BACKGROUND: College-aged adults, particularly nursing students, experience high stress levels, which can detrimentally affect their academic success. Although current mental health interventions on college campuses are effective, they are hindered by cost and time constraints. However, the emotional freedom technique is a cost-effective, evidence-based technique that can be tailored to individual needs, making it a practical and promising solution for stress management. METHOD: This quasiexperimental pilot project examined the feasibility of using the emotional freedom technique for stress reduction in first-semester nursing students. Participants attended emotional freedom technique sessions for 13 weeks. The Subjective Units of Distress Scale and the Perceived Stress Scale-10 were used to assess distress and perceived stress levels. RESULTS: The emotional freedom technique was a feasible and effective stress reduction technique. CONCLUSION: The emotional freedom technique may provide a novel strategy for reducing stress and distress in nursing students in an academic setting.