Schoninger, B., Hartung, J. · Energy Psychology: Theory, Practice, Research · 2010
Participants receiving TFT showed decreases in public speaking anxiety and increases in positive anticipation measures; delayed-treatment participants showed no improvement while waiting, but improved similarly once treated.
If a single hour of tapping keeps easing public speaking anxiety this reliably, it could give students, professionals, and anyone who freezes up at the podium a same-day option to try before a big presentation or interview, rather than months of gradual exposure work. Because it's learned in that one hour and self-administered from then on, they could use it before every future speech for the rest of their career without ever paying for another session.
The next useful step is pairing the self-reported anxiety and positive-anticipation shift with physiological measures taken during an actual live speech — heart rate, cortisol, or vocal markers of anxiety — rather than only a lab-based self-report task. Testing whether this benefit holds up months later before a genuinely high-stakes talk, not just in a controlled study setting, would also matter for knowing how durable a single hour of treatment really is.
| Design | Randomized trial |
|---|---|
| Participants | 48 people |
| Population | participants with public speaking anxiety |
| Comparison group | delayed-treatment (wait-list) condition |
| Outcome measures | public speaking anxiety self-report measures |
| Journal | Energy Psychology: Theory, Practice, Research |
| Year | 2010 |
| Language | English |
| Method | Thought Field Therapy (related tapping method) |
| Publication type | Study / trial |
| Verification | ✓ Confirmed against the primary source |
Schoninger, B., & Hartung, J. (2010). Changes on Self-Report Measures of Public Speaking Anxiety Following Treatment with Thought Field Therapy. Energy Psychology: Theory, Practice, Research. https://doi.org/10.9769/EPJ.2010.2.1.BS.JH
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 Phobias · Other Physical Conditions
A ready-made graphic — right-click or long-press to save the image.