Are you looking for a science-backed approach to healing that prioritizes a gentle approach and how it feels in your body? I know what you may be thinking… that is a tall order to fill. But it’s not impossible because EFT is the answer.

EFT has been such a game changer for me because I feel my emotions deeply. My mom always reminds me that I’ve always had a sensitive nervous system – and she’s completely right. My clients and I have found deep relief and healing using EFT because we feel our emotions in our bodies and require gentle techniques to feel our best.

For just a second, imagine what your life would be like if you could always return to calm without it taking days.

Would you have more energy to work on your dreams? How would your relationships improve if you could process what happens between you? What would your inner voice sound like?

EFT can help you get to that life. I’m sharing all about EFT in today’s blog post including the points to use, how to start tapping, and what it looks like to use EFT.

What is EFT?

Emotional Freedom Techniques (EFT) is commonly referred to as tapping. EFT and tapping are used interchangeably in this blog post and my other resources.

EFT is a practice where you tap with your fingertips on 9 main pressure points along energy meridians derived from Chinese Medicine.

As you tap on the points, you focus on an emotion, belief, or experience that is causing you stress or other uncomfortable feelings. EFT sends signals to your nervous system that you are safe and can let go of what you are holding onto.

EFT is a great addition to your daily wellness practices because anyone can learn it.

There are no known negative side effects.

EFT is backed by over 100 studies that shows the positive impacts.
It is free to use when tapping on your own.
Tapping is non-invasive.
It can be customized to your life with the length of a session and tapping can be done anywhere.

As a certified EFT practitioner, I recommend everyone try EFT to see how it helps them. This tool is especially for those of us who experience their emotions deep in their body and are looking for a gentle approach to start healing.

Benefits of EFT

Studies have shown that clinical EFT has many positive impacts including:

Reduced anxiety and depression symptoms
Reduced cortisol levels
Increased happiness
Decreased severity of physical symptoms like pain
Decreased fear and lessening the strength of phobias
Reduced cravings
Reduced PTSD (Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder) symptoms

Throughout my sessions, my clients have experienced benefits like:

Increased compassion and understanding of themselves.
Release of emotions like sadness, shame, anger, frustration, worry, and fear.
Pain and tension are released from their body.
Cognitive shifts to more positive and hopeful beliefs.
Clarity on when they picked up beliefs and how past events have affected them.
Increased creativity and excitement to work on their passion projects, businesses, and to-do list iteams.
Increased freedom to feel their feelings without shame and permitted themselves to hold space for themselves.
Less worry about future conversations and interactions with others like romantic partners, co-workers, friends, family members, and past partners.

What can EFT be used for?

EFT can be applied to many situations like processing painful memories, current stressors, feelings about current physical symptoms, and limiting beliefs that hold you back.

I’m sharing topics and issues I have helped clients with through EFT tapping.

Memories of painful messages from parents
Processing feelings of a divorce
Body image issues
Conflicting wants and fears
Harmful beliefs like “I’m being a baby” and “I’m too stupid”
Worry, fear, and dread about an upcoming event
Conflicts with their romantic partners, friends, or family members
Worries about how an important event will go
The relationship they have with themselves
Procrastination on projects within their homes and businesses
Fear of putting themselves out there and being seen by others
And so much more…

I currently help people by working through the inner critic and letting go of the messages from society or past events so they can speak more kindly to themselves.

EFT is great for this because no matter how many positive affirmations you use – if it doesn’t feel true in your core, you won’t believe it. Tapping allows us to go deep into when we learned our beliefs and gives us space to find a new empowering truth.

What points do you tap on?

There are 9 main pressure points that you will use while tapping.

Side of hand
Top of head
Eyebrow
Side of eye
Under eye
Under nose
Chin
Collarbone
Under arm

Want more details about these points? Read my blog post about the EFT points and how to make sure you are tapping in the right place.

How do you use EFT?

No matter the EFT technique you are following, each tapping round will always include a Set-Up Statement that you voice on the side of the hand point and Reminder Phrases used with the other points.

A Set-Up Statement follows a simple formula of voicing your current feelings and a reframe. This blends exposure to the trigger or current feeling and allows space to make a cognitive reframe.

This is repeated three times while tapping on the side of your hand. Repeating it three times gives you time to ease into the tapping round – and it’s used first because this point is used to move your energy in the right direction.

Example: For my example to show how tapping may look and sound, I’m using a situation we all run into – feeling sick to our stomachs because of a conversation we need to have with a friend.

Example Set-Up Statement: Even though I feel sick to my stomach thinking about the conversation I need to have with (friend’s name), I deeply and completely love and accept myself.

This reframe of “I deeply and completely love and accept myself” is the standard but if it doesn’t feel true for you to say, you have the choice to use a different phrase that does feel true. Some of my favorites are:

I’m open to being kind to myself
Maybe I can show myself compassion
It makes sense that I feel this way

Once you move on to the next points, the top of the head through the underarm (and any extras your EFT practitioner may teach you & add in), you will be using reminder phrases.

Reminder phrases act as more exposure and help keep your mind focused so the tapping signals know where to go. These can be as simple as saying the feeling, issue, or details of an event.

My favorite reminder phrases to use with clients are to visualize the details, reenact tone or a facial expression, and use real-life examples to keep the mind focused like reading a text or looking at something that is causing the uncomfortable feelings.

Example Reminder Phrases:

Top of the head – this conversation I need to have with my friend
Eyebrow – ugh I feel sick to my stomach
Side of the eye – sick to my stomach
Under the eye – describing the conversation
Under the nose – describing the feeling in the stomach
Chin – saying the friend’s name
Collarbone – the conversation I need to have with my friend
Underarm – visualizing the friend in the conversation

This is just one example of how a round of tapping can look! Each round will look different, and the goal is to get as specific as possible while tapping.

You may tap for different lengths of time. There is no magic number of rounds of tapping to do. Some issues and feelings may be cleared after a few rounds, and some deeper issues or longer experiences may need to be tapped on many times. All of this is normal.

The general rule of thumb is to tap until you feel no emotional charge. This isn’t always possible so after a few rounds of tapping, you can close out your EFT practice by tapping on the same points and noticing the shifts that took place in your practice.

How do you tap on the points?

Here’s what you need to know about tapping.

Use the side of the hand for as long as you need to say the Set-Up Statement three times. You can also tap here while you take deep breaths to help center yourself or in between rounds of tapping as a nice check-in.

Tap on each point for the length of a breath. Roughly 7-10 taps per point (but I promise, you don’t have to count for this to work!)

Don’t tap too hard. Light tapping works – and you don’t want to hurt yourself.

If tapping is uncomfortable or too much at any point, you can lightly hold each point for the same length of time as you would tap.

Choose to tap on the right side, left side, both at the same time, or switch between the sides. These points and energy meridians are parallel so it’s up to you to find the most comfortable side.

What is the difference between working with an EFT practitioner vs tapping with a script?

One of the main benefits of working with a certified EFT practitioner is the access to clinical EFT. Clinical EFT is specific to your situation by using your own words, moves at a pace that considers your safety within your body and emotionally, and utilizes many different techniques to meet you where you’re at.

As you tap, it’s important to not rush yourself into creating an emotional or cognitive shift, or by rushing into a new positive belief. This is another benefit of clinical EFT, your practitioner will hold space for how you currently feel without any pressure to feel differently as you tap. This is a common mistake I see some making in the online space.

EFT is an amazing tool, but if used incorrectly it will not be effective and could reinforce patterns that you are hoping to rewire with tapping.

You’ll see some scripts online that force positivity without first addressing the true feelings. I urge you to stay away from those scripts so you can get the most out of tapping. If you want EFT tapping scripts that are created by a certified EFT practitioner and follow the true methods of tapping, you can find all of my free tapping scripts here.

Main takeaways: always speak YOUR truth while tapping and make sure you are doing what is necessary to keep yourself safe while tapping.

As always, I suggest working with a certified EFT practitioner if you are looking to tap on a heavy topic or deep issue that requires more support. As practitioners, we have many more tapping techniques than the example I shared in this blog post that will ease you into tapping and prevent rushing into a topic or painful memory before you feel okay to go there.

I’m here to help you start using EFT in your healing journey and finally let go of your inner critic. Find the ways to work with me and experience clinical EFT.

Next Steps

Are you ready to start tapping for your healing? There are many ways to use EFT. Practice solo tapping with EFT scripts, work with a certified EFT practitioner, or find tapping activities to incorporate tapping into your daily life.

Consider this your official invitation to add EFT into your life and experience all the benefits it brings!

I would love to hear how tapping goes for you - send me an email.

P.S. I have an amazing tapping audio to help you get started with EFT. This 20-minute tapping audio will lower the volume on your inner critic and help you move towards a kinder internal voice. This audio is completely free and perfect for EFT beginners!

What is EFT and How Does it Work?