A Wellbeing Proposal for Schools

Calm classrooms.
Resilient kids.
Science shows us how.

A practical, evidence-based program to support your students and staff through anxiety, exam stress, and everyday overwhelm — using a technique backed by peer-reviewed research.

See How We Can Work Together ↓

The challenge

Children are experiencing more anxiety than ever — and teachers feel it too

School events, assessments, performance pressure and social dynamics create waves of stress that ripple through every classroom. Anxious students struggle to learn. Stressed teachers struggle to teach.

What if there was a simple, evidence-based technique your students could use anywhere — no equipment, no cost — to bring their nervous system back to calm? And what if it had been clinically tested in Australian schools?

100s
clinical trials in peer-reviewed journals
6
independent meta-analyses confirming efficacy
99%
of studies indicate EFT is effective
4 yrs+
age range — pre-kinder to university

What is EFT?

This isn't magic.
It's neuroscience.

Emotional Freedom Techniques (EFT), also called Tapping, is an evidence-based practice that combines gentle acupressure with focused attention. By tapping on specific points on the face and upper body while acknowledging a thought or feeling, EFT sends a direct calming signal to the brain's threat-response centre — the amygdala — measurably reducing cortisol and restoring the nervous system to a regulated state in minutes.

Clinical EFT is specifically the version that has been tested in randomised controlled trials. It is sometimes called "psychological acupuncture" — same meridian points, no needles, no special equipment needed.

"EFT is a simple, practical, and proven technique to reduce stress and enhance learning outcomes. By integrating it into your classroom, you'll be empowering students with lifelong skills for emotional balance, resilience, and self-awareness."

— Dr. Peta Stapleton, Clinical & Health Psychologist, Professor of Psychology, Bond University
01
Reduces test anxiety & fear of failure
Multiple randomised controlled trials show EFT significantly reduces test anxiety and fear of failure in primary and secondary school students.
02
As effective as CBT for adolescent anxiety
Gaesser & Karan (2017) found EFT performed equivalently to Cognitive Behavioural Therapy in reducing adolescent anxiety — in a randomised controlled trial.
03
Builds long-term emotional resilience
Children who learn EFT gain a self-regulation skill for life — not just for exams, but for sport, relationships, and every challenge ahead.
04
Supports teacher wellbeing too
Reynolds (2015) demonstrated EFT's effectiveness specifically for teacher burnout. A regulated teacher creates a regulated classroom.

The bigger picture

Unmanaged childhood stress doesn't stay in childhood — it stays in the body

This is perhaps the most compelling reason to act now. The science is unambiguous: chronic, unresolved stress that builds during childhood and adolescence doesn't disappear when school ends. It is encoded in the body's stress-response systems and lays the biological groundwork for serious health conditions decades later.

How school stress becomes adult illness — the biological chain

When a child experiences repeated, unresolved stress — social pressure, academic fear, performance anxiety — the body's HPA axis (the hypothalamic-pituitary-adrenal stress system) stays in a state of chronic activation. Cortisol remains elevated. The nervous system never fully returns to rest. Over time, this dysregulation affects the immune system, the inflammatory response, and pain-processing pathways.

I work every day with adults managing chronic pain, fibromyalgia, autoimmune conditions, and injury recovery. When I trace the history of their suffering, unresolved childhood and adolescent stress is almost always part of the story. EFT in schools is early intervention — and it can change the trajectory of a child's entire health life.

School & student research

Peer-reviewed studies in children & adolescents

A selection of published research specifically on EFT with school-aged populations. RCT = Randomised Controlled Trial.

Study Focus Finding
Stapleton et al. (2017)
Adolescent Psychiatry		 School-based EFT & student wellbeing EFT intervention was effective in promoting student wellbeing in a school setting RCT
Gaesser & Karan (2017)
J. of Alternative & Complementary Medicine		 EFT vs CBT for adolescent anxiety EFT reduced adolescent anxiety equivalently to CBT RCT
Stapleton et al. (2016)
Explore		 EFT with 14–15 year olds Significantly improved eating behaviours, self-esteem & psychological symptoms RCT
Lambert (2020)
CDU Doctoral Thesis		 EFT in primary school students Reduced anxiety & improved wellbeing in a primary school setting
Sezgin & Özcan (2009)
Energy Psychology Journal		 Test anxiety in high school students EFT significantly reduced test anxiety compared to control RCT
Church et al. (2011)
Traumatology		 Traumatic memories in abused adolescents Single EFT session significantly reduced trauma memory intensity RCT
Reynolds (2015)
Energy Psychology Journal		 Teacher burnout EFT was effective in reducing occupational burnout in teachers RCT

Working together

Three ways to bring EFT into your school

Every school is different. These three pathways can be delivered individually or combined into a plan tailored to your community's specific needs, year levels, and schedule.

🍎
Teacher Training Workshop
For Staff · Professional Development
An engaging, hands-on workshop where teachers learn to use EFT themselves — and how to bring it into their classrooms. Grounded in science, immediately practical, and designed around the real daily pressures educators face.
  • Understand the neuroscience of stress and how EFT addresses it
  • Learn and practise the EFT tapping sequence
  • Use EFT personally for stress, overwhelm and burnout
  • Bring calm to a classroom before exams, events or assessments
  • Support individual students showing signs of anxiety
  • Leave with scripts and tools ready to use from Day 1
🔁
Tapping in the Classroom
For Teachers & Students · Group Sessions
Facilitated tapping sessions delivered to teachers and students together — structured group practice that can become part of the school's wellbeing curricula or be scheduled at key points across each term.
  • Delivered at selected times within each term
  • Timed around exams, performances, transitions or high-stress periods
  • Age-appropriate sequences for each year level
  • Teachers and students tap together — building shared language
  • Students develop self-regulation skills they can use independently
  • Can become an embedded part of the school wellbeing program
👨‍👩‍👧
Parent Information & Group Sessions
For Families · Education & Practice
Introductory sessions for parents — so families can support their children at home with the same tools being used at school. Parents learn how to use EFT to help their children and to manage their own stress so they can show up as the support their kids need.
  • Helps parents understand anxiety, fear and stress in children
  • Parents learn the tapping sequence alongside their children
  • Covers how to use EFT for homework stress, social anxiety and more
  • Addresses parental stress — because a regulated parent regulates a child
  • Reinforces the school's wellbeing work at home
  • Can be run as a community evening event or parent group

Not sure which option fits your school? Every plan is tailored. Whether you'd like to start with staff training, integrate classroom sessions across a term, or bring parents into the conversation — we'll design something that genuinely works for your community. Reach out and let's talk.

What educators are saying

EFT in schools — in their own words

The following reflect the experience of teachers and educators who have used EFT in school settings.

"When the students use tapping, they usually calm down a lot quicker."

Elysia · Teacher & CEO, Wholebeing Collective

"If we can empower children to be their own managers of their emotions, they'll grow up to be happy and positive people."

Debbie · EFT-Trained Staff, Wholebeing Collective

"I feel ready to take this back to my school and start using it."

Eve Power · Educational Psychologist, Melbourne

"Thank you so much. I'm buzzing with ideas of how I might use it with my class."

Kathy Frost · Year 5 Teacher, Queensland

EFT International Accredited Practitioner Advanced Accreditation — 2026 Member, Evidence Based EFT HQ Member, Holistic Health Associates International ANMCB Board Certified — since 2023 Fully Insured

Your facilitator

About Andrea

My name is Andrea Quintal Portas. I'm an EFT International Accredited Practitioner currently undertaking my Advanced Accreditation in 2026, an ANMCB Board Certified Quantum Health Coach, and a member of both Evidence Based EFT HQ and Holistic Health Associates International.

I run a private practice working with individuals managing anxiety, stress, chronic pain, chronic illness, and injury recovery. Every day, I see the long-term cost of stress that was never properly addressed — and that's what drives my commitment to bringing evidence-based stress regulation into schools, where real prevention begins.

I am a member of Evidence Based EFT HQ, where I complete specialty CPD trainings curated by Dr. Peta Stapleton — Clinical & Health Psychologist and Professor at Bond University — including her specialised programs in Tapping in Schools and working with children.

My approach is grounded in science, practical in delivery, and genuinely invested in the wellbeing of every child and teacher in the room.

EFT International Accredited Practitioner
Member Holistic Health Associates International
ANMCB Board Certified since 2023

Let's have a conversation

I'm happy to visit your school for a 15–20 minute chat, deliver a one-hour presentation to your leadership team, or run a short live demonstration — so you can feel the difference yourself. No commitment required.

Send Me an Email Call 0477 602 010