CHANGE WORK

“I love tapping! It makes me feel calm and relaxed inside.” 

I broke into a huge smile to read those words, written by a Year 5 child in their journal two weeks into our Tapping in School Project.  Two simple yet significant sentences that confirmed my hopes that this was proving to be a worthwhile and valuable experience for the children. Yessss!

It has been amazing to have had the opportunity to introduce Emotional Freedom Technique – ‘tapping’ – into my school, St Mary’s C of E Primary School, Saffron Walden, UK. I'm very grateful to our Headteacher, Mr Jarmain, and our Inclusion Leader, Mrs North, for giving me the green light, and special thanks go to the Year 5 teacher, Mrs McInnes, for her flexibility and willingness to introduce something new into an already packed timetable, and to persevere for four whole weeks – especially in the busy run-up to Christmas.

This project felt very much like the natural next step for my wellbeing work in school. During the first half of the Autumn term, I had worked with small groups of children in the year above, teaching them tools and techniques to navigate the modern world, and tapping was one of them.  Although the children had responded enthusiastically in our weekly sessions, they sometimes found it hard to remember what we’d done in the previous week by the time it got to Thursday again, and so I doubted that they were making full use of what they’d learned with me in their daily lives. 

I was looking for a way to do things differently in Year 5 when the universe presented me with just what I needed! I happened to read about Eleni Vardaki’s ‘Tapping in Schools’ Summit on the EFTi website and was inspired to hear the success stories from other practitioners and schools around the world, grateful to be able to learn how they had done it so that I could go to my Headteacher with a plan.

On Thursday 10th November, I presented my PowerPoint to the class and gave each of the children a tapping journal.  They were excited to be taking part in a global initiative and they listened intently as I explained about the science of EFT. The fact that a contestant on a reality TV show had been filmed during the previous day doing some tapping only added to the intrigue and excitement!  It was also wonderful to be able to access some of the video clips and images on Dr Peta Stapleton’s YouTube channel as well.  My acupressure pen was invaluable as demonstrating the location of acupressure points on willing volunteers brought everything to life and boosted their enthusiasm further.  We were off to a good start!

The plan was for the children to do some whole class tapping three times a day, for four weeks; first thing in the morning, straight after break and also after lunch. Each time, if they wanted to, they would write the date and how they felt in their tapping journal, note down the intensity out of 10 and then see how the number changed after a few minutes of tapping.  Within the first couple of days, the children had already taken ownership of it and were tapping silently or talking quietly to themselves without needing an adult to remind them. However, I quickly realised that it would be helpful to some if they had a person at the front to follow, so although I had recorded videos of myself for them to tap along to, I decided to train two children so they could stand at the front and lead the class. This was an invaluable learning point - next time, I will do this right from the start.

Over the course of the four weeks, the children have continued to respond with positivity about tapping; one child said that her parents were stressed at home and so she had taught them how to tap; it had calmed them down – something which took them by surprise! Two other children recounted to me after they’d taken part in a sports competition in a noisy and busy hall, that when they had felt stressed, they decided to tap which had helped them to feel calmer in that moment. 

Each week, I checked in with the class so they could share any stories with me, and I could answer any questions.  At the end of the first week, one child shared with me that she always came into school feeling happy, so how could tapping help her as she wanted to stay happy? To answer her question, I led the whole class in a short tapping meditation to increase their happiness levels, combining tapping with visualising things that made them happy, and encouraging them to build that feeling and to anchor it in so they could carry it with them for the rest of the day.

The four weeks have flown and today marks the end of our Tapping In School Project!  I couldn’t wait to find out from the children what they thought and how they have found the whole experience, so I created a presentation on mentimeter.com and shared it with the class. I can safely say I did more than just smile when I read their comments; aside from one or two children who are still to be convinced, the overwhelming majority had wonderful, positive things to say about how tapping makes them feel.  I am very happy to share their comments here below and I hope that they will continue to tap long after our project is a distant memory. I wonder what Year 4 will make of it all next term..!

‘I feel better now that we have done tapping.  At football club, I did tapping and then we won!’

‘I feel calm and more happy, more brave about things.’

‘I feel more tired after a session of tapping.’

‘I feel a bit better after every session.’

‘I think that it does help me a lot and if I am angry it makes me calm.  If I am not that happy, it makes me more happy!’

‘Good. I feel relaxed because tapping on the pressure points go all around my body.’

‘I feel good and relaxed.’

‘Good and great because I have calmed down.’

‘Just daily life feels a lot better after tapping for four weeks, which is quite good for me.’

‘It helped me a lot but sometimes it didn’t.’

‘It didn’t affect me much.’

‘At first, I didn’t think it was working but eventually I really understood it was working.  I enjoyed tapping.’

‘Calm and more happy.’

‘It helps me when I feel sad and worried because it calms me down and makes me not stressed anymore.’

‘I feel very good after 4 weeks of tapping and now I do it a lot at football and other clubs, or at home!’

'I loved it so much thank you.'

'I really liked tapping because it calms me down and helps me relax and feel less angry.'

'I love tapping because when I'm mad you help me to be happy and joyful.'

'Tapping helps me when I'm stressed or worried and it calms me down because, say I'm 10 angry, then I tap, it goes down to 3 or 4!'

'It didn't affect me much.'

'I feel more happy after every session. I feel better than I did before.'

'I feel less anxious.'

'Tapping helps to clear my mind of bad thoughts.'

'I love doing tapping because it is calming.'