How EFT Calms the Brain—and Why It Works So Well.
EFT combines the ancient wisdom of acupressure with modern understanding of neuroscience and emotional health.
It involves gently tapping on specific points on the face and upper body while focusing on an emotional or physical issue.
EFT tapping sends a calming signal to the brain, helping it switch off the threat response and settle emotional distress. In just a few rounds of tapping, many people notice a tangible shift in how they feel—less anxious, less reactive, and more at ease in their body.
This simple process works in several powerful ways:
Calms the nervous system — tapping helps lower cortisol (the stress hormone) and switches the body from a fight-or-flight state into a calmer, more balanced state.
Releases stuck emotions — gently processing feelings that were frozen in past experiences.
Rewires old patterns — over time, EFT helps the brain create new, more empowering emotional responses.
Restores emotional freedom — giving you back the choice to respond with calm, confidence, and resilience.
Body and mind support - EFT doesn’t just calm the mind — it soothes the nervous system, helping your body relax at a deeper level.
Research shows that EFT can quickly and gently reduce stress, anxiety, and physical symptoms — often in just a few sessions.
A more in depth look at How EFT works
When we focus on a stressful thought or feeling and tap on specific acupressure points, we send a signal to parts of the brain like the amygdala (responsible for fear and the fight/flight response) and the hippocampus (involved in emotional memory). This signal helps the body register that it is safe, and begins to reduce the intensity of the emotional response.
What the Research Shows
In ground-breaking research conducted over a period of 10 years at Harvard Medical School using functional MRI and PET studies, Hui, et al (2005) found that stimulating specific acupoints decreased arousal in the amygdala (the area in the brain that is responsible for the flight/flight stress response), virtually instantaneously.
Normally when we focus on a stressful or negative thought or idea we can feel a whole range of negative emotions (see picture for some examples). Researchers have now discovered however, if while thinking about that issue, you simultaneously stimulate the acupressure points using the EFT tapping points, you are introducing a calming and conflicting signal to the amygdala in the brain (the area in the brain that is responsible for the flight/flight response) and the hippocampus (the brain’s memory centre). This helps to decrease the physiological stress response in the body and alter the previously stored signals of threat/emotional learning in the brain. Whilst the memory is still there, EFT rapidly reduces the emotional impact of those memories, the link to the threat is broken and you experience a decrease in the negative feeling/emotional distress you initially tapped for. It takes just a minute or two to complete each set of tapping points and it’s unusually quick and easy. It also lasts overtime, so you don’t have to keep repeating the tapping for the same issue.
After EFT tapping, clients usually experience “the memory, cue, or context that had previously evoked a strong and unwanted emotional or behavioural reaction no longer triggers that reaction. The change is brought about rapidly, with precision, and it is lasting” (Feinstein, 2015, p. 48).
Why This Matters
When your nervous system feels safe, your body can heal, your thoughts can become clearer, and your sense of possibility returns.
EFT is one of the few techniques shown to quickly and gently deactivate stress responses and help the brain rewire its relationship with fear, overwhelm, or old beliefs. It's not about erasing the past—it's about helping the body let go of the ongoing emotional weight it no longer needs to carry.
Tapping doesn’t erase a memory—but it helps remove the emotional charge.
Want to experience it yourself?
You can explore tapping in a 1:1 session or join one of my gentle, beginner-friendly introductory workshops. Find out more here.