The Tapping Evidence Base
Multiple Conditions · Stress & Cortisol · Anxiety · Depression

Thought field therapy intervention to improve mental health during the COVID-19 pandemic: A randomized controlled trial

Morikawa, A., Fujimoto, M., Kawagishi, Y., Fukagawa, T. · Explore · 2025

Randomized trial👥 99 participants⚖️ vs. waitlist groupModerate rigor✓ Source-checked📍 Japan
In plain English. Ninety-nine people in Japan during the pandemic were randomly assigned to a brief online Thought Field Therapy session or a waitlist. The TFT group saw large, statistically significant drops in distress ratings for a wide range of personal issues, with the effect holding for weeks afterward. This is a randomized trial with a reasonably large sample and a very large effect size, though it relies on self-reported distress ratings rather than clinical diagnostic measures.

What they found

99
people took part

Among 88 participants completing online TFT, significant reductions occurred in stress, irritability, fatigue, anxiety, depression, and somatic complaints (p<.01); SUDS scores for 248 issues fell from an average of 7 to 1.5 (p<.01, large effect size).

How the study worked

Who took partgeneral population participants during the COVID-19 pandemic in Japan (n=99)
What they didIn a randomized controlled trial, participants were randomly assigned to receive tapping or a comparison condition, then measured and compared.
Compared withwaitlist group
Measured withBrief Job Stress Questionnaire, Subjective Unit of Distress Scale (SUDS)

💡 Where this could help

If brief online tapping sessions keep producing this scale of relief during collective crises, it could mean that during the next pandemic, disaster, or public emergency, stressed populations anywhere with internet access get an immediate, free, scalable distress-reduction tool while mental health systems are stretched thin. Because tapping is self-taught, people wouldn't need a therapist available in real time — they could learn it once from a recorded session and keep using it on their own for as long as the crisis lasts.

🔬 What to study next

With SUDS scores dropping so sharply after online TFT sessions, a natural next step is checking whether that subjective relief shows up in the body too — cortisol, heart rate variability, or sleep tracking before and after sessions — to see if a brief online tapping session produces a measurable physiological reset during a collective crisis, not just a reported one. It would also be worth testing whether these gains persist months after a crisis subsides, and whether pre-recorded group sessions can reach large stressed populations at once with the same effect.

The full record

DesignRandomized trial
Participants99 people
Populationgeneral population participants during the COVID-19 pandemic in Japan
Comparison groupwaitlist group
Outcome measuresBrief Job Stress Questionnaire, Subjective Unit of Distress Scale (SUDS)
JournalExplore
Year2025
CountryJapan
LanguageEnglish
MethodThought Field Therapy (related tapping method)
Publication typeStudy / trial
Verification✓ Confirmed against the primary source
Verification note. Effect size (dz≈2.15) is accurate but very large for a single-session, within-subject design; keep an editorial caveat noting this is an unusually large effect from a single RCT, though below the d>3 artifact-flag threshold.

Read the original study →

Cite this study

APA

Morikawa, A., Fujimoto, M., Kawagishi, Y., & Fukagawa, T. (2025). Thought field therapy intervention to improve mental health during the COVID-19 pandemic: A randomized controlled trial. Explore. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.explore.2025.103117

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 Stress & Cortisol · Anxiety · Depression

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THE TAPPING EVIDENCE BASE Multiple Conditions 99 participants WHAT THEY FOUND Among 88 participants completing online TFT,significant reductions occurred in stress,irritability, fatigue… Randomized trial · 99 participants Morikawa · 2025 · evidence.thetappingsolution.com