Clinical EFT for individuals with visual impairment: effects on psychological wellbeing and subjective visual functioning

Randomized trial 👥 588 participants ⚖️ vs. Waitlist control Higher rigor ✓ Source-checked 📍 Australia

In plain English. One of the largest EFT trials to date: 588 adults with self-reported visual impairment were randomly assigned to an 8-week online tapping program or a waitlist. The tapping group saw meaningful drops in anger, anxiety and depression and improved sense of their own vision functioning, and those gains held six months later, while the waitlist group did not change. An intention-to-treat analysis (which accounts for people who dropped out) reached the same conclusions, so the results don't hinge on only the completers. It replicates an earlier visual-impairment tapping program by Carol Look.

What they found

588

One of the largest EFT trials to date: 588 adults with self-reported visual impairment were randomly assigned to an 8-week online tapping program or a waitlist.

In a randomised controlled trial (n=588; 321 EFT, 267 waitlist), an 8-week online Clinical EFT program produced significant Time x Allocation interactions for anger, anxiety, depression, and subjective vision functioning (all p<.001) versus waitlist. Improvements in the EFT group were maintained at 3- and 6-month follow-up. Intention-to-treat mixed-effects models confirmed the per-protocol findings for all four outcomes (all p<.001), indicating dropouts would likely have achieved similar gains.

How the study worked

Who took part Adults with self-reported visual impairment (VI); 8-week online Clinical EFT program vs waitlist (n=588)

What they did In a randomized controlled trial, participants were randomly assigned to receive tapping or a comparison condition, then measured and compared.

Compared with Waitlist control

Measured with Anger, Anxiety, Depression, Subjective visual functioning

💡 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 anxiety 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: longer-term follow-up to see how durable the benefit is, and an active ('sham tapping') control to isolate what's doing the work.

The full record

Design	Randomized trial
Participants	588 people
Population	Adults with self-reported visual impairment (VI); 8-week online Clinical EFT program vs waitlist
Comparison group	Waitlist control
Outcome measures	Anger, Anxiety, Depression, Subjective visual functioning
Journal	Health Psychology and Behavioral Medicine
Year	2026
Country	Australia
Language	English
Method	EFT / Tapping
Publication type	Study / trial
Verification	✓ Confirmed against the primary source

Read the original study →

Cite this study

APA

Stapleton, P., & Roil, C. (2026). Clinical EFT for individuals with visual impairment: effects on psychological wellbeing and subjective visual functioning. Health Psychology and Behavioral Medicine. https://doi.org/10.1080/21642850.2026.2699488

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 Anxiety · Depression · Other Physical Conditions