Frequently Asked Questions

Not exactly. EFT Tapping isn’t about getting rid of your feelings — it’s about allowing them to be seen, felt, and processed in a way that feels safe for your nervous system.

When we tap, we’re not trying to force emotions to disappear. Instead, we’re helping the body and brain recognize that it’s okay to feel what we’re feeling. This usually helps the emotional intensity (or “charge”) go down naturally, without pushing it away.

You can think of it as making space for your emotions to move through you, rather than fighting or suppressing them.

EFT Tapping combines gentle tapping on specific acupressure points with focused attention on what’s emotionally or physically bothering you.

This combination helps calm the amygdala — the part of the brain involved in stress and threat responses — and signals to the nervous system that it’s safe to relax.

When the body feels safe, the mind becomes more flexible, and the emotional “charge” around certain memories, fears, or beliefs often decreases. That’s why many people report feeling lighter, calmer, or more accepting of themselves after tapping.

Over time, this process can help you respond differently to situations that used to trigger strong emotional reactions.

This means that unpleasant emotional reactions and/or negative thoughts tend to become less frequent, less intense, and shorter lasting.

Most traditional talk therapies focus mainly on changing thoughts or understanding the origins of emotions through conversation. EFT, on the other hand, includes the body directly in the process.

By tapping on specific acupressure points while tuning into what’s emotionally distressing, we engage both the mind and the nervous system at the same time.

This body-based component helps calm the stress response much faster than logic or insight alone can. As a result, we don’t need to “argue with” our feelings or try to think our way out of them — we simply help the body release the emotional charge that keeps them active.

The more we meet ourselves exactly where we are and allow ourselves to feel and think whatever we’re feeling and thinking while we do the tapping, the better the process tends to work.

Many clients find that this makes EFT feel gentler and more efficient than approaches that rely only on talking or cognitive reframing.

Besides being trained and certified in EFT and having facilitated hundreds (if not thousands) of sessions, I’m also a clinical psychologist — and that background deeply informs how I approach this work.

What sets me apart from some practitioners is that I make it a priority to meet you exactly where you are, rather than following a rigid protocol. This helps the sessions flow more naturally and stay closely aligned with what’s most alive for you in the moment.

I’m also not a big fan of asking you to rate the intensity of your emotions every few minutes, since that can sometimes feel distracting or create unnecessary pressure.

My role is to help you meet yourself exactly where you are at every step of the way. I consider this the “golden ingredient” that makes EFT as safe, gentle, and effective as possible — and that helps you increase your capacity to sit with your actual thoughts and feelings, whatever they might be. That’s what allows them to truly shift and get unstuck.

Everyone’s experience with EFT is unique, but most people notice some kind of shift even within the first session — whether that’s feeling calmer, lighter, more grounded, or simply less “stuck.”

Over time, EFT tends to reduce the emotional charge around painful memories, fears, or self-critical thoughts. This often translates into feeling more at ease in situations that used to be triggering, being kinder toward yourself, and having a greater sense of choice in how you respond.

This means that the way you’ll tend to notice progress in real life (outside of these sessions) is that your unpleasant emotional reactions and/or negative thoughts become less frequent, less intense, and shorter lasting.

For example, you might still feel some fear of public speaking, but now you’re able to give the presentation — even if you’re not feeling 100% calm and confident.

That said, EFT isn’t about erasing emotions or guaranteeing instant transformation. It’s a process that unfolds at your own pace, allowing change to happen in a way that feels natural and sustainable.

Some clients experience noticeable changes in just a few sessions, while others benefit from ongoing work that helps create deeper, long-term emotional shifts.

That really depends on what you’d like to work on and how deep you want to go. Some people come in with a specific issue — for example, fear of flying or a recent stressful event — and feel satisfied after just a few sessions. Others choose to work longer term to address deeper emotional patterns, develop self-acceptance, or navigate life transitions with more ease.

It also depends on how many “emotionally charged aspects” the issue has. Complex or long-standing issues tend to have many more aspects. That being said, don’t despair — there’s something in EFT called The Generalization Effect, which means we don’t need to tap on every single memory, thought, aspect, or emotion. The relaxation effect can generalize over to similar things. However, we can never know in advance when or to what degree this generalization effect will take place.

What’s most important is to go at a pace that feels safe and sustainable. EFT tends to work best as a process, where each session builds on the previous one and your nervous system gradually learns that it’s safe to feel and release what’s underneath.

I usually recommend giving the process at least three months, but it’s entirely flexible — we can always reassess as we go. Some clients continue for several months or longer because they find that the sessions help them stay emotionally balanced and keep growing.

That depends on your goals, your schedule, and how much emotional processing feels right for you.

Some people prefer to start with weekly sessions, especially if they’re working on something that feels urgent or emotionally charged, since that rhythm helps create continuity and momentum. Others prefer to meet twice a month, which allows time to integrate what comes up between sessions. And for some, once a month feels like the right pace to stay connected to the process without feeling rushed.

There’s no “right” frequency — what matters most is that it feels sustainable for you in terms of time, energy, and finances. It’s important that the process supports your well-being rather than adding extra pressure. During our first meeting, we can discuss what rhythm might work best based on your situation, and we can always adjust later as needed.

After each session, I’ll send you an email with the tapping phrases we used that day (so you can review or keep track of what we worked on) plus a link to my calendar for whenever you’d like to book the next session.

Yes. You’re welcome to pay one session at a time — there’s no long-term commitment required.

Many clients prefer this flexibility and simply book sessions whenever they’re ready for the next one. After you schedule a session, I’ll send you a PayPal invoice request or a direct PayPal payment link to make the payment before the session takes place.

Some clients prefer to pay for several sessions in advance (for example, 2, 4, or 6) so they don’t have to think about payment before each session and can focus entirely on the process instead.

I also offer a free initial consultation so you can get a sense of my approach and ask any questions before deciding to move forward.

Not necessarily. EFT can be helpful whether or not you have a history of trauma. Many clients use it to work on present-day emotions like stress, anxiety, fear of public speaking, procrastination, or relationship challenges.

If trauma is part of what’s contributing to your current emotional reactions, we can address it — but always in a gentle, titrated, and trauma-informed way. You never have to revisit painful memories in detail or talk about anything you’d rather not share.

My approach focuses on helping your nervous system feel safe and resourced first, so that if we do touch on past experiences, it’s done at a pace that feels manageable. Sometimes we work only with current reactions or imagined future situations, and that can still bring significant relief and change.

It’s common for certain moments in a session to feel uncomfortable — usually when we start to connect more directly with emotions or thoughts that we’ve been avoiding or trying to suppress. This doesn’t mean something is wrong or that you’re doing it “incorrectly.” It’s actually a sign that the process is working and that something important is starting to move.

The good news is that in EFT we’re not stuck in that discomfort. Because we’re tapping, the body receives constant signals of safety, which helps the emotional charge settle much more quickly than if we were just talking about it.

Besides the tapping itself, what also helps ease the discomfort are the balancing statements we use — for example, “And this is where I’m at right now.” These phrases acknowledge what’s happening without judgment and help your system feel more grounded. We can also switch to silent tapping whenever the emotional intensity becomes too high, or even shift our focus to something pleasant, boring, or neutral while we tap. This sends additional cues of safety to the nervous system.

This gentle back-and-forth approach — sometimes called pendulation — allows us to process emotions in a safer and more sustainable way, preventing overwhelm while still moving forward. The temporary discomfort is worth it because it usually leads to relief, clarity, and greater emotional freedom — a sense that the old reaction or feeling doesn’t have the same grip on you anymore.

This is completely optional. I’m not a big fan of assigning “homework.” My intention is for you to feel that tapping is a tool or resource you can use if and when you want to — not something you have to do.

Tapping between sessions can definitely be helpful, especially if you want to practice applying it to everyday situations or maintain momentum. But it’s not essential. Simply showing up to the sessions is often enough to help move the needle and create meaningful change.

If you ever feel inspired to tap on your own, I can guide you on how to do it safely and effectively, but there’s no pressure or expectation to do so.

Pretty much anything that has an emotional component. EFT works by helping to calm the body’s stress response, so whether the emotion shows up as anxiety, fear, anger, guilt, sadness, shame, or even physical tension, tapping can help your system process it more effectively.

People use EFT for things like:

• Stress and overwhelm
• Fears and phobias (like fear of flying or public speaking)
• Procrastination or self-sabotage
• Low self-esteem or imposter syndrome
• Difficult relationships or boundaries
• Old memories that still carry emotional charge
• Processing grief or loss

Some also use it to improve performance, build confidence, or release emotional patterns that keep them stuck.

EFT can also be helpful in exploring the emotional contributing factors to physical symptoms or conditions — for example, how stress, unresolved emotions, or self-criticism might influence pain, fatigue, or other bodily experiences. While it’s not a substitute for medical treatment, it can often complement it by helping you feel calmer and more at ease in your body.

In short, EFT can be applied to almost anything that involves how you feel or react — whether that’s something happening right now, something from the past, or something you’re anticipating in the future.

That’s totally okay — and actually very common. You don’t need to come into a session with something specific in mind. We can simply start by having a conversation. I’m very attuned to noticing the words or themes that carry an emotional charge or that might need to be “given the microphone.”

When something like that comes up, I might ask how you feel when thinking about it, and whether you’d like to tap on it. That often leads us right to a meaningful starting point.

Alternatively, we can even begin by tapping on exactly where you are in that moment — for example:

“I don’t know what I should tap on today, and this is where I’m at right now.”

By meeting yourself where you are, without pressure or agenda, the next thing that needs attention often becomes clear naturally.

That’s totally okay — and quite common. You don’t need to have everything figured out before we start. We can always work with whatever information or awareness is currently available.

I’m not overly concerned about labeling emotions accurately. As long as we’re tapping on something that has an emotional charge — such as a thought, belief, or mental image that feels uncomfortable — that’s often enough for the tapping to be effective.

Sometimes, as we continue to give voice to what’s there and tap through the different layers of the onion that come up, you might naturally gain more clarity about what emotions you’re feeling. But it’s also completely fine if you don’t — the process still works either way.

You don’t need to believe in EFT for it to work. What matters most is being open to giving it a try.

Healthy skepticism is totally okay — in fact, we can welcome that part of you into the process rather than trying to push it aside. If thoughts like “I don’t think this will really work for me” or “This feels strange” come up, we can simply acknowledge them and even tap on them directly, using a phrase such as:

“I feel like this won’t really work for me, I just don’t believe in it, and this is where I’m at right now.”

The goal isn’t to “tap away” the skepticism, but to give it a voice and not resist it. When we do that, something usually shifts — that skeptical part often softens just enough to allow us to begin tapping on the deeper layers of the issue you’d like to address.

If you experienced partial or temporary relief, that usually means there were still other emotionally charged aspects of the issue that needed to be tapped on. These other aspects can sometimes be tricky to identify on your own, which is where working with a practitioner can help uncover what’s still contributing to the emotional charge.

For example, some of these aspects can involve a fear that something bad might happen if you were to continue making progress on the issue. These are known as secondary gains — essentially protective mechanisms that can also be gently tapped on and given consideration, so that every part of you feels safe to move forward.

On the other hand, if you felt no relief at all while tapping — no new layers of the onion emerging, no spontaneous cognitive shifts, and no sense of feeling better — that can happen for a few reasons.

The main one is that EFT works best when we allow ourselves to fully feel whatever is coming up, rather than trying to get rid of it. When we tap with the intention of forcing unpleasant thoughts or emotions to go away, we’re actually resisting them — and what we resist tends to stay stuck.

It can take some practice, but the more we tap while allowing ourselves to sit with whatever thoughts or feelings are present — including any resistance we might have — the more effective the process tends to be.

Another factor is emotional activation. For tapping to process the unpleasant charge connected to an issue, there needs to be some degree of emotional engagement — like a cup of tea that has to be warm enough to be soothing. If the “cup of tea” is too cold (meaning there’s not enough emotional connection to what we’re focusing on), the tapping won’t be as effective.

Sometimes this just means closing your eyes to reduce distractions, or “zooming in” a little more on the details of the situation to raise the temperature of the cup of tea. At the same time, we don’t want the tea to be boiling hot, which would overwhelm the nervous system. My role is to help you find that balance — working in a way that feels safe while still connected enough for change to happen.

And if you’ve worked with another practitioner before, sometimes the challenge lies not in EFT itself but in the way it was applied. For example, some practitioners follow the protocol too rigidly, which can get in the way of meeting you where you are. They might insist that you:

• come up with a number to rate your emotional intensity after every round (which can create pressure or distraction),
• identify the exact emotion you’re feeling (which is helpful but not essential), or
• find an earlier “root cause” event (which can be useful, but it’s not necessary — we can always start with whatever’s currently present and allow any relevant memories to arise naturally, then decide together if you’d like to tap on them).

EFT works best when we meet ourselves exactly where we are. My role is to help you do that every step of the way. The more we can approach the process from that place, the safer, gentler, and more effective the tapping becomes.

That’s totally okay. Many people cry during sessions — it’s simply a sign that something important is being felt and released. I won’t be scared of that or try to censor your emotions.

That said, I want the process to feel as safe, gentle, and comfortable as possible. If we notice that the emotional intensity is high, we can adjust in a few ways. For instance, we can continue tapping without zooming in too much on the emotionally charged details. And when necessary, we can drop the words altogether and simply tap silently through the points.

After a few rounds of silent tapping, the emotional intensity often subsides and the wave of emotion passes. During that silent tapping, you can simply allow yourself to feel whatever you’re feeling and think whatever you’re thinking while tapping through the points.

If that still feels like too much, I might invite you to gently shift your attention to something pleasant, neutral, or even boring — like the sensation of your fingertips tapping, the sound of my voice as I name the points, or the sound of birds outside. Doing this sends cues of safety to the nervous system, which, together with the tapping, helps your body come out of survival mode and return to a more regulated state.

In Trauma-Informed EFT, we always work within your emotional window of tolerance — the range within which your system can process what’s happening without becoming overwhelmed. We need a sense of safety in the body and nervous system in order to process and move forward. There’s no value in forcing yourself to connect with something that floods or retraumatizes you, because from that state, integration isn’t possible.

Our goal is to gradually widen your window of tolerance and work safely within it. Of course, there may be brief moments of emotional overflow or partial dissociation — and if that happens, a skilled, trauma-informed practitioner will help you return to safety and grounding before continuing the work from there.

Generally speaking, EFT tends to help you feel a bit calmer or lighter fairly quickly. Sometimes, there can be a brief moment at the beginning where the emotional intensity feels stronger — simply because we’re tuning in, giving voice to, and allowing ourselves to sit with thoughts and feelings that we might normally try to avoid or push aside in daily life. But this usually passes quickly, and what follows is a sense of relief, ease, or spaciousness.

In terms of feeling worse after a session, if EFT is applied in a trauma-informed way — which is the way I work — that’s quite unlikely to happen. Applying EFT in a trauma-informed way means we meet ourselves exactly where we are, without trying to force anything or go too fast or too deep. We go at a pace that feels safe for every part of you.

If there’s ever any apprehension about tapping on something, we honor that. We can even acknowledge that apprehension directly while tapping, without pushing you to face anything you don’t feel ready for. EFT also includes a number of gentle techniques that allow us to create a protective distance from the issue, so we can process it safely without overwhelming the nervous system.

It’s about finding the right distance and pace from which to approach each issue — one that feels safe, grounded, and manageable.

There are basically two ways you’ll notice that EFT is working — during the session and in your everyday life.

1. During the session:

We pay attention to the spontaneous thoughts and feelings that come up as you think about a specific situation or memory related to the issue you want to address — for example, an upcoming work meeting you feel nervous about.

As we tap through the different layers of the onion (the unpleasant thoughts and feelings that arise), you’ll often notice that the thoughts and feelings that come up about that same situation begin to shift. They tend to feel more neutral, calm, or empowering — and this happens naturally, without needing to force anything or “argue your thoughts and feelings away.”

2. In real life:

Outside of sessions, you’ll gradually notice that the more we address the different layers of the onion, the issue — meaning the unpleasant thoughts or emotional reactions — tends to become less frequent, less intense, and shorter lasting.

As a result, those situations or triggers don’t affect you as much anymore. You’ll likely experience a growing sense of emotional freedom, self-acceptance, and self-compassion — not because you’re trying to think differently, but because you genuinely feel different inside.

That being said, depending on how each person responds to EFT, sometimes you might not notice progress or relief immediately. It’s similar to going to the gym — some days you notice clear shifts, like being able to lift more weight or seeing visible changes in the mirror, and other days you don’t. But every time you show up and do the work, you’re still strengthening something underneath the surface.

It’s the same with EFT: each time you show up and give the microphone to whatever thoughts, feelings, or parts of you need your attention that day, you’re doing important emotional work. Over time, that consistent process builds up into real-life progress, even if it’s not always immediately noticeable.

Yes — there’s a growing body of research supporting the effectiveness of EFT (Emotional Freedom Techniques). Over a hundred peer-reviewed studies, including randomized controlled trials and meta-analyses, have found significant reductions in anxiety, depression, PTSD symptoms, and stress, along with improvements in overall well-being.

Several reviews have concluded that EFT meets many of the criteria used by organizations such as the APA’s Division 12 (Society of Clinical Psychology) for what’s considered an “evidence-based practice.” That said, EFT has not yet been formally endorsed by the APA in the same way that more established therapies (like CBT) have.

In the UK, NICE — the National Institute for Health and Care Excellence — has also reviewed the research on EFT for PTSD. They described the evidence as promising and listed EFT as a research priority for further study.

So while EFT continues to gain scientific support, it’s still considered an emerging therapy within the broader mental-health field. What’s encouraging is that the existing studies consistently show meaningful results, especially when EFT is applied in a trauma-informed and individualized way.

EFT isn’t meant to replace medical or psychiatric care, but it can be a powerful complement — helping you process emotions more effectively, feel calmer in your body, and respond to life’s challenges with greater ease.

Yes, absolutely. EFT can work well alongside other therapeutic approaches — such as psychotherapy, coaching, EMDR, or somatic therapies — and it often complements them beautifully.

If you’re already working with another therapist or counselor, you don’t have to choose between one or the other. EFT can help you process emotions more gently and directly in the body, which often supports and enhances the insights or behavioral changes you might be exploring in other forms of therapy.

I always encourage open communication: if you’re seeing another professional, we can make sure the work we do together fits safely and respectfully within your overall healing process.

EFT is generally considered very safe and gentle, even for people dealing with intense emotions or past trauma — especially when practiced with a trained, trauma-informed practitioner. Because it helps regulate the nervous system while processing emotions, it tends to reduce rather than increase distress.

That said, EFT is not a substitute for medical or psychiatric treatment, and it’s important that any ongoing physical or mental-health conditions continue to be monitored by appropriate healthcare professionals.

In our sessions, we always work within your emotional window of tolerance — meaning at a pace that feels safe for every part of you. If at any point something feels overwhelming, we can adjust the approach, slow down, or use gentle techniques to restore safety before moving forward.

If you’re currently experiencing acute or severe mental-health symptoms — such as suicidal thoughts, psychotic hallucinations, or any situation where you might need immediate or in-person support — it would be best to seek local, in-person mental health care. That kind of support can provide resources, structure, and a level of teamwork that simply isn’t possible in remote sessions.