Research Update: Review Shows EFT is an Effective Treamtent for PTSD
Frontiers In Psychology published a systematic review and meta-analysis demonstrating that EFT is an effective treatment for PTSD. The study, Emotional freedom techniques for treating post traumatic stress disorder: an updated systematic review and meta-analysis, showed that Clinical EFT produces a greater symptom reduction than no-treatment or “treatment as usual” studies. Furthermore, EFT produces symptom reduction similar to that of other evidence-based approaches. Finally, studies using EFT to treat PTSD have large treatment effects. We tip our hats to Peta Stapleton, Kevin Kip, Dawson Church, and the whole team for their efforts in showing that EFT is an effective treatment for PTSD.
The theory
The researchers wanted to update the literature on using EFT to treat PTSD. They noted that while cognitive behavioral therapy (CBT) is a common and empirically validated approach to treating PTSD, it does not work in as many as 50% of cases. Moreover, a review of 36 studies found two-thirds of military personnel still met diagnostic criteria for PTSD after cognitive reprocessing or prolonged exposure therapy. Meanwhile, although medications such as SSRIs can be effective at reducing symptoms, relapse is common at cessation of treatment.
Against this backdrop of treatment options, researchers note that as many as 30% of combat veterans will experience PTSD, and nearly 7% of Americans will experience PTSD in their lifetimes. Indeed, PTSD is an accelerating mental health condition worldwide. Finding effective strategies to treat it is important.
The researchers also dug a little deeper into the research on acupuncture, since acupoint stimulation is a key component in EFT. Their investigation covered an 11-year period and found 13,000 studies and 2,500 reviews. Of 122 medical and mental-health conditions studied, acupuncture was effective in treating 117. And, importantly, the previous meta-analysis on EFT for PTSD found a large treatment effect size.
The study setup
For the current review and meta-analysis, researchers combed through ten databases to find randomized controlled trials and quantitative reviews on EFT for PTSD. Six studies met inclusion criteria.
Study results: EFT is an effective treatment for PTSD
Clinical EFT, when compared to no-treatment, waitlist, or treatment-as-usual controls, produced significant and large effect sizes ranging from 1.38 to 2.51. When compared to active controls such as CBT and EMDR, effect sizes ranged from -0.15 to 0.79. These treatment results are similar to other evidence-based therapies.
Notable
Therapies such as EMDR and EFT, incorporating a somatic component, have not been widely accepted in clinical settings. Talk therapies have been around for much longer and therefore have many more studies to back them up. Nonetheless, EFT and EMDR have been supported by more than 100 clinical studies each, and the research base is growing. The studies show that these are effective treatments for PTSD, anxiety and depression, with results maintained at follow-up.
Why this study matters
This study adds to the growing body of evidence supporting EFT for treating PTSD. Importantly, Frontiers is a Q1 journal, the highest rank of professional journals as measured by criterion impact factor. Criterion impact factor measures how often articles published in a journal are cited by other authors. Publication in a top-notch journal like this is a win for EFT research!
Action plan
Want to learn more about EFT while earning continuing education credits? Sign up for certification in EFT. Do you like research? Stay up to date with the research on energy psychology here. Want to be involved in energy psychology research? You can participate in ACEP’s collaboration with Peta Stapleton. Learn more here.
Helping a patient recover from mental illness without drugs
Alice Lee, M.D., is a holistic psychiatrist who uses an innovative approach, using energy psychology to help patients recover from mental illness without drugs. At the 25th ACEP conference, she shared a detailed case report of a patient who weaned from six different psychotropic medications as she healed from her diagnosis of bipolar disorder. It’s a fascinating story and one we thought you should know!
Background
The patient was 60 years old when she began treatment with Alice. Before her mental health problems arose, she had had a successful albeit stressful career. In 2009, she was diagnosed with breast cancer, which she successfully treated with conventional and holistic methods. In 2017, her daughter became ill. The combined stress of her job and her daughter’s illness became too much.
She began intensive therapy with a “normal” clinician, whom she saw for six months with little relief. Finally, she decided to try an antidepressant. Weeks later, she attempted suicide by overdosing on the new medications.
For almost two years, she cycled in and out of inpatient hospitalizations and residential treatment programs. She ended up taking six medications: two antidepressants, a beta blocker for anxiety, an antipsychotic, an anticonvulsant, and a benzodiazepine.
A holistic approach: recover from mental illness without drugs
After nearly three years of standard psychiatric treatment, the patient sought a holistic approach, and found Alice Lee. Alice uses energy psychology and CBET, criteria-based energy testing, to guide her treatment approach. CBET uses applied kinesiology or muscle testing to gather true-false statements. Alice uses the thumb-and-index finger method of testing. Because muscle testing is sensitive to energy, it was important for Alice to remain neutral during her work.
Diagnosis
The patient had been diagnosed with a number of disorders and had landed with a diagnosis of bipolar disorder with psychotic features. However, she had never experienced a manic episode. Alice switched the diagnosis to panic disorder. This gentler diagnosis itself may have helped initiate the healing.
Prognosis
The patient and Alice worked together for a year. At the end of treatment, the patient was doing well. Two years later, she continues to do well. Her prognosis, Alice reports, is excellent.
Treatment
Alice used the Infinite Intention Technique, a type of energy psychology. CBET guided the work. The patient also used various supplements, psychotherapy, and tapered off her medications.
Recovery pattern
At the outset of the holistic psychiatric treatment, the patient and doctor worked together to support and begin healing without changing medications. In the next phase they began gradually reducing medications, guided by CBET. The patient regularly experienced a slight uptick of medication side effects about two days before a follow-up session. After the medications were decreased, the symptoms would subside.
Outcomes
After a year of collaboration and gradual withdrawal from the medications along with adherence to the supplement and self-care regimen, the patient had successfully stopped all medication. She reported better energy and maintained her positive energy and wellbeing for more than six months of follow-up.
A new direction?
Patients and clients are increasingly seeking alternatives to standard pharmaceutical interventions for their mental health issues. They want to recover from mental illness without drugs. There are good reasons for this: the cost, side effects, problems with withdrawal, and of course, the inability of pills to resolve the underlying causes of these problems. Energy psychology is a growing field of cutting-edge interventions that help people heal. As more people learn about the problems of standardized care and the potential energy psychology, more people will receive the kind of help that really helps.
Do you want to be a part of this change? Share this article with your friends and colleagues. By joining ACEP, you’ll get stories like this delivered to your inbox every week. And your funds help our organization grow, supporting research, training, and spreading the word about EP.
Types of trauma, explained
Acute, chronic, or complex. Not all trauma is the same, but the impacts of trauma are widespread and well documented. There are different types of trauma, but they all can leave us scarred, with lasting effects on our physical, emotional, mental, social, or spiritual functioning. Some traumas, like war, car crashes, and assaults, are called acute or “Big-T” traumas. Others, like being belittled or embarrassed, are called chronic, or “little-t” traumata. Complex traumas refer to children’s exposure to multiple, ongoing traumatic events which have long-term, wide-ranging effects. The differences in these types of traumas are clear but the results of each type can be devastating. Our work as clinicians is to help our clients overcome the effects of their traumatic experiences. Energy Psychology is particularly helpful in addressing trauma.
Acute Trauma
The most well-known and well-documented aftermath of trauma is post-traumatic stress disorder, or PTSD. Soldiers returning from the first world war were “shell shocked”. Its history is much longer, with references in literature as far back as 2,000 years ago. You can read a fascinating summary of it here.
It was in the 1980s that the American Psychological Association included PTSD in their glossary of mental disorders, the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual (DSM). Even then, the mental health establishment considered it incurable. Thanks to advances in treatment approaches, and the growing acceptance of body- and energy-based practices like EMDR and EFT, we now know that PTSD is something that people can indeed heal from.
We often associate PTSD with war trauma, and rightly so. Today, we know that other traumatic experiences can also lead to PTSD. Things like vehicle accidents, assault, and rape leave their mark, and the mark is often PTSD. We call this set of traumatic experiences acute or “big T” traumas.
Effects of acute trauma
The classic symptoms of PTSD include intrusive thoughts, nightmares, hypervigilance, and emotional or physical reactions to trauma reminders. These problems lead to behavioral changes as the sufferer tries to avoid the trauma. They either avoid places and things that remind them of the trauma or try to avoid their own thoughts and feelings. They also cause changes in mood and reactivity as the trauma sufferer grapples with their unresolved trauma.
Until now, people with PTSD suffered, and dealt with it as best they could. They often used drugs, prescribed or not, to try to mask or manage their symptoms. They sweated their way through talk therapy sessions until they stopped going. Sometimes they got a bit of relief for their efforts.
The prognosis changed with the advent of somatic and energy-based techniques like EMDR and EFT. EFT, along with Thought Field Therapy (TFT) and the Trauma Tapping Technique (TTT), are acupressure-assisted exposure therapy and they help people heal trauma. Now, PTSD sufferers can find quality help to overcome their trauma symptoms as they remove the emotional valence from their trauma memories. You can read about the research on EFT for PTSD here.
Chronic or little-t trauma
Little-t traumata are more personal and much more common. Anyone can experience these. Think of the loss of a job, financial stressors, relationship breakups, and even problems with family, friends, and friend groups. These are traumatic, but not in the same ways as big T trauma can be. However, they leave us less resilient, and we need to heal them.
Often, people who experience these types of traumas think they “shouldn’t” feel as upset as they do. However, every traumatic experience leaves us with less resilience to deal with the next one. The effects of trauma are cumulative and get more difficult as each succeeding trauma is left unhealed.
Complex, childhood, ongoing trauma
The ACEs or adverse childhood experiences study found that people who experienced adversity during childhood were more likely to develop problems in adulthood. These problems include obesity, depression, heart disease, COPD, and early death. The triggering childhood adversity includes abuse, neglect, and household challenges. The more ACES, the worse the problems.
People who are members of the LGBT community and people who identify as BIPOC are at an increased risk of trauma. This is because they experience many microaggressions which cause trauma responses. Persistent trauma takes its toll on health and wellbeing. Two examples are the increased rate of Black women dying in childbirth and the increased risk of suicide among LGBTQ teens.
The problem, however, does not exist only among members of diverse communities. Even children of privilege can endure traumas that leave their marks. Having parents who are poorly emotionally regulated; being bullied in school; experiencing academic problems; cyberbullying; and even social media-induced social comparisons can leave a scar no matter the cultural background of the family or status of the individual.
The effects of trauma.
No matter the type of trauma, the effects can be pretty much the same. They include flashbacks, nightmares, problems sleeping, hypervigilance, irritability, physical symptoms, intrusive thoughts, and distress. For adults who experienced complex trauma, the fallout can include relationship problems, insecurity, attachment fears, and emotional labiality. Clinicians see the fallout of both types of traumas in our practices every day.
Helping with both types of trauma
When our clients come to us with the aftermath of trauma, energy psychology methods are particularly effective. Conventional approaches have been lackluster in their results. EFT, on the other hand, is very effective at treating trauma. Thought Field Therapy or TFT helped many people overcome the aftermath of trauma, such as after the genocide in Rwanda. Other energy psychology approaches such as Advanced Integrative Therapy or AIT, and holographic memory resolution or HMR, also show promise. In every case, clinicians have pushed the envelope, looking for more effective treatments to help our clients overcome their traumatic experiences. That is how we make progress, and this is where energy psychology shines!
Want to deepen your skills? Sign up for ACEP's trauma-informed EFT training designed especially for licensed mental health providers.
Author bio:
Sarah Murphy, LPC, NCC, is a licensed and nationally certified professional counselor. She specializes in energy psychology, including EFT, as well as mindfulness and meditation. Sarah works with people who have cancer or other serious medical diagnoses, individuals seeking to find peace within themselves, and couples who want to resolve conflict and live in harmony. Sarah is an ACEP Board member and chair of its communications committee; she has a private practice and serves as a counseling provider for Unite for HER.
Energy psychology online: Five reasons this is a perfect fit!
The pandemic is hopefully fading into our rearview windows, though the covid-19 virus with its myriad variants is here to stay. We are learning to live with these new risks, adjusting to the new normal, and learning to love some of the changes that the pandemic brought about. One of those changes is the explosion of teletherapy! Back in 2020, people wondered if energy psychology was going to be as effective when delivered online. Today, the resounding answer is YES! Here are five reasons why doing energy psychology (EP) online is powerful and effective as it is in person.
Tapping Tools Work Well
Energy Psychology’s tapping tools, such as EFT and TFT, work like a charm over Zoom (or other online platforms). People can assess their distress before and after each round of tapping. In some ways, the screen makes things easier. For example, it is really easy to show people the finger points on camera. Even the 9-gamut eye roll is doable online! The imaginary clock in front of the client’s face is a great way to “walk” their eyes around the circle. Tracing outside their glasses frame is another trick that some people can use. (for information about the finger points and 9-gamut, go here – link to listicle blog “Simple Tools that Get Great Results”).
We Can Do Muscle Testing by Proxy
Some energy psychology tools, like TFT, can incorporate muscle testing, also known as applied kinesiology. The principle of muscle testing is that our bodies are strong when we are expressing a truth, and weak when we are expressing a lie. The body doesn’t lie! In the old days, we often used the arm test to see what acupoints were at play. Fortunately, we don’t need the client’s arm to do muscle testing. There are many other approaches, such as the postural sway and the finger lock, that can differentiate the true from the false. (For more information on applied kinesiology, read this).
Consciousness is nonlocal.
We can have telepathic connections with others – it happens all the time! How often do you and your bff say the same thing at the same time? You don’t have to be in the same room to connect with their vibe, their energy, their thoughts and feelings. When we are deeply and empathically connecting with our clients, we still “feel them” even when they are on Zoom.
Everything is energy, and teletherapy may save yours
We can connect when we are on Zoom, but maybe we have more of a choice about it than when we are physically together. At the beginning of the pandemic, people complained of Zoom fatigue. Dayslong Zoom meetings can still be a bore. But Zoom therapy is a different animal altogether. Some people, including yours truly, actually find ourselves less tired at the end of a Zoom day than an in-office day.
Clients want results, and energy psychology delivers.
Whether you are using approaches that rely on language (like AIT and EFT), tapping (like EFT and TFT), chakras (like AIT and CEP), energy psychology delivers reliable outcomes. Our clients are happy, and our clinicians are committed to continuing to use and spread the word about these fabulous techniques.
Teletherapy is perfect for energy psychology.
No matter how you look at it, the cutting-edge family of techniques we call energy psychology are a perfect fit for today’s move toward online therapy. What started out as a response to a crisis has become mainstream. In doing so, it has given us a new way to make it easier than ever for people to access therapy and get the help they need to live lives they are excited about.
What are your favorite reasons to use energy psychology in your teletherapy practice? We would love to hear from you, so leave a comment below. If you would like to learn more about these exciting techniques, check out ACEP's training calendar.
Author: Sarah Murphy, LPC, NCC, is a licensed and nationally certified professional counselor. She specializes in energy psychology, including EFT, as well as mindfulness and meditation. Sarah works with individuals seeking to find peace within themselves, people who have serious medical diagnoses, and couples who want to resolve conflict and live in harmony. Sarah is an ACEP Board member and chair of its communications committee; she has a private practice and serves as staff therapist with Unite for HER.
Upset by memories? Try this.
Learn an easy tool you can use to help leave the past in the past.
One of the fastest and most effective ways to heal old memories is to tap lightly on a series of points on your body. One technique that can really help is Simple EFT (emotional freedom techniques)*. This simple body-based technique helps your body to relax and allows you to feel calm and balanced. It also is great for reducing stress quickly. You can also download written instructions in English, Spanish, and Portuguese.
How it Works
You can follow along with the video and do the EFT basic recipe: Tap on the side of your hand. Then tap the top of your head, inside eyebrows, corner of the eyes, under the eyes, under the nose, under the mouth, under the collarbones, and under the arms.
Why It Works
Being upset causes a disruption in the flow of energy through your meridians. Easy TFT helps your energy flow again by clearing blocks along your meridians. When you do this, you reduce stress quickly and easily. This allows you to reduce or even eliminate the troubling feelings that often accompany old memories.
If you haven’t given Simple EFT a try yet, do it now. Take notice of how your body feels both before and after you use the technique. This technique is just one of many you can use to resolve the feelings from memories and leave the past in the past.
More Techniques to Help Heal Old Memories
If you found Simple EFT helpful, here are a few more tools that you can use to calm anxious feelings: Easy Thought Field Therapy and the Trauma Tapping Technique. If you want to learn more about using techniques like this to improve your wellbeing, contact me.
Video Resources Provided by the ACEP Humanitarian Committee
The mission of the ACEP Humanitarian Committee is to develop and implement humanitarian projects that alleviate emotional distress caused by catastrophic natural and man-made events around the globe. We do this by encouraging and assisting ACEP members in developing humanitarian projects that utilize recognized energy psychology and other modalities that meet ACEP’s standards and guidelines. Learn more here.
Simple tools to boost your therapy results
Are you a therapist who is always looking for tools that get great results? If you are already using energy psychology tools like EFT, TFT, AIT, or CEP, you know how powerful these approaches can be. And as great as they are, sometimes a little tweak can lead to big improvements, even in an already-fabulous therapeutic toolkit! Here are four often overlooked yet simple tools to boost your therapy results.
Tapping the finger points
The most popular form of energy psychology is EFT tapping. EFT stands for the emotional freedom techniques. Plural. Yet we often think of it only as tapping the side of hand with the setup statement, then tapping the head and torso points while stating the problem. That is certainly the basic recipe for EFT. But there’s more!
Tapping the points at the base of the fingernail on the thumb, index finger, middle finger, and pinky finger allows us to access important meridians where energy can also be stuck. Try adding these points in your next EFT practice and see how it feels. You may be surprised at how powerful it is!
The 9-gamut
Another underutilized technique in EFT is what’s called the 9-Gamut. This term was coined by Roger Callahan, father of energy psychology tapping techniques and creator of Thought Field Therapy (TFT).
To do this, tap the back of your hand, between the bones leading up to the pinky and ring fingers. This is a treatment point for the very important Triple Warmer or thyroid meridian. This meridian is associated with a host of emotions. While steadily tapping this point, do the following nine things:
- Close your eyes
- Open your eyes
- Look sharply down to the left
- Look sharply down to the right
- Roll your eyes slowly in a big clockwise circle
- Roll your eyes slowly in a big counterclockwise circle
- Hum a little tune
- Count to five
- Hum a little tune
You will be amazed at how the distress level drops after doing this simple exercise. In fact, in online tapping groups, my group-members found that adding the finger points and 9-gamut reduced their SUDs (units of distress, on a 0-10 scale) by at least a point or two, and often more. Adding these techniques to a round of tapping, at least with these groups, seems more efficient than adding a new round of tapping.
The Brief Energy Correction
This is a simple tool that is taught in ACEP's comprehensive energy psychology training. It was designed to rebalance an energy field that had become scrambled, where the nerves are not sending the correct signals. A "tell" of this scrambling is homolateral walking (same arm and leg move forward together, rather than the opposite arm as normal). Confusion and clumsiness are also "tells".
Interestingly, Robin Bilazarian found that this simple exercise reduced workshop participants SUDs dramatically in just 90 seconds of practice. You can read more about Robin’s study here. Her article even has an image showing the hand placement!
To do this simple exercise, place one hand below your naval. Then place your other hand on the following areas, holding each for just one breath:
- Both sides of the collar bone, using thumb and index finger on either side
- Under the nose, using index and middle finger
- Under the mouth, using index and middle finger
- At the tailbone, with the back of the hand on your body and thumb facing upwards
The next time you need a quick fix for your energy or mood, give the brief energy correction a try. I recently guided a stressed-out client who was having therapy from his car in this subtle exercise. He dropped from a ten to a four after three rounds, and to a two after an additional three rounds. It was easier for him to do than a full tapping protocol because of logistics, and got him a dramatic reduction in just a couple of minutes.
Collar bone breathing
This is another simple tool that is part of the comprehensive energy psychology training but can be a fantastic standalone technique. It also was meant to help restore balance in a scrambled energy system and offered help for clumsiness and confusion. However, clinicians like Mandi Freger are using it to address more basic issues in therapy.
To do this technique, cross your hands over your chest with your fingers resting just below your collar bones. You’ll do two sets: for the first, put your fingertips under your collar bones. For the second set, place your middle knuckle just under your collar bones. For each set, breathe as follows:
- Inhale and exhale completely
- Inhale halfway and hold
- Inhale the rest of the way and hold
- Breathe halfway out and hold
- Breathe the rest of the way out and hold
- Inhale and exhale completely
Give this simple technique a try and see how easy it is to come back into balance!
Simple tools to boost your therapy results
These four simple tools will help you get great results, quickly and easily. Even better, they are free and have no side effects! Give them a try and see how you and your clients feel even better, even faster!
What are your favorite tools to use energy psychology in your teletherapy practice? We would love to hear from you, so leave a comment below. If you would like to learn more about these exciting techniques, check out our training calendar.
Muscle Testing 101: Four Tools to Tune into Your Body’s Wisdom
We know that our body holds a storehouse of wisdom. Wouldn’t it be great to be able to tap into that? Well, it turns out, we can! The field of applied kinesiology, or as it’s more commonly called, muscle testing, gives us access to our bodies’ innate wisdom. Some of these tools are meant to be used on yourself, and others are meant to be used with another person. Each of them can be mastered with just a little practice. This “muscle testing 101” introduces four techniques that will help you understand your body’s messages.
Some people use these technique to find out whether a certain food or supplement is “good” or “bad” for their bodies. Others ask their body questions, especially when they are having trouble deciding, like “is taking this job for my best and highest good?” At ACEP, we use these in our comprehensive energy psychology program. It allows us to ascertain which problems need to be addressed first, whether we have scrambled energy, or which chakras or meridians to stimulate or clear. We don’t recommend using them for fortune telling, but they are great for energy psychology detective work!
The Postural Sway
This technique is so simple it’s nearly impossible to mess it up. You simply stand up and relax, and ask your body to show you a yes, and then a no. Unless your energy is scrambled, you will tilt slightly forward for a yes, and slightly backward for a no. (Some people swing in a circular motion, usually clockwise for yes and counter-clockwise for no.) At first, the movement may be quite subtle, but it’s definitely there. With practice and confidence, you will find yourself stumbling forward or backwards, getting unmistakable cues from your body!
The Arm Test
This is a partner activity. One person is the subject, and the other is the tester. The subject holds their arm out to the side; the tester places a hand gently on the subject’s shoulder (not everyone does this) and the other hand just above the subject’s wrist. Then, the tester gently applies pressure to the wrist. The arm will hold strong for a yes, and become weak for a no.
An easy way to test this is to ask the person to say “my name is (their name)” and press; then have them say “my name is (some other name)” and press. The arm will hold strong for the correct name, and grow weak for the wrong name.
You can also test this by having the tester place their other hand, palm down, over the subject’s head, then press the arm. Then turn the tester’s hand palm up over the subject’s head, and press the arm. The arm will hold strong for the palm down and grow weak for the palm up. If that doesn’t happen, have the subject drink some water, relax, and try again. If it is still not working, do one of the brief energy correction or collar bone breathing techniques. You can read about them here (link to list post simple tools).
The Finger Lock
This is a self-help tool. You make interlocking circles of your index finger and thumb. (I.e., right index finger to right thumb, and looped through, left index finger to left thumb.) Pull your hands away from each other with gentle but firm pressure. This puts pressure on the connection between fingers and thumbs. The pressure will hold, however, with a yes. It will release the lock for a no.
Another Finger Technique
This is a very subtle technique that you can use without anyone else even knowing what you are doing. Because it is so subtle, it takes a bit more practice to master than the other techniques. You can use it for the same reasons that you use any of these techniques. Again, we recommend sticking to diagnostics rather than fortune telling!
To do this, hold our index finger straight, and slightly bend your middle finger, placing it on the back of the index finger near the nail bed. Use gentle pressure to press your middle finger onto your index finger. Your index finger will stay still and strong for a yes, and drop slightly and grow weak for a no.
Muscle testing 101: Four ways to unlock your body’s innate wisdom
Each of these tools may feel awkward at first, but you will get more comfortable with practice. They should not be used, of course, to make medical diagnoses or to tell a client what to do. However, they can help you move intelligently through the process of determining which points to treat in an energy psychology session.
If you would like to learn more about muscle testing and how you can use it intelligently in your energy psychology practice, check out ACEP’s comprehensive energy psychology certification course.
Conquering Pain with Energy Psychology
Greg Nicosia is the founder of Advanced Diagnostics, PC (Pittsburgh, PA) and creator of Thought Energy Synchronization Therapy (TEST), a form of energy psychology. Over the course of his career, Greg explored ways of conquering pain with energy psychology.
Accident leads to new discovery
Greg came to energy psychology through his own experiences after a serious motor vehicle accident. He says that pain increased his sensitivity, leading him to begin delving into the mind-body-spirit connection. This connection played a significant role in his work and personal life.
Greg saw and was amazed by how rapidly and effectively energy psychology produces drastic shifts. These include spontaneous reframing of trauma experiences, deep and lasting healing, and the promotion of spiritual development.
“I’ve often said that I never met a pain that couldn’t be reduced by at least 50% and, in my honest opinion, this extends to emotional pain/distress, as well.” –Greg Nicosia
Links to ACEP
Across his prolific career, Greg has worn many hats: researcher, professor, innovator, trainer, practitioner, and leader. What ties them all together is his burning desire to “teach and lead an army of energy healers to help reach the tipping point that allows for a metamorphosis in human consciousness.”
The concept of ACEP “came to me in a dream,” says Greg. He shared his idea with David Gruder (co-founder of ACEP). Greg’s involvement with ACEP over the years has been pivotal in defining its shape. He worked with other ACEP colleagues for over two years to develop the ACEP energy psychology training program. He also has served on the ACEP board of directors and presented at the ACEP annual conference.
Conquering Pain with Energy Psychology
Greg has experienced and seen the astounding results that energy psychology delivers in treating physical pain. One client came to him with severe, unremitting back pain, which was causing her to feel depressed, anxious, and hopeless.
Greg used TEST to treat the client, providing her with a protocol to use outside of her sessions, as well. Within three months of starting treatment with Greg, the client reported being able to cease use of pain medication, showed no symptoms of depression, had not experienced a panic attack for many weeks, and was feeling optimistic about her ongoing recovery.
Impressively, the client shares “I look at my life now like a person who has a second chance. When I had the pain, I never thought about my life… all I could think about was that pain. Thank you for your treatment here. It literally saved my life.”
Looking Forward
“We are all gifted with the ability to co-create life experience. We easily lose touch with these abilities and so do not develop these senses into reliable and powerful tools that promote healing,” shares Greg. From his viewpoint, energy psychology approaches can be a valuable tool for anyone to have in support of their own healing.
If you are interested in learning more about energy psychology, visit the ACEP website. Stay tuned for ACEP’s revamped Comprehensive Energy Psychology course, first created by Greg, coming next year!
Author
Renee LaFountain is a licensed mental health counselor (LMHC), living and working in Massachusetts. She is the clinical director and a staff therapist at Bay State Counseling and Wellness Center, with a passion for serving individuals who are the helpers and “deep feelers” of the world. Renee is a member of the ACEP Communications Committee and is a provider for Unite for HER.
Help for families of people with autism: The people of energy psychology
Mandi Freger is a licensed counselor in Pittsburgh. She specializes in help for families of people with autism spectrum disorders (ASD) using energy psychology techniques. Her book, _____, delves into the many ways that energy psychology techniques can make a world of difference to family members of people with autism spectrum disorders.
Help for family members of people with autism
Mandi found her niche and her passion working with people with ASD. She worked in hospital and outpatient settings and became director of autism services in a hospital system affiliated with Cleveland Clinic Autism Development Solutions. Eventually she transitioned to private practice, specializing in ASD.
Early in her career, she joined ACEP-founding-member Greg Nicosia’s (link to bio of Greg) practice right out of graduate school. She became a member of ACEP in 1999 and went on to chair the education committee and serve on the board of directors. During her years of working and serving with Greg and ACEP, she travelled the country, assisting in energy psychology trainings.
The ASD service cliff + Mandi Freger = solutions, service, and opportunity
People on the autism spectrum age out of services at 21, and then few resources or services are available.
“When I originally went into private practice 8 years ago, ASD population was very underserved in outpatient. Aging out of most services at 21, few services were available,” she says.
“I thought I could condense family behavioral training with individual treatment through outpatient services and that is what I set out to do.”
Finding a need and filling it
Mandi says she had not planned on being a therapist, having grown up in an entrepreneurial family and studied business in college. However, the Universe had other plans, and “dropped” her into her job with Greg and her career. Today, service is simply a way of life.
In creating a successful private therapy practice, Mandi combined her clinical skills with business savvy.
“It still blows my mind one can make a good living from something that seems so easy – counseling and consulting,” she says.
She remains service driven and says she is fortunate to have the tools that match clients’ needs.
Help for families of people with autism
For Mandi, the most consistent gratitude seems to come from families of kids diagnosed with ASD.
“I think they are most appreciative about how I can streamline training and practice for them on the layered complexity of the disorder,” she says.
“’Helping,’ however, is an ongoing conversation. So, all of my clients have successes, if goals are appropriate and effective from the start of treatment.”
She is proactive in helping people define goals and measure progress. In her sessions, she focuses on processing the emotions, then moving forward with action. A change in some troublesome action, in turn, contributes to more positive emotions.
Looking forward
Looking to the future of energy psychology and mental health therapy in general, Mandi says we need strong energy psychology mental health practitioners to provide support and coaching to people around the world.
Energy psychology is becoming mainstream, but not necessarily in the hands of people with strong clinical skills and training. We risk diluting the field with pop-culture influence and misinformation.
“The difficult thing is that most are not clinical mental health providers and that can significantly change the lens through which one sees the issues of importance. However, relatively few still have mastered the art of using these tools, including practicing good clinical and energetic boundaries and hygiene, and I think that is where the need will remain,” she says.
Feeling inspired?
Want to learn more about the tools and theoretical framework that Mandi uses? Stay up-to-date with ACEP’s comprehensive energy psychology (CEP) training here. Be sure to check out Mandi’s book here.
Do you have an interesting story about energy psychology in the real world? We’d love to hear from you! Email Sarah at [email protected].
Help for the Emotional Effects of Cancer
This is the third in a three-part series on EP and cancer
Cancer causes tremendous emotional pain. Some cancer patients who have been diagnosed say that cancer is more of an emotional problem than a physical one. Energy Psychology tools seem uniquely positioned to help alleviate the distress that a diagnosis causes. Tools like EFT and TFT, as well as the many techniques listed on ACEP’s Resources for Resilience site, can provide great relief. In this blog, we share stories from the treatment room, describing how energy psychology can help alleviate the emotional effects of cancer.
Mis-hearing leads to PTSD-like symptoms, relieved with EFT
A woman in her early 50’s had a breast cancer diagnosis. As often happens to people diagnosed with cancer, she was in the throes of shock and distress when she met with her oncologist. Clients often report that they can’t “take in” what their doctors are telling them, that they leave appointments wondering what was just said, and realizing that they have many questions they forgot to ask. In this case, the client mis-heard “grade 4 tumor” as “stage 4 cancer.”
Though she quickly realized her error and understood that she did not have metastatic breast cancer, she was extremely distressed about the idea and still felt terrified. In our individual counseling session, we tapped together using emotional freedom techniques (EFT) Tearless Trauma and Tell the Story protocols. The tearless trauma is a misnomer in this case because she cried easily at the thought of the story. However, we were able to reduce her distress and worked to clear her trauma. Within one session, she experienced a reduction in subjective units of distress (SUDs) from a ten to a zero. The clearing held in subsequent counseling sessions four to six weeks later.
Fear of recurrence
For women with breast cancer who have some understanding of the mind-body connection, fear of recurrence can create what seems like a trap. These women often express a fear that their fear is going to create a negative outcome. Effortfully trying not to think about it, or to think positive thoughts instead, often proves futile. One woman in such a paradoxical trap came for therapy and we began using EFT to manage her fear of recurrence. Her distress reduced during the session. Additionally, having EFT as a self-help tool provided her with a coping tool that she used regularly to help manage her fear as it arose.
EFT tapping in groups
In regular facilitated support groups, women with various cancer types use EFT at the beginning of the sessions to come together and relax. Often, we use the “constricted breathing” technique to demonstrate and reinforce the physiological effect of tapping. (In this technique, tapping on constricted breathing allows the breath to become fuller and more satisfying/less constricted). Most women achieve a feeling of un-constricted breath after one round of tapping. They also report feeling more relaxed, more present, and, in one case, feeling “warm and tingly.”
A vision for the future: alleviating the emotional effects of cancer
Because of the deep emotional distress that cancer patients often feel, it is important to provide them with tools and support to reduce these feelings. Energy psychology techniques have a demonstrated ability to reduce subjective distress. Moreover, these are tools that we can use therapeutically and as ongoing self-initiated self-help practices. Incorporating mind-body techniques such as these for the management of mood and stress in people with cancer can provide a tremendous benefit to patients' subjective wellbeing. Because of the role of stress in disease progression, these tools may even improve outcomes.
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Are you a therapist interested in learning to use these techniques with your clients? Check out ACEP’s training catalogue. Are you a client looking for a clinician trained in these methods? Check out ACEP’s practitioner directory.
Author: Sarah Murphy, LPC, NCC, is a licensed and nationally certified professional counselor. She specializes in energy psychology, including EFT, as well as mindfulness and meditation. Sarah works with individuals seeking to find peace within themselves, people who have serious medical diagnoses, and couples who want to resolve conflict and live in harmony. Sarah is an ACEP Board member and chair of its communications committee; she has a private practice and serves as staff therapist with Unite for HER.