Let me start by saying that I don’t only do tapping with clients. I am a fully registered psychologist who is university trained in Cognitive Behavioural Therapy (CBT), and has undertaken advanced training Acceptance and Commitment Therapy (ACT), as well as in the non-diet approach (NDA) and hypnotherapy.
As a psychologist, I often talk about psychology being the missing piece of the puzzle when it comes to overcoming eating, physical activity, weight and body image concerns. But for the last 8 years – and more and more as the research continues to evolve and my experiences with clients repeatedly highlight its amazing power – I have become convinced that tapping is a missing piece within the missing piece.
I’ve previously shared my amazement upon reading world-leading researcher Dr. Peta Stapleton’s original tapping study1, which showed tapping resulted in clinically significant reductions in:
● food cravings
● ‘power of food’ (people were less affected by the presence of food cues)
● negative psychological symptoms (e.g. depression and anxiety)
● dieting mindset, &
● weight
That took only 4 weeks of weekly group tapping to achieve and had lasted or further improved a year following the clinical trial.
To me, knowing how badly the things we traditionally do to help people with weight concerns work, this was super impressive!
It told me something important about tapping. IT WORKS.
But every new therapy has its critics … and some proponents of CBT2 have been vocal detractors of the tapping technique. Many didn’t believe it actually worked, and in scientific research, studies such as this one have to be replicated – repeated again to see if the original results weren’t a fluke or due to some random occurrence – before we acknowledge them as valid, and this one hadn’t …
That was until Peta conducted a second clinical trial of tapping VS CBT and found that tapping could achieve the same results3, but in half the time4. I’m not sure if the tapping-bagging CBT advocates know that Peta and I are trained in CBT, with Peta still teaching it at university level and me training health professionals in it too, but I shouldn’t be sassy towards them, as both Peta and I started off as doubters ourselves5!
But this additional study tells us something else important about the tapping technique. IT WORKS QUICKLY.
After reading Peta’s research, and seeing the benefits of tapping with my clients, Peta and I eventually met at an Australian Psychological Society event where we were both presenting. Almost instantly, we saw our approaches complemented each other, and years later we combined them into an online tapping for weight management program. Online tapping is popping up everywhere now – our own program has had over 3,000 graduates – and its popularity suggests that people are finding benefits in it, but while we thought online tapping was helping people, we didn’t yet know it …
As Peta and I are big believers in science, and online tapping had never been researched before, we had to conduct another study. So we recruited 600 people for a worldwide clinical trial to see what happened when participants tapped through our 8-week online program6. Part of me wasn’t surprised (but part still was!) when the results showed that online tapping had the same benefits as face-to-face tapping7! Again, when our participants were followed up a year later, their results has either maintained or improved further.
This is quite profound, as online tapping is both a lot cheaper and more easily accessible than 1-1 or group therapy. So tapping can get the same results as CBT, but in a shorter time frame, and at a much lower cost.
The online tapping trial tells us something else important about tapping. IT IS ACCESSIBLE.
But these findings still weren’t enough for us. When we talk about creating healthier habits, improving mental wellbeing, and, of course, managing weight, the long term is the real name of the game.
So we followed up our trial participants for another year after their one year follow up to see what happened8. And what had changed between the one-year follow up period and the two-year mark? NOTHING! Between experiencing the benefits of the online program, and further improvements a year later, when we tested for differences between the 1 year and 2 year follow up results, we didn’t find any. This suggests that participants maintained their improvements into the long-term. While we are actually doing even longer-term research9, a two year follow up period makes it the longest follow up study of any tapping program ever researched, and it’s something I’m incredibly proud of10.
This long-term follow up study tells us a final important thing about tapping. IT LASTS.
So the research proves that in tapping we have an approach that works faster, is more accessible, and lasts longer than what we normally do. I’m aware at this stage that you may be a little over hearing about research, so let’s put a human face on it …
Ronna, one of the participants in our worldwide clinical trial, said12:
“The 15 pounds I wanted to lose had me obsessed. I thought about food all the time, always wishing I could eat more, always thinking about my next meal. That is now gone. Until now that ugly beast of food obsession still ruled. Now I’m happier, more peaceful, and more grounded.”
– Ronna Sarvas Weltman
Now you know that ONLINE TAPPING WORKS, let me extend you an invitation. On July 6th we welcome the yearly intake of our Tapping for Weight Management Online Program, and here’s why I think you should do it with us. While there are other online tapping for weight management programs out there, ours is the only one that’s clinically proven. So this is the one you can know will get you better results, in a quicker time frame, that will last longer than anything you’ve tried before (that’s why we back it with our awesome love-it-or-your-money-back guarantee12). And while Peta’s research is cited in other programs, ours is the only one where Peta herself takes you through the tapping technique.
Our program will allow you to experience the benefits of tapping that Peta and I have discovered, the results all of our research participants have enjoyed over the last 8 years, and the transformations thousands of people like Ronna have achieved from all over the world in the comfort of their own homes.
The only question is, when will you start to experience the benefits?
By now you know everything you need to know, so why not join our online program and start to experience the benefits yourself? Here’s my special discount code to help you over the line!
Happy tapping 🙂 🙂 🙂
Glenn
1. Stapleton, P., Sheldon, T., & Porter., B. (2012). Clinical benefits of emotional freedom techniques on food cravings at 12-months follow up: A randomized controlled trial. Energy Psychology, 4 (1), pp. 1 – 12.
2. The current ‘gold standard’ approach for people who have weight concerns.
3. Stapleton, P., Bannatyne, A. J., Urzi, K., Porter, B., & Sheldon, T. (2016) Food for thought: A randomised controlled trial of Emotional Freedom Techniques and Cognitive Behavioural Therapy in the treatment of food cravings. Applied Psychology: Health & Wellbeing. doi:10.1111/aphw.12070
4. Stapleton, P., & Chatwin, H. (2018). Emotional Freedom Techniques for food cravings in overweight adults: A comparison of treatment length. OBM Integrative and Complementary Medicine, 3 (3), doi:10.21926/obm.icm.1803014
5. To read about my introduction into the world of tapping, read this blog and to hear about Peta’s, watch this TED Talk.
6. Stapleton, P., Roose, T., Mackintosh, G., Sparenburg, E., Sabot, D., & Carter, B (2019). Online delivery of emotional freedom techniques in the treatment of food cravings and weight management: A randomised controlled trial. OBM Integrative and Complementary Medicine, 4(4),doi:10.21926/obm.icm.1904065
7. With some small differences, which we’ll discuss in my next email!
8. Stapleton, P., Lilley-Hale, E., Mackintosh, G., & Sparenburg, E. (2019). Online delivery of Emotional Freedom Techniques for food cravings and weight management: 2-year follow-up. The Journal of Alternative and Complementary Medicine 0 (0), pp. 1–9, DOI: 10.1089/acm.2019.0309
9. We will be collecting 5-year follow up data at the end of this year.
10. Of course, tapping’s critics are not limited to CBT advocates. A vocal section of the Health At Every Size community have been some of tapping’s biggest detractors, so I feel like it’s worth noting here that this study has a longer follow-up period than any studies to date on the non-diet approach. I’m not quite sure why some in the non-diet community are so against tapping, especially as it’s proven to result in a reduction in dieting mindset, improvements in people’s relationships with food, and improved psychological wellbeing in every study that has assessed it. Maybe it has to do with the fact that tapping also results in weight loss in many of the studies, which some of their advocates appear to be vehemently against in any way, shape or form. While I fly the non-diet flag pretty high, I’m not going to deny my clients an intervention that can result in all of these amazing benefits, and some moderate weight loss, without any harm done.
11. Note, this isn’t a ‘testimonial’ – it’s qualitative feedback taken during the data collection phase of the trial and before the program became a commercial product (and used with permission, of course!).
12. See the bottom of this page for details – that’s how confident we are!
