Bilateral tapping: definition and simple examples

Bilateral tapping is the tactile form of bilateral stimulation (BLS): alternating taps on the left and right sides of your body, like your knees, hands, or shoulders. It’s one of three channels EMDR therapy uses alongside eye movements and tones, and you can do it yourself, have someone else do it, or use a small vibrating device.

What counts as bilateral tapping?

Tapping is EMDR’s tactile channel, and it shows up in three forms. You can tap yourself, alternating your own knees or hands, or cross your arms and tap your shoulders in the butterfly hug. A practitioner can tap your hands or knees for you instead. Or a small handheld device, an EMDR buzzer, can vibrate alternately in each hand.

All three are versions of the same idea. The EMDR Institute describes self-tapping, practitioner-tapping, and handheld devices as forms of tactile stimulation. EMDRIA counts touch as one of three recognized bilateral stimulation channels, alongside eye movements and tones. What matters is the left-right alternation, not the body part or device that delivers it.

Is bilateral tapping the same as EFT tapping?

No, and the shared word “tapping” causes real confusion. EFT tapping uses a fixed sequence of acupressure points on your face and body, borrowed from traditional Chinese medicine, while you name the problem out loud. Bilateral tapping has no fixed points at all. It’s the left-right alternation that matters, not where on your body you tap.

The two techniques share a tapping motion but rest on different mechanisms. EFT’s own theory points to acupressure meridians, while bilateral tapping follows the same working-memory logic as other forms of bilateral stimulation.

Does bilateral tapping work as well as eye movements?

The evidence leans slightly toward eye movements, since that’s what most EMDR research has tested directly. A 2025 study in BJPsych Open compared visual and tactile bilateral stimulation in the same 40 people, half with PTSD and half matched controls, and found both produced similar calming effects on brain activity and physiological arousal, regardless of channel.

Tapping hasn’t been studied much as its own category, separate from tactile stimulation generally. For the fuller picture on where the research leans, see our breakdown of tapping versus eye movements.

How do you try bilateral tapping yourself?

Tap your own knees, alternating left and right, while holding a mildly stressful thought in mind, and notice if it softens after a minute. The butterfly hug is a ready-made version if crossed arms feel more natural than tapping your knees.

EmEase, a self-guided EMDR app, doesn’t use tapping. It offers visual bilateral stimulation, a moving on-screen target, and audio bilateral stimulation, alternating tones, with adjustable pacing at app.emease.com. Pair its rhythm with a manual tap if touch is what helps you settle, and save a specific, heavy memory for a trained professional rather than tapping through it alone.