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Listen as Jondi Whitis of TappingStar and EFT Radio Online interviews Rick Wilkes, popular EFT practitioner and teacher, as he describes how your child with ADD/ADHD can benefit by using EFT. From the parent to the teacher to the student, everyone wins from the skillful application of EFT. Learn how in this 60-minute conversation with expert tapper, father, and author, Rick Wilkes.
Rick says, “We spend a lot more time labeling kids than co-creating safe environments where they can express themselves authentically. This system produces emotional distress, pressures, judgements and self-doubts for everyone – kids, parents, and teachers, too!”
This session covers using EFT to promote better classroom behaviors, as well as how to use EFT for our reactions as adults… to set the stage for more grounded communications and relationships… and learn how to grow together with laughter, acceptance, and confidence.
The Thriving Now Childhood Trauma Relief Starter Kit is a powerful resource for helping mitigate the effects of these issues for both children and adults.
Companion Guide
A dolphin may be brilliant at swimming, leaping, cooperating with its pod, and playing with a ball—and still be unable to climb a tree. The problem is not the dolphin. It is the demand that one kind of being succeed through a skill and environment designed for another.
Children with ADD or ADHD still need support, skills, expectations, and sometimes clinical treatment. They also need adults who can see the whole child rather than relating primarily to a label or a list of failures.
This Guide Helps With
- shifting from “What is wrong with this child?” toward curiosity and appreciation
- recognizing kinesthetic, relational, and other learning differences
- regulating adult frustration before addressing behavior
- using tapping as optional stress support, not punishment or forced compliance
- combining acceptance with practical skill-building and professional care
A Diagnosis Can Explain Without Defining
A diagnosis may bring relief, treatment options, accommodations, and shared language. It can also become a box: every behavior is interpreted through what is wrong.
Ask additional questions:
- What environments help this child focus or come alive?
- What kinds of movement, proximity, novelty, competition, cooperation, or quiet support learning?
- Which skills are difficult but learnable?
- What demands are mismatched with the child’s present nervous system?
- What is genuinely wonderful, capable, or distinctive here?
This inquiry does not replace evaluation by qualified pediatric, psychological, or educational professionals. It helps the adults bring a fuller picture into that care.
The Adult’s State Changes the Relationship
Looking through judgment creates a different relationship from looking through safety, respect, love, and curiosity. That does not mean approving disruptive or harmful behavior. It means regulating enough to address the behavior without communicating that the child is fundamentally bad.
Parents and teachers carry real pressure. A classroom with thirty children or a household under strain can overwhelm even a deeply caring adult. Tapping after a difficult moment—or privately before the next one—can restore the capacity needed for flexible, grounded communication.
Tapping for the Adult: I Am So Frustrated I Could Scream
Side of the Hand: Even though I am so frustrated I could scream, I choose to become calmer and more grounded before I decide what to do.
Even though this behavior is affecting everyone and I need something to change, I accept how much pressure I am carrying.
Even though part of me is asking what is wrong with this child, I am willing to look for the need, difference, or skill beneath the behavior.
Top of the Head: I am at the end of my capacity.
Eyebrow: I need this behavior to stop.
Side of the Eye: I feel judged as a parent or teacher too.
Under the Eye: My own primitive brain is activated.
Under the Nose: I do not want to speak from this much frustration.
Chin: The behavior matters, and the child matters.
Collarbone: I can settle before I intervene.
Under the Arm: I am coming back to my inner guidance.
Top of the Head: What is the immediate need for safety?
Eyebrow: What skill are we actually building?
Side of the Eye: What support helps this child engage?
Under the Eye: I can be clear without treating them as defective.
Under the Nose: I can repair if I reacted harshly.
Chin: I can ask for professional and institutional support.
Collarbone: Acceptance and appropriate limits can coexist.
Under the Arm: I want this child to know they are more than a difficult moment.
Take a breath. Choose the smallest safe and respectful intervention available now.
Optional Tapping With a Child
Invite; do not require. A child may tap, watch you tap, use one point, move instead, or say no. Use their words and keep it brief.
Side of the Hand: Even though school feels hard and I feel scared and quivery inside, I am still a good kid.
Even though sitting and paying attention can be really hard for me, that is a skill I am learning—not proof that I am bad.
Even though I do not want to go back and get in trouble again, I can ask for help and notice what my body needs.
Top of the Head: School feels hard right now.
Eyebrow: Sometimes I have ants in my pants.
Side of the Eye: Sometimes I miss what people say.
Under the Eye: I hate feeling like everyone is upset with me.
Under the Nose: I am still a good kid.
Chin: My brain and body have their own style.
Collarbone: I can learn new skills with support.
Under the Arm: The adults and I can look for what helps.
Take a breath. Ask the child what feels true, what does not, and what they want the adults to understand.
Meet the Learner Who Is Actually Here
Some kinesthetic children attend better when a teacher comes physically closer, when movement is built in, or when information includes touch and action. Others need reduced distraction, visible structure, medication, occupational support, or individualized accommodations.
The point is not that every dolphin should avoid every tree. Some skills are required, and children can learn. The point is to teach from recognition of the creature’s actual gifts, needs, and nervous system. Life beyond the label begins there.
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