Customer Reviews

Tapping In: A Step-by-Step Guide to Activating Your Healing Resources Through Bilateral Stimulation

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Tapping In is an important and innovative contribution to the self-help field. With this book, Laurel Parnell, a clinical psychologist and internationally renowned EMDR trainer, has separated out a critical element of the EMDR protocol known as "resource installation" and made it safely accessible to the general public. The method - resource tapping - is very simple: relax and ground yourself, visualize and sense as clearly as possible an inner resource such as safety, calmness, confidence, strength, compassion, creativity or memories of success, and then tap alternately right-left with your hands on either your knees or arms (using a "butterfly hug") for as long as it feels good. It is a surprisingly effective way to access and/or reinforce healthier ways of thinking, feeling and acting. I know - I've used a version of it for years with my psychotherapy clients. I'm glad that this simple yet powerful method has been liberated from its EMDR roots and is now available to anyone. It is also refreshing to encounter Dr. Parnell's inclusion of an explicitly spiritual dimension to inner resource work that draws from her many years of meditation and self-inquiry. Clearly written, filled with guidelines tailored to a wide variety of applications such as reducing anxiety, calming oneself after a trauma, boosting performance, or enhancing creativity, and fleshed out with interesting case reports, Tapping In is a practical and highly effective guide for accessing the wellspring of our inner resources.

-John J. Prendergast, Ph.D. (EMDR trained psychotherapist, Adjunct Professor of Psychology at CIIS, senior editor of The Sacred Mirror and Listening from the Heart of Silence)

Briefly put, "Tapping In" is a wonderful book, an accessible description of how to use the "tapping" part of EMDR to find and strengthen the already existing resources within oneself. Dr. Parnell details the process of using EMDR's bi-lateral stimulation (the sequential tapping on both sides of the body) to do this "resourcing" work, and then gives a myriad of suggestions on how to apply this to different situations. It's not at all a complex process she's describing, and unlike EMDR, which requires a trained professional to be safe and effective, Resource Tapping seemingly can be used by everyone. I have actually used it with a range of clients, including the actively psychotic, and all of them have benefited.

You can tell in her writing what absolute confidence Dr. Parnell has in a person's ability to find their own strengths, and that these exist in the first place. It's such a simple and yet powerfully transformative experience when people find out that they can adjust their internal states and moods with about the ease that they'd adjust their body if sitting in an uncomfortable position. And for this change in perspective and experience, Dr. Parnell's book is a great guide.

Laurel Parnell, trained in EMDR, has adapted this method in an interesting way. EMDR invites people to focus on their trauma memories and current symptoms while alternating stimulating the right and left sides of the body. This produces intense emotional releases that rapidly clear these issues. When the negatives are cleared, positive cognitions are installed to replace the negative ones that have been released.

Parnell focuses very heavily on the positives. She has people visualize a "safe/ peaceful place, nurturing figures, protector figures, and inner wisdom figures." (p. 45) These help people calm down when agitated, fearful, injured or upset in other ways. She discourages people from focusing on previous experiences that might resonate with the current issues.

Parnell reports dramatic improvements, not only in the primary issues being addressed, but also in attitudes, self-confidence, openness to accepting positives from others and more. She also notes that with repeated practice the positive effects with her method are more easily achieved and stronger. You will find many suggestions for positive images and cognitions one can install in this book.

My hesitation about what I read is that my personal experience of clearing current issues over a period of four decades and my experience of helping clients do the same has been that current issues very frequently resonate strongly with earlier issues. In many cases, the current issues appear to be invited to occur or even to be generated by the earlier issues. Without clearing the early issues, I would be concerned that further problems could easily arise down the rocky roads of life.

This is an incredible resource for everyone - therapists, healers and anyone looking to make their life better. It is a clear, easy to follow resource that helps you find and utilize your own strengths and natural abilities for healing. As a therapist I encourage other therapists and clients to make use of this valuable tool to further their work. As a parent I encourage parents to use this resource to help get through stressful times and to assist your children with their challenges.

I'm a therapist and work with people who are highly anxious. I have several books
by Laurel Parnell and I trust her work. I lent this book to several of my clients who
struggle with medical procedures, panic, and loss. They come back to tell me that the book is helpful and provides them with tools to manage anxiety better and build confidence. If you're a person who is motivated to help yourself overcome the pain of anxiety this book is an effective tool. The content is solid and easy to read.

Laurel Parnell writes beautifully and compassionately in this self-help manual for emotional well-being. She introduces a new and safe way for anyone to use the powerful healing tool of bilateral stimulation - a tool that, until now, has been restricted to the professional psychotherapist. Tapping In shows readers how to use simple hand movements to calm anxiety, heal fears, improve self-confidence, address sleep problems and much, much more. Indeed, it empowers the reader to effectively treat almost any limitation, pain or insecurity. Dr. Parnell introduces a variety of imagery-based strategies that can penetrate deeply into the mind to create profound healing and growth. I will be recommending this book to my own clients frequently!
Sarah Chana Radcliffe,
Author, Raise Your Kids without Raising Your Voice

It takes some practice, and I think you must believe it works, but the process seems to be working for me. So far, so good.

Mrs.Parnell's book is a great work about a simple therapy called "resource tapping", which encourages reader to use his own resources to improve physical conditions.

"Within each of us is a hidden potential, a wellspring of untapped natural resources we can use to heal our psychological wounds an help us better navigate challenges we face in our lives. The problems is that these resources too often remain buried, and we don't know how to access them"

"Tapping in" is a very practical guide for use. The best thing - you do not necessary have to go to a therapist to experience benefits of EMDR / Tapping.

If you need help clearing out abuse from your past, this will help. However, you will probably need to go to an EMDR if your history included extensive abuse. I know others who use this with great sucess, but they were not as traumatized as kids.

It's an excellent book, well written and easy to understand. Reading the First Pages in the "Click to Look Inside" window will tell you the basics of what Tapping is.

A warning: EFT, or Emotional Freedom Technique, is a knock-off of EMDR and its simplified version for less serious problems, Tapping. EFT uses a powerful technique without any kind of professional back up, which is necessary because a person could actually do themselves more harm than good without it. EFT also attributes the effects of tapping to a bunch of Chinese energy meridian babble, with no scientific evidence offered at all.

When Ms. Parnell says to stop tapping at the first sign of any negative emotion, do it immediately. Or rather, stop doing it. ;-)