Tapas Acupressure Technique (TAT)

Domain XII · Complementary, energy & biofield · Tapas Fleming · 1993 · California

What it is

Tapas Acupressure Technique (TAT) was developed in 1993 by Tapas Fleming, a California-licensed acupuncturist (licensed 1987). TATLife states it began as a way to ease allergic reactions in her patients and that she then observed it also clearing the effects of past stressful or traumatic…

Format

• Intention: the session is held with the intention of safe and easy healing.
• Choose the topic and put it in "the pot" (TATLife's metaphor for whatever is being worked on in that session); several related sources of distress can be bundled into one statement.

Who practises it, and how they are trained or regulated

• Structure of one TAT session
• Self-application: recordings or written Steps for home use if the client wants it and can self-regulate.
• Training and certification route: register as a student practitioner; complete The Basics of TAT 1: Learn the Essentials (six two-hour recorded teaching sessions, each containing a full TAT session); complete The Basics of TAT 2: Working with Others (six two-hour recordings covering sessions for others, trauma, parts, the practitioner's own material and ethical issues); watch the recorded Q&A webinars with Tapas…

Evidence status, as the guide reports it

• Assessment and consent: suitability, trauma and dissociation screening, informed consent (complementary method, self-applied head-hold, evidence status).

Questions to explore with your client

• What drew you to it, and what are you hoping it will change?
• Is there physical contact? Was it explained beforehand, and do you feel free to say no or stop at any point?
• Does it involve any substance, plant preparation, remedy or supplement? Has your doctor or prescriber been told, especially about any medication you take?
• Does it involve intense or unusual breathing? Have you been told about the medical conditions for which that is not advised?
• Is it a group, retreat or community? How do they respond if someone wants to leave or raises a concern?
• Who runs it, and what training or registration do they hold?
• What actually happens in a session or meeting, and how often?
• What does it cost, and is there pressure to commit to more?
• How do you feel afterwards, in the hours and days that follow?
• Does it fit with, or clash with, the work we do here?

What practitioners of it watch for

• new topics appearing; note them for a later session rather than expanding this one.
• "that's not true" reactions; treat them as stopper thoughts (4.14) rather than arguing.
• bundles so wide that the client cannot tell whether anything changed; narrow next time.
• rising arousal, breath-holding, eyes glazing; if so pause, open eyes, ground (see 4.15).
• strong body sensations; normalise per TATLife's list of normal experiences, and check intensity.

When to involve someone else

• New or worsening physical symptoms, or advice to stop or change prescribed medication: involve the client's doctor or prescriber.
• Signs of coercion, isolation from family and friends, escalating costs or secrecy: discuss openly and consider safeguarding.
• A crisis or thoughts of suicide: follow your crisis protocol. In the US, call or text 988; in the UK and Ireland, Samaritans on 116 123.

Drawn automatically from the guide's own sections. Stay curious: neither endorse nor dismiss what the client values, and check anything that matters against the full guide and its sources. Not medical advice.