The butterfly hug: definition, origin, and method

The butterfly hug is a self-soothing technique from EMDR therapy: cross your arms over your chest and tap each side alternately, like wings. EMDR clinician Lucina Artigas created it in 1997 while helping children after Hurricane Pauline flooded Acapulco, Mexico. The alternating taps are bilateral stimulation, and the method takes about a minute to calm your body.

Where does the butterfly hug come from?

In 1997, Hurricane Pauline dropped catastrophic flooding on Acapulco, Mexico. EMDR clinician Lucina Artigas needed a way to calm frightened groups of children who might not want a stranger’s hands on them. Her solution, documented by EMDRIA, was to have each child cross their arms and pat their own shoulders, alternating sides like a butterfly’s wings. She and fellow EMDR clinician Ignacio Jarero later built it into the EMDR Integrative Group Treatment Protocol, still used with disaster survivors worldwide.

How do you do the butterfly hug?

The method hasn’t changed much since 1997:

1. Cross your arms over your chest, so your hands rest near your opposite shoulders or collarbones.
2. Take one slow breath, and let your shoulders drop.
3. Tap your hands alternately, left, right, left, right, at an easy, unhurried pace.
4. Tap in short rounds of about six to eight, pausing between rounds to notice how you feel.
5. Stop once you feel steadier, which usually takes a minute or two.

For the fuller walkthrough, including when it fits best, see our step-by-step butterfly hug guide.

Is the butterfly hug the same as EMDR therapy?

No. It’s the self-administered bilateral stimulation piece of EMDR, borrowed for everyday, on-your-own use. Full EMDR therapy is different: a structured, clinician-led treatment that the American Psychological Association conditionally recommends for PTSD. It moves through eight phases, built around reprocessing one specific memory from start to finish. A couple of minutes of tapping on your own doesn’t attempt that.

Working the rhythm on your own may help keep you inside your window of tolerance during an everyday stressful moment, though the strongest evidence covers the full group protocol above, not solo tapping. EmEase, a self-guided EMDR app, offers the same left-right rhythm as guided visual and audio sessions at app.emease.com, for days when even counting taps feels like one more thing. If a specific memory keeps resurfacing no matter how many times you tap through it, a trained professional is the safer next step — see can you do EMDR on yourself for where that line sits.