We think of menopause as a natural, if unwelcome, effect of ageing — though increasingly it’s being medicalised and treated almost like an illness. The question I’m asked most is whether tapping on acupressure points on the hands, head and torso can genuinely make a difference for women in peri-menopause and menopause. In my clinical experience over 20 years, the past 13 using EFT, the answer is yes — and there’s now published research on the physiological mechanisms that may explain why.
EFT (Emotional Freedom Techniques), or “tapping,” is a technique that combines talking through a specific concern with tapping on a sequence of acupressure points on the face and body. It’s most often used for anxiety, stress and emotional processing, but I’ve spent two decades using it specifically with women navigating peri-menopause and menopause.
How I started working with menopause
I was in my 30s when I left a career in banking to set up my own practice, initially focused on homeopathy. I knew almost nothing about menopause at the time. During my training, a colleague was struggling with hot flushes (I’m British, so I’ll stick to “flushes” rather than the American “flashes”) ahead of her daughter’s wedding. I recommended a homeopathic remedy — and it worked so well, and so fast, that I became genuinely curious about menopause as an area of focus.
After qualifying, I wrote an article on menopause for a local magazine, primarily focused on treating hot flushes. It brought in a handful of new clients and I learned quickly that women at certain life stages (new mothers, pregnant women, and menopausal women especially) are remarkably good at referring their friends. Within months I had a clinic full of mid-life women, insisting on open windows while I froze in extra layers. I understand that much better now!
Menopause is more than hot flushes
The first thing I learned is that hot flushes are only one part of a much longer symptom picture — many articles cite as many as 34 recognised symptoms of menopause (https://www.medicalnewstoday.com/articles/what-are-the-34-symptoms-of-menopause). I’m slightly embarrassed to admit that early on, I thought hot flushes were nearly the whole story.
What is peri-menopause?
Peri-menopause is the roughly 10-year window before menopause itself (which is technically a single day — 12 months after your last period) during which hormonal symptoms can fluctuate and appear. I was startled to learn I was probably in it myself at just 44. That said, I’m cautious about attributing every symptom to peri-menopause specifically — fatigue, for example, can just as easily point to a thyroid issue, or another condition, so it’s worth ruling other causes out rather than assuming hormones explain everything.
A pattern I’ve observed: unresolved emotional history and menopause
This next point is based purely on clinical observation over 20 years in practice — I haven’t researched it formally, but it’s shaped how I work with clients.
I’ve noticed, repeatedly, that women who carry unresolved emotional history connected to their reproductive years — a difficult puberty, a traumatic birth, or other unprocessed experiences tied to their body and sexuality — often seem to have a harder time at menopause. Women with similar histories who’ve been able to process and resolve that emotional charge often report a smoother transition.
I want to be careful how I frame this: I’m not suggesting menopause severity is caused by, or is “payback” for, anything a woman experienced earlier in life — many women with difficult histories sail through menopause, and many with none have a hard time. What I am saying is that EFT’s core method — identifying an emotionally charged past event and reducing its intensity — seems, anecdotally, to help some women feel more at ease in their bodies during this transition, regardless of why that ease was missing before.
Why cortisol matters in menopause
Alongside oestrogen, progesterone and testosterone, cortisol — the stress hormone — plays a major role in how menopause is experienced. Most women I see in their 40s are juggling a lot: childcare, work, ageing parents, and cultural pressure to exercise and eat “perfectly,” often on top of years of accumulated stress. When cortisol runs high, it affects the whole endocrine system, not just one hormone in isolation.
Does EFT actually reduce cortisol? What the research says
A 2019 study published in the Journal of Evidence-Based Integrative Medicine measured cortisol before and after EFT training workshops and found a 37% reduction in cortisol in the sub-group tested (n=28), a statistically significant result (https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1177/2515690X18823691). It’s worth noting this study didn’t focus on menopausal women specifically, had no control group, and involved a relatively small physiological sub-sample — so it’s a genuinely promising finding rather than definitive proof for menopause symptoms specifically. Still, it’s one of the better-designed pieces of evidence for EFT’s physiological effects that currently exists.
In practice, this is what a course of EFT sessions typically focuses on:
- Using tapping in-session to reduce acute stress response
- Working through the memory of specific stressful or traumatic events that may be keeping cortisol elevated
- Teaching the client to self-apply EFT for future stressful moments — a skill they have for life
What clients report
In my own practice, clients working with EFT through peri-menopause and menopause often report better sleep, easier communication with partners and children (one client told me it saved her marriage), more energy, and better focus at home and work — alongside resolution of long-held emotional issues that had been quietly affecting them.
FAQ
Is EFT the same as acupuncture?
No. EFT uses fingertip tapping rather than needles, and combines it with a verbal “setup statement” naming the issue being addressed — but it draws on the same acupressure point system.
Can EFT help with hot flushes specifically, or just stress?
Most of the research support is for stress, anxiety and cortisol reduction rather than hot flushes directly. In my practice, many clients find flushes ease as overall stress and emotional load reduce, but I wouldn’t claim it as a direct, proven treatment for flushes themselves.
Do I need to already be an EFT practitioner to use this?
No — one-to-one client work doesn’t require any prior EFT experience. The workshop mentioned below is aimed at existing EFT practitioners (Level 2+) who want to specialise in menopause work.
Work with me
I work one-to-one with women at any life stage, particularly those navigating peri-menopause and menopause, with regular audio recordings of EFT scripts to support self-tapping between sessions. I also run a workshop, Using EFT with Menopause, for EFT practitioners trained to at least Level 2 — find out more here Using EFT with Menopause.
