Novel Ideas: Evaluation of a Brief Trauma Tapping Training and Single Session Application

Outcome study👥 1722 participantsPreliminary✓ Source-checked📍 Sweden

In plain English. Nearly 300 lay practitioners were given a brief training in a simplified tapping protocol and then used it in a single sitting with over 1,700 people in communities affected by war and trauma. On average, people's self-rated distress fell from roughly a 7.7 to a 2.5 out of 10 in that one session, a large and statistically real drop. There was no comparison group and no follow-up on whether the relief lasted, so this shows the technique can be taught fast and produce immediate relief at scale rather than proving lasting trauma recovery.

What they found

1722

people took part

Across 1,722 individual single-session TTT applications delivered by 287 newly trained practitioners, mean self-rated distress (SUD, 0-10 scale) dropped from 7.69 pre-session to 2.5 post-session (p<.001).

How the study worked

Who took partclients aged 7 to 93 in trauma- and conflict-affected communities (including war and genocide-affected regions), seen individually by 287 practitioners trained in the Trauma Tapping Technique (TTT), a simplified single-session tapping protocol (n=1722)

What they didParticipants received tapping and were measured before and after, without a separate comparison group.

Measured withSubjective Units of Distress (SUD) scale

💡 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 trauma (other) 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: a head-to-head trial against an established treatment like CBT, and a randomized controlled design.

The full record

Design	Outcome study
Participants	1722 people
Population	clients aged 7 to 93 in trauma- and conflict-affected communities (including war and genocide-affected regions), seen individually by 287 practitioners trained in the Trauma Tapping Technique (TTT), a simplified single-session tapping protocol
Outcome measures	Subjective Units of Distress (SUD) scale
Journal	International Journal of Healing and Caring
Year	2023
Country	Sweden
Language	English
Method	EFT / tapping
Publication type	Study / trial
Verification	✓ Confirmed against the primary source

Read the original study →

Cite this study

APA

Hamne, G., Sandström, U., & Stapleton, P. (2023). Novel Ideas: Evaluation of a Brief Trauma Tapping Training and Single Session Application. International Journal of Healing and Caring. https://doi.org/10.78717/ijhc.202323322

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 Trauma (other) · Stress & Cortisol