How EFT Tapping Can Help You Manage Stress During Cancer.

"Your body is already fighting one battle.  Stress doesn’t have to be the second one."

The Moment the Room Goes Quiet — and Your Mind Gets Loud

You hear the words “It’s cancer,” and suddenly every beep, buzz, and fluorescent light in the hospital or doctors clinic feels ten-times louder. Your body tenses, your breathing shortens, and a silent internal alarm floods your bloodstream with cortisol. That surge in your body is perfectly normal, and perfectly exhausting. It can interrupt sleep, interrupt healing, and even dampen immunity. And researchers have linked chronic stress hormones to cancer recurrence and metastasis.

But there’s a gentle, easy and portable way to turn off that stress and the alarm within: Emotional Freedom Techniques (EFT), better known as tapping.

What Exactly Is EFT?

Think of EFT as acupuncture’s younger, more agile sibling. No needles, just finger-taps on eight easy acupressure points while you voice what’s bothering you.

In randomized trials, a single hour of EFT tapping slashed cortisol by up to 43 percent, dramatically more than psycho-education or no-treatment groups.*

These days, EFT tapping research is so strong for stress management, anxiety, depression and PTSD, it's classed as the new kid on the block in therapy realms.

When cortisol drops, the nervous system can bring that “fight-or-flight” alarm state into a healing zone: one filled with deeper breaths, a steadier heart-rate, and a calmer mind. For anyone navigating chemo chairs, radiation rooms, scans, reviews, this powerful and easy technique is a must have.

5 Reasons to Attend to Stress & Minimise the Overload during Cancer Treatment.

Stress Effect	Why It Matters in Treatment
Elevated cortisol (stress hormone)	Can impair immune function – this is a concern when white-blood-cell counts already dip during chemotherapy.
Sleep disruption	Healing hormones (growth hormone, melatonin) peak at night, while poor sleep stalls repair in the body.
Digestive shutdown	Nausea meds definitely help, but a revved-up sympathetic ‘alarm’ system slows down nutrient absorption which includes all those goodies needed for healing.
Emotional fatigue	The anxiety before scans, the dread of side-effects, decision overload, ruminating thoughts and more.  It all drains precious energy needed for healing.

EFT tapping directly targets that stress build up, calming the amygdala in the brain and sending safety signals to dial down the alarm state, to calm the body  and mind so you can focus on healing and recovery.

A 90-Second Primer: How Tapping Works

1. Identify the stressor. (e.g., “tomorrow’s chemo,” “scanxiety,” “hair loss” “communicating with family and friends”).

   
   

2. Rate the intensity (0–10) so you can check if it’s working or you need to do more tapping rounds.

   
   

3. Create a Setup statement -  tap on the side of the hand and say something like: “Even though I feel ____, I choose to honour myself as I am, while my body heals.”

   
   

4. Tap the 8 main points—eyebrow, side of eye, under eye, under nose, chin, collarbone, under arm, top of head - one round while voicing the feeling or stressor.

   
   

5. Breathe, re-rate, repeat until the number drops.

Your fingertips act like tiny defibrillators for an overwhelmed nervous system, and repattern the stress responses in real time, creating more ease, peace and calm.

From a Storm Within, to a Centred, Calm Powerhouse - Jen's Oncology Review.

Jen (42) felt nauseous from anticipation of her upcoming oncology review.  Her prior meeting with her oncologist left her devastated, shaking and ruminating about comments heard in the past and ones to come. We tapped for a few minutes on “the rising nausea in her gut”, then we shifted focus to the “sound of her oncologists voice" and specific comments that made her gut wrench.   Her nausea slid from 8 to 3 after a couple of rounds, her shoulders softened, and her breathing deepened.  After a few more rounds focussing on the oncologists words and voice, her fear and gut sensations, she smiled, yawned (a reaction that tells me tapping is working) and said, “what am I worried about, the worst is behind me.”   That night she slept through the night without having to take a valium, a bedtime ritual that had kept her in balance for previous reviews.

Small shift with a big impact.

EFT vs. Mindfulness & Counselling: Time to Amplify Your Results

EFT tapping is like a key that unlocks the door to calmer states.  Mindfulness and counselling help you walk you through that door with greater awareness, clarity and understanding.  Here’s how they work to combat stress.

	EFT Tapping	Mindfulness Meditation	Counselling / Psychotherapy
Speed	Minutes to start feeling a change in the body.	10–20 minutes to settle	45-min sessions
Body engagement	Active touch on meridian points reduces cortisol (stress hormone)	Brings attention & awareness to the breath/body	Talk-focused; body work can be integrated.
Best for	Acute spikes in stress (e.g scanxiety, IV insertion, upcoming chemo / radiation sessions, appointments etc).  Great for managing triggers (things that throw you into fight / flight.	Ongoing awareness,  acceptance	Deep processing of your grief and struggles through cancer.
Amplifier tip	Tap before meditating to quiet racing thoughts	Use mindfulness cues between tapping rounds	Bring EFT insights into counselling to accelerate breakthroughs

Amplify your stress management approach. Here's how:

1. A Pre-session tap: tap for 5 minutes to clear fight-or-flight before therapy or mindfulness.

   
   

2. Mindful check-in: Observe body sensations, thoughts and feelings post-tapping; note any remaining hotspots.

   
   

3. Counsellor share: Bring remaining hotspots to your therapist.  Now there’s less surface stress which means deeper work is available to you.

   
   

Allow EFT tapping to be the key that unlocks your healing potential.

Six Ways to Weave EFT Into Your Cancer-Care Week

1. Morning reset: Three rounds on “today’s appointments” before breakfast.

   
   

2. Car-park calm: Tap in the car right before entering the hospital.

   
   

3. During treatment: Discreet finger-point tapping if you can’t move arms or don’t want people looking at what you’re doing.  

   
   

4. Sleep primer: Tap and acknowledge your efforts through the day.

   
   

5. Partner tapping: Teach a loved one to tap along—mirror neurons help with the soothing effect.

   
   

6. Set a two minute tapping timer: No words, just tap and notice your breath.

While EFT tapping is a wonderful stress management tool, it is not a replacement for medical care. If tapping stirs up intense memories , pause and reach out to an EFT tapping professional who can guide you safely through your practice. Better yet, find an oncology specialised EFT practitioner to help you on your journey.

Ready to Experience the Power of EFT tapping for Cancer Care?

• Watch: The Tapping for Grief Complete Starter Guide on YouTube for a guided session you can follow anytime & hit the subscribe button for more tapping videos to support you through cancer.

  
  

• Download - free Tapping for Grief Guide.  It has a visual step by step process to help you deal with grief and stress that arises through cancer.

  
  

• Book: A free 15-minute consult to explore how a personalized tapping or Matrix Reimprinting session can help you today (online or Bass Coast / Melbourne).

  
  

Because your body deserves every ounce of healing energy they can get.  Now you can begin with the gentle beat of your own fingertips.