The Tapping Solution Foundation has been providing support for The Choose Love Movement and is proud to contribute to The Jesse Lewis Choose Love Enrichment Program which is a social and emotional (SEL) classroom program teaching children how to choose love in any circumstance. The program focuses on four important character values – courage, gratitude, forgiveness and compassion – which cultivates optimism, resilience and personal responsibility.
The Tapping Solution Foundation has created a Tapping extension to guide teachers in implementing Tapping in the classroom alongside the Choose Love Enrichment Program lessons. The Tapping extension is written by Alison Partridge, TTSF Director of Program Development and co-author with Nick Ortner, of The Big Book of Hugs.
With Tapping for Stress Relief in Classrooms, teachers and students will learn how to use this self-regulating tool to develop an understanding of their emotions and a resiliency to take part in controlling them. The lessons are connected to the Choose Love Enrichment Program and can be taught within each of the four units: Courage, Gratitude, Forgiveness, and Compassion in Action. This program was developed, by educators for educators, to ensure you have the tools and resources you need to teach all essential life skills.
The Tapping for Stress Relief in Classrooms Extension program gives teachers the knowledge and language to use Tapping for yourself, with individual children, or your entire classroom as a whole. The entire program can be accessed and download for free by visiting the Jesse Lewis Choose Love Movement website, jesselewischooselove.org
CHOOSING LOVE
The Tapping for Stress Relief in Classrooms Extension program will give teachers the knowledge and language to use Tapping in the classroom.
Nick Ortner, Newtown resident, worked one-on-one with Scarlett Lewis, mother of Jesse Lewis, to help her deal with the unimaginable trauma of the Sandy Hook tragedy.
In December of 2012, the Sandy Hook Elementary School shooting tragedy struck home, located right next door to Tapping Solution’s Newtown, CT-based company. Twenty-eight lives were lost, including 20 first-grade children, their teachers and principal.
In response to this unprecedented tragedy, Nick, Jessica and Alex Ortner established The Tapping Solution Foundation (TTSF) in collaboration with Dr. Lori Leyden, Founder of Create Global Healing. The Foundation has been delivering EFT Tapping trauma services and professional training for parents, children, educators, first responders, mental health and health care providers in Sandy Hook, Newtown and the surrounding community ever since. TTSF has also developed a powerful network of local, national and international alliances to bring train-the-trainer trauma relief and resiliency services and educational programs to Newtown. This is a sustainable long-term, community-based initiative supporting healing in Newtown and globally.
“While this tragedy will forever be a part of who we are, it is my belief, and my experience in working with people both here in town and around the world that have been affected by traumatic events, that we CAN heal. That we can find ways to lift the burdens, to have it hurt maybe just a little bit less, to find a little more meaning, and hope and purpose.”
—Nick Ortner
Having now worked through The Tapping Solution Foundation for several years to support members of their community heal and regain hope in the aftermath of a tragic mass shooting, the Ortners continue to be committed to helping others choose hope, health and healing, instead of anger and violence.
As our nation continues to experience the tragedy of excessive gun violence, please consider making a donation to The Tapping Solution Foundation to help continue the important work of promoting EFT Tapping to people of all ages around the world.
The Tapping Solution Foundation is currently working to promote EFT Tapping in schools. Our focus is to help reduce stress and anxiety in the classroom in support of students and teachers and to enhance teaching and learning.
Alex Ortner visits New Britain, CT to use Tapping with students.
“A lot of kids come to school with so much burden. Kids are left with this and they don’t know how to regulate. They might not even have conversation when they go home, so this is an acknowledgement of their feelings. Their feelings aren’t bad, it’s how to deal with them. These things let them know that it’s okay feeling what they feel.”
-Robin Pizutto, Grade 1 Teacher, Smalley Academy, New Britain, CT
I don’t know if there’s anyone who doesn’t have some trauma from their childhood. Some little event that really sculpted them and sculpted their beliefs in a direction they might not have wanted. We want these kids to grow up in a different world. To be able to grow up where they can deal with their emotions and traumas and move forward.
-Alex Ortner, Father and Author of Gorilla Thumps and Bear Hugs
The Tapping Solution Foundation Pilot Program at Pacific Grove Middle School
You can learn more about Tapping at Pacific Grove Middle School in California by visiting here.
Tapping Meditation for Teachers by Jessica Ortner
Tapping For Stress Relief: A Morning & Evening Tapping Process
Tapping in the Classroom Online Training
With an increasing need for EFT Tapping in schools, the new Tapping in the Classroom Online Training gives school personnel the information needed to implement Tapping in their school. While we have an extensive variety of free materials available, this online training gives you additional research, videos, handouts, and resources to apply EFT Tapping in your school. Check out what's included:
This program was developed by Dr. Peta Stapleton who has 22 years experience as a registered Clinical & Health Psychologist. She is deeply involved in research around EFT Tapping and its impact in schools, including recent research that has shown EFT to significantly reduce fear of failure in 15 year old students, and improve their self-perceived difficulties. The program is designed to give school staff an effective tool to help children overcome stress, anxiety and behavioral challenges.
The BEST part is that with your purchase, a portion of the proceeds goes to The Tapping Solution Foundation to support the work being done around the world with trauma relief and bringing Tapping into schools. Not only are you helping the children you work with, but you're helping even more around the world!
Including an Educator Quickstart Guide, lesson plans for Gorilla Thumps & Bear Hugs (a children's book), resources in Spanish, and MORE!
Enter your information below:
Articles on EFT Tapping for Anxiety and Stress Relief in Classrooms
Anxiety at School – What Kids and Teens With Anxiety Need Teachers to Know
This article discusses the multitude of anxieties that students face in schools and acknowledges the importance of teachers understanding the concerns of all students. EFT/Tapping allows students the opportunity to work through these stressors with their teacher, social worker, or parent.
“None of us can ‘go it alone’ and we all need the right support from the right people at the right time to discover the remarkable, fiercely capable, and sometimes wonderfully surprising parts of ourselves. That support will look different for everyone. Teachers play an enormously important role, and can make a long-lasting and profoundly positive difference in the life of any child.”
Dealing with Stress at School in an Age of Anxiety
In this article, the physical and cognitive impacts of stress are discussed. With a focus on social interactions and mindfulness, educators can continue to build resilient learners that can self-manage any stressors in their lives.
“The practice of mindfulness has received increasing attention in educational practice recently, and for good reasons. Social connections lead to resilience through social support and socio-emotional learning, but also biologically, as they counteract the stress hormone cortisol.”
Teachers Accessing Peak Performance With the Help of EFT
School Psychologist, Cindy Baker, discusses her work introducing Tapping into her school, including ideas others can use to bring EFT/Tapping to their own schools.
“As I witness an increasing number of stress-related complaints from teachers and students, it is apparent to me that school communities are experiencing an epidemic of stress bred from a culture of fear emanating throughout the general population.”
Q. Can Tapping can help with my (or my child’s) specific issues?
A. Tapping is a wonderful resource that can help provide relief for a variety of issues. To learn more about how it can help, please check out our extensive articles here: as well as our blog.
If you are looking for specific help for your child, Nick Ortner’s newest book, The Tapping Solution for Parents, Children and Teenagers covers a wide range of topics including overcoming fears, managing impulsivity, and addressing social issues. This book is available for pre-order here.
Q: How can I get Tapping into schools?
A: You can visit our Resource Center where you will find information that can be shared with school staff members about Tapping in schools.
A study published in the Journal of Nervous and Mental Disease, the oldest peer-reviewed psychology journal in the United States, found that Emotional Freedom Techniques (EFT) lowered the major stress hormone cortisol significantly more than other interventions tested.
In a randomized controlled trial 83 subjects were randomly assigned to a single hour-long session of EFT, talk therapy, or rest. Their cortisol levels were measured via a saliva test before and after the session. Cortisol was measured because it is known as the “stress hormone” of the body. As stress goes up, cortisol levels go up.
Originally designed to help us survive life in the wild, the “fight or flight” response was essential when our ancient ancestors were faced with sudden, brief danger like, let’s say, a tiger.
However useful in short bursts, releasing cortisol too frequently, as we seem to be doing in response to the ongoing or “chronic” stress of modern life, may have serious, even scary, impacts on our physical, mental and emotional health.
In fact, living in this kind of biological “survival mode” may be making us more vulnerable to everything from cancer to heart disease, and more.
Results
The normal rate of cortisol decline is 14% over the length of an hour. The 1st group (Tapping) demonstrated a 24% decrease in cortisol levels, while the 2nd and 3rd groups showed only the standard cortisol reduction that happens with time passing. The 10% improvement in the 1st group (Tapping) is statistically significant. The EFT group also exhibited lower levels of psychological symptoms, including anxiety, depression, and other, as measured by the Symptom Assessment-45 (SA-45), a standard psychological assessment tool.
THE REALITY
Pyschotherapy alone relieves stress, but over a long period of time. The immediate benefits of psychotherapy don’t register in your body, where excessive amounts of the “stress hormone” cortisol still run rampant, putting your health at risk.
STUDY FINDINGS
Tapping balances activity between the sympathetic and parasympathetic regions of your brain, producing “a neutral emotional state,” the gold standard of health and wellness. It’s also the state of well-being people have sought to achieve for millennia through meditation, prayer, yoga, and other mindfulness practices.
Dr. Feinstein, a clinical psychologist who uses EFT in his own practice, adds that EFT is an “unusually precise, rapid, and direct for shifting the neurological underpinnings of a range of psychological problems.”
In fact, he adds, “the number of therapists using EFT has been rapidly increasing over the past decade, and now peer-reviewed research is showing that their instincts have been right. Surprisingly rapid outcomes with a variety of disorders are being documented.”
RESEARCH ON EFT & SCHOOLS:
“The Tapping group did report a significant decrease in their levels of test anxiety, as compared to the control groups.” – Dr. Peta Stapleton
You can read more about these results and other studies here:
EFFECTIVENESS OF EFT FINDINGS THROUGH BRAIN SCANS:
At long last …
Findings from a world-first study aimed at scientifically proving a simple ‘tapping’ technique have shown the method is effective in reducing food cravings. This is the first time anywhere in the world that Functional Magnetic Resonance Imaging scans (fMRI) have been used to see physical, scientific evidence of exactly how EFT self-help techniques work on these conditions by changing the brain’s neural pathways involved in addiction and food cravings.
After 4 weeks (2 hours per week) of EFT Tapping, participants’ brain scans showed a remarkable reduction in activation. The control group who did not receive any EFT did not change.
“Based on my clinical experience and my reading of the research literature, EFT is the treatment of choice for rapid intervention in traumatic situations like Newtown that trigger overwhelming emotions in individuals and groups. Its use can prevent the future development of full-blown PTSD…”
-Eric Leskowitz, MD from the Department of Psychiatry at Harvard Medical School
Below are a number of excerpts from a paper written by David Feinstein, Ph.D.
“(Energy Psychology) brings about, with unusual speed and precision, therapeutic shifts in affective, cognitive, and behavioral patterns that underlie a range of psychological concerns related to disasters.”
“Energy psychology has been applied in the wake of natural and human-made disasters in the Congo, Guatemala, Indonesia, Kenya, Kosovo, Kuwait, Mexico, Moldavia, Nairobi, Rwanda, South Africa, Tanzania, Thailand, and the U.S. At least three international humanitarian relief organizations have adapted energy psychology as a treatment in their post-disaster missions.”
FOUR TIERS OF ENERGY PSYCHOLOGY INTERVENTIONS INCLUDE:
“The first tier is most pertinent in psychological first aid immediately following a disaster, with the subsequent tiers progressively being introduced over time with complex stress reactions and chronic disorders.”
“Energy psychology, as most commonly practiced in clinical and post-disaster situations, is an exposure-based treatment. The effectiveness of exposure therapies with PTSD and other anxiety disorders is well established. Exposure is, in fact, the single modality for which the evidence is sufficient to conclude, according to stringent scientific standards (National Institute of Medicine’s Committee on Treatment of Posttraumatic Stress Disorder, 2007), that the method is an efficacious treatment for PTSD. Other treatments that have strong empirical support in treating PTSD, such as cognitive-processing therapy, stress inoculation training, and eye movement desensitization and reprocessing (EMDR ), also generally incorporate substantial exposure components (Keane, Foa, Friedman, Cohen, & Newman, 2007).”
TRAUMA RELIEF WORK DONE BY DR. JOHNSON
“Johnson kept a simple but ultimately provocative set of statistics during his visits to Kosovo and other areas of ethnic cleansing, warfare, and natural disasters. He tracked the number of people treated, the number of traumatic incidents identified, and the number of incidents where full relief was reported (i.e., hyperarousal to the traumatic memory was completely neutralized according to the person’s subjective report). Table 1 shows his tally. Johnson, who holds diplomate status with the American Board of Professional Psychology, acknowledges that such figures raise even his own skepticism. While recognizing that ‘well-controlled research is essential before results like these can be accepted,’ he affirms that the figures accurately reflect his experiences and that he ‘recorded them exactly according to what happened.’ After interviewing Johnson, the author of this paper interviewed several therapists who worked on these teams, and their reports corroborate Johnson’s.
“Johnson emphasizes that reducing the impact of traumatic memories with Energy Psychology, as reflected in the [below] numbers, is not the end of a person’s healing journey. ‘Often,’ however, ‘it is a new beginning,’ providing people an opportunity to rebuild their lives without the oppressive emotional weight of their traumatization.”
Also noted in this article, Lynn Garland, a social worker with the Veterans’ Healthcare System in Boston, reports that she, along with numerous colleagues using [Energy Psychology] in the V.A. (Veteran’s Administration), are having ‘dramatic results in relieving both acute and chronic symptoms of combat-related trauma’ (Feinstein, Eden, & Craig, 2005, p. 17).”
“Particularly poignant are reports that have been coming in from the Trauma Relief Committee of the Association for Thought Field Therapy Foundation about their work with the El Shadai orphanage in Rwanda. Many of the children had seen their parents die by machete during the ethnic cleansing twelve years earlier or were reliving the horrors of the massacre of 800,000 Rwandans. Daily flashbacks and nightmares were common, as were bedwetting, depression, withdrawal, isolation, difficulty concentrating, jumpiness, and aggression. Standardized pre- and post-treatment tests for PTSD (translated into Kinyarwandan) were administered to 50 of these children (27 boys and 23 girls), ages 13 through 18, and a children’s PTSD assessment tool for parents and guardians was administered to their caregivers. Treatment, provided in April and May 2006, generally involved three TFT sessions of approximately 20 minutes each. The tests were structured after DSM IV criteria for PTSD. Average symptom scores, based on both the tests taken by the children and the caregivers’ observations about the children, substantially exceeded the cutoffs for a diagnosis of PTSD. Scores after the three sessions were substantially lower than the cut-offs. Immediate reductions in flashbacks, nightmares, and other symptoms were common. Retesting a year later showed that the improvements held. Details of these findings are being prepared for publication (C. Sakai, personal communication, March 7, 2008).”
EFT TAPPING CAN HELP ALLEVIATE ALL TYPES OF STRESS
EFT, also known as Tapping, can help alleviate all types of stress. This video will show you the results Tapping can achieve and some of the studies Tapping has undergone:
Visit thetappingsolution.com to get a Free Ebook on EFT (Emotional Freedom Techniques). This documentary on Tapping features energy and abundance experts such as Jack Canfield, Bob Proctor, Dr. Joseph Mercola, Carol Look, Joe Vitale, Cheryl Richardson and more.
If you are looking for ways to explore, introduce, implement, and guide your work with EFT Tapping in your classroom or school, you have come to the right place! Here in the Educator & Parent Corner, you will find a variety of free resources to use with your students. We hope the videos, diagrams, and other materials will help guide you to use EFT Tapping effectively with your students or in your school.
Click the title or picture below!
Download Your FREE Resources for Educators
Including an Educator Quickstart Guide, lesson plans for Gorilla Thumps & Bear Hugs (a children's book), resources in Spanish, and MORE!
Enter your information below:
Tapping in the Classroom Online Training
With an increasing need for EFT Tapping in schools, the new Tapping in the Classroom Online Training gives school personnel the information needed to implement Tapping in their school. While we have an extensive variety of free materials available, this online training gives you additional research, videos, handouts, and resources to apply EFT Tapping in your school. Check out what's included:
This program was developed by Dr. Peta Stapleton who has 22 years experience as a registered Clinical & Health Psychologist. She is deeply involved in research around EFT Tapping and its impact in schools, including recent research that has shown EFT to significantly reduce fear of failure in 15 year old students, and improve their self-perceived difficulties. The program is designed to give school staff an effective tool to help children overcome stress, anxiety and behavioral challenges.
The BEST part is that with your purchase, a portion of the proceeds goes to The Tapping Solution Foundation to support the work being done around the world with trauma relief and bringing Tapping into schools. Not only are you helping the children you work with, but you're helping even more around the world!
Our series of Tapping videos for kids helps to address common issues that students are experiencing in school. Test anxiety, social concerns, and preparing for a presentation are a few examples. These videos are easy-to-follow and engaging for a wide range of ages, giving students the opportunity to release distractions and become fully engaged with their learning.
These Tap-along videos are available with Spanish subtitles.
Click to download our brochure to share with colleagues, administrators, and families. You can print and share as you’d like. Information includes quick tutorials, testimonials, diagrams, and where to download our free resources.
In this Tapping Meditation for Teachers, Jessica Ortner guides you through Tapping on the feeling of overwhelm and worry, and turning those feelings into a sense of clarity, hope, and compassion for yourself.
Nick Ortner writes about Tapping with children and its benefits at home and in the classroom. Check out these articles to find out more, including how teachers used Tapping to recharge themselves!
Health Psychologist Kelly McGonigal discusses her life-changing findings on stress. After 10 years researching and sharing her work regarding how stress can negatively affect a person’s well-being, she shares how a new discovery has proved her work wrong. A new study has found that it is not the amount of stress in your life that affects your health, it is the way you view and manage your stress that can lead to stress-induced health concerns.
In this video, Dr. Peta Stapleton introduces Tapping to 7-year-old, Elise. Through the use of a Tapping stuffed animal bear, Dr. Stapleton shares where the Tapping points are, how to Tap, and how it is a tool used to make us feel better.
Want to stay up-to-date on our work, learn from other educators using Tapping, and be the first to be notified of new resources? Join our Facebook Group!
Nuestra serie de videos educacionales de Tapping ayudan al los estudiantes a enfrentar situaciones que pueden estar experimentando en la escuela. Algunos ejemplos son: ansiedad acerca de tomar pruebas, dificultades sociales o para la preparación de hacer una presentación oral. Estos videos son dinámicos, fáciles de seguir y están diseñados para una amplia gama de edades, dando la oportunidad a los estudiantes de prepararse mejor y estar presentes e inmersos en su proceso de aprendizaje. Estos videos están disponibles con subtítulos en Español.
Para encontrar material en Español cliquee aquí. Usted encontrara una guía para implementar Tapping en las escuelas y otros recursos útiles.
Download Your FREE Resources for Educators
The normal rate of cortisol decline is 14% over the length of an hour. The 1st group (Tapping) demonstrated a 24% decrease in cortisol levels, while the 2nd and 3rd groups showed only the standard cortisol reduction that happens with time passing. The 10% improvement in the 1st group (Tapping) is statistically significant. The EFT group also exhibited lower levels of psychological symptoms, including anxiety, depression, and other, as measured by the Symptom Assessment-45 (SA-45), a standard psychological assessment tool.
