Help Your Dog Feel Better Fast With Tapping for Trauma Relief

By Shannon Cutts.

Nothing is more heart-wrenching for us as pet parents than watching our pets struggle to heal after trauma. We love our dogs so much. We would do anything to help them.

But what else can you do when nothing you’ve tried has helped your traumatized dog heal?

In this article, I introduce you to an easy, quick, effective tool I use every day in my practice as a holistic animal communicator. This tool is called Emotional Freedom Technique, or “tapping” for short.

A (Very) Brief History of Tapping

The modern method we now collectively call “tapping” was developed by Stanford University engineering graduate and performance coach Gary Craig in the early 1990s.

However, tapping itself is not new. In fact, the practice of tapping on specific energetic or meridian points for health and wellness dates back more than 5,000 years.

Why Tapping Works

Tapping often proves effective to help pets heal even where other interventions have failed.

It is thought that the tapping process itself sparks a specific interaction between internal cognitive, psychological and somatic functions that can lead to a full and deep release of the stuck, stored energy pattern we call “trauma.” (For more on how traumatic pet memories are coded in and stored and what differentiates pet anxiety from pet trauma, see my article from on pet trauma.)

How Tapping Works

If there is a “woo” aspect to tapping, this is where you will find it. While more than 300 peer-reviewed scientific studies have verified that tapping works, researchers still haven’t pinpointed exactly why.

Human studies highlight reduction in cortisol levels (by up to 43 percent!), lowered blood pressure and heart rate, along with measurable reduction in symptoms of post-traumatic stress disorder, attention deficit hyperactivity disorder, depression, anxiety and pain as evidence-based success indicators.

Theories suggest that tapping may work because of its effect on specific parts of the brain and central nervous system, specifically the parts tasked with processing and regulating emotions and activating the parasympathetic nervous system, aka the “rest, digest and restore” function of the nervous system.

An Overview of the EFT Tapping Process

Emotional freedom technique, or EFT tapping for pets, pairs tapping on specific energy meridian points on the body with the use of a short, focused statement.

The statement identifies a specific troublesome pattern, problem or issue and its corresponding emotion(s) and is phrased in an “even though….I still” format. An example might be, “Even though I cannot feel calm when I am in the house alone, I still deeply and completely love, accept and respect myself.”

Before tapping begins, the subject is asked to rate their level of distress or dysregulation on a one to 10 scale, with one being no distress and 10 being severely distressing.

The traditional EFT tapping process for humans uses a set of nine specific tapping points, or energy meridians, on the body. Typically, tapping is performed using the pads of the fingers.

The subject repeats their chosen statement at least three times while tapping on each of the nine meridian points in consecutive order. At the conclusion, the subject is asked to re-rate their level of distress on the same one to 10 scale.

How EFT Tapping Is Used with Dogs and Other Pets

Tapping is easy to learn, quick to do and fast-acting. However, special challenges arise when we want to use tapping to help our dogs and other pets.

This is where animal communication comes in handy.

When I tap on behalf of my pet clients, I use animal communication to talk with the dog to identify the specific problem, issue or emotion they are struggling to overcome. Along with stuck, stored trauma patterns, common issues that I see over and over again include a pet feeling jealous, anxious, restless, aggressive, shy or distrustful.

Once I have talked with the dog to establish what the specific issue is and how distressing it is, I can then craft a statement to tap with using the EFT tapping statement framework of “even though….I still.”

Let’s say my canine client is feeling jealous of the new baby and fearful the baby will replace him. On a scale of one to 10, he tells me his distress level is at an eight.

Using this information, the statement I create might sound something like this. “Even though I feel so jealous of the new baby and I’m afraid I am being replaced, I still completely love, accept and respect myself.”

Here is where the situation can get tricky. I meet with nearly all of my pet clients virtually via phone or Zoom. So how can we actually perform the tapping part on my client’s body?

I have a few different approaches. One common workaround is to coach the pet parent to tap on the dog’s meridian points. But many pets can’t easily tolerate this type of bodywork. Typically, the best approach is to do something called “tapping by proxy.” With this method, I sync my body to the dog’s body and tap on my own body on the dog’s behalf.

After a few rounds of tapping, I can use animal communication to check in with the dog to evaluate whether his distress has eased and if so, by how much. Then we can do another round of tapping with the statement if the need is there.

Tandem Tapping for Pet Parents and Their Pets

There is one more facet of tapping for holistic animal communication that I must mention. When I asked the pets what the word “pet” means to them and why we use it so universally to describe our relationship with them, they told me the word “pet” means Partner, Empathic friend and Teacher.

They went on to explain that in this role, we are deeply bonded to one another mind, heart and spirit. What affects us affects our pet. What affects our pet affects us. We can’t help it – it is the nature of the mutual connection we share.

In a trauma setting, however, what this often translates to is shared trauma.

I have developed a protocol to address this that I call “tandem tapping.” This process includes a tapping session for your pet and a tapping session for you. These two sessions are performed one right after the other.

I have discovered that if we don’t tap for both of you, then the lingering trauma you feel from watching your pet suffer without knowing how to help can then re-trigger your pet’s trauma. Tandem tapping removes this risk and leaves you both feeling calmer and better.

EFT tapping for pets is just as effective for our dogs as it is for us, their humans. In fact, it is so effective I have put together a free four-part video-based EFT tapping for pets guide for you so you can try out this amazing remedy right away. And of course, if you need guidance, I am always here to help.

Shannon Cutts is a professional animal sensitive and intuitive, Reiki Master and animal communication teacher with Animal Love Languages. Shannon’s global client base seeks her out for help with pet trauma, pet anxiety, highly sensitive pets, pet grief, pet reincarnation, interspecies family dynamics and more. Request Shannon’s free EFT tapping for pets here: https://www.animallovelanguages.com/eftpetsoptin