Mind/Body Equine Therapies – EFT Tapping

This blog post kicks off a series where we’re going to examine a number of different mind/body/spirit healing techniques that work well with horses.

Whether your horse came from a rescue situation, or performance barn, or you raised him/her yourself – there’s going to be some trauma that wants to be healed. Just like every parent has their kids turn around one day and blame them for screwing them up over X, so it is with the animals in our care. Whether through ignorance, inexperience, accident, or simple lack of awareness, the beings in our care are going to suffer trauma or woundings.

A simple trailer ride can be a hugely traumatic event for a horse. How about if your horse rips himself a wound on the fence, or gate, or bucket? Some wounds/accidents are no big deal, others leave a lasting trauma or phobia. How about all the unwitting pain we have caused our horses before we knew better? Like scheduled feeding, horseshoes, riding before their bones were fully formed (age 6), and so on.

So in this series, I’m going to take a look at each of the mind/body/spirit healing therapies available for equines and tell you about each of them, tell you some stories, interview some practitioners, and give you my own thoughts.

Why am I qualified to assess mind/body therapies?

Well, I healed myself of a supposedly incurable disease (Crohn’s) over 20 years ago and since then 80,000 people have used my natural healing program for their gut issues. During my own Healing Journey I tested dozens of mind/body/spirit healing therapies – spending over $55,000 – to see which ones were the most effective. I see the body as the densest part of the soul (not separate from the soul) and our body is always advocating on our behalf; always seeking healing. So whenever the body presents with a symptom or malfunction, I say, “My body is speaking to me, what is it saying?”

I approach healing animals the same way, after all, we are all sentient beings. So I see any trauma, wounding, or malfunction as an opportunity for healing and growth; resulting in the being stepping more and more into its inherent magnificence.

Another thing that happens within families and also between animal and caregiver, is that your loved one’s healing journey involves your own healing. We all walk the path of healing together. My Andalusian mare, Zorra showed it to me like this:

So let’s begin this series by looking at acupressure tapping therapies – like Emotional Freedom Technique (EFT). This is a therapy I know well as I am also a Certified Practitioner of EFT. After seeing a therapist regularly as part of my own healing journey, I began to understand how the technique worked. So then I started using it on myself between sessions, on my kids, my animals and then I realized, “I’m using EFT all the time! I might as well go get certified to ensure I’m maximizing the experience/possibilities for healing with this therapy.” So even though I’ve never practiced as an EFT therapist, I’ve used it extensively and I provide tap-along videos for my health readers, like this one. About a decade later, I developed my own version of acupressure tapping (based on what I found most effective, combined with a component that goes INTO the body) called Lazer Tapping.

How Does Acupressure Tapping Work?

Tapping works on the same premise as acupuncture. It recognizes that each being’s body also has an energetic body, and the energy flows along meridian lines. Where acupuncture sticks needles into key points along these meridian lines, EFT or Lazer Tapping simply taps on those points using fingertips.

The great thing about Tapping is, because it is an energetic therapy, you can do it surrogately for someone else. You could tap for a friend, a child, or an animal. Once you have done the energetic link-up (which I show you in the video below), the effects are the same as if you were tapping on the other person’s body, instead of your own.

So rather than knowing where the acupuncture points are on each animal’s body and tapping right on the animal, you can just tap through the points on yourself. These are the tapping points we use:

I have used Lazer Tapping with fantastic results on cats, dogs and horses – in each instance I just tapped surrogately on myself. However, if you prefer to tap directly on your animal, then Susanne Peach (who I met at an EFT conference where we were both presenting, and she is simply lovely) has these great diagrams of the tapping points for horses, dogs and cats.

Or energy healer Joan Ranquet will show you the tapping points on a live horse in this video.

If you find the actual tapping annoying or invasive, you can just rub/massage each point. Once you get really good, you can just visualize yourself tapping on each point and the effect is the same – not just because it’s an energetic therapy, but because the brain does not distinguish between an imagined event and an actual event. This is why professional athletes, musicians, etc. use visualization (full-sensory imagining) regularly.

But the best way to really understand what acupressure tapping therapy is and how it works, is to see it in action.

Acupressure Tapping For A Horse

So here’s an example of an EFT session I did for my Belgian mare Audelina when she showed me she was traumatized from being starved (before she was sent to auction). This half hour session should give you a good idea of exactly what Tapping is and how it works – and perhaps your horse(s) would benefit from you following along:

If you like the feel of this therapy, you can check out the recorded sessions for animals here that you can tap along to, or book a private session with Gwyneth Moss for your horse or other animal – she is a very good EFT Practitioner.

Of course, the cheapest way to use acupressure tapping is to learn how to do it yourself! There is a free guide available. But although I did it on my own for two years, I did not get really good results until I took a workshop (even just do Level 1) and really learned how to do it properly. Gwyneth Moss has workshops in the UK, and there are instructors in most major cities around the world now – just do an Internet search for your city. I also offer an online course that will teach you how to tap for yourself and your pets, along with Live Chat support and many topic-specific sessions you can tap-along with to help you get fluent (and clear your pain, trauma, blocks etc at the same time!): Lazer Tapping – come check it out and try a FREE SESSION!

Happy tapping!