Jessica Ortner on Meridian Tapping Techniques

Would you give us a general idea what brings you to Tapping?

Tapping, or Meridian Tapping Techniques, hopes to help promote the positive side of experience by focusing on individuals. People feel all negative emotions through a disruption of the body's energy. And physical pain and disease are intricately connected to negative emotions. Health problems create feedback—physical symptoms cause emotional distress, and unresolved emotional problems manifest themselves through physical symptoms. So, to promote the body's health, we must approach the body as a whole organism. You cannot treat its symptoms without addressing the cause, and vice-versa.

The body, like everything in the universe, is composed of energy. Restore balance to the body's energy, and you will mend the negative emotions and physical symptoms that stem from the energy disruption. Tapping restores the body's energy balance, and conquer negative emotions.

What actually happens with Tapping?

The basic technique requires you to focus on the negative emotion at hand: a fear or anxiety, a bad memory, an unresolved problem, or any issue that's bothering you at the moment. While maintaining your mental focus on the issue, use your fingertips to tap 5-7 times on each of the body's 12 meridian points. Tapping on these meridian points—while concentrating on accepting and resolving the negative emotion—will access your body's energy, restoring it to a balanced state.

Could we back up just a second and get a general view of what Tapping is?

Sure. Like acupuncture and acupressure, Tapping is really a set of techniques that utilize the body's energy meridian points. You can stimulate these meridian points by Tapping on them with your fingertips—literally Tapping into your body's own energy and healing power. While Tapping is newly set to revolutionize the field of health and wellness, the healing concepts that it's based on have been in practice in Eastern medicine for over 5,000 years. It's been around a long time.

What variety of problems does Tapping seem to solve best?

Tapping is often used to relieve fears, anxieties, phobias, headaches, back pain and addictions. It also helps with weight loss.

Can anyone use the technique?

Tapping is simple and painless. Anyone can learn it and you can easily apply it to yourself, whenever you want, wherever you are. It's inexpensive and not time consuming. You can use it with specific emotional intent towards your own unique life challenges and experiences. Most importantly, it gives you the power to heal yourself, putting control over your destiny back into your own hands.

How does it combine acupressure and modern psychology?

In some ways, Tapping is similar to acupuncture. Tapping, like acupuncture, achieves healing through stimulating the body's meridians and energy flow. However, unlike acupuncture, Tapping, uses no needles! "No needles" is definitely one of the advantages of Tapping.

Acupuncture also takes years to master. Acupuncture practitioners must memorize hundreds of meridian points along the body. Tapping is simple and painless. It can be learned by anyone. It combines modern psychology by acknowledging to yourself underlying problems with your positive energy flow. Tapping consists of “peeling back the onion” to discover what unresolved emotions are at the root of the problem you're working with.

Are there typical results?

Tapping has gained its popularity and spread all over the world because of its quick and useful results. Many people come to Tapping as a last recourse and it often works when nothing else does. Although instant results are very common, Tapping should be looked at as a tool that helps you overcome daily challenges to create a better quality of life. And you can use it repeatedly.

How did you become interested in this?

When I first tried Tapping I was skeptical—to say the least. I was home from work on the couch surrounded by tissues with a horrible cold that left me feeling paralyzed. My brother Nick had learned the technique online. He came over to use me as a guinea pig. When he had me tap on these particular points while saying how I felt out loud, I thought it was a practical joke. Then suddenly I felt a shift in my body. While Tapping on the points and stating how I felt I realized that I actually wanted to be sick because I hated my job. I felt very stuck in my life. When I tapped while focusing on all the fears, sadness and anxieties, I felt my body begin to respond. After 10 minutes of Tapping, I felt better about my situation and my sinuses cleared up. I was absolutely stunned with how my cold just seemed to disappear. It helped me see my life in a new light and take steps forward to create the life I truly wanted. After that experience I began to use Tapping with all my friends and family. To this day I am stunned by its effectiveness.

How has it changed you doing this film/research?

Thousands of people all over the world have written about their results with Tapping, yet it is hard to believe it works until you experience it for yourself or at least see it for yourself. I teamed up with my brother, Nick Ortner, and friend, Nick Polizzi, to document on film others' experiences with Tapping while teaching the film's audience how to apply this tool into their own lives. The three of us had no previous film-making experience or outside financing. When taking such a personal and financial risk there are many fears and doubts that can creep up and paralyze you from taking a step forward. Whenever we felt like the mountain was too high to climb we would begin to tap. It would ease our anxieties and we were able to become resourceful enough to overcome every challenge that came our way. Now the film is sold in over 35 countries and we have donated thousands of copies to those less fortunate than us. The experience of making this film will be my personal reminder that anything is possible.

What’s your dream with this? What's your message for people?

Tapping is a simple technique that opens up the power we have to release what is holding us back. In this topsy-turvy world with all its demands, responsibilities and pressures, we can use something that lets us do all we can to create positive change. My hope is that my film and this technique are resources that help others in their quest for positive change.