Tapping Therapy: How EFT Helps Highly Sensitive People (HSPs) Manage Emotions
If you’ve ever felt like your emotions are “too much” or that everyday life seems to affect you more deeply than it does others, you could be a Highly Sensitive Person (HSP).
As an HSP, your nervous system is wired to absorb more, feel more, and process everything more thoroughly. And while that’s a beautiful gift, it can also feel like a burden when you don’t have the right tools to deal with your sensitivity.
As HSPs, we can get caught in never-ending spirals, with thoughts like:
“I’m just not good enough.”
“Why do I get so overwhelmed when everyone else seems to cope just fine?”
“Why do I feel so stuck in life?”
“I don’t even trust myself to make the right decision.”
Any of these sound familiar?
If so, it’s not because you’re broken or weak. It’s because your nervous system needs support, not shame.
This is exactly where tapping therapy, also known as the Emotional Freedom Technique (EFT), comes in. It’s one of my favourite tools for helping sensitive souls like you regulate your nervous system, so you can feel grounded, confident, and empowered!
Why HSPs Feel So Much (and Why That’s Not a Bad Thing)
Being an HSP means you naturally take in more from your environment – more sounds, more sensations, more emotions. And you don’t just take it in, you feel it, deeply.
This is why seemingly small things, like loud noises, someone’s tone of voice, or having too many tabs open (literally or metaphorically) can send you into complete overload.
This is also why HSPs often experience:
Low self-worth
Fear of rejection or failure
Worry about letting people down
Emotional burnout from trying to do it all “right”
Feeling stuck, unfulfilled, or like you just can’t handle life in the way you think you should be able to
A deep desire to contribute to the world, but also the fear that you’ll mess it up
And no, it’s not all in your head.
It’s your nervous system doing what it’s designed to do, but without the right regulation, it’s like trying to run a marathon with no water breaks.
That’s why I love the Stress Bucket analogy, which I go into more deeply in my free guide (more on that later). Imagine that your nervous system is a bucket that fills with each sensory input. As an HSP, your bucket fills up faster. If you don’t regularly empty it, it overflows, and that’s when the spiralling, overthinking, or even complete burnout happens.
EFT tapping is one of the best ways I know to gently release some of that pressure.
So, What Is Tapping Therapy (EFT)?
Tapping therapy, or EFT, is a beautifully simple yet powerful technique that combines gentle tapping on specific acupressure points with focused phrases or thoughts. It’s like having an emotional pressure valve that you can use anytime, anywhere!
Here’s how it works:
You identify a feeling, thought, or belief that’s causing you distress.
While tuning into it, you tap through a series of points on the face and body.
As you tap, your nervous system gets the message: I am safe.
The emotional charge begins to release immediately.
It’s like a conversation between your body and your brain, in your nervous system’s native language.
Studies show that tapping reduces cortisol (the stress hormone) and calms the amygdala (your fear centre), helping the body move out of fight/flight/freeze/fawn mode. And as a bonus, HSPs – who are naturally more attuned to their inner worlds – are likely to notice the shifts quicker than most people!
Why EFT is a Game-Changer for HSPs
One of the reasons I love tapping is that it meets you exactly where you are. You don’t have to explain your life story or try to rationalise your feelings. You just have to notice what’s present, and gently tap it out.
Many HSPs, myself included, have struggled with feeling not enough, too emotional, or like a failure for not being able to “hold it together”.
These feelings usually stem from beliefs we picked up long ago (often from well-meaning parents, teachers, or peers) when we were told we were too sensitive, too “much”.
Tapping helps us go back and reframe those beliefs. To tell your nervous system: “You’re not failing. You’re just overwhelmed. And that’s totally understandable.”
The best part is, you don’t have to “fix” yourself to feel better. You just have to regulate your nervous system. When you do, you’ll naturally start to hear the quiet intuitive voice that always knows what’s right for you.
As one of my lovely clients shared:
“Katie made things light and fun and easy. Her use of tapping helped me to release some heavy emotions that on my own I would have continued to avoid.”
That’s the magic of tapping. It’s powerful, but it doesn’t have to be heavy.
What Happens When You Release the Emotional Load?
When your nervous system feels safe, your true self starts to shine through. You stop doubting yourself and start trusting your own inner knowing. In turn, you’ll begin to make more aligned choices, and feel more fulfilled and present.
And because you’re not constantly trying to “cope,” you actually have energy to create – to contribute, in your own way, to the world around you.
You were given high sensory intelligence for a reason. But you weren’t meant to carry the weight of the world alone
Ready to Start Releasing the Pressure?
If any of this has resonated, I’ve created a next step for you:
In this guide, I introduce the full Stress Bucket concept and walk you through how to recognise your triggers, understand your stress responses, and find small, doable ways to release the pressure regularly. I also teach you how to use EFT, in full detail and with clear examples.
And if you’d like even more support, my 1:1 sessions and my 6-week coaching programme The Wildflower Way integrate tapping in a light, fun, emotionally freeing way, just like that testimonial said.