What Is EFT Tapping? A Gentle, Body-Centered Approach to Emotional Release
For creative souls and sensitive hearts seeking a softer path to healing
There are moments when words alone cannot reach the places inside us that need healing. You may have noticed this yourself. Sitting in conversation, understanding intellectually why you feel the way you do, yet still feeling that familiar tightness in your chest. That flutter of anxiety in your belly. That heaviness that seems to live just beneath the surface of your awareness.
If you're a creative, emotionally curious person who has already done some inner work, you likely recognize this gap between knowing and feeling, between insight and release. Perhaps you've found yourself wondering: Is there a way to speak directly to my body? To help these stuck emotions finally move through me?
This is where Emotional Freedom Technique, commonly known as EFT tapping, enters the conversation. As a therapist serving clients throughout Sonoma County, the North Bay Area of California, Seattle, Washington State, and New York State, I've witnessed how this gentle, body-centered practice can open doorways that talk therapy alone sometimes cannot reach.
Understanding EFT Tapping: Where Ancient Wisdom Meets Modern Healing
EFT tapping is a therapeutic technique that combines elements of ancient Chinese acupressure with modern psychological practices. At its core, tapping involves gently stimulating specific meridian points on the body, similar to those used in acupuncture, while focusing on particular emotions, memories, or beliefs that are causing distress.
But to describe EFT merely as a technique feels incomplete. For those of us drawn to depth work and integrative healing, tapping becomes something more expansive. It becomes a bridge between the mind and body, a way of honoring that our emotional experiences are not just psychological but profoundly physical.
When we experience stress, anxiety, trauma, or difficult emotions, our bodies remember. They hold these experiences in our nervous systems, our muscles, our breath patterns. Traditional talk therapy offers beautiful gifts: insight, understanding, new perspectives. But sometimes our bodies need something more direct. They need to be included in the conversation.
The Science Behind the Gentleness
Research into EFT tapping has grown significantly over the past two decades, offering evidence for what many of us sense intuitively: that addressing the body can create profound shifts in our emotional landscape.
Studies have shown that tapping on acupressure points while focusing on distressing thoughts or memories can reduce cortisol levels, the stress hormone that keeps our nervous systems on high alert. Brain imaging research suggests that EFT can calm the amygdala, the part of our brain responsible for our fight-flight-freeze responses.
For those of us working with anxiety, trauma, or depression, this is significant. It means that EFT tapping offers a pathway to regulate our nervous systems, to signal safety to parts of ourselves that have been on guard, perhaps for a very long time.
How EFT Tapping Works: A Journey Through the Practice
If you've never experienced EFT tapping, you might be curious about what it actually looks like in practice. Allow me to walk you through the basic framework, while acknowledging that in our work together, we would adapt and personalize this process to meet your unique inner landscape.
The Tapping Points
EFT involves tapping gently with your fingertips on specific points on the body, typically in this sequence:
The side of the hand (the karate chop point)
The top of the head
The beginning of the eyebrow (near the bridge of the nose)
The side of the eye (on the bone at the outer corner)
Under the eye (on the bone beneath the pupil)
Under the nose (between the nose and upper lip)
The chin point (in the crease between the lower lip and chin)
The collarbone point (where the collarbone meets the breastbone)
Under the arm (about four inches below the armpit)
Each point corresponds to different meridians in the body, energy pathways that, according to traditional Chinese medicine, carry our life force. While you don't need to believe in meridians for EFT to be effective, there's something poetic about the idea that we're touching places where energy flows, inviting movement where there has been stagnation.
The Setup Statement
Before beginning a round of tapping, we create what's called a setup statement. This is where EFT becomes beautifully aligned with the kind of depth-oriented, compassionate work I value in my practice.
A typical setup statement follows this format: "Even though I feel [specific emotion or experience], I deeply and completely accept myself."
For example:
"Even though I feel this anxiety in my chest, I deeply and completely accept myself."
"Even though part of me is still carrying this old grief, I deeply and completely accept myself."
"Even though I'm overwhelmed by this transition in my life, I deeply and completely accept myself."
Do you notice what's happening here? We're not trying to push away the difficult feeling or pretend it doesn't exist. We're acknowledging it fully while simultaneously offering ourselves acceptance. This mirrors the philosophy I bring to all my therapeutic work, that healing happens not through rejection of our difficult parts, but through gentle acknowledgment and integration.
The Tapping Rounds
After establishing the setup statement, we move through the tapping points while speaking reminder phrases, shortened versions of what we're working on. We might say "this anxiety" or "this heaviness" or "this part of me that's afraid" as we tap each point.
What often emerges is a natural unfolding. The intensity of the emotion may shift. New insights may surface. Parts of ourselves that have been hidden may gently make themselves known. The body begins to participate in the healing process in a way that feels organic and true.
EFT Tapping and the Parts of You: An Integrative Perspective
One of the things I find most compelling about EFT tapping is how beautifully it integrates with Internal Family Systems (IFS) therapy, another modality I offer in my practice. In IFS, we understand that we all contain multiple parts: inner voices, subpersonalities, aspects of ourselves that developed over time, often in response to our experiences and environments.
Some of these parts carry burdens. A part might hold anxiety as a way of protecting us from perceived danger. Another part might carry old grief or shame. These parts often store their experiences in our bodies. That's why we feel emotions physically, why anxiety lives in our stomachs and sadness weighs on our chests.
When I work with clients using EFT tapping, I often invite them to bring curiosity to which part of them is activated. Rather than simply tapping on "anxiety," we might tap on "the part of me that learned to be vigilant" or "the young part that still carries this fear." This creates a more personalized, nuanced experience that honors the complexity of your inner world.
For creative and intuitive souls who are drawn to parts work and shadow work, this integration feels natural. It's an invitation to the body to join the inner conversation, to help parts of you feel heard not just psychologically but somatically.
Who Can Benefit from EFT Tapping?
In my online therapy practice serving clients across Sonoma County, the North Bay Area, Seattle, Washington State, and New York State, I've seen EFT tapping offer relief and transformation to a wide range of individuals. While everyone's experience is unique, here are some areas where tapping often provides meaningful support.
Anxiety and the Overwhelmed Nervous System
If you live with anxiety, you know it's not just a thought pattern. It's a full-body experience. Racing heart, shallow breath, tension that seems to have no beginning or end. EFT tapping speaks directly to this physical dimension of anxiety, offering a way to calm the nervous system while also addressing the thoughts and beliefs that fuel the anxious cycle.
For sensitive and creative individuals, anxiety often comes from having a nervous system that feels more. More sensation, more awareness, more attunement to the environment. Tapping honors this sensitivity rather than trying to suppress it, helping to regulate without diminishing your natural gifts of perception and feeling.
Processing Difficult Experiences and Trauma
Trauma lives in the body. This understanding has become central to modern therapeutic approaches, and EFT tapping aligns with this wisdom. When words aren't enough to process what you've been through, tapping offers a way to include the body in the healing work.
What I appreciate about using EFT for difficult experiences is that it can be titrated. We can approach the material gently, in small pieces, allowing your system to process at its own pace. This is especially important for those who have found other approaches too overwhelming or who have parts that are protective about accessing painful memories.
Depression and Emotional Heaviness
Depression often carries a quality of stagnation. Energy that has stopped flowing. Emotions that have become frozen. EFT tapping can invite gentle movement back into this stuck landscape. The physical act of tapping itself creates sensation and engagement, while the verbal components help name and acknowledge what's been weighing you down.
For those experiencing what I call "languishing in adulthood," that space between depression and flourishing where life feels muted and meaning feels distant, EFT can be a tool for reconnecting with your body and gently inviting energy to flow again.
Life Transitions and Identity Shifts
Major life transitions, whether chosen or unexpected, often create a kind of internal dissonance. Part of you is moving forward while another part clings to what was. Your mind might have accepted the change while your body still holds the old patterns.
EFT tapping offers a way to help all parts of you catch up with each other, to process the endings that transitions require, and to create space for the new identities emerging within you. For creative individuals navigating career changes, relationship shifts, or the complex terrain of growing older, this integration can feel profoundly supportive.
The Experience of EFT in Online Therapy
You might wonder how something as body-centered as EFT tapping translates to online therapy. In my experience offering virtual sessions to clients throughout California, Washington, and New York, I've found that tapping adapts beautifully to the online format.
Because you're tapping on your own body, there's no loss of the somatic element. In fact, some clients find that being in their own space, surrounded by their familiar environment, actually enhances their sense of safety and willingness to go deeper. I guide you through the process, we tap together through the screen, and the healing work unfolds just as powerfully as it would in person.
For creative individuals who have created sacred spaces in their homes, who have altars or art studios or quiet corners where they feel most themselves, online EFT sessions can feel like an invitation of the therapeutic work into your own sanctuary.
What to Expect When We Work Together
If you're curious about exploring EFT tapping as part of your therapeutic journey, I want you to know that the process would be entirely tailored to you. There is no one-size-fits-all approach here, just as there shouldn't be in any truly integrative therapeutic work.
In our initial conversations, we would explore what's bringing you to this work, what your inner landscape looks like, and what modalities might serve you best. EFT tapping might become a central part of our work together, or it might be one tool among several that we draw upon depending on what emerges in our sessions.
I often weave EFT with Internal Family Systems work, allowing parts to be heard both verbally and somatically. We might use tapping to help a protective part relax enough for deeper work to happen. We might tap on beliefs that have been blocking your creative expression. We might use it to process specific memories or to generally regulate your nervous system at the beginning of a session.
The work is collaborative. I bring my training and experience; you bring your intuition and self-knowledge. Together, we create something that honors both.
Between Sessions: Tapping as a Practice
One of the gifts of EFT is that once you learn the basics, you can use it on your own between sessions. Many of my clients find this empowering. Having a tool that they can reach for when anxiety rises, when old patterns surface, when they need support and their therapist isn't available.
I often provide clients with personalized tapping prompts to explore between our meetings. These are ways of continuing the work we've begun together, of staying in conversation with the parts of themselves we've contacted. This might include specific scripts related to what we're processing, or more general practices for nervous system regulation.
For creative souls, I sometimes invite clients to combine tapping with their artistic practice. Tapping before entering the studio. Using tapping to move through creative blocks. Or creating art that emerges from what surfaces during tapping sessions.
EFT Tapping Within a Depth-Oriented Framework
What distinguishes the way I work with EFT from more surface-level applications is my commitment to depth-oriented psychotherapy. I'm not interested in simply reducing symptoms, though that certainly matters. I'm interested in understanding why those symptoms arose in the first place, what parts of you they're connected to, and how they fit into the larger story of your becoming.
When we tap together, we're not just trying to make uncomfortable feelings go away. We're creating space for those feelings to be heard, to tell their stories, to release what they've been holding. We're inviting integration, which is, after all, what the name of my practice, Creating an Integrated Self, points toward.
This approach resonates particularly with clients who have already done therapeutic work and are seeking something deeper. You're not looking for quick fixes; you're looking for genuine transformation. EFT tapping, used within this depth-oriented framework, can be a powerful catalyst for the kind of lasting change you're seeking.
Common Questions About EFT Tapping
Do I need to believe in it for it to work?
Not at all. While EFT has roots in energy medicine traditions, you don't need to subscribe to any particular belief system for it to be effective. The physiological effects, calming the nervous system and reducing stress hormones, happen regardless of belief. I invite you to approach it with curiosity rather than skepticism or faith, and let your own experience guide you.
Is EFT the same as EMDR?
While both EFT and EMDR (Eye Movement Desensitization and Reprocessing) involve bilateral stimulation and are used to process difficult experiences, they are distinct modalities. EFT focuses on tapping acupressure points and includes verbal statements, while EMDR uses eye movements and has a different therapeutic framework. Both can be valuable; they simply approach healing through different pathways.
How long does it take to see results?
This varies tremendously from person to person and depends on what we're working with. Some clients experience immediate shifts in the intensity of emotions during their first tapping session. For deeper patterns or long-held beliefs, the work unfolds over time. I resist making promises about timelines because I believe in honoring each person's unique process.
Can I use EFT on my own?
Absolutely. Once you learn the technique, you can use it independently. However, working with a trained therapist allows for deeper exploration, professional guidance when difficult material surfaces, and integration with other therapeutic approaches. Many clients use both: guided sessions with me and personal practice between sessions.
Beginning Your Journey
If something in this exploration has resonated with you, if you're a creative, emotionally curious person seeking gentler ways to work with anxiety, process difficult experiences, navigate life transitions, or simply come home to your body, I invite you to reach out.
Whether you're in Sonoma County or elsewhere in the North Bay Area of California, in Seattle or throughout Washington State, or anywhere in New York State, I offer online therapy sessions that can meet you wherever you are.
The path to integration isn't always linear, and it asks something of us. But with the right support and the right tools, tools like EFT tapping that honor both your psychological complexity and your embodied experience, genuine transformation is possible.
Your body holds wisdom. Your parts have stories to tell. And sometimes, what's needed is simply a gentle tap, an acknowledgment of what is, and the deep acceptance that allows everything to shift.
I look forward to the possibility of walking this path with you.
To learn more about working together or to schedule a consultation, please reach out through my website. I'm happy to answer any questions you have about EFT tapping or any of the other modalities I offer.