EFT Tapping Technique

The Basics

Here are the basic steps to EFT tapping, the Emotional Freedom Technique. On this page, you'll find everything you need to learn the basic EFT tapping technique.

As you probably already know, EFT is a powerful form of Energy Psychology.

EFT has provided relief from chronic pain, emotional problems, anxiety, addictions, phobias, post traumatic stress disorder, learning difficulties and physical diseases.

Although EFT is new, the healing concepts it's based on have been used in Eastern medicine for over 5,000 years. Like acupuncture and acupressure, EFT is a set of techniques that utilize the body's acupuncture meridians.

You stimulate points on the acupuncture meridians by tapping on them with your fingertips - literally tapping into your body's own energy and healing power.

There are just four parts to the process. When you are first learning the EFT tapping procedure, it is very important that you don't skip any steps. If you do, you aren't as likely to have success and you may give up before you've given it a chance.

Here I present what is commonly known as the Basic Recipe of EFT. This page covers Tuning In and Assessing Severity, the Set-Up, the Tapping Points and Sequence and the Next Steps.

Click here for a more detailed description of the meridian tapping points.

Steps to the EFT Tapping Technique

1. Tune In and Assess Severity

Method: Think about the issue you want to apply EFT to. It can help to close your eyes and tune into the issue.

What emotion are you feeling? Name it (anger, fear, anxiety, etc.).

Then ask, how strong is the emotion. Rate it on a scale from 0 - no emotion to 10 - maximum emotion. Remember your number for future comparison.

The Karate Chop point is used in the EFT tapping Set-Up. Tap on the side of the hand with 4 fingers of the other hand. You can also tap the sides of both hands together, stimulating the point on both sides of the body at once.

Purpose: There are two purposes of this step.

The first is to activate the emotions related to the issue in your body's energy system.

The second is to help you determine whether you're making progress or not.

Possible Glitch: Sometimes it's difficult to actually feel the emotion of an issue when you're not involved in the experience of it.

It can help to imagine or tell the story of a specific event (the time you forgot your speach and felt very embarrassed, for example). Or imagine yourself doing the thing you fear (imagine speaking in class).

EFT is most effective when you are actually feeling the emotion.

2. The Set Up

Method: With the fingers of one hand, tap on the fleshy side of your other hand, where you would break a brick if you were a karate expert. This is commonly called the Karate Chop point.

While continuously tapping on the Karate Chop point, state (aloud or internally) a phrase that brings your issue to mind and affirms your self-acceptance:

Even though I have [this problem], I completely love and accept myself.

For example: Even though I have this fear of speaking in class, I completely love and accept myself.

Purpose: The purpose of the Set Up statement is to help pacify the unconscious part of us that may not want to give up the struggle we are having.

It also helps to build a real sense of self-love and acceptance - something most of us can use more of.

Possible Glitch: Some find it difficult to feel self-acceptance when wanting to change something they truly don't like about themselves. If it is impossible to say (and mean), "I completely love and accept myself," soften the phrase to "... I accept myself," or even "... I want to accept myself." You can even try, "Even though I don't accept myself, I would like to."

With children, I often use the Set-Up phrases, "Even though... I'm OK." or "Even though... I'm still a good kid."

See a specific example of how I used the Emotional Freedom Techniques with Mike for his anxiety about "saying something dumb."

The EFT tapping points on the head and torso Gently tap each point 5-10 times at each spot. Most of the tapping points are on both sides of the body. You can tap on just one side(either one), or both at the same time. Tap with your fingertips, not fingernails, about as hard as you would lightly drum on a tabletop. Tapping on each point (on either or both sides) is called "one round" of EFT tapping.

3. The EFT Tapping Points and Sequence

Tap about as hard as you'd drum lightly on a table, 5 and 10 times, or about as long as it takes to take a breath, or say your tapping phrase.

See the following diagram for the tapping points.

While you are tapping, continue to tune into your issue, repeating your tapping phrase at each spot, [this problem]. Example:

Fear of speaking in class.

You can either start at the Eyebrow point and tap on all the points down to the side of the body, returning to the top of the head. Or you can start at the top of the head and tap down through the points, ending under the arm. Either way works well.

Tapping all the points is called "one round." Do at least three rounds before moving on to the next step.

Here are the tapping points:

Eyebrow - Tap with 2-4 fingertips on the bone where the eyebrows start. You can tap here with one or both hands. Using all 4 fingertips lets you cover both sides with one hand.

Side of Eye - Tap gently on the bone just outside the eye. Use 2 fingertips. You can tap on one side only, or use both hands and tap on both sides.

Under the Eye - Tap gently, using 2 fingertips on the bone just under the eye. You can tap on one or both sides.

Under the Nose - Tap right in the center, using 2 or 3 fingertips. Use just one hand, as the meridian that ends here is right in the center.

Chin - Tap right in the center, using 2 or 3 fingertips. Use just one hand, as the meridian that ends here is right in the center.

Collar Bone - Find the notch where the collar bones join in the center of the chest. Drop down about an inch and out to both sides 1-2 inches. Tap firmly with 3 fingertips, to cover a broader area.

Under the Arm - This point is around 4 inches under the armpit, on the side of the body, where a shirt seam falls. You can tap with both hands, either crossing your arms in front of you, or tapping with the same side hands. Do whichever id easier. When you are right on the spot, it may be sore (means you've found the spot).

Top of Head - Several energy meridians run over the head. To stimulate more of them, use all 5 fingertips of one hand and tap around in a circle at the top of the head.

Purpose: EFT is based on the theory that all negative emotions are caused by a disruption in the body's energy system. Therefore, if you tap on the body's energy meridians while experiencing the negative emotion, the disrupted state can (and usually does) change.

Possible Glitch: There are a variety of possible glitches at this point.

Check out the way Liz and I used EFT when she was suddenly unable to read.

4. Next Steps

Now is the time to take a deep breath and tune back in. Imagine your issue again and assess the intensity. If you notice a change, but your emotional charge on the issue is not down to 0, do more rounds of EFT to collapse the emotion and associated beliefs all the way.

This time, you will change the set-up phrase slightly:

Even though I still have some of this fear of speaking in class, I completely love and accept myself.

For your tapping phrase, change it slightly to :

This remaining fear of speaking in class.

That is the basic protocol for EFT tapping, sometimes called tapping therapy. Although it's simple, it works amazing well for everything from anxiety to anger to headaches to insomnia. While there are hundreds of innovative variations and advanced techniques, the basic recipe is the place to start in learning this powerful energy psychology method.

Try it and see for yourself the amazing power of EFT.

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