Nemiro, A., Papworth, S., Palmer-Hoffman, J. · Energy Psychology: Theory, Research, & Treatment · 2015
Eight 2.5-hour EFT sessions (n=25) vs CBT (n=25); HTQ trauma-symptom pre-post d=2.29 (95% CI 1.51–2.99); HSCL d=1.26 (95% CI 0.61–1.87). Head-to-head EFT-vs-CBT comparison on PTSD: d=0.14 (95% CI −0.42–0.69), not statistically significant — i.e. the two treatments performed similarly. Also appears in Stapleton 2023's active-comparator table as Hedges' g=0.13 (95% CI −0.42–0.67, p=0.65).
Think of a refugee woman who survived sexual violence, now in a camp or resettlement system where trained trauma therapists are almost impossible to find. If tapping continues to perform comparably to CBT as it did here, it suggests something that could be taught relatively quickly to lay community health workers — or even directly to the women themselves — extending trauma care, self-taught and free to keep using, into humanitarian settings that formal therapy rarely reaches.
Since EFT performed comparably to CBT in a population carrying some of the most severe trauma imaginable, the next step is testing whether that parity holds when EFT is taught to lay community health workers rather than trained clinicians, tracking symptom scores alongside simple field-usable biomarkers like heart rate variability via wearables, to see if calm is measurably restored, not just reported, in a resource-constrained humanitarian setting.
| Design | Randomized trial |
|---|---|
| Participants | 50 people |
| Population | female refugees from the Democratic Republic of Congo, survivors of sexual/gender-based violence |
| Comparison group | CBT (active comparator) |
| Effect size | Cohen's d (HTQ, pre-post) = 2.29 (95% CI 1.51–2.99) — on PTSD symptoms — this is a WITHIN-GROUP pre-post effect size for the EFT arm, not a between-group EFT-vs-CBT treatment effect |
| Outcome measures | HTQ, HSCL, PCL-M |
| Journal | Energy Psychology: Theory, Research, & Treatment |
| Year | 2015 |
| Country | Democratic Republic of Congo |
| Language | English |
| Method | EFT / tapping |
| Publication type | Study / trial |
| Verification | ✓ Confirmed against the primary source |
Nemiro, A., Papworth, S., & Palmer-Hoffman, J. (2015). EFT vs CBT for female refugee survivors of sexual/gender-based violence (as tabulated in Sebastian & Nelms 2017 / Stapleton 2023). Energy Psychology: Theory, Research, & Treatment.
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
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