That depends…

Our bodies are very powerful healing machines. Healing machines that we still don’t fully understand. There have been a number of studies in the last 100 years showing that the body will heal if it thinks it is receiving some sort of healing treatment or medication, even when it is not. In one recent study people were told that they were going to receive antidepressants without the active ingredients (meaning it didn’t contain the medicine) yet some still showed an improvement in their condition.

This phenomenon of the body healing itself without any treatment is known as “the placebo effect”. The name comes from the fake pills given in double blind drug tests, called placebos. It was first observed when test subjects receiving placebos showed improvement.

If you are interested in the topic, I highly recommend reading Timeless Healing by Herbert Benson and Marg Stark. In the book they explore what “remembered wellness” (a more precise term than the placebo effect) is and how it might work.

It is entirely possible that this is the case with some experiences of tapping. I would not be surprised if this were true in some of my clients.

I have worked with skeptical clients, even those who didn’t want tapping to work because they thought it was just “new age mumbo jumbo”. Where I was able to get them actively to try the protocol we had success, letting me know anecdotally there is a mechanical component to tapping.

With all of that being said, I don’t really care. I don’t care if tapping is powerful or if it is just the power of the body and mind believing that tapping is powerful. All I am concerned about is healing in a safe and effective way.

As there are no known side effects to EFT, we will not cause harm in using it. To me, therefore, it doesn’t really matter why it works.

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I am not one of those fanatics who reject Western medicine. There is a time and place for using diet, exercise, yoga, tapping, massage, drugs, and surgery. There are no one-size-fits- all solutions.

There is still a great deal we don’t know about the body and how it works. No doubt people living one hundred years from now will think our approach at the beginning of the 21st century is quaint, outdated, and maybe even foolish, in the same way that we regard the medical practices of the 1800s.

I would be wary of anyone who tried to convince me that tapping (or anything else) is the one and only way. I have experienced in my own life and seen in my client’s lives the power of tapping, but it is not the only answer.

Tapping is a great complement to many other health practices. I would never advise anyone to use only tapping. My advice is always:

• Educate yourself about your body to understand your current health issues and your family medical history.
• Research all possible treatment options thoroughly so that you are aware of all the short and long term beneficial outcomes, as well as potential side effects of any treatment.
• Remember it is your body and your health. Seek advice from professionals but remember that the choice on what treatment you pursue should always be yours.

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That depends.

I have seen tapping provide relief for 5 minutes, 5 hours, 5 days, 5 months, and forever.

No two problems are alike. A cut finger and a torn muscle will heal in different ways and at different rates, just like your partner saying horrible things about you will not have the same impact as a total stranger saying the same words.

The amount of healing that is provided by tapping is in direct proportion to how much of the problem we can tune into at any given time. Some issues have many aspects to them. At this moment we might only be aware of one or two of these aspects. This is where we can do work right away. At a later date we might find other aspects of the same issue to address.

This does not mean that tapping didn’t work. It just means there is still more work to do.

Also, it is important to remember that if it has taken a lifetime to develop a problem, it is unlikely to go away with a round or two of tapping.

Tapping is a great tool for providing temporary relief. Every time we create relief in the moment, we are making progress on the issue as a whole and how it will affect us in the future.

An analogy I use a lot is of weeding the yard. We can cut off the heads of dandelions and the yard will look good for a while, but they will grow back. If we also remove the leaves, they will still grow back, but it will take much longer. But, if we get the roots they will never grow back.

Sometimes when we work on an issue we remove the heads, sometimes the leaves, and sometimes the roots. This determines how long our progress lasts.

Just remember, any progress we make, no matter how small, is progress towards a healthier self. Using EFT we are doing this in a way that does not require any surgery or drugs.

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There are no known side effects of using tapping. With that being said, you should keep four things in mind.

1) Before you begin any physical or emotional treatment you should ALWAYS seek the advice of your primary care physician. This is true for a new diet, a new exercise program, or tapping. The understanding of the human body is constantly growing and changing. Make sure you find the most current information before making any decisions about the type of care you choose.

2) If you encounter any negative side effects or adverse reaction, STOP. Seek the advice of a trained medical professional. Note that it is common for the tapping points to be a little sensitive. The article It Hurts! discusses what you can do when tapping points feel tender.

3) Just because tapping is a useful tool for a problem, doesn’t mean you are the right person to use that tool. For example, tapping works wonderfully on Dissociative Identity Disorder (formerly known as multi-personality disorder), but there is no way that I am qualified to do that sort of work. DID is very complicated and I could do more harm than good.

So being proficient with tapping doesn’t mean you should use it with someone else to deal with an issue for which you aren't qualified. Tapping is a tool to use in an appropriate context. If you are not trained to work in a certain context without tapping, then you shouldn’t use tapping in that context. You should seek the help of a trained professional.

4) Scratches and pimples are two physical reactions I have encountered using tapping. When my fingernails are too long I scratch myself when tapping. I also sometimes forget to wash my face after an hour of tapping. It’s easy to find the tapping points on my face the next day, just look for the pimples!

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Yes and no.

In my experience, tapping is mechanical. This means that if it is done right, it works. Much like you don’t have to believe an aspirin will work for it to help your headache, if tapping is done correctly it will be effective whether or not the subject believes it will work. But there are a few important things to keep in mind.

1) You must do it correctly. For tapping to work, the person who is doing the tapping has to be tuned into issue being addressed. Just because you are saying the words out loud doesn’t mean you are tuned in to the problem.

I can be saying “This pain in my foot. This pain in my foot. This pain in my foot…” but be thinking about what is on TV tonight. If this is the case I am not tuned into the problem or following the tapping protocol correctly so it will not work.

If a person is skeptical they are less likely to commit fully to the process and there is a higher probability that tapping won’t work because they are not doing it correctly.

2) Understand what you mean by success. We call an aspirin a success if it stops a headache for a few hours, but we don’t expect to never have a headache again. Hold tapping to the same standard. It is very easy for a skeptic to dismiss tapping because the change isn’t permanent.

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