Brad Yates

The Amazing Brad Yates

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Note: this is unedited.

Dr Peta Stapleton (00:01.954)
Brad, thank you for joining me today. I know we always have a nice chat when we come together and it's like people are probably just listening into our everyday conversation, but thank you for giving me your time today.

Brad Yates (00:13.708)
Yeah, it's like, you know, you have to twist my arm to talk to you, Peter. It's such a chore. No, thank you. It's always a delight to talk to you.

Dr Peta Stapleton (00:17.358)
Hahaha!

Dr Peta Stapleton (00:21.995)
Thank you. And we are kind of talking, you know, in most of our episodes here about EFT being part of sort of, you know, the fourth wave of, you know, psychological therapy. You've been around this world for decades and I'm not trying to age you in any shape or form by saying that. Yeah, yeah. And what does that mean?

Brad Yates (00:38.164)
Even though Peta just called me old.

Dr Peta Stapleton (00:44.472)
But really, if people were listening in and not familiar with your story, and we are talking many, many years ago, how on earth did you find EFT, particularly in the moment in time where there probably wasn't a lot of research and things like that showcasing it?

Brad Yates (01:04.5)
Yeah. So, so I learned EFT in 2000. The funny thing is I had actually a year or two earlier, maybe, on an airplane in the airline magazine, seen the ad for the five minute phobia cure and had gotten the videotape and had forgotten about it. It, I don't know why it, and I was in, I was in hypnotherapy school at the time.

And yeah, I just kind of, it didn't, it didn't stick. so that was around 90, 97 or so. And come to 2000 and I have been trying to build this. I had been building my hypnotherapy practice while still pursuing my acting career and had finally decided the end of 1999.

I'm supposed to be doing personal development work. This is my calling. This is what I'm here for. I've loved acting, but this is now just a distraction. And we packed up and left LA and moved to Northern California. I was on this, this time, know, still email and newsletter and internet is all relatively new. And I was on like a Yahoo email list or something like that. And they were talking about this tapping thing.

And actually a friend of my mother -in -law who had also mentioned tapping, do you know about tapping? I went, okay, what is this? And there's this energy psychology conference going on in Las Vegas. And this guy, Gary Craig is gonna be teaching this tapping technique. And I thought, okay, I'm game. In my training as an actor, I had gone to Ringling Brothers and Barnum Bailey Clown College.

Tapping was not the most bizarre thing I'd ever done. And so this is, you know, still very early days in my, in my hypnotherapy career. I'm about three years in and I go to this conference and did the pre -train the full day with Gary. And what really hit me was when he had his tapping on chocolate cravings, gave everybody Hershey's kiss and said, how much do you want? And I'm like eight, nine. And after a few moments of tapping,

Dr Peta Stapleton (03:08.64)
Yep.

Brad Yates (03:33.876)
couldn't eat it. I could not eat it and I didn't know then but I wouldn't eat chocolate for two years after that. And I got better. I recovered. But, and of course the next day after that I was, I took a workshop with Larry Nims, another of Roger Callahan's early students and started, I was joking around with this woman sitting behind me.

Dr Peta Stapleton (03:43.214)
the

Brad Yates (04:01.94)
And we just kind of really hit it off and that was Carol Look. So I've been close friends with Carol since the day after I learned about EFT. And I went home from that conference and, I got the videotapes and all that because I was still VHS back then. And little by little started introducing it into my hypnotherapy sessions. Like, hey, you know, we've got a few more minutes. I want to show you this little tapping thing. And over time, it just

Dr Peta Stapleton (04:05.464)
Yeah, I know.

Brad Yates (04:30.868)
became the main modality. yeah. Yeah. So that was the 2000, that was the second Energy Psychology Conference.

Dr Peta Stapleton (04:34.582)
Amazing. Everyone's got the chocolate story. I've got one of those too. That's why that's the easiest thing they've got.

Dr Peta Stapleton (04:45.134)
That's amazing. And really at that time, and I'm thinking where was I at that time as well, because EFT had come into my life a little bit where we weren't yet doing any research for probably five years, 2005. But given the research, even worldwide, wasn't there yet. And Gary would have also been sort of starting out, you know, those public seminars and sort of spreading the word that way.

Brad Yates (05:04.925)
No.

Dr Peta Stapleton (05:12.354)
Why did you choose then if you are just introducing it to clients in traditional hypnotherapy sessions, why did you choose to make it your main modality, obviously without any kind of written evidence scientifically? What was it that made you go that way?

Brad Yates (05:30.43)
Well, certainly that the chocolate experience because it was profound. was, wow, this is, there is really something to this that I can't put my finger on. can't explain, but you know, obviously there were the explanations, disruption in the energy system. And, but it was, so having had a profound experience myself, I wanted to share that with others.

And then just as I started doing it, it just felt more, I liked the fact that the client was conscious and that there was an interaction as opposed to them being a passive audience when I was doing hypnotherapy. And obviously I was at that time, I was still doing hypnotherapy in person. So I could have them do physical signals. Like if you agree, swallow. If you agree, raise your middle finger, little things like that. But other than that,

there wasn't a lot of interaction. having the ability to do it in a conscious way, and I just found that it just felt right. It was like, feels like, there's a lot more to this and interplay that, you know, and part of it may have had to do with my background as an actor and having a conscious audience who was

able to respond in that way. There are all kinds of different things that may have gone into it where it just felt right. And over the years had different things. Like I had learned tapas acupressure technique and had taken a course and I've met tapas a couple of times and had done some of that at the time, which I think is a fabulous technique. And I have used the postures on myself and with other people at times.

But in terms of working with clients, tapping just felt right. now 24 years in and having been to ASEP conferences and learning various and sundry other techniques, still come back to this and going, yeah, this is the right technique. And even back then, Gary had a pre -conference thing, but Gary was not so much of a bigger star than anybody else there.

Brad Yates (07:50.054)
No bigger than Tapas or Asha Clinton or these other people who had their own techniques. And it's over time that EFT has sort of risen to the top. And I know that there are TFT people who still say, well, it's still a secondary cousin kind of thing. And we all have our own preferences, but it has definitely become, as far from what I can tell with ASAP.

You know, it's when we talk energy psychology, EFT is at the forefront of that. And that was just, it was just my preference. I assume that just like me, that's where a lot of people were. It's like, this is just a technique where we find it's so simple to get great results.

Dr Peta Stapleton (08:26.505)
Yeah.

Dr Peta Stapleton (08:40.29)
pretty quickly. Yeah, yeah. And anyone wondering, Tappis Fleming is here on the podcast. So there is an interview with her. So we unpack what the technique is and there are lots of links. So anyone head to the show notes and her page to listen in if you haven't haven't done that so far. So tell me, Brad, I'm guessing part of the decision is that you saw outcomes in clients as well. So it felt right to you.

Brad Yates (08:41.267)
Yeah.

Brad Yates (08:47.144)
Awesome.

Dr Peta Stapleton (09:08.098)
Patients are more conscious, they're interacting, they're obviously tapping with you. But I'm guessing that you also saw outcomes. Were they equivalent to what you used to see with hypnotherapy? Were they different? In what way?

Brad Yates (09:10.216)
Yeah.

Brad Yates (09:22.588)
It was, the feedback was much quicker because I could start with someone do a suds rating and you know, we tap for a few minutes and that suds rating has changed. With hypnotherapy, it was usually not quite that obvious. It's like, you know, they'd come out and they'd be like, yeah, I think I feel better. You know, they'd feel relaxed. So, in that relaxed state after that, was

harder to get an idea of, yes, I definitely feel this change. I just feel more relaxed right now. And was harder to be in touch with what the issue was and how it felt different as it is when we're doing a suds rating with tapping. And yeah, and it can be so much quicker to be able to look at that.

Dr Peta Stapleton (10:13.774)
And have you found that your way that you use EFT, I mean, we're talking nearly 25 years now, has it changed or evolved over the years? Your work with clients, I know you don't do one -on -one work so much anymore in person, but has it evolved? Has any of the research impacted what you do?

Brad Yates (10:36.092)
I, it's hard to say. I, to me, there's a part of me, feels like I'm doing it exactly the way I did the first time I tried to do an EMT session, which isn't true. Yeah. There's, you know, early, early on, I was not just doing the reminder phrase, reminder phrase, reminder phrase. I, because I had watched Gary doing the more fluid wording.

Dr Peta Stapleton (10:46.062)
That's good though, it means that the technique itself stands up, doesn't it?

Brad Yates (11:05.352)
So I was already doing that. Over time, I think I have gotten more proficient and more intuitive in terms of how I do it. There's always some humor that I brought into it just from my theatrical background. so I don't, it's hard to say exactly how it may have changed. I hope that I've gotten better.

I was like, no, you're pretty much doing it the way you did on day one. but, there's a, there's, again, there's deeper intuition. pick things up more and get a sense of things to say that I probably didn't do early on. know, early on had some things that this might be a clever thing to say or something like that, as opposed to now it's like, I just have a sense that I need to talk about this. And, so that's

just become more fluid, there isn't, there isn't particularly techniques or something like that, that I do differently. And I know that there are a lot of great things, obviously, in EFT, there's, you know, tell the story technique and all of these different things, which are fantastic. But it's, to me, it's all healing is music.

And there are different instruments and different styles of music, and each person is going to use it differently. So EFT is an instrument like a guitar, and I play it differently, just like Eric Clapton plays it differently than Keith Richards plays it differently than George Harrison. And so there's going to be one right way. So there are people who will tell me, know, so -and -so plays it better than you. It's like, because you like their style, but that doesn't mean that it's better. And

And so when someone tells me, you're the best, like, no, I'm the best for you. You particularly like the way that I my style of playing. But there isn't one right way for everybody. And so I just have, you know, I'm aware of the advanced techniques and the ways of doing this. Like, yeah, those are all great techniques for playing guitar. And I have my particular style that works for me. And people seem to get a lot out of it.

Brad Yates (13:23.28)
And so, you know, if it ain't broke, don't fix it.

Dr Peta Stapleton (13:26.284)
Yeah, yeah, yeah. And well said, because I think, you know, any training program can give you the basics, but then you're really talking about that development of clinical intuition. And that's that art of delivery, absolutely, which comes with time and often new beats to the process can get overwhelmed. It's like learning to drive a car. You're like, I've got to do how many things at once. And then ultimately it becomes unconscious. So it's the same thing. Yeah, that's really cool.

Brad Yates (13:37.478)
Art of delivery.

Brad Yates (13:42.387)
Yes.

Dr Peta Stapleton (13:55.212)
And tell me in all these decades, and you are an absolute pioneer in this field, are there commonalities of what people are seeking EFT for? Like even if you're running, you know, public forum events or online webinars where people can interact, are there common things that have just over time, these are the things that people are trying to seek like healing from or just assistance with?

Brad Yates (14:22.436)
I think the biggest issue that most people face is a feeling of not being good enough. And there's a level of that underneath most of the issues that come up in terms of business success, relationship success, financial success. There's always something of, I'm not good enough. ultimately, so that's where the tapping eventually goes is just teaching people to learn to love themselves.

Dr Peta Stapleton (14:29.836)
Yeah.

Dr Peta Stapleton (14:51.693)
Yeah.

Brad Yates (14:52.242)
you know, in some way or form and we take it wherever it's at. don't, you know, when a client comes in and says, you know, I want to, I want to lose some weight or I want to improve my golf score or whatever. don't go, no, what you need to do is love yourself more. So even though I don't love myself, yeah. But when people will ask me on YouTube and say, do you have a video for loving yourself more? It's like, yes, I have over a thousand, but they have different titles.

Dr Peta Stapleton (15:07.714)
Yeah, yeah, bit of a jump. Yes, yeah.

Dr Peta Stapleton (15:20.386)
Yes, they all have the same flag.

Brad Yates (15:22.228)
Do you have a video on improving your self -esteem? Yes, I have over a thousand of them. They have different titles.

Dr Peta Stapleton (15:29.099)
Yeah, yeah, yeah. Yeah, and it probably is quite a common, like even in the face of we've had a worldwide pandemic, we've had natural disasters, you know, in recent decades and years. But even in the face of that, that stuff can just get magnified, can't it? That if it's there and it's unresolved, but you might be functioning, it may just take some really stressful event that can bring that kind of up for people. Have you noticed any difference?

And obviously all the links are below for everything we're talking about. But you've now got this enormous presence on YouTube and the videos that you're talking about are there. But have you found any, and I don't know if you've looked at the data, correlation between what has happened in the world in our recent years versus the types of videos people are trying to seek or watch on your YouTube channel? I'm trying to see, there a relationship? Yeah.

Brad Yates (16:19.964)
Yeah, the videos that get the most views that people could come back to are, well, certainly money issues. always want, everybody wants more money. So they're always happy to do that. But fear and anxiety, and that was the case even before the pandemic, it certainly grew. People were much more aware of their anxiety. You know, they were...

Dr Peta Stapleton (16:28.684)
Right. Yeah. Yeah, yeah.

Brad Yates (16:47.332)
not only because they were anxious about getting sick, but because of the isolation, it really amplified that anxiety that was already there. We're so unaware of the ambient levels of stress and anxiety that we're carrying. For all the times that someone's interviewed me for a podcast and they're upbeat and they're saying, hell, let's do this. And then, let's do a tapping around. We go through a tapping around like.

Dr Peta Stapleton (16:56.94)
Yeah.

Brad Yates (17:15.156)
feel so relaxed. thought I was doing great before. It's like, yeah, because we're not aware of how much anxiety and stress we're carrying throughout the day until we clear it. It's like, you know, it's like our car or anything in our house where we wash it. And it's like, my goodness, I had no idea how dirty it was until I got it clean and realized what a difference that makes. We just sort of take it for granted. So I don't know that the

Dr Peta Stapleton (17:39.021)
Yeah.

Brad Yates (17:44.954)
the issues have so much changed as the awareness that, there's some stuff that I might want to face.

Dr Peta Stapleton (17:53.538)
Yeah, yeah. And it presents differently. Like you say, they might be drawn in because people need a bit more money to, you know, not worry and stress so much. But then ultimately what might be revealed, some of those other deeper, you know, underlying self -esteem, anxiety, fear, all those kind of, I'm not good enough, core belief kind of situations. Yeah, yeah. Tell me, Brad. Yeah.

Brad Yates (18:14.696)
Yeah, all that stuff that stops us from loving ourselves and allowing ourselves to have things be better in whatever area it may be. Because some people will say, it's OK for me to succeed financially, but my health has to be terrible. And you can't have it all and things like that. like, I want to challenge that. There's nothing you can do. Yeah. What if you could be happy, healthy, and wealthy? You know, let's.

Dr Peta Stapleton (18:28.056)
Mmm.

Dr Peta Stapleton (18:34.706)
And what if, what if you could? Yes. Yes. Yeah.

Brad Yates (18:43.188)
Push the envelope, shall we? Yeah.

Dr Peta Stapleton (18:45.238)
Yeah, see what comes up. Yeah, so true. Where would you like to see EFT go? So you you are reaching a lot of people with this modality and a lot of that has come through the YouTube and the videos that are available freely for people to access. And obviously then there's more boutique, personalized opportunities for people to work with you. But where I mean, in all these decades and what you've seen the impact be

And almost in a separate field to me. So I'm obviously over here in this very conservative clinical, psychological, academic field where everyone's like, no, no, it has to have 500 ,000 clinical trials before we accept it. I'm being facetious, everybody. But over here, mate, given the impact you would have seen EFT have and the ripple effect, what would your vision be for EFT? Where would you want to see it go?

Brad Yates (19:29.266)
You're a bit red.

Brad Yates (19:45.672)
Ultimately, my goal is to have the whole world tapping because I look at the issues that people are facing and the bad behavior and harm and crime and it just comes from stress. It comes from people, know, ultimately, you said there's two emotions. There's fear and there's love. What doesn't feel like love is fear, anger, stress, guilt, shame, all of these things. And it's from those places that people...

say terrible things and do terrible things and commit crimes and wars and all this. And I'm like, you know, there's something we could do about that. If everybody could chill out and and we we let go of this need to to behave in that way, we can create a great life without it coming at the expense of somebody else. And if it's coming at the expense of us, there's some there's something

some pain in front of, you know, that old expression of hurt people, hurt people. And well, well, we can do something about that pain. And then people don't need to hurt anybody anymore when they're, when they stop hurting. So I would love to see it at the point where people don't blink an eye at someone tapping, just like, you know, we, we see other things that people are, you know, perfect, fine, perfectly normal.

And you might see somebody on the street just tapping and someone else might go, you know what? That's probably a good idea. I should probably do some tapping myself. And we don't think twice about it. It's just like, just like breathing or anything else. And, you just, just that, that level of self care and it doesn't, and it doesn't seem weird anymore. everybody will just be much more peaceful. You know, I wear this wristband that says cultivate peace and this

Dr Peta Stapleton (21:22.307)
Yeah.

Dr Peta Stapleton (21:40.183)
Yeah.

Brad Yates (21:42.686)
to me is one of the easiest, most effective ways to do it. That's why I make the videos for free on YouTube. It's like I'm up to something. I'm trying to get the whole world to feel more peace and I want to make it as accessible as possible.

Dr Peta Stapleton (21:57.944)
Fantastic. And if I can finish and I don't know if you have got a story, but has there been anything that has surprised you maybe in working with someone or even, you know, in your own life with EFT where even you were kind like, wow, I wasn't expecting that. Like maybe an outcome or something. I mean, I've certainly got them and we probably shouldn't because we run research trials. were like, yeah, we're pretty sure this is going to help. And then we're like, wow. So

Has anything ever surprised you about using EFT?

Brad Yates (22:29.49)
Yeah. I mean, there's, you know, countless, countless stories of, of, great things. The one that, that for some reason pops to mind is with my own self where I, so I have the children's book, the wizard's wish for introducing tapping to kids. And I, you know, I've been a cartoonist all my life and I had all this resistance to, to illustrate in it. And I was looking at, know, probably gonna have to come up with.

this all these drawings and just dragging my feet and I was like I had written the text and it was like two years before I did the drawing. I was that resistant and finally I don't if you know Marla Brecker. She's a I met her she was doing spoon bending workshops at these early things and and I did some some work with her you know because we we don't see our own blocks we have our our blinders on.

and did some tapping with her and the next week so I was thinking I needed eighteen drawings for this book. It's like okay eighteen. It's like eighteen. And they're simple drawings. These are not mean not elaborate things but it just felt so heavy. And we did this session and over the next week I did forty drawings.

Dr Peta Stapleton (23:47.926)
wow. See, that is me going, wow.

Brad Yates (23:50.483)
Yeah, so that's what that comes to mind just because it was so personal of like, wow, know, recognizing that. mean, certainly the first time with the chocolate, that was an wow moment. It's like, how did a couple minutes of tapping on my face stop me from eating chocolate? But that was a profound one for me to go from I can't do 18 drawings. I don't want to do this to

Dr Peta Stapleton (24:08.418)
Yeah. Yeah.

Brad Yates (24:18.228)
just sitting down and whipping out 40 drawings over the next week. And it's like, wow, the potential and just seeing these places where we hold ourselves back and what we can create. in terms of getting it more out there, not just in terms of people feeling more peace and not doing harm, but the freedom to do much more good and people tapping into their own genius and sharing their gifts.

And I've often told audiences, I'm not doing this for you. I'm doing this for all the people out there that are not receiving your gifts yet, but will after you clear your resistance.

Dr Peta Stapleton (24:57.634)
Yeah, yeah, yeah, that's right. And it can start really in your own home. It can start with you. I know we would love all these other, but it's like we can start and we literally have this opportunity in our fingertips, you know, that has such an intersect there with mind and body and issues and stress and yeah, amazing. Yeah.

Brad Yates (25:21.16)
Yeah, being compassionate with ourselves for being human, which I have to do on a daily basis as we're going through an election cycle here in the US. And I find myself going down paths with thoughts that it's like, this is not cultivating peace. fortunately, I am much quicker at catching myself and tapping and saying, what's going on here?

Why do I need to go into that place? you know, both know Dr. Joe Vitale and I'll go into, I'm sorry, please forgive me, thank you, I love you, but I'll tap while doing pono, pono, and just clearing out that, okay, whatever. And it's like, okay. And this is an opportunity for me to clear out things. And sometimes I even think, I was at a store and I saw this guy wearing a shirt that I found offensive.

And I thought, yeah, okay. I'm thinking maybe he's just thinking, God, I hate this shirt, but Brad needs a lesson. So I'm gonna wear this door so that he can catch himself and see where he's got some more clearing to do.

Dr Peta Stapleton (26:34.648)
You don't know that that's not the reason. Well.

Brad Yates (26:37.948)
I don't, you know, and it just as, as yeah, if we do it at home and whatever I can clear and everything's energy. So we're all connected to the clearing that I do on myself is ultimately benefiting the collective whole. And then, and then if we can get other people doing it, all the, all the better.

Dr Peta Stapleton (26:52.974)
throughout.

Dr Peta Stapleton (26:57.166)
Amazing. Brad, thank you. It's been a joy. We love chatting anyway, but just to hear from a pioneer's point of view and from the very early days, you you and Carol look as well being masters in this field, but embracing it well before there was any research evidence, scientific nothing, there was barely anything because at some level people didn't find they probably needed it and it was just, hey, this thing works.

Brad Yates (27:01.65)
Yeah.

Dr Peta Stapleton (27:25.836)
I'm going to do it again. I'm going to, want to feel the way I felt the first time I did it or whatever. And to just keep that going and now to so freely share your gifts through your videos. And all of those links are below everybody, including to the books that Brad has mentioned. I absolutely urge you to jump on there and follow Brad and watch the videos, go looking for the self -esteem and the I'm not good enough and the money ones. And I'll all come back to the same thing, which is ultimately learning.

to kind of reconnect with ourselves and develop that self -compassion.

Brad Yates (27:57.746)
Yeah, loving ourselves more. I've been so blessed to get to do this. I've been blessed with the opportunities like when YouTube came along and it was like, I just had this thought of, I'll make a video that people can start their day with and I'll call it Tap of the Morning and then I'm done. And then six months later going, I should have one. I should have one up for the evening and then I'm done. And then another one. And then it's just like, wow. And then, I'm so grateful for you and the work you're doing because there are people who are just going to

Dr Peta Stapleton (28:21.185)
No.

Brad Yates (28:27.732)
try it and go, this helps and that's all I need. And there's other people that's like, I really want it to be back to my research. And so I am so grateful that you were there with like, no, no, no, there's actually a science. It's not just a, you know, hope or prayer and all that.

Dr Peta Stapleton (28:33.944)
Yes, yeah.

Yeah, yeah, no, that's all good. We're using our gifts in our own way. I agree. Thank you, Brad, being an absolute joy. I hope everybody checks out all of those links below and follows all of your work and we will catch up again soon. I am sure of it. Thanks, Brad.

Brad Yates (29:00.055)
I'm sure of it.

Resources

About Brad Yates

Brad Yates is known internationally for his creative and often humorous use of Emotional Freedom Techniques (EFT). Brad is the author of the best-selling children's book "The Wizard's Wish," the co-author of the best-seller "Freedom at Your Fingertips," and a featured expert in the film “The Tapping Solution.” He has also been a presenter at a number of events, including Jack Canfield's Breakthrough to Success, has done teleseminars with “The Secret” stars Bob Doyle and Dr. Joe Vitale, and has been heard internationally on a number of internet radio talk shows. Brad also has over 1500 videos on YouTube, that have been viewed over 32 million times, and is a contributing expert on the Huffington Post.

Website: www.TapWithBrad.com

Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCiHZMZejDS4RIxDdBwoie9A