meridians come closest to the surface of the body. At Harvard Medical School, as part of a 10-year study of acupuncture, researchers used functional Magnetic Resonance Imaging (fMRI) to observe “prominent decreases in activity in the amygdala, hippocampus and other brain areas associated with fear” when acupoints were stimulated. (Hui et al 2000 – quote from Feinstein, D. (2012). Acupoint Stimulation in Treating Psychological Disorders: Evidence of Efficacy. Review of General Psychology. https://doi.org/10.1037/a0028602)

I hope you’ve picked up more than 7 things you maybe didn’t know about using EFT Tapping to manage your stress levels – from the additional information under each heading (hence the “7+” in the title)

If you would like to learn more still, please click here to provide your email address to be notified when EFT Devon courses go live. Currently under construction are a free tapping basics course, EFT Tapping for Stress Management and EFT Tapping for Chronic Pain. Courses with clear guidance and plenty of handy hints and tips on how to apply EFT Tapping to various specific life challenges will follow. If you would like to get involved training with me at EFT Devon immediately, you will find Introductory Workshops, EFT Certified Practitioner and Advanced Practitioner training accredited by EFT International, as well as a free EFT Tapping for Covid Stress drop-in tapping group session on Zoom every Friday afternoon (4.30 UK time) at EFTDevon.co.uk. Please do get in touch if I can help you in any way.

Jacqui Footman
EFT International Accredited EFT Master Trainer of Trainers