EFT for You and Your Children
I would like to introduce you to Emotional Freedom Technique (EFT / Tapping) and how it may help you and your children.
EFT is an emotional and physical healing tool to reduce stress, lower cortisol levels, calm your body, and quieten your mind.
It is based on body energy circuits (meridians), which have been used traditionally for thousands of years in acupuncture and many other healing techniques.
When we experience a distressing event that was traumatic for us, our body’s energy system is disrupted. At this time we create an electrical charge and store it within our subconscious mind, a record of the event and a reminder to protect us in case we experience it again in our life. We also form a belief about the world in this moment.
The first event is usually in our early years, from our very beginning as a tiny embryo (or before), our birth, and as a young child when we were learning about our world and our place in it. From there on in our lives, when a memory of that early event is triggered, our body’s energy system is once again disrupted and an associated emotion is triggered.
The emotion we feel creates a cascade of effects in our body, affecting energy flow and chemical changes throughout many body organs and our hormonal system. Basically, if our mind doesn’t or can’t deal with stress, our body will store it. Increasing and overwhelming stress can lead to illness, pain, anxiety, and many other health concerns. This, and our beliefs, also influence the decisions we make throughout our life, and those recurring patterns of behaviour.
EFT / tapping breaks or changes the energy between your ‘story’ of your experience, and the belief you made in that moment. Tapping with two fingers on specific points on your head and body, enables you to release the energy disruption and emotion in your mind and body. It takes away the trauma of the memory and accelerates your healing process.
EFT is a scientifically proven, easy to learn tool that is effective at any age. In fact children are usually much faster in processing and resolving their emotions than adults when using EFT.
For younger children, under 4 years, the points can be modified to just four ‘magic spots’: the eyebrow point, under the eye, upper chest (gorilla thumps) and under the arm (bear hugs).
Several beautifully written EFT books and resources for parents and children include ‘Huggi the Bear - Magic spots’, ‘Gorilla Thumps and Bear Hugs’ ‘Happy Tapping with Mia and Charlie’, ‘A Garden of Emotions’ and online ‘Magical Tapping Stories of Little Monkey and Bluey the Butterfly’.
For teenagers, EFT can provide a way to navigate through these often stressful years as they learn about themselves and their place in the world. Studies with teens show EFT can erase stress associated with taking exams, peer pressure, social issues, sports performance, weight management, family conflicts and much more.
EFT can be great for achieving goals. Set your goal, close for eyes, say it aloud to yourself, imagine your goal has come true for you and notice and tap on each aspect, one at a time, that come up for you, the ‘yes … but’, the why you may not be able to achieve it. These are beliefs you carry that EFT can resolve to enable your success.
EFT / tapping has great potential for schools at all levels from preschool to university. I believe that when children have experienced how EFT calms their own pain and feelings, and they see another child tapping or upset, they will be more likely to reach out to them. What a wonderful opportunity for learning and building empathy and compassion for self and others, something so crucial for humanity at our unique individual, societal and global level.
Babies are very sensitive to energy around them and may only need a light touch or pulsing on the tapping points.
Parents can also surrogate tap for their children and little ones. Simply tune into and connect with your child, with what they are experiencing and how they are feeling, while you tap on your own points for them. Tuning into and tapping on your own feelings before surrogating to your child is an essential first step as your child may be picking up on your responses. Tapping on yourself first may actually change and release the energy around what your child is experiencing.
I encourage you to look into learning and using this wonderful scientifically researched and proven stress management technique to help you and your children process events in your life. If at any time, issues are bigger than you can settle on your own, please seek professional support to gently and safely guide you through what you are experiencing.
Use and play with EFT for anything and everything from feelings, emotions, anxieties, pain, phobias and health issues, to goals you and your children wish to achieve. Your health and well being is in your hands.
Image from
‘Tapping in the Classroom ‘