[None: This short history lesson is offered because many people ask about it. You do not need to understand the history of tapping in order to utilize it in your life. If you aren't interested in the history lesson, no worries. Skip to the next section and don't give it a second thought.]

The brief history of tapping goes something like this…

First there was Thought Field Therapy. Thought Field Therapy was developed in the early eighties by Dr. Rodger Callahan. Over the years the techniques have evolved. Different variations can be referred to as Thought Field Therapy (TFT), Evolving Thought Field Therapy (EvTFT), and the Callahan Techniques Thought Field Therapy (CTTFT).

In TFT there is a particular and unique way to tap for each and every issue. TFT is a very effective protocol, but some people find it frustrating because it can be complicated and cumbersome to beginners. (If you would like more info about TFT please visit [link]).

In the nineties Gary Craig studied TFT with Dr. Callahan and innovated Emotional Freedom Techniques (EFT) from this and other trainings. When creating EFT Gary's intention was to create a powerful tool that was simpler than TFT that anyone could do with limited training.

This original version of EFT is often referred to as the basic recipe.

When presenting the basic recipe to the world in the late 90's early 00's Gary encouraged people to take his work to add, change, and transform in as many ways as possible.

And people all over the world did just that.

If you spend any time poking around the internet looking for tapping stuff you will find TFT, EFT, FasterEFT, Ask and Receive, Adv. EFT, Matrix Re-Patterning, Matrix Re-Imprinting, and I am sure if you look long enough I'm sure you will find Gene's Really Cool Tapping Technique That Will Make You Rich, Handsome, and Allow You To Live Forever Technique.

Because there have been so many changes, innovation, interaction, and (honestly) renaming of the same thing eight ways to Sunday I am going to simple call it all tapping.

In the end it doesn't matter what you call it. All that matters is if tapping works for you.

The question I am most often asked is, “Does tapping work on [insert physical or emotional ailment]?”

The answer is yes and no.

In my own practice I have seen success with tapping for joint aches, headaches, warts, nasal congestion, upset stomachs, and swollen kidneys.

Some of my clients have experienced success with anger, inability to forgive, sadness, and loss. It has worked on writer’s block and difficulty in concentrating. I have clients who have seen progress with learning disabilities and autism, and others who have successfully killed cravings for sweets, carbs, and cigarettes.

So, yes, more than likely tapping can be helpful for your physical or emotional issue.

BUT (and this is a very important but) it is essential to keep two things in mind.

First, some issues will take much more work than others. As you spend time tapping you will probably experience “one minute miracles”, where after one round of tapping you will gain total relief. This won’t happen every time. You wouldn’t expect a cut finger and a torn muscle to heal in the same way and at the same rate. Tapping is no different.

Keep your expectations realistic when tapping.

Second, some issues are way more complicated than others. Some issues are going to be straightforward to deal with but others, especially those that have taken years to develop, will be very complex. For a beginner, even knowing where to start might feel overwhelming.

That’s OK. We were all beginners once. Just because you don’t have success right away does not mean that tapping does not work for that issue. It only means that how tapping is being applied at this time is not successful. It is quite possible that you are just not approaching the issue the right way.

Like all things, this will come with time. The more you try tapping, and the more time you spend reading about the experiences of others with tapping, the better you will be and the higher your success rate.

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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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No two issues are the same.

Similar issues don’t always have the same root. You can have a headache because you are dehydrated, because you received a blow to the head, or because of a sinus infection. The symptom is the same, but the causes are very different.

Each of these causes might require a different approach and a different amount of time to achieve relief with tapping or any other approach.

Using the tapping basics you will have success with a number of issues. You will be able to be successful with most non-chronic physical pain and many simple emotional issues.

Remember, each time you don’t have success with tapping you have the opportunity to challenge yourself to be more creative with the protocol and to seek out more information.

Every time I have encountered an issue where I have not had immediate success, I’ve learned something new, which makes each successive attempt more efficient.

Learning new things is hard. We don’t like being unsuccessful. Someone who is very good at tapping makes it look effortless. This is because they have made lots of mistakes along the way and have chosen to continue to learn.

You didn’t learn to walk in the first time. Tapping is no different.

The more you try, the better you will become.

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As we talked about in the history section on tapping, there are many approaches and points of view in how we tap. My approach is very straightforward, I use the following formula:

Tapping + Tuning into issue = Relief

The tapping part is simple. We will use 9 points on the body.

SoH (Side of Hand): This point is on the side of the hand, the part that you would use if you were going to break a board in a martial arts move. Use the fingertips of all four fingers of one hand to tap on the fleshy part of the side of the other hand.

TH (Top of the Head): This is located on the very tippy top of your head. The place to tap is the space where the piece of metal hits the top of your head when the doctor is measuring your height. Please note that this point can be very tender because you are tapping right on top of your brain. If it hurts to tap here just tap a few inches above the head without making contact.

EB (Eyebrow): When you tap on the eyebrow tap as far to the inside of the eyebrow without falling down onto the nose, using two fingers.

SE (Side of the Eye): This tapping point is located on the edge of your eye socket. Make sure you are on the ridge outside the eye, without touching your eyeball or eyelid. Use two fingers on this tapping point.

UE (Under the Eye): This point is on your cheek, directly below the iris of your eye. Use two fingers to tap on this point. There is a sinus cavity directly under this point so if you find it too tender to tap you can lightly touch the point and rub in small circles.

UN (Under the Nose): Use two fingers on this point which is located directly below the nose and above the upper lip.

C (Chin): The tapping point is located halfway between the point of your chin and your lower lip. Use two fingers on this tapping point.

CB (Collar Bone): This tapping point is located just under the collar bone near the center of the chest. To tap on this point use your whole hand. You can use either hand. I am going to use the right hand for the explanation, but you can use either. Open your right hand so you are looking at the palm of a flat hand. As you lay your hand flat on your chest place your right thumb along the right collar bone and lay your right index finger on the left collar bone. Use the whole hand and pat your chest like you were burping a baby.

UA (Under the Arm): Use all four fingertips to tap on the point located under your arm, located in the middle, as you move from front to back on your side. The point is about bra strap height. The place you tap will feel a bit like a bruise. You can tap on this point by reaching across your body or you can tap under the arm you are using to tap. If you don’t feel confident that you are tapping on the right spot, just tap the entire area.

Notes on tapping:
When you are tapping you will simply move from tapping point to tapping point as you tune into your issue. Here are some of the basics.

As we move through the process this is going to make more sense, but for now here are the basics.

How many times do I tap?
Tap on each spot six to eight times. Often you will be tapping while you are reading a script. If you are doing this you will tap on each point while you read one sentence. When you reach the end of sentence, move on to the next tapping point.

Which hand should I tap with?
It doesn’t matter which hand you use to tap. You will also notice that many of the tapping points can be found on both sides of the body. You can tap on either point with either hand. For example, you can use your right hand and tap on the right or left eyebrow and receive the same benefit. Some people like to use both hands when tapping, for example tapping with the right hand on the right eyebrow and the left hand of the left eyebrow.

Should I tap in a specific order?
The order you tap in is not important. The points above were explained in the order that the points line up neatly on the body. You can tap on the points in any order you want. It is most common to tap through them in the order above, but do what is most comfortable.

What if I am not sure if I am getting the right spot?
The nice thing about tapping is that it is a very forgiving tool. You just need it to be close. If you don’t feel you are getting the point exactly right just tap in a small circle covering as much of the area as possible. Nothing bad can happen if you tap on the wrong spot (assuming you are not poking your eyes out).

What happens if it hurts when I tap somewhere?
STOP! Tapping should not be painful. You need to take total responsibility for yourself when tapping. If it hurts beyond mild tenderness, don’t do it. If one of the tapping points hurts then just rub it. If it hurts to rub it, just touch the point and take deep breaths.

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Now that you have some sense of how to tap on your body, the second and most important part of tapping is the tuning in or paying attention to the issue at hand. The more detail we have and the more focused we are on an issue, the more effective tapping will be.

When I say “tuning in” all I mean is giving your conscious attention to something. For example, I want you to think about your shoes and how they are touching your feet. As you read that line and gave your feet some thought you had one of two experiences. Either you are wearing shoes and/or socks and you felt them touching your feet, or you aren’t wearing anything on your feet and you noticed how free your feet feel.

Either way, before reading the line of instructions you weren’t thinking about your feet at all. When you thought of your feet you could feel whatever was on them. Socks didn’t magically appear on your feet when you thought of them, you were just tuning that piece of information out. By giving them a little attention you noticed what was always there.

We are able to tune in and out of most things. You could have a sore knee which you don’t notice during the day, but when you sit down, take a deep breath and relax, all of sudden you start to notice the aching. Your knee didn’t begin to ache when you sat down, but you tuned it out during the day and now that you are not doing anything else you tune back into the pain.

We are able to tune in and out of things besides physical sensations. When we are sitting in the middle of a busy restaurant with lots of people talking we are able tune out everyone else and focus on the person we are talking to. We can watch a sporting event or movie and completely lose connection with everything else in the world.

When we are tapping we want to give as much attention as possible to the issue at hand. The more focused we are on what is going on, the more powerful the tapping will be. To show you how easy it is to tune into something in a more specific way there are a series of statements below. I don’t want to you read them all once. Read the first statement and take a moment to do what it says. After you have given it 10 to 15 seconds move on to the next statement.

• Imagine one of the classrooms you attended in 2nd, 3rd, or 4th grade
• Imagine what your teacher looked like
• Imagine what your desk looked like
• Imagine some of the kids who sat around you or were friends at the time
• Imagine what is on the walls of the classroom

As you read some of the statements you remembered lots of details while it might have been harder to get an image for others. As you moved from statement to statement the classroom became increasingly clear. After the first statement you were tuned into the classroom, but by the fifth statement you were even more focused.

Whatever you are tapping on, the more tuned into the issue you want to address, the more effective the tapping will be.

I know this sounds like a lot to begin with. This guide is written so that you don’t have to worry about any of this. All you need to do is know where the tapping points are, follow the instructions for each of the tools, and tap. If you do that, even if you don’t understand a single thing about the tapping itself, you will find relief.

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It looks weird! It feels weird!
Yes, tapping looks very weird. Yes, tapping feels very weird. There are lots of things that we do today that would have seem very strange to generations that came before us. At a certain point getting better becomes more important than how it looks or feels. In the next section I will talk about how to tap in a discrete way so that other people don’t see you doing it. In the meantime, it is OK to accept the fact that it is odd.

I don’t believe it will work!
I know. It seems unbelievable that you should be able to tap on your body in this seemingly random way and find some relief. I feel that way sometimes myself. I have done this professionally for years and there are things that I have experienced that still seem impossible.

One of the best parts about tapping is that you don’t need to believe that it will work for it to work.

If you carefully follow the steps in the guide it will make a big difference. It doesn’t matter if you believe it or not. The important thing is you have to give it an honest effort. Step into tapping with an open mind. If you give this an honest try it will make a difference.

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As an introduction to using tapping we will start by giving it a try by tapping on a physical ache or pain. We are going to do this for two reasons.

First, it will be a simple introduction to the technique, with the added benefit of showing you how to take care of physical pain with tapping. Second, physical pain can impact our emotional state. When we are in pain (like when we have a headache) we can be much crankier and much more likely to get angry. When we tap for physical aches and pains we help ourselves to make fewer emotional choices.

To do this we are going to follow three simple steps.

1) Choose a physical pain to tap for. If nothing comes to mind right away, take a deep breath and scan your body for something. For each of the following questions I want you to write down your answer as we are going to use your answers in the next step.

• Where is the pain located? Be as specific as possible when describing the location. For example don’t write “my right knee” but “on the front of my right knee on the knee cap.” The more specific the better.
• What type of pain is it? Is it dull, sharp, achy, pulsing, itchy, or hot? The more detailed the description the better.
• What is the Subject Unit of Distress lever? This is a rating from 0–10 of the pain. 0 is no pain at all and 10 is the worst pain you have ever felt. Don’t get too hung up on coming up with exactly the right number.
• What is the 3D shape of the pain? Is it flat on the surface of the skin, does it feel like a ball of pain, is it a long strip of tightness that runs the length of the muscle, or does it have a round center with tentacles of pain spreading out in all directions? Again, the more detail you can provide the better.
• Is there an epicenter to the pain and where is it located? Is the pain evenly distributed? Does it have more than one center with the rest fanning out?
• How much does the pain weigh? If you were to guess and pretend that you could hold the pain in your hand, how much would it weigh? You don’t need to know exact pounds, but does it weigh as much as a grapefruit, a steel rod, or is it as light as a feather?
• If you were to paint a picture of the pain to show to someone else what color or colors would you use? Be specific. Don’t just write red. Is it fire truck red or rust red? Is it red in the middle and fading to light blues as you get to edge of the pain? Describe the color in as much detail as possible.
• If you were to make a model of this pain what material would you use to make it? Would it be a ball of hard rubber, burning lava, metal wire, or does it feel like a mass of cotton candy?
• Image a little cartoon face on the front of the pain. If it could talk, what would it say? It might say something specific, it might scream in pain, or it might just stick its tongue out at you. Give it a voice and what would it say?
• What does the pain remind you of? Just write the first thing that comes to mind. It could be a person, a place, or a situation.
• What emotion is associated with the pain? Again, don’t give this a lot of thought, just the first thing that comes to mind.
• What memory is associated with the pain? There may not be one, but when you read that question, what is the first thing that came to mind?
• Is the pain associated with someone? Don’t think about this too much, but who comes to mind and why?
• What does the pain need? Does it need to be heard? Does it need you to do something? Just ask the pain, what does it need, and write the answer down.
• What does the pain want you to learn? It might not want you to learn anything, but ask the pain what it needs.

2) Tap for the pain.
Take all the answers you have written down and tap through them. With each new sentence move to a new tapping point. To do this start tapping on the first tapping point. Read the first question and as you read the answer concentrate on it. Once you have done this move to the second tapping point and repeat the process with the second question. When you have used up all the tapping points simply return to the first tapping point and work through them all again until you are out of questions.

3) Re-rate the pain level.
After tapping though the list above rate the pain again on a scale of 0–10. If the pain has not reduced to a level that you are happy with, tap through steps 2 and 3 again.

It is really that simple. Before you move on I would encourage you to try tapping for something physical a few more times. This is give you a little more practice and a few different experiences of what tapping is like, making it easier as we add new things to the process.

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Now that you have had a chance to try tapping on something physical we are going to try tapping on something emotional. Tapping is a great tool to use for any emotion that we are feeling.

Once again to make it easy I have created a simple step-by-step process for you to follow. As you are doing this make you have a piece of paper and write down the answer to each of the questions because we will use your answers in later steps.

1) Name The Emotion
This is very easy to do. I want you to think of an emotion that you have that you don’t enjoy. This could be anger, sadness, overwhelm, stress, or frustration.

2) Name A Specific Instance
In as much detail as you can come up with describe one specific instance of when you felt this emotion. Talk about who was there, what was said, what you were thinking, what you are thinking now as you remember it, and all the outcomes of the situation. Imagine you are sitting across from me in a coffee shop and telling me exactly what happened as if I know none of the details.

3) Rate The Emotion
As you tune back into the story how big does the emotion feel? On a scale of 0–10 rate how strong the emotion is right now. 0 would be no emotion and 10 would be that you are totally consumed by the emotion.

4) Describe The Physical Sensations
In as much detail as possible describe the physical sensation(s) that go along with the emotion. In which part (or parts) of the body do you feel it? Is it hot, tight, heavy, itchy, stiff, or some other feeling? Does your face feel flushed, does your chest feel tight, or do you feel butterflies in your stomach? Do you feel it in more than one part of the body? Describe each part separately. Is there some sort of mental dialogue going on as you feel the emotion? What is the internal voice saying? Who does the voice sound like? Who does it remind you of?

5) List 3 Things That Went Wrong
Because of the instance you describe above what are (at least) three things that went wrong and how were/are you impacted by these outcomes? Sometimes one moment can impact later events and moments. Don’t just think of what went wrong in the moment, but also how it impacted you later. Again, the more detail the better.

6) List 3 Outcomes You Would Like To Have Happened Instead
After something goes wrong there are ways we would have liked to have seen it turn out better. What are (at least) three hopes you have for the future? Is there a relationship you would like to mend? Is there something you would like someone to do? Is there a lesson you would like to learn? It is helpful to name how we would like things to turn out.

7) Re-rate The Level
After doing these steps I always like to re-rate the level of emotion. One of three outcomes are possible. First, the number could go up. This is because you have now spent time thinking about the issue in detail. Often this tunes us into the issue more sharply so that we notice it more, making it feel bigger.

Second, you may notice that the number goes down. Many times simply getting something out of your head will take the power out of it. Our minds can be relentless echo chambers, taking negative thoughts or emotions and just bouncing them around over and over again. When we drag them into the light of day they lose their intensity.

Finally, there might be no change at all. This simply means that more tapping is needed to shift the emotion.

8) Start To Tap
Go back to the top of your page and just start reading out loud what you have written. At the end of each sentence move to the next tapping point. This is not a race. There is no reason to rush. As you read the words out loud pay close attention to what you are saying. If you are describing what happened, re-live what you are saying. If you are talking about how you would like to see things turn out in the future really tune into the emotion of having the new and better outcome.

9) Take Notes While You Are Tapping
As you re-read what you have written it is possible that new details will come into focus. You might also notice new and even better possible outcomes around this issue for the future. If these things come to mind it is worthwhile taking the time to write them down. Not only will you learn things about this particular issue, but you will also learn things about yourself and the larger scope of this emotion.

10) Re-Rate One More Time
After you have read through what you have written and have tapped along, re-rate the issue to see where it is now. If you are down to a zero you are finished, if you are not (which is more likely) then you have the chance to move back to the top of page and tap again.

Hopefully you feel a little bit (or a lot) better. And yes, it feels really weird to tap on your body and have emotion release like that. Don’t worry about what just happened or why it worked. Just trust the process.

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