For parents seeking to address children’s destructive behaviors, Helping Kids Rise and Shine is a supportive guide.

Paul Boulton’s compassionate family guide is about helping children overcome their psychological challenges through a specialized therapy program.

With its foundational goal to help children through difficult life periods, the book draws on Boulton’s twenty-plus years of experience as an intuitive therapist and psychic to illuminate his Targeted Energy Focused Tapping (EFT) process. It’s a type of talk therapy that involves tapping on precise areas of the hands and head. Used to handle challenges including divorce, puberty, psychological and physical abuse, and bullying, its steps are outlined for adults looking to become Targeted EFT facilitators. Diagrams and illustrations complement this guidance.

Divided into two distinctive yet linked parts, the book introduces this holistic and therapeutic approach to helping children overcome anxiety, depression, and a sense of feeling overwhelmed—first by encapsulating common problems children face at home and in school alongside actionable tips for dealing with them. Social media dangers, and the ways parents can monitor usage, are also addressed. Once this groundwork is laid, the book’s second half highlights basic feelings, as of abandonment, anger, and sadness, that Targeted EFT can be used to “reset.” Its workbook portions name steps for learning and facilitating Targeted EFT, establishing baseline knowledge with immediate applicability well.

Sample tapping statements are included based hypothetical situations within precise categories, as in an example scenario with tailored statements of affirmation followed by tapping motions to produce a calmer demeanor. Its illustrative examples include a girl with sudden stage fright who also struggled with public speaking as an adult. However, the reasoning behind specific tapping locations, including those on areas of the head and hands, is kept too vague.

In direct and concise prose, the book asserts that anyone with “compassionate communication skills” can serve as a Targeted EFT facilitator, though it emphasizes that individuals who are supportive, patient, safe, and trustworthy with children will be most effective. Throughout, it encourages adults to maintain positive and open communication with children to identify and alleviate potential unresolved issues that could follow them into adulthood. Region-specific requirements for work with children are also noted, as with the requirement of having a Blue Card in Australia and specific certifications in the United States and elsewhere. The book’s recommendations are supplemented by credibility-boosting footnotes too.

Helping Kids Rise and Shine is an approachable family guide to using a rational therapy method and “tapping” tool to help children manage their mental health.

Reviewed by Katy Keffer
September 24, 2025