Emotional Freedom Technique (EFT) for Stress Relief

The Association for Comprehensive Energy Psychology (ACEP) website defines EFT
(or tapping) as a highly focused energy psychology method that rapidly releases
the emotional impact of stressful or traumatic life events from the body-mind
system. As clients bring their attention to distressing memories and symptoms,
practitioners walk them through a process of voicing specific statements while
tapping on a series of acupuncture meridian points. This activation appears to
reduce levels of stress while stimulating processing of previously stuck emotions
and habit patterns (1).
They call EFT tapping because people are tapped on by a practitioner or tap
themselves on 9 distinct acupoints which have been identified to be of great
assistance in releasing any emotional distress an individual may be feeling.
Because EFT may be done on an individual basis in addition to with a practitioner, it
the perfect tool for clients to take home for homework to work on different
elements of their life.
The following is a brief overview of the steps in EFT (3):
1) Before tapping on said accupoints an individual identifies an issue they would
like to work on.
2) The individual tests the intensity of the issue they chose to work on on a
scale from 1-10
3) Once this is done they tap on the 9 specified acupoints in order while
repeating: even though I have this _____ (for example, stage fright) I deeply
and completely accept myself
o This will vary for each individual depending on the issue they have
decided to work on
o This is done for several minutes until the client feels like there was
some sort of change
Sometimes a client can realize that they actually feel a deeper
emotion about something, for instance, one could feel sad
because they had a bad experience when they sang a solo in
choir, thus leading to the stage fright they currently feel
Therefore, a client would then say even though I have this
sadness I deeply and completely accept myself
4) Test the intensity of the issue on a scale from 1-10 again to see what progress
was made
5) Continue as needed
There are several websites which give EFT tutorials and many variations on the
original form of EFT, created by Gary Craig. Gary Craig gives a really simple EFT
tutorial, of the original method, which he calls the gold standard EFT method.
Please see this website for more information:
http://www.emofree.com/eft-tutorial/tapping-basics/how-to-do-eft.html (3)

EFT can be very useful in management of stress because it deals with the
underlying reasons that people are feeling stressed and assists them to release said
stress in a non-traumatic and stress-free way.
For example, 3.6% of the U.S. population is said to have Post Traumatic Stress
Disorder (PTSD), which is extremely stress-driven, at any given time and has been
historically difficult to treat with traditional methods of treatment. However, studies
have shown that PTSD treatments are more efficacious when used in combination
with EFT (2).
This indicates that EFT could be of benefit in treating many other stress-related
disorders and situations.
References:
1) http://www.energypsych.org/?ComparingEFTandCEP
2) Feinstein, D (2012). Accupoint stimulation in treating psychological disorders:
Evidence of efficacy. Review of General Psychology, 16, 364-380. Doi: 10.
1037/a0028602
3) http://www.emofree.com/eft-tutorial/tapping-basics/how-to-do-eft.html
Written by Jennifer Gravestock