Money Attitudes After Clinical Emotional Freedom Techniques: Psychological Change in a Virtual vs In-Person Group

Controlled trial👥 54 participants⚖️ vs. retrospective comparison between in-person and virtual delivery groupsPreliminary✓ Source-checked📍 United States

In plain English. Fifty-four people did a two-day EFT workshop focused on money-related anxiety, either in person before COVID or virtually during the pandemic. The in-person group showed clearer statistically significant improvements in anxiety, PTSD, and pain, while the virtual group's mood improved significantly but some measures like anxiety and depression showed only non-significant trends. Both formats improved money-related attitudes. This is a retrospective comparison of two convenience samples rather than a randomized head-to-head trial.

What they found

people took part

The in-person group had significant reductions in anxiety (P=.023), PTSD (P=.013), and pain (P=.029) and improved happiness (P<.001) post-intervention; the virtual group had a significant increase in happiness (P<.001) with non-significant decreases in anxiety, depression, and pain; both groups showed significant improvements in money attitude subscales.

How the study worked

Who took partnonclinical adults attending a two-day EFT workshop on money attitudes, either in-person (pre-pandemic) or virtually (late 2020) (n=54)

What they didIn a controlled trial, a tapping group was compared against a separate comparison group.

Compared withretrospective comparison between in-person and virtual delivery groups

Measured withGAD-2, Patient Health Questionnaire-2 (PHQ-2), PTSD Checklist (PCL-2), Happiness Scale, Numeric Pain Rating Scale, Money Attitudes Scale (MAS)

💡 Where this could help

If findings like these hold up in larger trials, the promise is simple: a low-cost, self-administered tool that could reach people struggling with anxiety who can't easily access traditional care — at home, between appointments, or where there aren't enough clinicians to go around.

🔬 What to study next

The natural next step: longer-term follow-up to see how durable the benefit is, and an active ('sham tapping') control to isolate what's doing the work.

The full record

Design	Controlled trial
Participants	54 people
Population	nonclinical adults attending a two-day EFT workshop on money attitudes, either in-person (pre-pandemic) or virtually (late 2020)
Comparison group	retrospective comparison between in-person and virtual delivery groups
Outcome measures	GAD-2, Patient Health Questionnaire-2 (PHQ-2), PTSD Checklist (PCL-2), Happiness Scale, Numeric Pain Rating Scale, Money Attitudes Scale (MAS)
Journal	Advances in Mind-Body Medicine
Year	2023
Country	United States
Language	English
Method	EFT / tapping
Publication type	Study / trial
Verification	✓ Confirmed against the primary source

Read the original study →

Cite this study

APA

Church, D., Vasudevan, A., De Foe, A., & Lovegrove, R. (2023). Money Attitudes After Clinical Emotional Freedom Techniques: Psychological Change in a Virtual vs In-Person Group. Advances in Mind-Body Medicine.

This record is part of the Tapping Evidence Base — an openly-sourced, fully-referenced directory of the research on EFT/tapping. Explore more studies on Anxiety · Depression · PTSD & Trauma · Pain