Education

Emotional Freedom Techniques (EFT) is a complementary health practice that involves tapping on acupuncture points while voicing affirmations to address various life issues, with the goal of providing relief from emotional and physical problems. Recognized globally, EFT is effective for treating conditions like anxiety, stress, pain, and weight loss, and is promoted by EFT International as a practical self-help method. 

This article reviews the growing body of research on using acupoint tapping (a form of acupressure) in psychotherapy, highlighting consistent positive outcomes across a wide range of conditions. While acknowledging the need for further research, the evidence suggests tapping is an effective, rapid, and durable therapeutic tool worth integrating into clinical practice.

This study aimed to determine the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on students' levels of depression, anxiety, and stress at a local institution in Laguna, using Emotional Freedom Techniques (EFT) as an intervention. Results showed that after 16 online EFT sessions, participants in all groups experienced significant reductions in their symptoms, proving the technique's effectiveness and leading to the development of a new intervention called "Psychological Acupuncture for Comfort." 

Review of EFT research finds it effective for stress and anxiety management for students and school personnel. Suggests that there are links between EFT and CBT citing allied techniques eg “EFT uses cognitive behaviour therapy techniques, such as awareness building, imaginal exposure, reframing of interpretation, and systematic desensitization, while teaching the individual to self-stimulate protocol-identified acupoints”.

This study explored the impact of teaching Emotional Freedom Technique (EFT) to secondary school students as a self-care tool for reducing stress and test anxiety, and found that despite issues with the quantitative data, students provided valuable feedback through a qualitative questionnaire. The results showed that 67% of students recommended teaching EFT in schools, and many shared examples of how they used EFT to cope with schoolwork, sports, and personal relationships, suggesting that EFT can be a beneficial tool for students, particularly those who are motivated to learn it.

Social work students often experience anxiety due to their professional training and practice placements, which can negatively impact their performance. A pilot study found that Emotional Freedom Techniques (EFT) significantly reduced subjective distress and anxiety in social work students, with participants describing EFT as calming, relaxing, and helpful.

This study found that Emotional Freedom Techniques (EFT) significantly reduced professional burnout in K-12 school teachers compared to a sham tapping control condition. The findings suggest that EFT could be a valuable tool for improving resiliency and reducing burnout in teachers, potentially benefiting teacher retention programs.

This systematic review examined Clinical Emotional Freedom Techniques (EFT) as an evidence-based practice for treating various psychological and physiological conditions. The review concluded that Clinical EFT is effective in significantly reducing symptoms of anxiety, depression, PTSD, and physical pain, supporting its use as a validated therapeutic approach.