Energy Psychology Approaches
Energy psychology (EP) is a family of integrative approaches to psychotherapy, coaching, and healthcare treatment rooted in mind-body healing traditions that are up to 5,000 years old. EP methods blend the bio-energetic insights of these traditions with the best of contemporary psychological practice and have been refined through 35 years of modern clinical experience with millions of clients throughout the world Energy psychology gently and swiftly releases traumatic events that are frozen in time in the body-mind system. These events can negatively influence how a person sees the world, experiences and regulates emotion, and relates to other people.
Embracing what modern physicists and ancient wisdom traditions know, energy psychology acknowledges the role of bio-energetic systems within and between people as important determinants of health and well-being, illness, and pathology.
Energy psychology theory suggests that psychological problems are a reflection of disturbed bio-energetic patterns within the mind-body system—a system that involves complex communication between a person’s neurobiology and their cognitive-behavioral-emotional patterns.
Energy psychology practitioners combine cognitive interventions (including focused awareness and mindfulness, imaginal exposure to traumatic memories, and cognitive reframing) simultaneously with the stimulation of one or more of the human bio-energy systems such as meridians, chakras, and biofields.
This powerful combination facilitates rapid positive change and optimal psychotherapeutic outcomes and is aligned with the latest findings from neuroscience and traumatology. With over 50 research studies to date, EP meets the criteria to be designated as an evidence-based treatment.
Emotional Freedom Techniques
Thought Field Therapy
Thought Field Therapy is based on working with the Meridian System of the body. Meridians are the lines of energy that the Chinese discovered 5000 years ago and have now been proven by science. This is the same energy system used in acupressure, applied kinesiology, shiatsu, and acupuncture. The meridian energy system appears to be a control system for negative affect and feelings. Science also tells us that matter and energy are interchangeable. The reason something is solid, as opposed to energy, is that there is a "field" that binds the energy into matter. Thoughts and feelings are essentially energy and are directly influenced by the energy system in our body. The interaction of thoughts and energy creates a thought field, hence the name Thought Field Therapy. The concept of a "thought-field" is similar to the concepts of a gravitational or electromagnetic field in physics.
When thoughts and negative feelings get stuck they become symptoms that we call fear, anxiety, pain, grief, addictive urges, and so on. When these thoughts and feelings are stuck there is also a "stuckness" at an energy level. The reason that they are stuck is that there are "perturbations" in the thought field. A perturbation is an insoluble aspect of the thought field that contains the necessary information to trigger negative emotions. Each perturbation is associated with a specific energy meridian.
How do EFT and TFT work?
The EFT and TFT processes require that a person focus his or her attention on the specific negative experience. This is referred to as "tuning" a thought field. Once the thought field is tuned certain meridian points are tapped. These points are determined in one of two ways. The first way is by using patterns of points that are known to be associated with particular problems for many people. The second way is by specifically diagnosing the perturbations for the individual patient. This diagnosis reveals which meridians are involved in maintaining the negative symptoms. Theoretically by tapping on specific series of points in a certain order, Thought Field Therapy removes the perturbation and "unstuck" the energy and thereby removes the negative thoughts and feelings.
It has been my experience that in most instances the change is rapid and permanent. In fact, it is possible that the change can be so rapid that the patient often has trouble attributing the success to the treatment. We call this the Apex Problem. However, as with any technique, there are no guarantees regarding the outcome of using TFT on any particular issue.
Unlike talk treatment, the understanding of TFT is that it has a way to deal with resistance (known as "Reversals"). A Reversal has to do with a reversal of the energy flow around a specific thought field. For example, a patient may know that doing something will help them, but they do not "want" to do it. Not wanting is often due to a reversal. Practitioners who use TFT believe that treating Reversals is one of the breakthroughs of TFT. Treating Reversals will improve any type of therapy. In addition, my experience is that treating reversals is a major component of improving peak performance.
TFT as a Self-help Tool
Once a successful pattern has been found, clients are taught the specific sequences so that they may use TFT for themselves as necessary with appropriate guidance.