EFT Tapping Points
EFT stands for Emotional Freedom Techniques, often described simply as “Tapping” because it involves gentle fingertip tapping on specific acupressure points (see illustration above) while focusing on emotions, thoughts or experiences that are distressing you.
At one level, EFT Tapping can be a simple self-help tool to help you feel calmer and more settled during moments of stress. At a deeper level, it can help you work through the emotions, memories and limiting beliefs that may be keeping you stuck in unhelpful, familiar patterns, opening the way for new perspectives and more supportive ways of responding to life.
Emotional freedom doesn't mean you will never experience difficult or uncomfortable emotions. These are a natural part of being human. Emotional freedom is about loosening the grip of old emotions, limiting beliefs and familiar patterns, so you can respond to life with greater choice, self-compassion and confidence. It allows you to spend less energy struggling with yourself and more energy enjoying life, nurturing meaningful relationships and becoming more fully who you are.
Emotional freedom can mean:
-Less self-criticism: Accepting yourself with compassion rather than constantly judging yourself.
-Greater choice: Responding to situations with awareness rather than automatically reacting from fear, hurt or old habits.
-Freedom from limiting beliefs: Recognizing that beliefs such as “I'm not good enough” or “I must always put others first” don't have to define you.
-Greater emotional resilience: Allowing difficult feelings to arise, understanding what they are telling you and moving through them without becoming overwhelmed.
-More room for joy: Feeling freer to enjoy relationships, explore your interests, express yourself and embrace new experiences without being held back by old fears or guilt.
-Being more fully yourself: Making choices that reflect your values, needs and aspirations rather than being driven by past experiences or the expectations of others.
The latest science of Clinical EFT Tapping
Dr Peta Stapleton, PhD, Professor of Psychology at Bond University in Queensland, Australia, is one of the world’s leading researchers in EFT Tapping. With more than 30 years' experience as a clinical health psychologist and academic, Peta has conducted extensive research and clinical trials examining psychological and physiological changes associated with EFT Tapping. Her research, along with studies by other investigators, suggests that EFT can help reduce emotional distress and symptoms associated with anxiety, depression and trauma, supporting greater emotional wellbeing. Studies have also reported reductions in stress-related biological markers, such as cortisol. Below is a webinar of her findings.
In recognition of her research into EFT Tapping Peta received the Australian Psychological Society's Distinguished Contribution to Psychological Science Award in 2024. Below is a link to a short TEDx talk by Peta that offers a fascinating introduction to EFT Tapping and some of the research behind it.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0Vu0Tibt1bQ
EFT International currently lists more than 320 published studies into the potential benefits for emotional wellbeing, stress and other psychological and physiological outcomes.
How does EFT Tapping work?
Below is a detailed infographic explaining how EFT Tapping works, created by Dr David Feinstein, PhD, a clinical psychologist and pioneer in the field of Energy Psychology and, husband and long-time collaborator of energy medicine pioneer Donna Eden.
EFT Tapping
EFT Tapping as a bridge between dream recall and transformation.
A dream may bring something into awareness that your conscious mind has been unable to see. It might awaken a feeling, memory, fear, longing or possibility. You may suddenly recognise a pattern in your life or see yourself from a completely different perspective.
But insight alone doesn't always create change.
You can understand something intellectually and still feel anxious. You can recognise an old pattern and still find yourself repeating it. You can know that something happened in the past, yet the emotional response is still operating within you.
EFT Tapping helps you work with the emotional response itself. By bringing the experience into awareness while tapping, you can reduce its emotional intensity and create space for new perspectives and responses to emerge. Over time, this can help loosen familiar emotional patterns and give you greater freedom to respond differently, by conscious choice, rather than automatically repeating old reactions.
This is where EFT Tapping becomes the bridge between dream recall and transformation.
Rather than rushing to interpret the dream, EFT invites you to slow down and stay curious about what the dream has awakened within you - perhaps fear, sadness, anger, grief, longing, or even a forgotten hope or possibility.
You might bring the dream image to mind and notice:
What am I feeling?
Where do I feel it in my body?
What does this image remind me of?
What feels most emotionally charged?
What does some part of me want me to know?
Then, as you gently tap on the EFT points, you allow yourself to stay connected to the experience without becoming overwhelmed by it. You don't have to understand the dream before you begin tapping. You can simply tap while holding the dream image, emotion or sensation in your awareness.
As you continue tapping, the emotional intensity may soften. When the nervous system becomes calmer, you may find that new memories, associations, feelings or insights naturally emerge. This is the beautiful meeting point between deeper self-understanding and emotional healing.
The dream opens the door.
EFT helps you walk through it.
The dream may reveal something that is asking to be seen; tapping helps you create enough safety and space to stay with it. The dream may awaken an emotion; tapping helps you gently process what has been stirred. The dream may reveal an old pattern; tapping can help you explore and soften the emotional charge connected to it. And then, beneath the difficult emotion, you may discover something else entirely—a forgotten strength, a need that has been neglected, a new possibility or a part of yourself that is ready to emerge.
The dream brings the message. EFT helps you listen to what the message awakens within you. Through that process, what began as an image in the night can become an opportunity for greater awareness, emotional freedom and integration in your waking life.
Gratitude for EFT Tapping
“Thank you for helping me heal the fear and pain of loneliness that I felt after my daughter moved to study in Australia. Memories of being left as a child came flooding in. After healing those memories I feel the difference between being alone and being lonely. Now I love nothing more than walking at dawn and then going to the local cafe for my morning coffee. I feel so connected to nature and myself. I have become my own best friend. Thank you for your masterful work Desley.”
Christina, Wellington, NZ
“ I can’t thank you enough for helping me process that sad dream Desley. I feel so much lighter and brighter like I am remembering it but without the fear and shaking now. You have opened me up to a whole new perspective. Tapping was so strange but so effective. Thank you for your belief in the power of dreams and tapping. It does work”.
Bettina, Brisbane