What Happens in Your Body When You Tap: The Science Behind EFT Tapping
- Claudia Luck-Rodriguez
- 4 days ago
- 9 min read
If you've heard about EFT tapping, you might be curious but also... skeptical, like I was.
When people ask what I do for a living, I see a mix of confusion and doubt when I say that I’m an ‘EFT Tapping practitioner’.
And when I share that tapping on acupressure points regulates your nervous system, benefits your physical health, releases emotional blocks and even changes your biology, it sounds almost too good to be true.
If you're someone who needs to understand how things work before you can trust them (hello, that’s me 👋), this article is for you.
So let's explore what is actually happening in your body when you tap.
Why EFT tapping was first dismissed as ‘woo woo’
For a long time, EFT tapping was dismissed as pseudoscience because we didn't have physiological explanations for how tapping could produce such shifts.
But it's changing.
There are now over 300 peer-reviewed studies showing why or how EFT tapping works.
Thanks to emerging research in neuroscience, psychology and physiology, we now know much more about what's happening 'inside' when we tap.
And it’s both fascinating and empowering. Understanding what's happening in your body makes tapping feel less ‘woo woo’ and more like a practical tool you want to use (all the time ;))
1. The science: EFT tapping changes your biology
One of the most studied effects of EFT tapping is its impact on stress hormones, particularly cortisol.
In a randomised controlled trial, researches took 3 groups of participants and measured their cortisol levels by taking saliva samples before and after:
The 1st group did EFT tapping for 50 min.
The 2nd group did psychoeducation for 50 min.
The 3rd group read magazines for 50 min.
The results were super interesting:
The group reading magazines had a 2% increase in cortisol (imagine what’s happening when we’re watching the news!)
The group doing psychoeducation had a decrease of 19%
And the group doing EFT tapping had a decrease of 43%! (Church et al., 2012; Stapleton et al., 2020)
No medication involved. I call that a huge drop.
Why does lowering cortisol matter?
Because today, we have way too much cortisol flowing in our system and staying elevated.
Cortisol may have a bad name, but is needed (like to get out of bed in the morning). It only becomes ‘bad’ when there’s too much of it – like everything else in life (except 70% dark chocolate dropped in Reishi tea during a magical sunset obviously 😉 ).
When we have a high level of cortisol in our system, a lot of things are affected such as weight gain, insulin resistance, impaired immune function, bone density loss, muscle weakness, digestive problems, heart disease, sleep disturbances, hormonal imbalances, skin and hair problems, and more!
And when we have chronic high cortisol and we allow it to nicely drops, it allows your system to switch out of the fight or flight mode.
And a cascade of physiological and psychological positiveness ensues...
...Such as your thinking becoming clearer, your immune system working better, and your balanced self being back in the driver’s seat. Just to name a few.
2. Tapping calms your amygdala (your brain’s stress centre)
Your amygdala is like your brain's smoke detector. It's constantly scanning for threats and triggers your fight-or-flight response when it senses danger.
However… this alarm system often gets stuck in the ‘on’ position nowadays. Traffic jams, work emails, family stress, difficult conversations [insert the flavour of the day here 😉] your amygdala can't tell the difference between a real threat and everyday stress.
Research on acupuncture shows amygdala deactivation (Hui et al.; Fang et al.), and early EFT imaging studies suggest similar effects.
It’s basically like turning down the volume on your body's panic button. You're still aware of stressors, but they don't hijack your nervous system the way they usually would.
This is why people often say they feel ‘lighter’ or ‘calmer’ after tapping, because your brain literally isn't perceiving things as threatening anymore.
3. Tapping Rewires Your Neural Pathways
But it’s not just your amygdala that changes, your brain is being rewired.
Every time you feel anxious, stressed, or triggered, your brain follows the same neural pathway, like a well-worn track in the snow. The more you travel that path, the deeper it gets and the harder it sets.
This is why anxiety or stress responses can feel automatic and we, humans, have a hard time changing our thinking and emotional patterns.
But your brain is neuroplastic, meaning it can change and create new pathways. It just takes a bit of focus, effort and time.
When you tap while thinking about a stressful memory or feeling, you're pairing the stress with the calming input from tapping.
Over time, the old pathway weakens, and a new, more beneficial and helpful response forms.
It's actually rewiring how your brain processes the experience. It's why issues that have bothered you for years can genuinely shift with EFT.
4. Tapping sends signals specifically to the parts of the brain activated by the emotion you’re feeling
This part tends to blow people’s minds.
When you think of something stressful (like a memory, a worry, a fear etc) certain neural circuits activate.For example:
The amygdala, your brain’s stress centre or alarm system
The hippocampus, which stores emotional memory
The prefrontal cortex, which regulates meaning, thinking, making decisions and interpretation
When you tap while thinking of something emotionally charged, the tapping signals travel to the exact brain regions that lit up.
When the alarm system (the amygdala) goes off, we’re less able to access the prefrontal cortex hence we won’t be able to think clearly and to make the right decisions.
Multiple imaging studies show this clearly (Stapleton et al., 2019; Stapleton et al., 2022; König et al., 2019; Wittfoth et al., 2020).
This is why EFT tapping works so well for trauma, anxiety, phobias, emotional triggers, cravings, and even chronic pain: it pairs emotional activation + physical calming, creating a powerful retraining effect in the brain.
5. Tapping on the ‘proper points’ matters: research shows they carry electrical signals more effectively
This targeted brain response works because of where you’re tapping.
Acupuncture points aren’t mystical energy portals floating in space, they’re actual spots on the skin which have been known and used in TCM for thousands of years, with:
Higher electrical conductivity (they’re literally tiny electrical hotspots)
A higher density of mechanosensory cells (Yao et al., 2014), explanation below
When you tap on these specific points, the pressure activates these cells through something called mechanosensory transduction (Bagriantsev et al., 2014; Marshall & Lumpkin, 2012).
That’s a fancy way of saying: Mechanical pressure becomes electrical signals.
Your action of tapping on these specific spots produce electrical messages.
And electrical signals are how your nervous system sends messages throughout your body and your brain.
Your nervous system is like a highway of little electrical signals carrying information wherever it needs to go.
The points really do matter
In randomised controlled trial of post-menopausal women with mild to moderate depression, the researchers randomly assigned them into 2 groups:
- One group did EFT tapping on the correct points
- One group did tapping on non-active points (sham / non-acupoints location points but the participants didn’t know it)
And it shows how much the points matter. After a few weeks of tapping, in the EFT group the frequency of moderate depression went from 56.80% to 9.35%.
In the EFT group the frequency of moderate depression went from 56.80% to 9.35%
In the sham tapping group, it went from 50% to 29.5%. The sham group probably improved because rhythmic tapping, focused attention, and the emotional statements used in the protocol have therapeutic effects even without stimulating true acupoints.
But the difference is still huge.
6. Tapping creates a ‘prediction error’ that rewrites emotional memory
Neuroscience is fascinating.
When you bring up a memory or belief, the brain temporarily puts that memory into a flexible, ‘editable’ state, a window called reconsolidation (Nader, 2015; Lee et al., 2017).
If, while thinking of something distressing, your body simultaneously receives signals of safety (here through tapping), your brain experiences something unexpected: a mismatch, a prediction error.
Your mind might be focused on stress, but your body is receiving a calming signal.
That contradiction is what updates the emotional learning underneath (Ecker, 2018). It gets your brain to recalibrate, and you literally rewire your nervous system to respond in a different or (dare I say) better way.
This is why:
anger toward someone can disappear
a triggered reaction can soften or dissolve
an old belief can lose its emotional charge
stressful memories can feel neutral
And this can happen quickly because the brain rewrites efficiently when given the right conditions – keeping in mind that everyone’s brain is different!
7. EFT tapping works faster than traditional approaches
One thing that sets tapping apart from traditional approaches like CBT is the way it helps the brain update emotional patterns in the moment.
In CBT, exposure is usually done through repeated practice: you may revisit a feared memory or situation until the intensity slowly decreases over time. And it can take a while.
With EFT tapping, you still bring the emotion, memory, or trigger to mind, but the tapping sends calming signals straight to the limbic system while you’re feeling it.
This creates an immediate contrast. That unexpected experience helps the brain rewrite the old emotional response more quickly.
Research comparing the two approaches shows that CBT and EFT both reduce anxiety and distress, but tapping often works faster, and for some people the improvements continue to grow after the session (Gaesser & Karan, 2017; Irgens et al., 2017; Stapleton et al., 2016).
8. EFT tapping can change your gene expression
This is one of my favourite parts of the science behind tapping.
It turns out that EFT tapping doesn’t just help you feel calmer in the moment, it may also support your body at a much deeper, biological level.
We each have around 20,000 to 25,000 genes, but only some of them are ‘switched on’ at any given time. Which ones turn on or off depends on so many things: stress, hormones, sleep, lifestyle habits, your emotional world… basically the way you live your life (livin' la vida loca! 💃).
In 2016, researcher Maharaj and his team used a technique called salivary mRNA testing (think of it as a snapshot of what genes are doing) to see what changed after a single 50 minute EFT session.
What they found was pretty impressive: 72 genes showed shifts in expression.
And ‘important’ ones, related to:
· immunity
· inflammation
· brain and neural pathways
· stress regulation
And the direction of those shifts is very supportive for health and wellbeing.
A few years later, Dawson Church and his team found something similar when working with war veterans: genes linked to inflammation were turned down, and genes that strengthen immunity were turned up.
All of this suggests that tapping is a powerful way to signal to your body that it’s safe enough to heal, repair and rebalance at the genetic level.
How impactful is that.
What this means for you
It means your body already has the mechanisms built in to heal and rebalance itself.
If you're feeling burnt out, overwhelmed, or stuck in patterns you can't seem to shift, EFT tapping offers a way to work directly with your nervous system, not just your thoughts.
You're not ‘thinking your way out’ of stress. You're giving your body a tangible way to release it.
The science shows us that tapping:
Lowers stress hormones
Calms your brain's threat response
Rewires old patterns
Targets the exact regions holding emotional charge
Activates your body's natural relaxation response
Sleep, rest and digest can improve
Anxiety and stress can go down
Physical pain can be reduced
And you can feel the difference fast.
And yes, tapping does looks weird, and if you do it in public places, people will stare at you… been there, done that!
But hey, at least you’re the one lowering your cortisol levels and changing your biochemistry.
And you get used to that good weirdness, because it works ;)
Ready to experience it for yourself?
As Dr Bessel Van Der Kolk would say (and I am paraphrasing him here): understanding the science with your mind is one thing, experiencing the shift in your own body is where healing truly happens. [NB during his 2 day workshop in Sydney, he even taught the audience how to tap!]
You can start tapping for yourself – check out this article if you’re interested – for the ‘bigger stuff’, it’s best to work with a certified practitioner.
If you're curious about how EFT could help you regulate your nervous system, release what's been holding you back, and reconnect with your inner balance, I'd love to support you.
I’m a certified EFT practitioner based in Sydney, Australia, offering 1:1 session in person near Manly (Northern Beaches) and at Better Balance Wellness in Double Bay.
If you’re not close to me, online sessions are also available too. Feel free to book a free connection call here.
With Heart,
Claudia Luck-Rodriguez
Holistic Practitioner for Emotional & Nervous System Health - Sydney
Certified & Accredited EFT Practitioner in Sydney · Heart Coherence · Somatic EMDR · Trauma-informed
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