You’ve probably heard of meditation, breathwork, and mindfulness, but what about tapping? EFT has moved from the fringes into the mainstream as a powerful tool when it comes to dealing with a very broad range of problems, and for good reason. After all, nearly one in seven people worldwide lives with a mental health condition, according to a 2022 WHO report, and researchers believe the true number might be even higher.
As a former neurosurgeon and EFT practitioner, I have experienced both conventional medicine and EFT firsthand. In this guide, I will share what you need to know about EFT, how it works, what it can be used for, and how you can get started.
Author – George Asithianakis, MD
October 5 , 2026
Emotional Freedom Techniques (EFT Tapping) is a mind-body technique developed by Gary Craig in the 1990s. It involves tapping on specific acupressure points while focusing on a particular thought, emotion, or physical issue. EFT combines elements of traditional acupressure with modern psychological techniques in a way that is both gentle and accessible.
EFT is used to address a whole range of emotional and physical concerns, including:
It can be practiced on your own or with the guidance of an EFT practitioner.
The roots of EFT can be traced back to traditional acupuncture and acupressure, which have long used specific points on the body as part of their practices. The idea of stimulating these points later became part of several modern approaches that eventually contributed to the development of EFT.
In the 1960s, Dr. George Goodheart, a prominent American chiropractor, studied acupuncture and its connection to the body. He developed a method called Applied Kinesiology (AK), which used muscle testing as a form of feedback. Goodheart also explored the use of manual pressure and tapping on acupuncture points instead of needles, which became an important part of the approaches that followed.
In the 1970s, Australian psychiatrist Dr. John Diamond built on Goodheart’s work and developed Behavioral Kinesiology. His approach placed more focus on emotional and psychological issues. He combined affirmations and the stimulation of acupuncture points to work with emotional states.
In the 1980s, American psychologist Dr. Roger Callahan further developed these ideas while working with people experiencing anxiety and phobias. One of his best-known cases involved a patient with a severe fear of water. While working with her, Callahan asked her to tap on a point under the eye while focusing on her fear. According to the account of the experience, her fear vanished almost completely. This led Callahan to develop Thought Field Therapy (TFT), which used different sequences of tapping points for different emotional problems.
In the 1990s, Gary Craig, a Stanford-trained engineer and personal performance coach, studied TFT under Dr. Roger Callahan.
Craig felt that TFT was more complicated than it needed to be because it required different tapping sequences for different problems. He simplified the process into a single sequence of tapping points that could be used for a wide range of emotional issues.
This simplified approach became known as Emotional Freedom Techniques (EFT), or EFT Tapping. At the time, Craig had no idea just how far-reaching his simplified approach would become. Rather than patenting the technique or placing legal restrictions on its use, he made EFT freely accessible. This allowed others to teach, adapt, and develop the method in their own ways, eventually giving rise to the many different approaches to EFT seen today.
Over time, Gary Craig continued to explore and develop EFT. This eventually led to Optimal EFT, which takes a different approach from traditional tapping. Instead of physically tapping on the acupressure points, Optimal EFT focuses on connecting with what Gary Craig described as the “Unseen Therapist”.
The idea behind Optimal EFT is that healing does not necessarily depend on physically tapping the points. Instead, it focuses more on the connection, intention, and inner experience behind the process. This became another approach within the broader EFT journey and is now practiced alongside traditional EFT tapping.
EFT Tapping mainly works by stimulating the acupoints with focused mental attention to address physical or emotional pain. You may be wondering how tapping specific areas on your body can help you relieve stress. EFT works on two levels at once: a physical one and a psychological one.
The Biological Mechanism – When you start the tapping exercise, it activates the sensory receptors. These receptors send signals through your neurons to the central nervous system. At the same time, tapping may provide sensory input that can influence the body’s stress response and help signal safety to an overactive nervous system.
The Psychological Mechanism – When you are doing EFT tapping, you are also focusing on or thinking about a specific stressful experience, such as an emotion, thought, or memory, to confront it rather than avoid it. When you repeatedly revisit the same fear without becoming overwhelmed, over time, your brain may begin to associate that fear with a calmer response rather than the same level of emotional distress. Combining this psychological exposure with the sensory input from tapping helps the brain reconsolidate the memory without the original level of distress.
EFT tapping can be used for a great variety of emotional and physical problems. It is commonly employed to cope with stress, anxiety, fears, negative thoughts, self-doubt, and difficult emotions. Some common areas where people use EFT tapping include:
Mental Health & Emotional Well-Being
Physical Symptoms & Habits
Performance & Focus
The standard EFT tapping technique uses nine specific points on the body traditionally used in acupuncture and acupressure. You gently tap these points with your fingertips while focusing on a stressful thought, feeling, or issue.
(There are a few additional acupoints, though these are rarely used.)
EFT tapping is quite simple. You don’t need any special equipment or a complicated routine. All you need is a specific feeling, thought, or situation you want to work on and a few minutes to focus on it.
Start with one thing that is bothering you right now. It could be anxiety about an upcoming event, body pain, a difficult memory, a fear, or even something as simple as feeling overwhelmed. Try to be specific. Instead of saying, “I feel stressed,” think about what is actually causing the stress.
Once you’ve identified the issue, take a moment to notice how strongly you feel about it. You can rate it from zero to 10, where zero means you don’t feel any emotional discomfort, and 10 means it feels extremely intense. You can also notice how the feeling shows up in your body. Maybe your chest feels tight, your stomach feels uncomfortable, or your shoulders feel tense.
Begin tapping gently on the EFT tapping points while keeping your attention on the issue. You can use a simple statement such as:
“Even though I feel anxious about this situation, I choose to deeply and completely accept myself.”
You don’t have to find the perfect words. The idea is simply to acknowledge what you’re experiencing while continuing to tap.
After going through the tapping points, take a slow breath and think about the same issue again. Ask yourself: Does it feel the same as it did before?
Maybe the intensity has gone down. Maybe the physical sensation has changed. Or perhaps a different thought or feeling has come to mind. There is no right or wrong response. The important thing is to notice what has changed and, if needed, continue tapping with whatever is coming up.
EFT is simple to learn, but knowing the theory is different from applying it when emotions run high. While self-tapping is a powerful tool for daily maintenance, deeper patterns—like childhood wounds, complex trauma, or deeply held limiting beliefs—often carry layers of resistance that are easier to handle with support.
Keep in mind that the basic protocol as described in this article will give you about 20 percent of the benefits of EFT, as Gary Craig would say. To unlock the other 80 percent, professional training is needed. If you are curious about EFT and want to see whether it’s right for you, you can book a free introductory call.
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