Most pages that promise you a tapping script hand you the words and stop there. Which is fine, right up until the moment you’re actually tapping and something else turns up.
That moment is the whole practice. Nobody writes about it.
So this page does two things. It gives you two complete scripts, all four rounds, written out point by point. And then it tells you the part that matters more: how to know when to put the script down and follow what’s actually surfaced.
How a tapping script is built
Four rounds, and they each do a different job.
The setup goes first, three times, on the side of your hand. After that you don’t repeat it. You tap straight through the rest.
Round two acknowledges it. The true, unflattering version, without softening. This is the round people want to skip, and skipping it is why tapping doesn’t work for them.
Round three loosens its hold. Not arguing with the feeling. Letting a little air in.
Round four asks what if. Wouldn’t it be nice if this had shifted. Not an affirmation, not a claim that everything’s fine. A door left open.
That last round is where most scripts stop short, and it’s the one doing the reframing. You’re not leaping from an eight to bliss. You’re reaching for the next believable thought.
Rate the feeling from zero to ten before you start, and again once all four rounds are done. Not in between. When you’re wound up, your memory of three minutes ago is unreliable, and that number is the only honest record you have.
Nine points, roughly four minutes. Side of the hand, eyebrow, side of the eye, under the eye, under the nose, chin, collarbone, under the arm, top of the head. Two fingers, five to seven taps each. Approximate is fine. The nine tapping points page has the detail.
Script one: anger you’ve been swallowing
For the thing that wasn’t fair. Nobody is going to apologize for it, and you have been extremely reasonable about that for a long time.
Setup — side of the hand, three times:
Even though I’m angrier about this than I want to admit, and I’ve been swallowing it, I’m okay right now.
Round two, acknowledge it:
- Eyebrow: This anger
- Side of eye: I’m still angry about it
- Under eye: I’ve been pretending I’m fine
- Under nose: It wasn’t fair
- Chin: Nobody’s going to say sorry
- Collarbone: I’m tired of being reasonable about this
- Under arm: I shouldn’t have to be the calm one
- Top of head: This anger
Round three, loosen its hold:
- Eyebrow: Being angry doesn’t make me a bad person
- Side of eye: It’s allowed to be here
- Under eye: I don’t have to act on it
- Under nose: I don’t have to forgive anything today
- Chin: I’ve been carrying this a long time
- Collarbone: Setting it down isn’t saying it was okay
- Under arm: Some of this can move
- Top of head: Letting a little of it go
Round four, wouldn’t it be nice:
- Eyebrow: Wouldn’t it be nice to put this down
- Side of eye: Wouldn’t it be nice to stop rehearsing the argument
- Under eye: Wouldn’t it be nice to think about something else
- Under nose: Wouldn’t it be nice to feel lighter about it
- Chin: I’ve let go of things before
- Collarbone: I can let go of some of this
- Under arm: Wouldn’t it be nice to have that energy back
- Top of head: Wouldn’t it be nice
Setting it down isn’t saying it was okay is the line to sit with. Most people won’t release anger because releasing it feels like agreeing the thing was fine. It wasn’t. You can put it down anyway.
Script two: money at three in the morning
Different animal. Money worry doesn’t respond to logic, because it isn’t asking a question. It’s running the same arithmetic over and over, hoping for a different answer.
Setup — three times:
Even though the numbers don’t work and I’ve been doing the math at three in the morning, I’m okay this second.
Round two, acknowledge it:
- Eyebrow: This money worry
- Side of eye: The numbers don’t work
- Under eye: I’ve checked the balance again
- Under nose: I don’t know how this gets covered
- Chin: I should be further along by now
- Collarbone: I’m embarrassed about it
- Under arm: Worrying hasn’t paid a single bill
- Top of head: This money worry
Round three, loosen its hold:
- Eyebrow: Panicking doesn’t make me better at this
- Side of eye: I’ve got through tight months before
- Under eye: Nothing gets solved at three in the morning
- Under nose: I can look at it properly tomorrow
- Chin: Being behind isn’t the same as failing
- Collarbone: My worth isn’t the balance
- Under arm: Some of this can wait until morning
- Top of head: Letting a little of it go
Round four, wouldn’t it be nice:
- Eyebrow: Wouldn’t it be nice to sleep tonight
- Side of eye: Wouldn’t it be nice if something came through
- Under eye: Wouldn’t it be nice to breathe about money
- Under nose: Wouldn’t it be nice to open the app without flinching
- Chin: Money has shown up before
- Collarbone: It can show up again
- Under arm: Wouldn’t it be nice to feel steady about this
- Top of head: Wouldn’t it be nice
Tap slower than feels natural on this one. There’s usually shame sitting underneath money worry, and shame doesn’t come out when you’re rushing.
What I actually do
I’ve never written a tapping script in my life. I say it out loud and that’s it.
What I do is start with someone else’s. Usually Brad Yates, because he has one for pretty much everything and I don’t have to think. I tap along, saying his words, and for a while that’s all that’s happening.
Then somewhere in the middle, something with a charge on it comes up. Not what I sat down about. Something underneath it. That’s when I stop following him and go my own way, tapping on whatever surfaced, in whatever words turn up.
And then that one loosens, and there’s something else underneath. It’s an onion. One thing leads to another leads to another, and what I finish on is almost never what I started on.
The script is scaffolding. You’re supposed to leave it.
A script’s job is to get you tapping and keep you saying something true while your fingers are busy. That’s it. It isn’t a spell. There’s no version of the words that works better because someone with a certificate wrote them.
This matters most if you tap along with videos or an app, which is how most people actually do it. Guided sessions are good and I use them. But they run on rails. They can’t notice that something came up for you, and they’ll carry on regardless. Pause it. The session will still be there.
So when something else surfaces mid-round, that isn’t a distraction from the practice. That’s the practice working. What shows up uninvited is usually closer to the real charge. The thing you sat down about is the one you’d already thought about enough to name, which is exactly what makes it the safer of the two.
What to do when it happens:
Stop the round. Don’t finish it out of politeness. The words on the page have stopped matching what’s live in you, and tapping on stale words is how people conclude this doesn’t work.
Say the new thing plainly, in your own words, and keep tapping. Point to point, same rhythm. You don’t need a new setup statement. You don’t need to start over. Just change what you’re saying.
Let it be as ugly as it actually is. The new thing usually surfaces precisely because it’s the one you wouldn’t say out loud. I’m still furious with her. I don’t want them to be happy yet. I think I wasted ten years. Those work. Polite versions of those don’t.
Follow it as far as it goes. One thing loosens and another appears underneath. Keep going while things keep surfacing, and stop when it goes quiet or when you’ve had enough. Both are fine endings.
Then rate where you ended up, not where you started. You’ll often finish somewhere unrelated to where you began. That’s not a failed session. That’s the session.
When the words aren’t landing
If you run all four rounds and nothing has moved, the words are usually too polite.
You tapped on “this anxiety” when the honest version was “I’m furious that this is my life.” You tapped on money when the live thing was shame. Run it again. More specific, less well-behaved.
The other common miss is the standard setup. Classic EFT uses “Even though I feel this, I deeply and completely accept myself.” For a lot of people that’s a wall. You’re already struggling, and now you’re supposed to perform total self-acceptance on demand. Use something you can say without lying:
- Even though this is here, I can be with myself right now.
- Even though I feel this, I’m willing to feel a bit better.
- Even though this is a lot, I’m still here.
Say every line out loud if you can. If you stumble on a phrase, that’s information. Rewrite it, even when it reads perfectly well on the page. The mouth catches what the eye misses.
Every script on this site
Two more places to start, and each one has three full scripts in it:
- Tapping for anxiety: anxiety with no obvious cause, the middle of the night, and worrying about someone you love
- Tapping for the fear of rejection: the ask you haven’t made, the wait, and after the no
If you want the background rather than the words, what EFT tapping is covers how it works and what the research does and doesn’t show. And if you’re worried you’re doing it wrong, you probably aren’t.
When tapping isn’t the right tool
Worth saying plainly.
If there’s trauma underneath what you’re tapping on, this isn’t the intervention. Same if you’re having panic attacks, or if something surfaces that you can’t come down from on your own. Those need a person. A therapist, your doctor, a crisis line.
Tapping is good at taking the top off an ordinary hard hour. It isn’t treatment, it doesn’t replace care, and anyone telling you otherwise is selling something.
Common questions about tapping scripts
What is an EFT tapping script?
A set of short phrases to say while you tap through the points, arranged in four rounds. A setup said three times on the side of the hand, then a round that names the problem honestly, one that loosens it, and one that reaches for something better. It’s a structure for saying something true while your hands are busy.
Do I have to write my own tapping script?
No, and most people never do. Starting with someone else’s is normal and sensible. What matters more is being willing to leave it when something with a charge on it comes up mid-session.
Can I change the words in a tapping script?
Change anything. If a phrase makes you flinch or feels like a lie, it’s working against you. Honest and awkward beats polished and hollow every time.
How long should a tapping script take?
About four minutes for all four rounds, plus a moment either side to rate the feeling. Running it twice is normal and often where the shift happens.
What if something else comes up while I’m tapping?
Follow it. Stop the round you’re on, say the new thing in your own words, and keep tapping. What surfaces uninvited is usually closer to the real charge than what you planned to work on.
Do I repeat the setup statement before every round?
No. The setup is said three times at the start, on the side of your hand. After that you tap straight through the remaining rounds without going back to it.
Two of my favorite online EFT practitioner websites are TapWithBrad.com and TheTappingSolution.com.
About Vickie Barnes
Twenty years in, by way of Wayne Dyer, Abraham Hicks, and EFT trained on Gary Craig's original methods.
I write from inside a family where several people I love are managing hard things, so I'm not going to hand you "raise your vibration" as a solution. It does work. Just slower and plainer than the books promise.