What is EFT Tapping - and why is Emily doing it?

Tappity tap tap Emily!

If you’ve seen The Devil Wears Prada 2, you’ll have seen Emily, the icon that she is, tapping her face over the stress her ex-husband is causing her. This isn’t just a silly technique for a quirky character, but actually a tried and tested method that can vastly improve your life.

I said to my boyfriend ages ago that I had a feeling Tapping was about to pop off, as the kids would say, and seeing it in one of Hollywood’s biggest blockbusters this year has confirmed my gut feeling - it’s officially one of the next big trends.

Now, hear me out - I’ve been tapping for more than 5 years and firmly believe that EFT shouldn’t just be a trend, it really can change your life and for a lot of us, it’s here to stay.

So if you’re curious - here’s exactly how it works and how you can try it today.

What is EFT Tapping?

EFT stands for Emotional Freedom Techniques, commonly referred to as Tapping. It literally involves you tapping on your face, head, collarbone and under your arm. There are different variations of Tapping (the original EFT and Faster EFT for example) bur there is no right or wrong way to tap.

Yes, it looks a bit weird and you will get strange looks if you do it public - but I promise there is science behind it!

The specific points that we tap on are connected to meridian pathways in our body, which is why EFT is often described as emotional acupuncture or acupressure, both of which have been practiced in traditional Chinese medicine for 1000s of years.

If that’s still sounding a bit ‘woo’ to you, here’s where the science comes in. Modern neuroscience studies show that the meridian points that we tap on are rich in nerve endings, connective tissue and microvascular networks that send calming signals to the brain. [Rewired by Nick, Jessica and Alex Ortner 2026].

The Science behind Tapping

When we are stressed, our body is in sympathetic mode - aka fight or flight mode. This is triggered when our amygdala (our brain’s threat detection system) sounds the alarm that we’re under threat. This threat can be from a memory, a stressful situation or even a worry we’re fixating on that hasn’t actually happened yet and probably won’t (I’m definitely guilty of that one.)

Our body then gets flooded with stress hormones like Cortisol which tell us to get ready to - you guessed it - fight or flee.

When stress increases in the body, blood flow decreases to our prefrontal cortex, which is our rational brain. Less blood flow = less rationality = PANIC! STRESS! I CAN’T THINK STRAIGHT! HELP!!!!

Here’s the magic - when we bring in some super simple yet wonderfully powerful tapping, we send calming signals to the amygdala (threat security system) who then chills out, realises we’re not actually under threat, tells the rest of your body to calm tf down which in turn increases blood flow to our prefrontal cortex and allows us to RELAX!

That’s pretty f*cking cool if you ask me.

So how do I tap?

EFT Tapping has evolved over the decades since it was discovered in the 1980s. Unlike in traditional acupressure, in EFT Tapping you verbalise your emotions - this helps us really focus in on the problem which makes it easy to rewire.

There are different ways to tap, but all are simple and effective. At Storie, we use a combination of different tapping techniques, but mostly focus on traditional EFT tapping.

Both involve getting into the root of a problem or negative pattern you have. We first focus on identifying the problem by going back into your memories to find the root of the cause. When we’ve done some digging to find the thought patterns or memories that are holding you back, we then start to tap, which interrupts the stress circuit associated with the memory/pattern/belief. Basically, the tapping makes your brain a bit confused because it doesn’t know why it was actually stressed out in the first place. Once the brain is nice and confused, we start to rewrite the original thoughts right at their root by tapping in some new, more powerful beliefs that will take the place of the original limiting ones.

And that’s it!

It’s so simple, but massively powerful.

The Tapping Points

Here are the meridian points we tap on at Storie - sometimes we use all of them, sometimes only the eyebrow, side of eye, under eye and collarbone. It depends on the flow of the session!

We can also tap on the side of our hand - called The Karate Chop point - when we want to set up a statement to start us off tapping.

How can I find out more about EFT Tapping?

Firstly, join Storie! Sign up to our newsletter, follow us on Instagram and keep an eye on our Events page for upcoming in-person and virtual Storie tapalongs.

Our premise is rooted in the power of the stories we read and the stories we tell ourselves, so we like to theme our tapping sessions to books we love and characters we admire in order to incorporate more of their magic into our own lives.

Some of my other favourite EFT resources are:

Dreamaway by Haley Hoffman Smith : I’ve been a member of Dreamaway for years and love how Haley uses Faster EFT to help her members change their lives! She’s a singer/songwriter living her vision board life in NYC and one of my favourite people to follow on Instagram. She also has a great book, You Have The Magic, available on Amazon in the UK, USA and Europe.

The Tapping Solution : Created by siblings Nick, Jessica and Alex Ortner, The Tapping Solution is a fantastic app that has hundreds of videos related to specific problems you can tap through, such as headaches, stress and mood swings. The Ortners have also written two really great books that I genuinely love and reference often - one in this article! The Tapping Solution and Rewired (just released!) both available on Amazon and in Waterstones.

Brad Yates : A YouTube icon in the tapping world. Brad has 100s of videos from over 15 years on YouTube, from 2minutes to over 1 hour. I love turning on a Brad Yates video any time I need a quick release or a little pick me up. He genuinely has a video for everything - completely free! Check him out on YouTube here.

Can you help me rewrite my story?

Yes! If you’re interested in private coaching, head to our Private Coaching page to find out more about how to work 1-1 with us.

Happy Tapping!