Happiful July 2020

Tapping
anxiety
away
Could saying a few words while tapping your body ease anxiety? That
is the result emotional freedom technique (EFT) aims for. Happiful’s
Kat Nicholls puts tapping to the test to see what it’s all about
As soon as my alarm
goes off, I get a familiar
feeling in my chest. It’s
Monday morning, the
week ahead is going to be busy,
and I’m feeling anxious. But a
few hours later, I’m feeling a little
calmer and ready to join my Zoom
call with Charlie O’Brien – clinical
hypnotherapist, life coach and
EFT practitioner – for my first ever
emotional freedom technique
(EFT) session.
Having written about EFT before,
I already had an idea of what to
expect – tapping acupuncture
points on your body while
repeating statements about a
problem you’re encountering.
But experiencing it first hand
(quite literally) is another matter.
What makes it so powerful is the
way it ‘updates the brain’s learning’
– as outlined in Dr Peta Stapleton’s
TEDx talk, ‘Is therapy facing a
revolution?’ Dr Stapleton explains
that the combination of accessing
a difficult memory or feeling while
in a ‘contrary’ state (relaxed), and
repeating the process, updates
our brain’s learning. The secret to
getting into that relaxed state is in
the tapping.
A 10-year research trial by
Harvard University has revealed
that stimulating these acupuncture
points sends a signal to the
amygdala in our brain to calm
down. With just one hour of
tapping, our stress hormone
levels can be reduced by 24%. For
comparison, if we were to lie down
and rest for an hour, our stress
hormone levels would only reduce
by 14%.
Before our session, Charlie
told me about her own tapping
experience as she was training to
be an EFT practitioner.
“I tapped on a ‘feeling’ I got in my
stomach if anyone ever mentioned
my abusive ex’s name. Over the
years I’d worked on the trauma,
but this horrible feeling still clung
on and I decided it was time to
completely release myself from the
past trauma.
⁣“It worked. That’s all I can say.
Ever since that day I’ve not been
able to recall that nasty feeling
in my stomach. That person no
longer has control over me, and it’s
liberating.”
The idea of being able to tap away
a problem is an enticing one, and
I knew the quest to be free from
anxiety was my white whale.
We began our session by talking
about anxiety, and specifically
how I was feeling there and then.
Charlie asked me where I could
feel anxiety in my body (in my
torso, mainly my chest), how it
felt (fluttery, like butterflies), and
where my anxiety levels were on a
scale from 0 to 10 (about a four).
Charlie then showed me the first
tapping point, the ‘karate chop’ on
the outside edge of my palm. We
tapped this and repeated a ‘set-up
statement’ to get us in the right
48 • happiful.com • July 2020