| What is Energy Psychology? |
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| Maureen Cram | |||
| Tuesday, 27 February 2007 | |||
  Energy Psychology (EP) is the name for a broad range of psychological treatments and therapies that utilise the human energy system for success. Makes sense so far! Basically, energy healing is all about restoring the natural flow of energy within your body. Did you know that a car accident, a bad fall, or a stiff neck can disrupt this flow? Did you know that injuries from your past may be restricting your present energy flow? Although the wound is healed, the vital energy in your body may still be out of balance, causing chronic pain and discomfort. Did you know negative emotions in your daily life, such as fear, doubt, anger, judgment, criticism, blame, etc., can also be stored in your body and lead to symptoms of physical distress? Restriction in the body's natural flow of energy is often the cause of dis-ease -- the feeling that all is not well in your body. It has been demonstrated time and again that once these disruptive energies are unlocked and allowed to flow freely, wonderful things happen!
Included in this group are treatments such as Emotional Freedom Techniques (EFT), Releasing Technique, Be Set Free Fast, Tapas Acupressure Technique, Thought Field Therapy and many other such therapies. Each of these intentionally utilises one of the human energy systems - the meridian system, the chakra system or the aura system – during psychological treatment. Psychological therapies and other deep therapies that access subconscious material, may act energetically as well (that is, they may cause energetic releases and healing). However, such therapies do not intentionally utilise the body's energetic systems and are not, therefore, called energy psychology therapies. EP techniques were first popularized in the early 1980s by Roger Callahan, Ph.D. under the names of The Callahan Technique or Thought Field Therapy. In preliminary clinical trials involving more than 29,000 patients from 11 allied treatment centres in South America during a 14-year period, a variety of randomized, double-blind pilot studies were conducted. In one of these, approximately 5,000 patients diagnosed at intake with an anxiety disorder were randomly assigned to an experimental group (tapping) or a control group (cognitive behaviour therapy /medication). Ratings were given by independent clinicians who interviewed each patient at the close of therapy, at 1 month, at 3 months, at 6 months, and at 12 months. At the close of therapy 63% of the control group were judged as having improved; 90% of the experimental group were judged as having improved. 51% of the control group were judged as being symptom free; 76% of the experimental group were judged as symptom free. It is also important to understand that "diagnosis" and "treatment" within energy medicine have different meanings than they have within traditional medicine. The focus is not on symptoms or illness; the focus is on keeping the body’s energy system strong, vital, harmonious and healthy. Diagnosis is of the energy system, not of the illness. Symptoms provide clues about where the energy system needs attention. Treatment is not the treatment of symptoms or illness; it is the treatment of the energy system. These distinctions are vital not only because it is legal to educate people to keep their body’s energies healthy and not legal for unlicensed people to diagnosis and treat illness. They are vital because they show you a fundamentally different way of thinking about health and illness, built on a paradigm that directs your attention to the energetic foundation of staying healthy. From the point of view of EP, painful physical, emotional and spiritual symptoms are the result of a disruption in the energy system. When the disruption is corrected, symptoms will be replaced by healthy functioning. For instance, a phobic response to spiders would be replaced by a calm response to spiders. All aspects of the phobic response would be normalised. Therefore, physical sensations of distress (such as tense muscles, racing heart, lumps in the throat or sensations in the pit of the stomach) are alleviated. Disturbed thought processes (such distorted perceptions and catastrophic expectations) are normalised. Negative emotions (fear, panic, anger, helplessness, confusion, etc.) are replaced by inner peace. Unhelpful behavioural tendencies (flight or fight or freeze responses, for example) are corrected. All of this can be achieved using the natural resources of the body’s energetic system. After correcting problems energetically, people report common experiences. They say things like:
These changes often happen within only minutes of treatment, and yet the inner transformation is often profound and enduring. There is a large generalisation effect of treatment – meaning that the treatment of one issue often causes resolution in many other issues (a real bonus!). EP techniques can be used to treat a large array of distressing symptoms including the following types of problems and more:
Is it unscientific? In a nutshell, yes. Does it work? In a nutshell, yes! Thanks to the following sites for reference: http://silviahartmann.com, http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Energy_psychology, http://www.energypsych.org
Disclaimer: Harmonious Living is written for and read by a community of individuals with strong and independent opinions. While the publishers of Harmonious Living are dedicated to providing a forum in which views can be openly expressed, those views do not necessarily reflect those of the publishers.
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