Emotional Freedom Technique: Tapping
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Have you heard of EFT or tapping? Either way, you’re in for a treat!
I’m super excited to share the recent interview I had with Brad Yates - a leading expert in EFT. So without further ado, let’s dive right in!
Learn EFT with me!
What is EFT?
What is EFT you ask? It stands for Emotional Freedom Techniques but is often referred to simply as ‘tapping’.
The founder of EFT is Gary Craig. He first introduced it to the public in 1995 as a way of integrating the Chinese meridian system into a therapeutic process by tapping on meridian points around your body with your fingertips.
Because of this, EFT has come to be considered emotional acupuncture without the needles!
It is a simple self-help protocol that anyone can do on themselves for any purpose and at any time. By tapping sequentially on various meridian points of the body with your specific intention in mind, you are able to release the negative emotional energy surrounding your issue, support the body’s natural energy flow, and reduce stress. It works to help you move through pain, stress, and emotional baggage quickly.
A personal note
Many of you reading this know my husband Joe was in an accident years ago where he was struck by a car and sustained a traumatic brain injury. You are also likely aware that conventional medical treatments did not serve him well and that we looked to alternative means of managing his symptoms.
One of the tools he used (and still uses) regularly is EFT. It helped him manage his rage, process his feelings, and regulate his nervous system. It became an invaluable tool for him!
And who’s YouTube channel did he learn EFT from? You guessed it - Brad Yates!
If you’re interested in learning more or practicing along with Brad, be sure to check out his YouTube channel. You can also discover more his website, Tap With Brad.
Because I knew how much his videos helped Joe, it was an extreme honour and privilege to get to speak to him about EFT and gain his valuable insights.
So without further ado, let’s hear what Brad Yates, a leading expert in the field of EFT has to say about it.
My Interview with Brad Yates
Me: How did you first get to learn about tapping? What did you do before?
Brad: This is a question I like to call: “How does a grown man find himself tapping on his face for a living?”
I had been an actor and traveled the world doing theatre. I came to Hollywood to be a movie star and in the process, met a woman, fell in love, and got married. When our first child was on the way I thought, “Hey you know maybe I should have a backup career.” So, instead of getting a standard 9-5 job with a steady pay check, I trained to be a hypnotherapist because I’d always been fascinated with the power of the mind.
After a couple of years doing that, our second child came along. I thought, as much as I love acting, this personal development work is my calling. This is what I really feel like I’m supposed to be doing.
So we left Hollywood and moved to northern California. Through some other hypnotherapists, I found out about energy work and tapping. I took a full day training with Gary Craig, the founder of EFT, and fell in love with it. Little by little after that, I took the online training course with him.
At that time, it was all on VHS tapes - a huge box of VHS tapes - that’s going back 20 years now. Little by little I started introducing tapping into my hypnotherapy sessions and little by little they become tapping sessions.
I loved that it was something simple that people could do for themselves at any time, is very quick and very simple.
Then around 2007, YouTube was still pretty new at that time and I thought - wouldn’t it be cool if there was a YouTube video that people could start their day with and I’ll call it “Tap O’ the Mornin’.” That was all I had ever intended to do - that 1 video. Then 6 months later I came up with an idea for a second one and another 3 months later a third one. Then the ideas started coming and now there’s over 900 of them.
Me: It’s interesting how life pulls us into the areas where we are just meant to be.
Brad: Yes - if we pay attention!
Sometimes it pulls and we’re like a toddler with our mom trying to take us from the playground and it’s like “Nooooo!” Yeah, trust the universe. It knows where we are meant to be.
Me: How would you describe tapping to someone who’s never heard of it before?
Brad: Well - one of the catchphrases is, “It’s emotional acupuncture without the needles.” It’s based originally on acupuncture. It’s a very simple stress-relieving technique where instead of sticking needles in our face we tap with our fingertips.
It down regulates the stress response. This allows us to think more clearly. It allows us to feel better. It boosts our immune system. And we’re able to make better choices and have the freedom to take better actions in our lives.
Me: What would you say are the main health benefits of tapping?
Brad: The key thing with tapping is the stress-relief. We can look at all the different ways tapping is beneficial in terms of physical issues - overcoming pain, overcoming inflammation. But it also moves us more quickly through uncomfortable emotions like guilt or fear or anger or pain or sadness. It helps us think more clearly and come up with more creative ways to be more successful at work. It’s like this panacea that does everything.
But if we were to look at it simply as a stress-relief tool - stress either causes or worsens virtually every issue that bothers us - physically, emotionally, professionally, relationship-wise. To have a tool that lowers stress allows us to heal more quickly. It allows for more positive gene expression. But the main benefit is lowering the stress that then allows our body to heal itself more quickly and allows us to make better choices in terms of our health.
Me: Isn’t it very individualized, as well? Whatever anybody needs, they can focus on that and it can help, right?
Brad: Yeah - One of the catchphrases for EFT is “try it on everything.”
If there is any place in your life that’s not ideal, then there's very likely a tappable issue.
Even with physical healing - even if we don’t necessarily see a physical benefit there are a lot of emotions around the physical distress that we feel. Take your husband for example. There’s sadness over what’s being lost. There’s guilt over how much more difficult it makes your life, or how much he’s not able to do. There’s fear about what this is going to mean in the long run. There’s anger. There are all kinds of different emotions that can come up. So even if the EFT helps process those emotions more quickly, we may think, “Even though I still have the physical symptoms, at least I don’t have the additional pain of all these emotions going on.”
Me: That is so powerful. As horrible as it is to be in physical pain, I think it’s often the emotional pain that’s worse. Most of the time we can actually heal from a physical break or outward damage but it’s that deep inner work that is much more challenging.
Brad: Yeah - there are many people who have physically healed but the emotional aspect is still bringing them down. With tapping, the emotional part can often be healed more quickly than the physical body can recover.
Me: Why do you believe tapping for self-love is so important?
Brad: When we allow ourselves to love ourselves we actually treat ourselves better. In that process, we actually treat other people better.
It’s been said there are only 2 emotions - there's love and there’s fear. So as we clear away the fear and allow more love, then we think more clearly, we take better care of ourselves, and we make better choices for ourselves and for others. It really starts with us.
It’s very difficult to give away what we don’t have. And it’s very difficult for other people to love us as fully as possible when we’re kind of putting out a vibe of, “Well, I’m not really worthy of love. I don’t really love myself, so why would you love me?”
Me: Is there a specific amount of time people should dedicate to their practice in order to receive the best results?
Brad: It always depends. As with anything - how much time is it going to take?
How long should you wash your hands? Right now they say 20 seconds - but it depends. Did you just make some bread and have some flour on your hands or have you been working on your car and have grease all over your hands? It’s going to depend on what there is to clear.
Or how much do you exercise? Well - what are your fitness goals? Half an hour is a good idea for everybody, but if you’re trying to buff up for a film role in a Marvel Superhero movie, it may take more than half an hour per day. So it depends on the goals and it depends on what’s in your way. But regardless, any amount that you do is better than none.
I recommend tapping on a daily basis because to me it’s energy hygiene. We have physical hygiene where we generally shower once a day whether we feel we need it or not. We generally brush our teeth a couple of times a day whether we feel we need to or not. We don’t wait until our teeth have obvious green things growing out between them and then say - okay, now I should brush my teeth. And we don’t generally wait until the people around us are holding their nose that we say - ah, yes, now I should take a shower.
But in terms of stress, we often don’t do anything about it - some people never do anything about it no matter how emotionally distraught they are. They don’t do anything to help that. Other people will wait until they’re really stressed out - so even if someone knows about tapping, they may say, “I’ll use it when I’m really upset about something.” Well, that’s like brushing your teeth when your teeth are falling out.
So I recommend at least a little bit of tapping on a daily basis just for energy maintenance.
Me: Is it possible to do much tapping?
Brad: I suppose it is. I’ve never reached that limit yet and I’ve done all-day workshops where we’re tapping for several hours. But it depends on the person.
I’ve done 2-hour workshops and that’s more than enough for some people. I’ve had people come to a day-long workshop and say that one day’s not nearly long enough! But I was doing a weekend workshop once and got an email on Saturday night from a couple who was there that said, “Today was one of the best days that we’ve ever had. Thank you so much. We won’t be there tomorrow because we’re toast!”
So it depends on the person. I’ve got a weekend workshop starting tomorrow where we’ll be tapping for 4 hours straight. If there is an upper limit, most people aren’t going to reach that.
But I say to folks you are tapping too much if you could be out in the world doing the things that you want to do but (can’t because) you’re stuck at home tapping. If it’s stopping you from living your life, that would be too much.
The whole idea of tapping is to set you free to do the things that you can do for yourself and others.
Me: Who would you suggest could benefit from tapping?
Brad: Who could you suggest that couldn’t benefit?
To me, nothing is so good that it can’t get better. I can’t imagine, and I’m not aware, of anyone who is living at such a high level that I would say, “Please do not even try tapping because there’s nothing it could possibly do for you.”
Everybody experiences stress. Everyone has their rough moments. It’s not that rough moments are bad and should be avoided, but ideally, we want to move through them, I believe, as quickly as possible.
It’s not like we’re going to try to become robots who never experience fear or pain or anger or sadness. These are all part of life. I don’t believe in negative emotions - these are all uncomfortable emotions that are all part of the spectrum of the human experience. But everyone experiences them and ideally, it’s great to move through them as quickly and easily as possible.
Me: Okay, everyone would benefit when dealing with stress or fear, but do you find it more beneficial for certain kinds of people? Who do you see would get the most benefit out of it? Like is it someone dealing with chronic pain? Is it someone dealing with deep childhood trauma that they need to bring to the surface and heal?
Brad: The people who get the most benefit from it are the people who are willing to do it. But in terms of what group gets the most benefit, I don’t think there’s a way to quantify that.
I have seen people have remarkable shifts, life-changing shifts in terms of their physical wellbeing. There are people who talk about life-changing shifts in terms of their relationships, in terms of their financial wellbeing, how much more money they’re making, or how much more fulfilling their career is. So there wouldn’t be a way to do a direct comparison to say that this person’s healing or shift was more profound or more beneficial. What’s beneficial to us depends from person to person.
It also depends on each person where they are limiting their health, wealth, or happiness.
“The people who get the most benefit from (EFT) are the people who are willing to do it.”
Me: What would you say to someone who thinks tapping is “woo woo”?
Brad: I get comments on YouTube about that. In fact, I had a comment yesterday that said “WTH.” And I wrote, “What a perfect comment for this particular video because the video they put that comment on was one about being more openminded!
Me: How ironic!
Brad: Yes - the irony was so palpable I couldn’t leave it alone.
I was at a conference two years ago and someone came up to me asking “Would you consider what you do in the realm of the woo woo?” And I said, “You might, but I don’t. What I do is science. This is a scientifically validated use of your body’s energy system.”
That’s like saying would you say that exercise is woo woo? Would you say the Heimlich Maneuver is woo woo? But because it looks a little strange to be tapping on your face, it turns a lot of people off and they have resistance to it.
I often think that some of the greatest resistance to it is from people who are not ready to move forward. So if I came along and told you that you could do this simple process and it will create changes in your life - they’d say, “…Get away from me.” And the fact that it looks a little strange with the tapping makes it easier. It makes it easier to dismiss - regardless of the science.
The question about ‘where’s the research’ that I get so often is people saying - I want to talk myself out of a way of trying this. Even though it’s so simple and you can do it freely online. You can do it at home where no one will watch you. There’s no good reason not to try it. But because I think it scares people that something could change them, they will write it off as woo woo. They will find some way to dismiss it. But a lot of people will come back to it later when they’re ready.
Me: That’s all fear-based, isn’t it? If they are resisting, then there’s fear.
Brad: Yes - if there was no fear, there would be no reason not to give it a try. And they might try it and may not see a result (but that doesn’t mean that nothing is happening). It’s like if you wash your hands and don’t see a difference, you’re just not aware of how dirty your hands were. You know they are cleaner but you can’t tell.
So if someone is not feeling emotional distress such that they can see a shift, then they may say, “Well that’s stupid. That didn’t do anything.” Or it may be something that takes longer to work through.
Lots of people take vitamins, but when was the last time you took a vitamin and said, “Oh my - I feel so powerful right now!” Or someone who’s overweight might want to get into shape. They do 3 sit-ups, look at their stomach, and say, “Well, I don’t have a six-pack, so apparently sit-ups don’t work.” You know… it may take a few more. Those 3 sit-ups are a start, they compile, and they will make a difference, but not at any level that the person will consciously be aware of.
But I think tapping is always beneficial. I believe every time you’re tapping, it’s lowering stress even if on a very subtle level - maybe on a subconscious level, but it has benefits.
Me: What’s your favourite thing to do? I’m sure everything involving energy work is special to you but what’s your absolute favourite thing to do?
Brad: My favourite thing to do is live workshops - probably because I’m an actor and I have a live audience!
Literally, just moments before we got on the phone, I shot a new video. I love the process of tapping because it’s a creative process. It’s in the process of the tapping, because I never know what I’m going to say. Ideas come up and it’s like, “Oh that’s really interesting - I hadn’t thought of that before.” So even when I'm shooting a video, that’s a fun process for me. But to have a live audience there… and when I say something funny - to actually get laughter is very rewarding. And it’s a lot of fun to be in that energetic space. That’s one of my favourite things.
Me: Do you feel that energy? Do you feel a shift in that space often?
Brad: Yeah. It’s a very powerful thing to do in a group. In the weekend workshop that I’m doing tomorrow, we had to shift it online. And throughout the last couple of weeks, I've been doing a series of Facebook Lives and Instagram Lives just to try to be supportive of people during this challenging time.
I was doing a YouTube Live and I think there were about 2 or 3 hundred people and it was great - we’re sheltered in place and social distancing but we are still gathering energetically. We are all sharing the moment together and we can feel that energetically - not as profoundly as if we were in a room together, but there’s still something more than if we were doing it separately or watching a recording.
Me: I’ve found the same thing with meditation. We’ve been to group meditation sessions or all-day workshops on meditation and the power that you experience is amazing - you feed off each other’s energy. And everybody is like-minded and focused on the same kinds of things. It’s just a beautiful thing. So I can certainly appreciate that.
Brad: Yes - everything is energy and we are all connected. When we’re in a shared space and we’re all raising our energetic vibration it affects the people around us.
Me: Is there anything else you’d like to add or let people know?
Brad: No there were a lot of great questions and things I hadn’t thought of so no, nothing comes to mind.
Me: Thank you so much, Brad! It was a pleasure talking with you today!
So there you have it! My interview with Brad Yates.
I hope you enjoyed this interview as much as I did, and I hope you learned something in the process. I also hope you will consider giving tapping a try to see how it may help you - regardless of where you are in life.
As always, I welcome your thoughts and value your feedback. Let me know what you think by dropping me a line or commenting below.
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