Tapping In

Laurel Parnell

Relaxation may just be a simple tap away with a technique called resource tapping, which uses imagination to activate inner resources that are then paired with alternating tapping to create a calming effect.

Resource tapping evolved out of a therapy called eye movement desensitization and reprocessing (EMDR). EMDR, which was developed by psychologist Francine Shapiro in the late 1980s, is a powerful, well-researched treatment for trauma that incorporates alternating bilateral stimulation into a structured therapy. Shapiro found that people could process a trauma memory at an accelerated rate when it was paired with bilateral stimulation. In the early days of EMDR, we used eye movements exclusively for bilateral stimulation.

Resource tapping is now done as a stand-alone technique, independent of EMDR, and new applications for resource tapping are being discovered every day. Resource tapping is used to reduce anxiety and depression, help with sleep, increase creativity and performance, aid in healing and decrease distress after a traumatic incident. Colleagues of mine in Germany are using it to help cancer patients cope with their illness.

If I am feeling anxious, I want to tap in resources that will help me to relax. I might choose a calming image such as a verdant meadow covered with bright yellow flowers, a bubbling brook and gentle grazing deer. As I bring in my imagination, and really see, smell and hear this meadow, I tap right-left, right-left to increase the experience of relaxation this resource evokes in me. I do not allow myself to tap for too long. If I do, I risk beginning to activate anxiety-producing information.

Tapping in your resources can include many forms of alternating bilateral stimulation. You can tap on your legs or knees, like drumming. You can lift your feet and tap them on the floor, or march in place. It is important to tap one side and then the other. In this way you will be stimulating each side of your brain. You can also do the butterfly hug by crossing your arms across your chest and tap either shoulder. The butterfly hug is helpful to use when you want to feel comforted.

Here's the starting point and foundation of resource tapping.

1. Find a comfortable place to sit or lay down where you will not be disturbed.
2. Close your eyes. Bring your attention to a quiet, still place inside yourself. You might begin by taking long deep breaths and slowly exhaling.
3. Bring to mind the resource you have chosen to work with. It can be a positive memory, an inherent quality, an experience, or an important person or animal.
4. Imagine the resource as well as you can. Open your senses. Notice what you are seeing. Notice what you are hearing. Notice what you are smelling. What sensations do you feel on your skin? What do you taste? What do you feel inside? Take the time you need to elicit this information and fill out the resource.
5. When you have a strong sense of the resource, when you can feel its quality, begin to tap on your knees, right-left, right-left, or do the butterfly hug, crossing your arms in front of your chest and tapping on either shoulder. Tap six to 12 times, then stop and check in with yourself. If it feels good and the resource is strengthening, you can tap some more.
6. Tap as long as it feels positive. If other memories or resources come to mind that feel good, you can tap them in also.

Begin to tap at a slow rhythmic pace, and then find the pace that feels best to you. While you tap, focus on the whole feeling the resource evokes in you, allowing the feeling to increase. At first, tap for only a short time - alternating right-left, right-left, approximately six to 12 times.

After one round of tapping, stop and check in with yourself. What are you experiencing? If the resource is strengthened, tap some more. You may continue tapping as long as it remains positive. Some people prefer longer rounds of tapping. This is fine as long as the resource remains positive.

Many people can only do a few right-left taps before they begin to commence free-associative processing that can take them far afield. For example, sometimes a positive memory resource will flip to the negative. In the middle of tapping in the memory of a loving interaction with your grandfather, your mind might flash on a loved one who is angry with you. For this reason, it is best to do short sets and see how you are feeling.

If you've found yourself tapping a resource that is not entirely positive, you should stop tapping immediately and try one of these techniques.

• After you have stopped tapping, see if you can think of another, different resource that is fully positive. It is important that the resource feel completely positive. If you can find another one, tap it in, this time tapping for a shorter duration.
• If a distressing memory has arisen, you can imagine placing it in a container that can hold it for you. You might imagine a safe, a vault or a treasure chest with a good lock. It is important that the container have a strong lid. This imagery can help you consciously compartmentalize information that is too much to integrate in the moment. It is a skillful way to handle material that does not feel manageable. (Later, if you choose, you can take the material out of the container and work on it.) Once you feel the memory is sufficiently contained, you can return.

Laurel Parnell, Ph.D., author of Tapping In: A Step-by-Step Guide to Activating Your Healing Resources Through Bilateral Stimulation, is a psychologist and trainer for resource tapping and EMDR. Visit www.emdrinfo.com.