A Pastor's Guide to Tapping

Tapping, also called EFT, is a simple calming practice. A person taps gently with their fingertips on a few points on the face, hands and chest while naming, out loud, what is troubling them. A session takes five to fifteen minutes.

Here is what happens in the body. When we are anxious, the brain's alarm center fires and the body braces for danger. The thinking, praying part of the brain goes partly quiet. Tapping on those points while the worry is held in mind sends a calming signal through the nervous system. The alarm settles. The person can think again, and pray again.

That is the whole mechanism. It is physical, like deep breathing or kneeling. It works whether or not a person believes anything about it.

The Bible does not treat the body as a prison or an afterthought. Paul calls presenting our bodies our spiritual worship (Romans 12:1) and calls the body a temple of the Holy Spirit (1 Corinthians 6:19–20). David praises God for being fearfully and wonderfully made (Psalm 139:14), nervous system included. Scripture is full of bodies at prayer: Daniel kneeling, David dancing, hands lifted in the sanctuary, Jesus face-down in Gethsemane.

Kneeling does not replace prayer. Fasting does not replace repentance. Tapping does not replace surrender. It helps a frightened body settle enough that a person can actually cast their anxiety on the Lord instead of only knowing they should.

The concerns are fair, and we share them.

The "energy" language. Much of the secular tapping world explains the practice with ideas borrowed from Chinese medicine: energy, meridians, chi. We do not use that framing anywhere. It is not needed to explain what the body does, and it carries baggage no Christian should have to carry.

The "I accept myself" statement. Secular tapping begins with "Even though I have this problem, I deeply and completely accept myself." We do not say that. Our sessions say "Even though I am anxious, I cast this on the God who cares for me" (1 Peter 5:7). The ground shifts from self-acceptance to surrender.

The founder's later drift. The man who developed tapping later moved toward New Age teaching. A founder's drift does not change what the body does, any more than it changes the usefulness of aspirin. We take what is true and useful about the body God made, and we leave the rest.

• There are more than 300 published studies of tapping, including nearly 100 randomized controlled trials.
• One hour of tapping cut cortisol, the body's main stress hormone, by 43%, more than double the drop from an hour of talk-based education.
• In a randomized trial with veterans, 90% no longer met the clinical criteria for PTSD after six coached tapping sessions alongside their regular care, compared with 4% of those on a waiting list who continued their regular care. Among everyone who went through the tapping sessions, 86% were still free of PTSD criteria three months later, and 80% at six months.

The U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs listed tapping among therapies considered generally safe for veterans in 2017. The sources for every figure above are on our science page.

Tapping in Faith is a practice alongside faith and good care, not a replacement for either. If someone in your care is living with trauma or a health condition, they should keep working with their doctor or counselor.

• Not a substitute for the means of grace. Word, prayer, fellowship, the sacraments and repentance come first. Tapping is a tool that helps a person get back to them.
• Not a promise of healing. We do not promise healing, wealth or an end to suffering. We never use prosperity language.
• Not New Age. No energy, chi, meridians, vibration or manifestation. No "the universe." Every session reaches for Scripture, prayer and the promises of God.
• Not counseling or medical care. Tapping in Faith is a guided audio app. Anyone facing serious depression, trauma, suicidal thoughts or another serious condition should be with a licensed counselor. We say so inside the app, too.

Treat tapping the way the Christian counseling world has learned to treat EMDR: not prayer, not biblical counseling, but a useful tool within a life ordered toward Christ. Test it by its fruit (Matthew 7:16). Does it lead a person toward Christ or away from him? Does it open space for Scripture and prayer or crowd them out? We built Tapping in Faith to pass that test, and we would rather you check than take our word for it.

The simplest way to check is to try one session yourself. Then you will know what your people are hearing.