Professor Peta Stapleton was running a support group for eating disorder patients about 25 years ago when she first encountered the “weird” therapy that would shape her career.
For months, a colleague had been trying to tell her about tapping, or Emotional Freedom Techniques (EFT), in which patients tap their face and body with two fingers while reciting a statement.
“A girl in the support group had a panic attack so my colleague took her outside,” the Bond University professor recalled.
“They came back about seven minutes later and she was very calm – so calm I thought he had given her Valium.
“After the group session ended, he said, ‘I did that tapping thing’.”
In November 2024, Prof Stapleton received the Australian Psychological Society’s Distinguished Contribution to Psychological Science Award in recognition of her years of research on EFT.
But at the time she was running that support group, Prof Stapleton had not entered academia and was a full-time clinical and health psychologist.
Curious, she pored over the limited research on EFT and started trialling it in her private practice.
The results, she said, were incredible – “this weird tapping thing actually worked”.
But how did it work? And how could she prove it in an empirical sense to the sceptics – some within her own profession?
At Griffith University, Prof Stapleton conducted a world-first randomised clinical trial into EFT as a treatment for food cravings and 4500 overweight and obese adults responded.
“We nearly died when we got the results,” she said. “The rest is history.”
Continuing her research at Bond University, Prof Stapleton is now a world authority on the subject, has written books including The Science Behind Tapping, and was named the 2019 Psychologist of the Year at the Australian Allied Health Awards.
Tapping has been found to be effective for psychological conditions such as anxiety, depression, phobias, and post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD), as well as physiological issues including pain, insomnia and autoimmune conditions.
It has also found uses in professional and sports performance and reduces the biological markers of stress.
EFT appears to work by regulating the Autonomic Nervous System that controls involuntary body functions like heart rate, breathing and cortisol levels.
There are now more than 200 published clinical trials on EFT and 99 percent show effectiveness for at least one outcome variable.
Prof Stapleton said that the benefits of EFT – other than being a drug-free treatment – is that comparatively few sessions are required, the treatment is effective whether delivered in person or virtually, and symptom improvements persist over time.
“Treatment is associated with measurable biological effects in the dimensions of gene expression, brain synchrony, hormonal synthesis, and a wide range of biomarkers,” she said.
“Clinical EFT is a stable and mature method with an extensive evidence base.
“Its use in primary care settings as a safe, rapid, reliable, and effective treatment for both psychological and medical diagnoses continues to grow.”
Prof Stapleton said she was still working to have EFT officially recognised as an evidence-based treatment in Australia and the US which would have implications for Medicare and patient access.
Her current research centres on using EFT to treat chronic pain, including using Functional MRI to show how it affects the brain.
She has partnered with The Olivia Newton-John Cancer Wellness & Research Centre Hospital in Melbourne to conduct EFT for cancer support trials for their staff, patients and carers next year.
She is also looking into its use to improve student wellbeing following a trial involving more than 2500 primary school students, and even how it might encourage forgiveness in people.
Prof Stapleton said those at the coalface of psychology had been her greatest supporters.
“The great thing in this whole journey has been the embracing of EFT by the clinical and community fields – it has been accepted there first,” she said.
“I’ve also had complete and unwavering support from Bond University. I couldn’t have done my research without it.
“Research says it takes 17-20 years to have a new therapy accepted by the mainstream and I can confirm it actually takes this long.
“I am not a patient person by nature, so this has been my own therapy in a way!”
EFT in practice
Someone in the midst of a panic attack might tell themselves: “Even though I can’t breathe right now, I accept myself anyway. Even though my heart is racing right now, I accept myself anyway.”
At the same time, they use two fingers to tap the fleshy part of the outside of either hand.
They then tap through the following eight points in order, which constitutes one round of tapping.
- Eyebrow: At the beginning of the eyebrow, just above and to one side of the nose.
- Side of the eye: On the bone bordering the outside corner of the eye.
- Under the eye: On the bone under an eye about one inch below the pupil.
- Under the nose: On the small area between the bottom of the nose and the top of the upper lip.
- Chin: Midway between the point of the chin and the bottom of the lower lip.
- Collarbone: The junction where the sternum (breastbone), collarbone and the first rib meet.
- Under the arm: On the side of the body, at a point even with the nipple (for men) or in the middle of the bra strap (for women).
- Head: On the top of the head.
“EFT is simply a stress reduction technique,” Prof Stapleton said.
“We focus the mind on what we are feeling and tap on known acupuncture points to give the brain and body a sense of calm.”