This news article originally appeared in Sydney Morning Herald and has been republished with permission.
Advocates hail health benefits but sceptics say the technique is not supported by science, writes Liam Mannix.
First, Fiona Redding checks in with herself. How’s her stress? Her anxiety? Then she utters an affirm- ation: ‘‘Even though I’m feeling so stressed about this situation, I deeply and completely love and ac- cept myself.’
Then she takes two fingers, and she taps. Her eyebrow. The top of her head. Under her nose, and then her chin. The points she taps send signals to her organs and her brain, she says, helping calm her. It often provides her instant relief.
‘‘We’re physical, energetic bod- ies,’’ she says. ‘‘We’re electricity, we’re energy.’’
Tapping is a type of energy psy- chology also known as ‘‘emotional freedom techniques’’, or EFT. It’s an alternative therapy with a growing number of adherents.
Bond University, on the Gold Coast, is its most influential proponent. The university claims it can be used to treat PTSD, eating issues, depression, chronic pain and smoking addiction. Its academics are researching whether tapping can cure poor eyesight, and it is training a cohort of psychology students in the practice.
But other academic commentaries describe it as ‘‘pseudoscientific and discredited’’.
Tapping advocates claim the therapy sends electrical signals from the face to the brain, increasing positive emotions, reducing stress and altering gene expression which is the way genes are switched on or off. That does not wash with sceptics, who claim tapping ‘‘is not compatible with any branch of science’’.
Bond University describes the therapy as ‘‘incredibly effective’’ and ‘‘widely successful’’. The university claims it ‘‘has been found to help a range of psychological and physiological conditions’’ including eating disorders, chronic pain and smoking addiction. It offers tapping training as part of a $297 microcredential in ‘‘energy psychology’’. It also states it has been accepted as a treatment by the National Disability Insurance Scheme.
But under changes to eliminate non-evidence-based alternative medicine announced this week, the NDIS has now formally banned funding for energy healing.‘‘There is no mainstream medical, anatomical basis behind any of those claims whatsoever,’’ said Gary Bakker, a clinical psychologist at the University of Tasmania who has published papers on the treatment.
He described it as a ‘‘pseudoscientific, magical, cure-all, purported psychotherapy’’. Tapping is not on the Australian Psychological Society’s list of evidence-based therapies, and the Academy for Eating Disorders says it is not indicated to treat such conditions.
‘‘As with any emerging field of study, there are dissenting views,’’ Bond University said in a state- ment. ‘‘Cognitive Behavioural Therapy, for example, took years to gain widespread acceptance.
‘‘Bond University is committed to following the evidence as it emerges, and encourages new the- ories to be tested and has a respon- sibility to educate students about new treatments.’’ Tapping works by stimulating electrically sensitive points on the skin, which send signals to organs along ‘‘energy pathways’’ known as meridians, proponents say. Professor Peta Stapleton leads Bond University’s tapping re- search. She said there was now good scientific evidence showing acupressure points existed and that stimulating those points could electrically signal the brain.‘‘There does appear to be the ability for stimulation of [acupuncture points] to send, through electrical currents, at least to some areas of the brain,’’ she said.
Stapleton said new therapies were often met with strong scepti- cism and it typically took years for research to translate to accepted clinical practice. ‘‘Change takes time,’’ she said. ‘‘Those sorts of things can threaten the status quo.’’ Advocates point to systematic reviews showing tapping is highly effective against depression, PTSD and anxiety. Stapleton is also the director of Evidence Based EFT, which offers premium accreditation to practitioners for about $6250. She said she did not perform training through the company, but had earned about $25,000 a year over the past eight years from activities such as workshops, presentations, keynote speaker fees and book royalties.
Sceptics say the evidence for tapping is weak and that for meridians, it’s non-existent.‘‘There’s no physiology for it, no anatomy for it,’’ says Mandy-Lee Noble, an accredited dietitian.‘‘Even though we can put people on the moon, do all sorts of wonderful things for our health with radiation therapy, all those amazing people have never found the energy of acupuncture.’’
Some of the benefits seen for tapping are in studies where there is no control group to compare with. Other studies compare tap- ping to doing nothing – meaning the effects could be placebo.
‘‘As with many alternative or physical therapies, the lack of blinding and appropriate study controls make it impossible to de- termine whether the treatment is truly effective or whether this is due to the expectation of benefit,’’ said Professor Paul Rolan, spokes- man for Friends of Science In Medicine.
The Australian Psychological Society, the peak body for psychologists, paid Stapleton to deliver two education sessions to its mem- bers on tapping. Society president Dr Catriona Davis-McCabe said it did not en- dorse tapping, but ‘‘we do acknowl- edge its therapeutic potential’’. But Redding says it works for her. It’s free and she can do it wherever she is.
‘‘You get awareness of what those things are that might be troubling for you, thoughts or be- liefs or trapped emotions – blocked emotions in your meridians or your chakra system,’’ she said. ‘‘The science is starting to catch up with this.’"