How to Get Started With EFT Tapping for PTSD
Trigger warning: It is difficult to talk about EFT tapping for PTSD without bringing up some details that may be similar to traumatic events you have experienced. If you are in a particularly vulnerable state, please visit our script on tapping for anxiety and come back to this more specific post when you feel ready.
Post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) is a condition where a person has a hard time getting over a traumatic, stressful, or terrifying experience. If it is not addressed, PTSD can last for months or even years. Triggering moments, things that evoke memories or feelings from the inciting event or events may cause an emotional or physical response, often intense. People with PTSD may experience recurring nightmares and intrusive thoughts, and may do things to avoid situations that will bring up triggering feelings.
Can EFT Tapping for PTSD Be Effective?
Given the intense and varied nature of PTSD symptoms, exploring effective treatments becomes crucial. Recent research sheds light on promising approaches, such as EFT tapping, which may offer protection against the escalation of PTSD symptoms. A study conducted with veterans at risk for PTSD showed that EFT tapping might help protect against an increase of symptoms from traumatic brain injury, and may also protect against a PTSD diagnosis down the line.
Yet, despite the potential benefits of EFT tapping for PTSD, addressing the condition effectively requires more than a generic approach. As PTSD manifests uniquely in each individual, relying on standardized EFT tapping scripts may not fully address the specific needs of each person. We provide scripts for a number of scenarios – pain, anxiety, insomnia, weight loss, and more. However, because PTSD is so personal, we can’t use a standard script to address the problem. Instead, something more specific and personalized is needed.
What Does an EFT Tapping for PTSD Script Look Like?
We provide scripts for a number of scenarios – pain, anxiety, insomnia, weight loss, and more. However, because PTSD is so personal, we can’t use a standard script to address the problem. Instead, something more specific and personalized is needed.
When we tap through a traumatic event, we want to take the scenario minute by minute, tuning into specific moments and noting the different spikes of intensity throughout the experience. By working through and lessening the intensity of each moment, we are teaching ourselves how to stop a trauma response.
For example, your first thought of the event may include the initial fear of knowing that you are not in a safe place. With that first spike, you’ll tap on it, until it goes down to a zero. The next may involve someone saying something threatening to you – tap that down to a zero as well. Whatever triggers a fear response in your head as you’re recounting the event, apply the same practice. Don’t skip through something you may first see as innocuous. Go back and tap through each moment, noting the intensity and working through until you get zeroes.
What General Tapping Scripts Can You Use?
Because the experience of trauma is so individualized, we can’t possibly have a standard script to work from. The script for anxiety works as a good urgent remedy when you’re starting to process your emotions. From there, we can work together on building an individual approach to conquer your PTSD.
While it can feel overwhelming to tackle a complex situation such as healing from PTSD, you owe it to yourself to heal. Prioritize your care and well-being and take the first step towards a more grounded, centered life.
When you feel ready to take on more EFT tapping for PTSD, you can find additional resources and tapping scripts that can work for PTSD, anxiety, fear, and much more in the Soar With Tapping App. Get it on Android or iOS.
