Why I built a wellbeing app for social workers, and what I've learned doing it on my Fridays

Susana Carr

A few years ago, I was experiencing PTSD. Not from work, though I was still working through it, carrying a caseload, managing a team, getting through the days. On a yoga retreat with a friend, I was offered an EFT session. The effects on my symptoms were immediate and significant enough that I signed up for training on the spot.

While I was waiting to start, I didn't yet know how to do it myself. So I went looking. Apps, YouTube, guided sessions online. There was no shortage of content, but nothing was quite right. Generic scripts that didn't match what I was actually feeling. Libraries with hundreds of sessions that felt overwhelming to navigate when I was already overwhelmed. I kept thinking: I just need something simple, specific and designed for someone in my situation.

That thought sat with me.

Then, one day, an email landed from Frontline. They were running an innovation programme and asking: "Have you got an innovative idea that could make a difference to the lives of social workers, or the families and children they support?"

I thought: yes. That EFT app for social workers that doesn't exist yet.

And then I thought: but my idea probably isn't worthy enough.

The emails kept coming. Deadline approaching. Deadline closing. Deadline extended. And somewhere in that last extension, I decided to apply.

I got in. I was genuinely surprised.

That's how MyTappyPlace went from a thought I was half-dismissing to something I started building in earnest, working through the Frontline Innovation Programme and carving out Friday afternoons to develop it.

What Fridays actually look like

I run an independent fostering agency the rest of the week. Fridays are for MyTappyPlace.

What I didn't expect was how much the two would overlap. Managing a registered service means understanding the toll the work takes on the people doing it. Vicarious trauma, compassion fatigue, the pressure of being responsible for keeping families safe. The emotional weight of that is something I see in my own team and hear about from practitioners across the sector.

EFT isn't a solution to systemic pressures. It won't fix underfunding or unrealistic caseloads. But it can give someone a tool they can use in the car before a difficult visit, or after a court appearance, or at the end of a week where everything felt like too much.

That's the gap I'm trying to close.

What I've learned so far

Building something while still working full-time in a demanding role means you learn quickly what matters and what doesn't.

The thing that matters most is specificity. A session called "stress relief" doesn't land the same way as one written for the moment after a child protection conference has run over and you still have three more visits to do. Social workers know their context. The tools they reach for need to know it too.

I've also learned that credibility takes time. Introducing EFT to a sceptical audience, particularly in a sector that's rightly cautious about wellbeing initiatives that feel tokenistic, means earning trust slowly. Showing up consistently, sharing what the evidence says, being honest about what EFT can and can't do.

And I've learned that building in public, sharing the process rather than waiting for a polished product, opens up conversations that wouldn't happen otherwise.

Where it's going

MyTappyPlace is launching the evaluation phase on 29.09.26, and is likely to fully launch in early 2027. The sessions are being written and refined. The platform is being tested with practitioners.

If you work in social care and want to try it, you can sign up for early access on the website. I'd love to hear what would actually be useful to you.

And if you've ever had that thought about an idea you keep dismissing, I'd say: the deadline extension might be the moment worth paying attention to.

Susana is a qualified Social Worker, Registered Manager of an Ofsted Outstanding independent fostering agency and Level 2 EFT Practitioner trained through the Matrix Reimprinting Academy. She founded MyTappyPlace to bring nervous system regulation tools to frontline professionals.