Holistic Counseling · Jackie Kono, LMHC

EFT & Emotional Freedom Technique

A gentle, body-based practice for releasing the emotional charge held in stuck patterns — one you can carry into daily life.

By tapping on a series of acupressure points while holding a specific emotion or memory in mind, we allow that energy to move — changing behavior patterns at an energetic level. EFT is used in session and as a daily practice you take with you.

What Is EFT?

Emotional Freedom Technique (EFT), often called "tapping," is a gentle, body-based healing practice that combines modern psychology with the wisdom of the Chinese meridian system used in acupuncture for thousands of years. EFT has been widely studied and shown to help reduce stress, emotional overwhelm, and limiting beliefs while supporting nervous system regulation and emotional healing.

During an EFT session, you tap on specific acupressure points on the body while focusing on an emotion, memory, physical sensation, or stressful experience. This process helps release stored emotional charge and "stuck" energy patterns that may have been held in the body for years.

Jackie guides clients through this process with compassion and attunement, helping bring awareness, acceptance, and regulation to difficult experiences so they can move through the system rather than stay trapped within it. EFT can support lasting shifts in emotional patterns, behaviors, and self-beliefs, while also serving as a simple and empowering self-regulation tool clients can learn to use in daily life.

How Jackie Uses EFT

Jackie uses EFT as part of an integrative approach — not as a standalone technique, but as a way of working with what is alive and ready to move in the moment. She weaves tapping into sessions alongside EMDR, Somatic Experiencing, and psychodynamic work, drawing on whichever modality is most attuned to what the nervous system is needing in real time.

EFT can help regulate overwhelming emotional states, soften deeply rooted beliefs, and release stored emotional charge held in the body. Jackie also teaches clients how to use tapping on their own, offering them a practical and empowering tool for nervous system support and emotional processing between sessions.

What Shifts Do You See with EFT?

People often experience both immediate and gradual shifts during EFT tapping. Some notice a decrease in emotional intensity within minutes — feeling calmer, lighter, more grounded, or less emotionally charged around a specific memory, trigger, or situation. Others begin to notice subtle but meaningful changes over time in how they respond to stress, relationships, conflict, or old patterns. Common shifts can include:

Reduced anxiety, overwhelm, or emotional reactivity
A sense of calm, regulation, or nervous system settling
Releasing stored grief, anger, fear, shame, or emotional tension
Feeling more connected to the body and emotions rather than avoiding or overriding them
Increased clarity, self-compassion, and emotional resilience
Shifts in limiting beliefs or self-perception
Changes in behavioral patterns, habits, or relational dynamics
Relief from physical symptoms connected to stress or unresolved emotional experiences

Because EFT works with both the nervous system and the body's energetic pathways, people often describe the experience as not just "thinking differently," but actually feeling different internally. The goal is not to force positivity or bypass difficult emotions, but to create enough safety and regulation for the body to process and release what has been held.

Who Is This For?

EFT tapping can be especially supportive for people who feel they intellectually understand their patterns, but still find the emotional charge remains in the body. It is often helpful for anxiety, overwhelm, stuck grief, trauma responses, self-worth struggles, and recurring emotional or relational patterns that continue despite insight or traditional talk therapy. EFT is also one of the more accessible healing tools. Clients not only experience it within sessions, but learn how to use it in their everyday lives for emotional regulation, grounding, and ongoing self-support between sessions.

Because EFT works with both the nervous system and the body's energetic system, it offers a way to access and shift experiences at a deeper level — where the body may still be holding stress, emotion, or survival responses. It can also be a powerful tool for downregulating the nervous system during moments of high activation, overwhelm, panic, or stress, both within sessions and at home.

What to Expect

A tapping sequence often begins by bringing awareness to what is happening in the present moment — an emotion, body sensation, memory, belief, or trigger that feels emotionally charged. Rather than avoiding or overriding the experience, we gently stay connected to it while tapping on a series of acupressure points on the body.

As the tapping continues, many people notice the nervous system beginning to settle. The body may soften, breathing may deepen, and the emotional intensity often decreases. Sometimes people experience warmth, tingling, tears, yawning, sighing, or a sense of energy moving through the body. Others simply notice that what felt overwhelming moments before now feels more distant and manageable.

Often the first shift is physiological. The body begins to come out of a heightened stress response, creating more space, regulation, and capacity. From there, deeper emotional insights, memories, or beliefs may naturally emerge.

EFT engages the body directly. It can shift patterns that language alone cannot reach — and it is something you carry into your daily life long after the session ends.

Part of a Larger Whole

EFT is one thread within Jackie's integrative approach to healing. Rather than following a rigid protocol, she works responsively with what is unfolding in the moment — weaving together EFT, EMDR, Somatic Experiencing, attachment-focused work, and psychodynamic exploration depending on what the nervous system is needing.

At times, tapping may help regulate activation and create enough safety for deeper trauma processing to emerge. Other times, it may be used to soften emotional charge, shift limiting beliefs, or support the release of stored survival responses held in the body.

The work is always guided by the person in front of her, not by the modality itself. The modality serves the healing process — not the other way around.

Work with Jackie