How Does EFT Work?

Official EFT (Emotional Freedom Techniques) helps break the link between a trigger and the stress response associated with it. This response may be emotional or physical. Official EFT includes two approaches: Gold Standard EFT (Tapping) and Optimal EFT (Meditation). In both, you focus on a specific situation that still causes stress and then check whether the stress response has changed.

With Gold Standard EFT, you focus on the situation while gently tapping on a sequence of acupressure points. No needles are used. This combination of focusing on a distressing experience (exposure) and tapping is the basis of EFT as it became known around the world.

With Optimal EFT, you use a guided meditation and the principle of working with the unseen therapist. This meditative approach can bring about a deeper sense of calm and peace.

When you experience a situation as threatening, your body may automatically respond by fighting, fleeing, or freezing. The amygdala, a region of the brain involved in detecting threats, plays a role in this response.

You may notice a stress response through a pounding heart, rapid breathing, a dry mouth, trembling, sweating, tunnel vision, nausea, or an unpleasant feeling in your stomach. When you freeze, you may feel rooted to the spot or unable to move. These are normal physical responses to perceived danger.

A distressing experience can influence how you react later to similar situations. A word, facial expression, place, or event may consciously or unconsciously remind you of something from the past. Your stress response can then be triggered again, even when the present situation is not dangerous.

This is the stress link that EFT addresses: the connection between a trigger and the emotional or physical response that follows. A recurring pattern may be connected to several specific events. That is why it is important to look carefully at when the response occurs and which past experiences may be linked to it.

With Official EFT, you identify the specific moments that trigger a stress response. In Gold Standard EFT, you focus on one of these moments while gently tapping on acupressure points. In Optimal EFT, you use a guided meditation and work with the unseen therapist. With either approach, you check whether the situation or memory still evokes the same response.

The aim is to remember what happened without re-experiencing the old stress response. Sometimes several specific events need to be addressed. Working carefully and continuing to test until the response is no longer present are central to Official EFT.

Official EFT is the original method developed by Gary Craig, the founder of EFT. Gabriëlle Rutten is Gary Craig’s appointed successor and director of Novet – The EFT Standard. She safeguards and teaches this method internationally.