The Tapping Evidence Base
PTSD & Trauma · Trauma (other)

Utilizing Community Resources to Treat PTSD: A Randomized Controlled Study Using Thought Field Therapy

Connolly, S. M., Roe-Sepowitz, D., Sakai, C. E., Edwards, J. · African Journal of Traumatic Stress · 2013

Randomized trial👥 164 participants⚖️ vs. waitlistModerate rigor✓ Source-checked📍 Rwanda
In plain English. Local Rwandan community leaders were taught a tapping technique and used it in single sessions with genocide survivors still living with trauma symptoms two decades later. Compared with survivors who didn't yet receive it, the tapping group's trauma symptoms dropped significantly more. Because local leaders delivered it rather than clinicians, this also speaks to how easily the technique can be taught to non-specialists.

What they found

164
people took part

Community leaders trained in Thought Field Therapy delivered one-time individual trauma interventions to 164 adult genocide survivors in a randomized controlled design; the treated group showed significantly greater reduction in trauma symptoms than the untreated group.

How the study worked

Who took partadult survivors of the 1994 Rwandan genocide (n=164)
What they didIn a randomized controlled trial, participants were randomly assigned to receive tapping or a comparison condition, then measured and compared.
Compared withwaitlist
Measured withtrauma symptom checklist

💡 Where this could help

If this kind of community-led delivery keeps proving out, picture a genocide- or war-affected community with no psychiatrists for hundreds of miles, where a handful of trusted local leaders, not imported clinicians, teach neighbors a technique that, once learned, those neighbors can go on administering to themselves for free, with no further sessions required. That's the promise: mental health support that travels to where professional therapists simply can't, and doesn't need to keep coming back.

🔬 What to study next

Since trained community leaders, not clinicians, delivered this successfully, the next step is testing whether that same model, scaled to more villages, produces effects that hold up when paired with simple field-deployable objective measures — wearable HRV monitors or blood-spot cortisol testing — to see if the trauma relief documented by self-report also shows up physiologically in a population carrying genocide-level trauma exposure, and whether the community-delivery model remains effective at much larger scale.

The full record

DesignRandomized trial
Participants164 people
Populationadult survivors of the 1994 Rwandan genocide
Comparison groupwaitlist
Outcome measurestrauma symptom checklist
JournalAfrican Journal of Traumatic Stress
Year2013
CountryRwanda
LanguageEnglish
MethodThought Field Therapy (related tapping method)
Publication typeStudy / trial
Verification✓ Confirmed against the primary source

Read the original study →

Cite this study

APA

Connolly, S. M., Roe-Sepowitz, D., Sakai, C. E., & Edwards, J. (2013). Utilizing Community Resources to Treat PTSD: A Randomized Controlled Study Using Thought Field Therapy. African Journal of Traumatic Stress.

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 PTSD & Trauma · Trauma (other)

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THE TAPPING EVIDENCE BASE PTSD & Trauma 164 participants WHAT THEY FOUND Community leaders trained in Thought FieldTherapy delivered one-time individual traumainterventions to 164 adult… Randomized trial · 164 participants Connolly · 2013 · evidence.thetappingsolution.com