The JIT-R Framework
CBT apps teach powerful skills. Meditation builds lasting resilience. But both require a calm, thinking brain. We built an intervention for the moments when cognition isn't available—and discovered it complements everything else.
The Gap
CBT is one of the most evidence-based treatments in psychology. Meditation has thousands of studies supporting its benefits. These approaches work—and they're available on your phone 24/7.
But they share a common requirement: cognitive engagement. You need to be able to think clearly to restructure thoughts. You need a baseline of calm to focus on your breath.
During acute distress—panic attacks, pain flares, overwhelming anxiety—the prefrontal cortex goes offline. The thinking brain becomes unavailable. That's not a flaw in these tools. It's just a use case they weren't designed for.
The Four Pillars
JIT-R isn't just about timing—it's a complete rethinking of what digital mental health intervention should be.
Traditional interventions are delivered on a schedule—Module 1 on Monday, Module 2 on Wednesday. But distress doesn't follow schedules. The panic attack comes when it comes. The pain flare doesn't wait for your appointment.
JIT-R is designed to reach people at the moment of maximum need. Not before the crisis (when there's no urgency). Not after (when the damage is done). At the spike—when intervention can actually prevent escalation.
During acute distress, the prefrontal cortex goes offline. This isn't metaphor—it's neuroscience. The thinking, planning, reasoning brain becomes inaccessible precisely when you need it most.
That's why cognitive interventions fail in crisis. You can't "think through" a panic attack because the thinking brain isn't available. You can't apply CBT techniques when executive function is compromised.
Somatic interventions bypass cognition entirely. The body leads, the mind follows. By working through the nervous system rather than through conscious thought, we can intervene when cognitive approaches cannot.
The only intervention that works at 2am is the one you can access at 2am. No appointment. No clinician. No waiting room. No co-pay. No stigma. No barrier between the moment of need and the moment of help.
This isn't about replacing human care—it's about filling the gaps where human care can't reach. The 167 hours per week when you're not with your therapist. The Sunday morning when no clinic is open. The 10 minutes a caregiver has before they're needed again.
24/7 availability isn't a feature. It's the entire point.
A single moment of regulation is valuable. Repeated regulation is transformative. Each time the nervous system shifts from dysregulated to regulated, it strengthens calmer neural pathways.
This is neuroplasticity in action. The more often you move from panic to calm, from pain to ease, from overwhelm to regulation, the more accessible that regulated state becomes. Over time, the exception becomes the rule.
Consistent state change rewires the default trait. That's not a promise—it's how nervous systems work.
The Neuroscience
A comprehensive mechanism-of-action framework was published in Frontiers in Psychology (Feinstein, November 2025), documenting the physiological pathway from tapping on the skin to durable psychological change. Each step is supported by research in physiology, neurology, and psychology.
Physical force becomes electrical signal
Tapping on acupoints generates electrochemical signals through mechanosensory transduction—the same fundamental biological mechanism used in hearing, touch, and balance. Acupoints have higher electrical conductivity and greater density of mechanosensory cells than surrounding tissue. When tapped, specialized proteins in cell membranes convert mechanical pressure into electromagnetic signals.
Signals travel to the brain via two pathways
The generated signals propagate rapidly to the brain through two well-documented physiological systems: afferent nerves (the standard sensory communication network) and connective tissue (collagen fibers that surround acupoints and transmit electrical signals). Research suggests the connective tissue pathway may be even faster than neural transmission.
Signals modulate the exact regions activated by distress
While tapping, the user focuses on a specific stressor, which activates relevant neural circuits. Brain imaging confirms that tapping signals travel to these same aroused regions and modulate their activity—downregulating hyperaroused areas and upregulating underactive ones.
Brain Imaging Evidence
The mechanism of lasting change
When a distressing memory is activated, it becomes temporarily "labile" (changeable). Tapping introduces a contradictory experience—calm where anxiety was expected—creating a "prediction error" that forces the brain to update the memory. The newly updated emotional response is then reconsolidated as the new default.
This is why change is lasting: the original fear association isn't suppressed, it's rewritten at the neurological level.
Why EFT outcomes outlast conventional approaches
Conventional exposure therapy relies on habituation—suppressing the old response while creating a new one. The old association remains, making recurrence more likely. Tapping leads to depotentiation—eliminating the original fear association at the neurological level rather than just suppressing it.
Comparative Evidence
Beyond subjective reports, tapping produces quantifiable changes in the body's physiology—objective evidence that a real physiological process has been initiated.
Significant reduction in the primary stress hormone in a single session (Church et al., 2012; Stapleton et al., 2020)
Increased HRV and heart coherence—markers of parasympathetic activation and stress resilience (Bach et al., 2019)
Favorable changes in genes influencing emotional regulation, neuroplasticity, and synaptic connectivity
Enhanced lymphocyte production and improved immune markers following EFT sessions
Source: Feinstein, D. (2025). How Tapping Works: Physiological and Psychological Mechanisms in Energy Psychology Treatments. Frontiers in Psychology, Vol 16. This peer-reviewed paper provides a comprehensive evidence-based framework for EFT's mechanism of action, drawing on over 300 clinical trials.
"Such a beautiful meditation. Lots of thoughts and memories came up, things I thought I was over. It helped me to move through the memories, without being hijacked."— Vanessa
Complementary, Not Competitive
JIT-R fills the gaps that existing care can't reach. We work alongside therapy, medication, and other treatments—making everything else work better.
We're not replacing your therapist. We're what happens in the 167 hours between sessions—preventing crises that would otherwise overwhelm treatment.
We're not replacing prescriptions. We're an additional tool that works on a different mechanism—reducing reliance on PRN medications for acute episodes.
We're not competing with CBT apps. We work when they can't—during active distress when cognitive engagement isn't possible.
The Shared Mechanism
Anxiety and chronic pain seem like different conditions requiring different treatments. But they share a common root—and that's exactly why our approach works for both.
Autonomic Nervous System Dysregulation
By directly calming the nervous system during activation, EFT addresses the root mechanism underlying both conditions—not just managing symptoms, but interrupting the cycle that perpetuates them.
Nearly two decades of real-world data. 23+ million sessions. Effect sizes that outperform FDA-cleared digital therapeutics.
Explore the Evidence