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November/December 2004 Alternative Health
Energy Psychology - a new integrative paradigm for rapid change

by David Feinstein, Ph.D. and Lynne Hoss, M.A.

Energy psychology combines time-tested techniques from Eastern healing and spiritual traditions—such as acupressure, yoga and chi gong—with conventional Western therapeutic methods. This cross-fertilization, born of increasing globalization, yields a new paradigm which proponents claim is unusually rapid and effective in treating a wide range of psychological disorders.

While most people still have never heard of energy psychology, many who are involved in this new field believe they are witnessing the next major revolution in the practice of psychotherapy. Demonstrations of its methods seem compelling. A person with a life-long terror of rodents is happily playing with a pet rat after 20 minutes of treatment. Precise shifts in brain chemistry are apparently brought about without creating unwanted side effects. The results are, in many cases, surprisingly swift. The techniques are being used in a wide range of therapeutic, educational, and personal development settings, and they can also be self-applied.

The procedures used in energy psychology look decidedly strange. They include the stimulation of acupuncture and other energy points, usually through tapping, massaging, or holding the point. Meanwhile, a psychological problem or goal is mentally activated. Affirmations are also used, along with eye movements, humming, and counting. But early research suggests that these strange methods somehow shift, in desired ways, the brain processes that govern emotional patterns and behavioral habits.

Reports from both clients and therapists suggest that these unusual procedures can be highly effective with a broad range of psychological and behavioral problems. The methods are easy to learn, non-invasive, and can be used with children as well as adults. Some of the problems and goals with which they have been successfully applied include overcoming anxiety, depression, jealousy, guilt, anger, shame, destructive habits, and the aftermath of trauma or loss, as well as improving personal performance in areas ranging from public speaking to sports.

People often experience significant change within a single session. Many videos, some that have been nationally televised, are available showing a therapist treating a lifelong fear of heights or elevators or snakes in a single session, followed by a persuasive demonstration that the phobia is gone. Follow-up interviews years later indicate that the gains were permanent.

In one published report, a woman who had a terrifying, life-long fear of snakes attended a personal development workshop held at a wildlife reserve in South Africa. Within half an hour of energy treatment, her terror was gone and she walked up to a snake brought in by a handler for the occasion. She touched it with curiosity and interest. In a videotaped session, a Vietnam War veteran had been plagued for 17 years by horrible memories, constant insomnia, a fear of heights (from over 50 parachute jumps), and impaired functioning in daily life. A visiting therapist at the VA hospital applied a basic energy therapy protocol and within 15 minutes his height phobia was gone and you see him amazing himself by climbing onto an outdoor fire escape with no fear at all. Within an hour, horrid war memories had lost their power to tyrannize him. Within a couple of days, he was sleeping through the night and functioning normally.

These cases are taken from Energy Psychology Interactive, an integrated, multi-media, computer-based CD program, with accompanying books, written by clinical psychologist David Feinstein, Ph.D. The work was produced in consultation with some two dozen of the leaders within this field, who formed the program’s Advisory Board. The cases illustrated in the program are representative of the strong clinical outcomes now being reported by thousands of clinicians and their clients.

How Does it Work?

Most people understand how negative, self-limiting feelings can emerge from early life experiences that were emotionally damaging. The mechanics are straightforward. A traumatic incident causes a cascading series of biochemical events, the fight-or-flight response. Then a current situation that is reminiscent of the earlier incident, but not actually a threat, sets the same stress response pattern into motion. Someone was abusive to you as a child. Your boss uses a similar tone of voice and you reflexively go into a threat response pattern. Or perhaps you were embarrassed in front of your classroom, or a relationship ended, or your family moved, forcing you to leave your friends and re-establish yourself with strangers. Situations that are similar to the original event in theme or look or smell or sound become triggers, resulting in a present-day response that is dysfunctional. This dynamic is the basis of deep underlying patterns that restrict most people in one area of their lives or another.

The new idea presented in energy psychology is that there is a step between the memory and the emotion, and that step is a disturbance in the body’s energies. Conventional therapy focuses on the memory or the emotion and subsequent behaviors. Energy psychology focuses on the energy disruption. Practitioners explain the field’s effectiveness in terms of its ability to intervene directly at the level of the energy disruption. A trigger for the early event appears, the energy disturbance is neutralized by stimulating acupuncture points or working with other energy centers, and the habitual response is reprogrammed. The trigger no longer causes the neurological reaction and subsequent problematic emotional response or behavior.

Research

Preliminary clinical trials coming out of 11 allied treatment centers in a South America over a 14-year period followed 29,000 patients whose treatment consisted of an energy psychology protocol. Clinical success rates were judged by independent raters to be at approximately 70 percent. Beyond this large-scale clinical trial, which had no control group, a number of randomized sub-studies were also conducted where the rater did not know if the subject had received an energy therapy or conventional treatment. One compared treatment outcomes for 2,500 patients receiving energy therapy (and no medication) for anxiety disorders with 2,500 patients receiving the generally accepted protocol for anxiety, cognitive behavioral therapy (CBT) combined with medication as necessary. The energy interventions resulted in significantly higher improvement rates.

While the South America findings were pilot studies and must be considered preliminary in nature, systematic investigations of the new methods are beginning to appear in peer-reviewed journals. Recently, a study was published in The Journal of Clinical Psychology (September, 2003), where the energy psychology methods compared favorably with a relaxation method for treating simple phobias. A replication of that study is being prepared for publication and other investigations are underway. As in all areas of clinical innovation, research lags behind the initial observations of practitioners. In energy psychology, the sheer number of clinical reports, however, is in itself persuasive.

What Kinds of Problems Can Energy Psychology Address?

The earliest reported clinical applications and successes with energy psychology have been in the treatment of phobias and other anxiety-related disorders. The same basic methods, however, seem effective with a garden variety of dysfunctional emotional responses, from inappropriate jealousy to unbridled anger. As the methods have developed and improved, clinicians are also reporting success in using energy psychology as an adjunct to conventional therapeutic methods with other serious psychiatric disorders, from severe depression to addictions. Its clinical uses are, however, still considered experimental. Further research is needed.

An internet review of energy psychology sites shows that the general public is experimenting even further, self-applying the methods with a wide range of emotional and behavioral issues. They are using the methods for behavior problems in school, performance problems at work, and physical maladies that may have an emotional component, such as allergic reactions, obesity, and chronic pain. In the field of sports psychology, energy psychology methods are being used to improve performance by reducing tension and to embed images of optimal performance into the athlete’s energy system. "Life coaches" are using energy methods to help people remove emotional blocks and limiting beliefs, freeing them to attain specific goals and generally function more effectively.

Although the final word on this new approach is not in, its non-invasive nature and easily-learned methods make it an exciting development within clinical as well as a wide range of other settings. For additional information, visit www.EnergyPsychologyInteractive.com.

David Feinstein, Ph.D., is a clinical psychologist and the national director of the Energy Medicine Institute in Ashland, Oregon. Author of 6 books and more than 50 professional papers, he has taught at The Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine.

Lynne M. Hoss, M.A., is a counselor, journalist, and Energy Psychology Program Director for Innersource in Ashland, Oregon.