Today's guest suffered huge anxiety as a teenager. After trying all the traditional medical remedies for stress, Devorah Goldblatt discovered something she never thought would work - EFT.

EFT stands for Emotional Freedom Techniques and involves tapping on acupressure points to reduce emotional distress. It's an evidence-based treatment for anxiety, depression, PTSD and phobias that's backed up with solid research.

Helen is a complete skeptic where alternative therapies are concerned, so when Devorah invited her into a live experiment of tapping, she was out of her comfort zone! Find out what happened when you listen to the podcast.

Devorah explains how she was hospitalised with severe anxiety and PTSD as a teenager, following an assault. She says she had all the support possible, but still couldn't get past her depression and trauma. It took a "woo-woo" friend, who convinced her to give EFT a try, to open her eyes to her own ticket back to recovery.

Devorah describes how "cringe" she found the class (speaking my language!) But she went along with it and to her amazement, her stress reduced noticeably - immediately.

EFT can be practiced anywhere - Devorah explains how her teenage clients tap in the toilets at school before an exam, and in the car before a driving lesson.

Listen to the podcast to hear how the process works, and what Helen's experience of tapping was.

Who is Devorah Goldblatt?

Devorah is a holistic counselor helping teens and early 20's overcome depression and anxiety with holistic modalities.

Devorah's depression and anxiety resolved permanently after 3 months of holistic treatment -- and has never recurred in nearly 20 years. That's why she does the work she does.

She believes passionately that when we tell people that the only way to heal anxiety and depression is with medication and mainstream therapy, we are doing them a huge disservice.

She also believes that with the skyrocketing rates of anxiety and depression in our teens, it is unconscionable that we are not equipping every one of these kids with holistic tools that are now evidence-based treatments for depression and anxiety.

• You can find links to Devorah's demonstration of how to tap on her website.
• Listen to Emma's story of being hospitalised with depression in her teens.
• Find out how journalling can help teenagers with anxiety
• And if your teenager is taking exams at the moment, try these tips for helping them cope with exam nerves. 

More teenage parenting tips from Helen Wills:

Helen wills is a teen mental health podcaster and blogger at Actually Mummy a resource for midlife parents of teens.

Thank you for listening! Subscribe to the Teenage Kicks podcast to hear new episodes. If you have a suggestion for the podcast please email teenagekickspodcast@gmail.com.

There are already stories from fabulous guests about difficult things that happened to them as teenagers - including