Brain Tapping

History of EFT from Callahan to Craig to mainstream

Jolenta traces EFT's history from Roger Callahan's 1979 thought field therapy through Gary Craig's simplified version (tapping order doesn't matter), to Nick Ortner's 2013 bestselling Tapping Solution book that brought it mainstream despite a clinical psychologist calling it pseudoscience that same year.

"Craig found that tapping the spots in no specific order while saying what you're working on out loud was just as effective. And he named this sort of therapy the emotional freedom technique, aka EFT."

90% of veterans no longer met PTSD criteria after EFT

Jolenta presents research showing 90% of veterans no longer met PTSD criteria after six weeks of EFT compared to only 4% with standard care, plus studies showing cortisol dropped 37%, anxiety and depression decreased 35%, and resting heart rate dropped 8%.

"So, Kristen, earlier research like that 2013 article I mentioned earlier really seemed to imply that EFT was ineffective and that the benefits people were claiming to get from it were from the cognitive behavioral aspects of like saying what you're worried about out loud and saying affirmations out loud over and over again. Or they also just theorized it was the placebo effect, like I was wondering. But within that same year, other studies were coming up with really different findings. There was a 2013 study that used EFT to treat veterans suffering from PTSD for six weeks, and they found that, quote, EFT subjects had significantly reduced psychological distress and PTSD symptom levels, and that 90% of the EFT group no longer met PTSD clinical criteria. Oh, that's huge. Yeah. And Kristen, only 4% of the group getting the standard care no longer met the criteria after that's huge. Yeah. And Kristen, only 4% of the group getting the standard care no longer met the criteria after that six weeks. Whoa. So it's like shocking findings. Yeah. Yeah. That's not like, you know, 1% or 2%. That's huge. Yeah. And in 2014, just the next year, researchers looked at how effective EFT was at reducing anxiety in school children and found that it was as effective as cognitive behavioral therapy in reducing their anxiety levels. Also, a good study in 2019 came out that looked at people taking EFT workshops, and it found some really cool stuff. On the psychological side, they found that participants experienced significant decreases in anxiety, depression, PTSD, pain, and cravings, and a significant increase in happiness. On average, their anxiety and depression decreased by around 35%, and PTSD symptoms decreased by around 32%, while happiness increased by around 30%. Wow, these numbers are huge. Yeah, these are surprising numbers. And so Kristen, this study was cool because they also looked at physiological changes and found that on average participants, resting heart rate dropped by 8%, blood pressure dropped by around 6%, and cortisol levels, which are our stress hormone, dropped by 37%. Wow. So this isn't just a case of tapping affecting how we're thinking or feeling. It's actually affecting our physicality. Yeah, yeah. It's like changing us physically, not just mentally. And a 2022 study found another physiological change. This study looked at brain activity in chronic pain patients, and they noticed that MRI analysis showed post-EFT treatment significantly decreased connectivity between the medial prefrontal cortex, a pain modulating area, and bilateral gray matter areas in the posterior cingulate cortex and thalamus, both areas being related to modulating and catastrophizing of pain. So EFT can possibly like rewire the brain to feel less pain. Wow. I take MRIs seriously. I've had MRIs and- That's like real imaging. Yeah, that's for real. That's not self- not self reported on a scale of one to 10. How do you feel about this? This is like, real solid documentable physical changes, right? Like wild. So you know, while I wasn't sure how effective brain tapping was at reducing my anxiety, there does seem to be a lot of scientific evidence to back up the claim that it did. So you've given us a lot of food for thought on how brain tapping might be good for us. But I'm curious, are there any downsides to tapping other than the aliens? Well, okay. Aliens aside. Well, first of all, you should do it at least once with a professional to make sure like you're hitting all the right points and to make sure you're addressing stressors and trauma in the most constructive way. Like delving into your own trauma can be like dangerous territory. And like you might want to do it with a guide, at least for the first few times. I definitely felt like much more supported and just like the process was much clearer to me having done it with an actual person. Definitely try it with a professional if you're interested. And the other thing to keep in mind about EFT, Kristen, is the cultural appropriation aspect. Of course there is. This probably, I'm guessing, goes back to what you were saying earlier about Chinese traditional medicine. Exactly. Because while tapping goes back to the 70s, acupuncture and acupressure, as we know, come from traditional Chinese medicine, which is ancient. And traditional Chinese medicine was popularized in the US in the 60s. We talked about this a bit in the Gua Sha episode and tapping evolved out of that in the 70s and you know 20 years after that we have eft and 20 years after that it's going mainstream as a trendy stress reduction tool so it's it's like very much an appropriated practice in some ways and the whole like acupuncture meets cognitive behavioral therapy thing sounds kind of cute. But really, it's kind of saying like, we took traditional Chinese medicine and improved on it by adding modern Western psychology to it. It's funny how we do that in the West. Right. And by funny, I mean, sometimes not funny at all. It's not a cute look. So, you know, I'd say overall, I'm a bit iffy on tapping still. It did reduce my anxiety. But like since I knew it was supposed to, I don't know if it worked or if I just like fell into a trap I made for myself. A tap or a trap? Oh. and now that I know that it's not just like kind of some sort of silly looking practice but it came from white dudes one of whom who isn't a doctor being like we can make this ancient medicine better by adding our science to it like i don't know if i'm like a tapping practitioner. Yeah. And like my own therapist doesn't really use it with patients. She only did it with me because I was asking about it. And she said she had learned about it because some people say it's similar to EMDR therapy. And she's a practitioner of that. So, you know, like she sort of stumbled into it. But like, it's not a tool she uses that often so like probably not going to be doing it again not that I like actively disliked it but just I'm very lukewarm how do you feel Kristen are you gonna tap yourself to sleep are you gonna brain tap your little brain well I'm not sure if you noticed but as you explaining how you do it and naming off the body parts and the acupressure points, did you see I actually was tapping on all the points as you talked about them? I'm like, oh, I'm going to tap on my clavicle. I'm going to tap on this point underneath my eye and my temple. She even did it when I told the Mary story about how Mary tapped under her eye. Kristen tried it. Yes, I did. And in my mind, I thought water, water, water. I did it. And you know what? It felt kind of good. Did it feel therapeutic, though? I don't know if it's the circumstances that we're doing a recording now, or if it's just like not my thing, but it didn't feel therapeutic. But I think that any kind of massage, acupressure, scratching, pushing, tugging on my skin feels good. Right. I like all of those things. So, I mean, I wouldn't be opposed to doing it just because it's like an extension of things I already do to myself to feel good. Like I said, scratching, rubbing, or massaging myself. I'm like, oh, I guess I could do that too is one other thing. But even though you do present some compelling evidence for how it can be useful for actually rewiring the brain, which we can see on MRIs, I still am hesitant to be fully on board because I feel like, I guess I want to just read more research on this. I want to know in the coming decades what's going to be said about it because it still seems relatively young as a science in its current iteration. We've only been studying it the way it is for the past like 10 years. So yeah, who knows what we'll learn, what's to come. Yeah. Yeah. So I'll be curious to see what happens next. I do know people who've benefited from EMDR therapy. So if your therapist believes it's kind of related to that, maybe this would also help my friends who do EMDR therapy. I'm not sure. Yeah. Yeah. But I do think it's interesting. I do, as we all know from the top of this segment, joke about it and roll my eyes at it. But if it helps people, I'm all for it. Seriously, don't take my joking as an excuse to not try something that might help you. If it might help you and if your doctor or therapist is a fan of it, I don't see why not. How about you listeners? Are you going to try it? Have you tried it? Are you a brain tapper? Is your brain on tap? Let us know all your thoughts about it. You can email us at kristinangelenta at gmail.com or you can write in our Facebook group, which is always a good time."

MRI evidence of brain connectivity changes from EFT

A 2022 MRI study showed that EFT treatment significantly decreased brain connectivity between pain-modulating areas, suggesting the technique can actually rewire the brain to reduce pain catastrophizing -- not just a self-reported effect.

"So, Kristen, earlier research like that 2013 article I mentioned earlier really seemed to imply that EFT was ineffective and that the benefits people were claiming to get from it were from the cognitive behavioral aspects of like saying what you're worried about out loud and saying affirmations out loud over and over again. Or they also just theorized it was the placebo effect, like I was wondering. But within that same year, other studies were coming up with really different findings. There was a 2013 study that used EFT to treat veterans suffering from PTSD for six weeks, and they found that, quote, EFT subjects had significantly reduced psychological distress and PTSD symptom levels, and that 90% of the EFT group no longer met PTSD clinical criteria. Oh, that's huge. Yeah. And Kristen, only 4% of the group getting the standard care no longer met the criteria after that's huge. Yeah. And Kristen, only 4% of the group getting the standard care no longer met the criteria after that six weeks. Whoa. So it's like shocking findings. Yeah. Yeah. That's not like, you know, 1% or 2%. That's huge. Yeah. And in 2014, just the next year, researchers looked at how effective EFT was at reducing anxiety in school children and found that it was as effective as cognitive behavioral therapy in reducing their anxiety levels. Also, a good study in 2019 came out that looked at people taking EFT workshops, and it found some really cool stuff. On the psychological side, they found that participants experienced significant decreases in anxiety, depression, PTSD, pain, and cravings, and a significant increase in happiness. On average, their anxiety and depression decreased by around 35%, and PTSD symptoms decreased by around 32%, while happiness increased by around 30%. Wow, these numbers are huge. Yeah, these are surprising numbers. And so Kristen, this study was cool because they also looked at physiological changes and found that on average participants, resting heart rate dropped by 8%, blood pressure dropped by around 6%, and cortisol levels, which are our stress hormone, dropped by 37%. Wow. So this isn't just a case of tapping affecting how we're thinking or feeling. It's actually affecting our physicality. Yeah, yeah. It's like changing us physically, not just mentally. And a 2022 study found another physiological change. This study looked at brain activity in chronic pain patients, and they noticed that MRI analysis showed post-EFT treatment significantly decreased connectivity between the medial prefrontal cortex, a pain modulating area, and bilateral gray matter areas in the posterior cingulate cortex and thalamus, both areas being related to modulating and catastrophizing of pain. So EFT can possibly like rewire the brain to feel less pain. Wow. I take MRIs seriously. I've had MRIs and- That's like real imaging. Yeah, that's for real. That's not self- not self reported on a scale of one to 10. How do you feel about this? This is like, real solid documentable physical changes, right? Like wild. So you know, while I wasn't sure how effective brain tapping was at reducing my anxiety, there does seem to be a lot of scientific evidence to back up the claim that it did. So you've given us a lot of food for thought on how brain tapping might be good for us. But I'm curious, are there any downsides to tapping other than the aliens? Well, okay. Aliens aside. Well, first of all, you should do it at least once with a professional to make sure like you're hitting all the right points and to make sure you're addressing stressors and trauma in the most constructive way. Like delving into your own trauma can be like dangerous territory. And like you might want to do it with a guide, at least for the first few times. I definitely felt like much more supported and just like the process was much clearer to me having done it with an actual person. Definitely try it with a professional if you're interested. And the other thing to keep in mind about EFT, Kristen, is the cultural appropriation aspect. Of course there is. This probably, I'm guessing, goes back to what you were saying earlier about Chinese traditional medicine. Exactly. Because while tapping goes back to the 70s, acupuncture and acupressure, as we know, come from traditional Chinese medicine, which is ancient. And traditional Chinese medicine was popularized in the US in the 60s. We talked about this a bit in the Gua Sha episode and tapping evolved out of that in the 70s and you know 20 years after that we have eft and 20 years after that it's going mainstream as a trendy stress reduction tool so it's it's like very much an appropriated practice in some ways and the whole like acupuncture meets cognitive behavioral therapy thing sounds kind of cute. But really, it's kind of saying like, we took traditional Chinese medicine and improved on it by adding modern Western psychology to it. It's funny how we do that in the West. Right. And by funny, I mean, sometimes not funny at all. It's not a cute look. So, you know, I'd say overall, I'm a bit iffy on tapping still. It did reduce my anxiety. But like since I knew it was supposed to, I don't know if it worked or if I just like fell into a trap I made for myself. A tap or a trap? Oh. and now that I know that it's not just like kind of some sort of silly looking practice but it came from white dudes one of whom who isn't a doctor being like we can make this ancient medicine better by adding our science to it like i don't know if i'm like a tapping practitioner. Yeah. And like my own therapist doesn't really use it with patients. She only did it with me because I was asking about it. And she said she had learned about it because some people say it's similar to EMDR therapy. And she's a practitioner of that. So, you know, like she sort of stumbled into it. But like, it's not a tool she uses that often so like probably not going to be doing it again not that I like actively disliked it but just I'm very lukewarm how do you feel Kristen are you gonna tap yourself to sleep are you gonna brain tap your little brain well I'm not sure if you noticed but as you explaining how you do it and naming off the body parts and the acupressure points, did you see I actually was tapping on all the points as you talked about them? I'm like, oh, I'm going to tap on my clavicle. I'm going to tap on this point underneath my eye and my temple. She even did it when I told the Mary story about how Mary tapped under her eye. Kristen tried it. Yes, I did. And in my mind, I thought water, water, water. I did it. And you know what? It felt kind of good. Did it feel therapeutic, though? I don't know if it's the circumstances that we're doing a recording now, or if it's just like not my thing, but it didn't feel therapeutic. But I think that any kind of massage, acupressure, scratching, pushing, tugging on my skin feels good. Right. I like all of those things. So, I mean, I wouldn't be opposed to doing it just because it's like an extension of things I already do to myself to feel good. Like I said, scratching, rubbing, or massaging myself. I'm like, oh, I guess I could do that too is one other thing. But even though you do present some compelling evidence for how it can be useful for actually rewiring the brain, which we can see on MRIs, I still am hesitant to be fully on board because I feel like, I guess I want to just read more research on this. I want to know in the coming decades what's going to be said about it because it still seems relatively young as a science in its current iteration. We've only been studying it the way it is for the past like 10 years. So yeah, who knows what we'll learn, what's to come. Yeah. Yeah. So I'll be curious to see what happens next. I do know people who've benefited from EMDR therapy. So if your therapist believes it's kind of related to that, maybe this would also help my friends who do EMDR therapy. I'm not sure. Yeah. Yeah. But I do think it's interesting. I do, as we all know from the top of this segment, joke about it and roll my eyes at it. But if it helps people, I'm all for it. Seriously, don't take my joking as an excuse to not try something that might help you. If it might help you and if your doctor or therapist is a fan of it, I don't see why not. How about you listeners? Are you going to try it? Have you tried it? Are you a brain tapper? Is your brain on tap? Let us know all your thoughts about it. You can email us at kristinangelenta at gmail.com or you can write in our Facebook group, which is always a good time."

Jolenta's personal EFT session with her therapist

Jolenta describes trying EFT with her therapist for COVID anxiety, repeating the affirmation "I deeply love and respect myself, even though I'm afraid of the current outbreak of COVID" while tapping through each point, watching her anxiety drop from 7.5 to 5 after three rounds.

"I deeply love and respect myself, even though I'm afraid of the current outbreak of COVID."