Tapping 101

EFT tapping is a simple mind-body technique: you tap with your fingertips on specific points on your face and body while you name what's bothering you, and that combination helps calm your nervous system in minutes. It's also called Emotional Freedom Techniques (EFT), or, less formally, tapping therapy, and anyone can learn it for free.

Tapping, also known as EFT (Emotional Freedom Techniques), was discovered in the 1980s by Dr. Roger Callahan, a psychologist who found that stimulating acupressure points while focusing on emotional issues could provide rapid relief.

In the 1990s, Gary Craig simplified Dr. Callahan's work into what we now know as EFT, making it accessible to people worldwide. His approach combined ancient Chinese acupressure with modern psychology.

Nick, Jessica, and Alex Ortner further evolved Tapping through their documentary "The Tapping Solution" and developed Tapping Meditations—guided sessions that combine traditional EFT with meditation, visualization, and positive psychology. Today, Tapping is used by millions worldwide and is increasingly recognized by the medical and therapeutic communities.

Old stress patterns run like a program in the background of your mind — reactions you picked up years ago that fire automatically, even when the actual danger passed long ago. Tapping interrupts that program while it's running, giving your body a chance to learn a calmer response in the moment.

Tapping combines two things: the acupressure points used in ancient Chinese medicine, and the focused-attention techniques used in modern psychology. When something stresses you, a part of your brain called the amygdala switches on your fight-or-flight response, whether the threat is a real emergency or just a hard conversation. Tapping on the points while you name what's bothering you sends a calming signal to that same part of your brain, helping your body recognize that you're safe right now.

In one study, a single hour of tapping lowered participants' cortisol (the stress hormone) by 24%, more than the drop seen with talk therapy (Church, D., et al., 2012, Journal of Nervous and Mental Disease). A 2026 paper in Frontiers in Psychology was the first peer-reviewed study to map out the specific mechanisms behind EFT, including how it appears to help the brain reconsolidate old, stressful memories (Schwarz & Stapleton, 2026).

A 2020 study replicated that cortisol finding: Dr. Peta Stapleton's research found tapping lowered cortisol by 43% (Stapleton, P., et al., 2020).

People use tapping for a wide range of things, including anxiety, stress and overwhelm, sleep, chronic pain, fears and phobias, trauma, cravings and weight concerns, and confidence and self-worth. See the full research library to go deeper on the studies behind Tapping.

Tapping works best as a daily habit, not just something you reach for when a bad moment hits. A few minutes each morning on whatever's on your mind, before a hard conversation, or at night when your thoughts won't slow down, adds up over time.

People use it for stress and anxiety, sleep, chronic pain, fears and phobias, cravings, and confidence. Some tap on their own using the steps on this page. Others use it alongside a therapist, coach, or doctor, since tapping works on the stress and emotion around an issue rather than replacing a clinician's care.

Start small. Pick one thing that's bothering you right now and run through the 5 steps below.

Across The Tapping Solution App, people have completed more than 32 million tapping sessions, and we've measured the before-and-after intensity on more than 18 million of them. In an independent study of 270,461 app users, tapping was associated with a 44% average drop in anxiety and a 45% average drop in stress (Church & Stapleton, 2020, JMIR).

The app's own Intro to Tapping and The App (Start Here) session — built for people who are brand new to tapping — has been completed 41,742 times, with the average person's intensity dropping from 5.6 to 4.2, a 24% drop, in a single guided session.

Ready to build on the basics? Browse example tapping phrases for common issues, or use one of our ready-made tapping scripts to follow along word for word.

Want to work with someone one-on-one? Find an EFT practitioner.