Energy Psychotherapy: When Nothing Else Will Work

By Nancy Gnecco

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Exciting new therapeutic tools for psychological symptom management are now being used worldwide with unprecedented success by psychologists, psychotherapists, doctors and others in the helping professions. With the current increase of interest in what has come to be called "energy medicine," these new approaches, which use the body’s bioenergy system to resolve emotional problems, are becoming better known. They provide rapid, effective, often permanent relief from most psychological and many physical problems, without retraumatization, the need for emotional catharsis, or the use of medication.

ISSUES THAT HAVE SUCCESSFULLY BEEN TREATED

WITH ENERGY PSYCHOTHERAPY INCLUDE:

Addictive Urges

Allergy-like Symptoms

Anger

Anxiety

Autoimmune disorders

Body Dismorphic Disorder

Children’s Issues

Chronic Fatigue Syndrome

Depression

Divorce Issues

Eating Disorders

Fear of Public Speaking

Fibromyalgia

Grief

Jealousy

Loneliness

Love Pain

Low Self-Esteem

Management of Chronic Pain

Migraine Headaches

Negative Core Beliefs

Nightmares

Obsessive Compulsive Disorders

Panic Disorders

Performance Anxiety

Phobias

Post Traumatic Stress Disorder

Psychogenic Illness

Sadness

Separation Anxiety

Shyness

Sleep Disorders

Social Phobia

ABBY FINDS RELIEF FROM TRAUMATIC MEMORY:
An example of the benefits of Energy Psychotherapy

At age 32, Abby is still frightened to be alone in her apartment. Whenever her roommates are gone for the evening she turns all the lights on in the apartment, locks the doors and windows and makes certain that the television or stereo is blaring. She knows that if she were to hear a noise in the night her thoughts would return instantly to the memory of being sexually assaulted while baby-sitting for a 3-year-old child when she was 14 years old.

On that fateful night, she had gotten the little girl to sleep,and was just finishing up a piece of pizza in front of the TV when she heard some unfamiliar noises. The child’s father had returned earlier than expected, and without his wife. Before she even had time to investigate the noise, he had crept up behind her, thrown her to the floor and raped her. The fact that he is serving a jail term has done little to heal Abby of the unspeakable emotional trauma of that night. In spite of years of traditional psychotherapy, Abby’s entire adult life has been plagued with symptoms of PTSD: recurring nightmares, flashbacks, and panic attacks for which she takes anti-anxiety medication. She also has allergies to wheat, and dairy both of which developed within a few weeks after the incident.  She is withdrawn in social settings, hypervigilant whenever left alone, and is unable to sustain intimate relationships.

When Abby comes for an Energy Psychotherapy session she is not asked to go into the painful details of the rape. Prior to coming, she has filled out a fairly extensive intake form, and her therapist is aware of the rape and her current symptoms. After a brief talking session to get to know each other, she and the therapist set an intention to heal all her PTSD syptoms and all the origins. Abby is merely asked to attune her thoughts to the words "the rape", and rate the degree discomfort on a scale of zero to ten. She is instructed not to go into detail. The goal here is to minimize her suffering. The therapist asks her to tap on the side of her hand and repeat a phrase that includes the event and a statement of self acceptance. This makes certain that the polarity of her body is set up correctly so that tapping on the meridians will have a positive effect. After having done this three times she gently stimulates a series of specific energy points on her body, repeating a phrase (‘the rape”) in order to keep her mind tuned to the problem without reliving it.

Within minutes Abby’s distress has gone from a 10 on the distress scale to a four; a quantum leap in improvement. She is then asked to repeat the gentle tapping sequence to activate the energy points while still thinking the words  "the rape."  Suddenly, as if by magic, there is no more distress. She can’t believe that it is at a zero on the distress scale. When asked to rate the degree of remaining discomfort while thinking about the trauma she exclaims, "I can’t think about it!"

What she means is that when she thinks about “the rape” there is no longer distress associated with it.

Abby is then asked to tell the story scene by scene, but to stop if any aspect of the tale triggers her distress. She starts with “I’m eating pizza and watching TV when I hear some strange noises.” Her intensity shoots back up, and she repeats the tapping sequence using the reminder phrase, “I hear strange noises.” The intensity comes down again, and the session continues. Each time part of the story  begins to trigger her emotional discomfort she does another round or two of energy tapping, until she can tell the whole story with no emotional charge.

Her memory of the event remains in tact, but her anguish is gone. What has happened? Abby has just experienced the seemingly miraculous effects of Energy Psychotherapy.  Stimulating the body’s acupressure meridians, or the body’s energy centers (chakras) while thinking about the problem reinstates balance to the flow of energy in her body, quickly transforming disturbing thoughts into neutral memory. Distress from the trauma is simply eliminated. Once treated, the emotional pain associated with the problem is often permanently gone, and in the cases where symptoms recur, the client can easily be taught to repeat the treatment independently.

There is a deeper level to Abby’s story, however. The rape at age 14 triggered a pattern of symptoms, which have continued to limit Abby into her adult life. She believes that men will hurt her so she acts as though men will hurt her.

It has become a self-fulfilling prophecy in that the men she attracts tend to be abusers. She believes that there is something innately wrong with her, that she is not worthy, is inadequate, and doesn’t deserve to have a fulfilling, safe, intimate relationship. Eliminating the negative emotions from the memory of the rape in a single session may not completely eliminate these patterns and the negative core beliefs in her life which have developed from it – the hypervigilance, the social phobia, and her inability to choose and sustain safe intimate relationships.  These are issues to be addressed over time.  However, before she leaves the therapist, teaches Abby an easy to perform energy psychotherapy routine that she can use on her own, and advises her about how to use it to manage her daily anxiety.

She asks if Abby would like to delve deeper into her psyche in order to clear the traumatic patterns, negative core beliefs, and more recent traumatic relationships with men. After some discussion Abby states that another reason she came to therapy is that she recently ended a relationship because she didn’t feel like she was good enough, and because she felt uncomfortable with the man’s sexual advances. "It’s the same every time I meet a new guy." she acknowledges. The therapist points out to her that the original trauma of the rape set up her energy system for the patterns and beliefs that developed which are still causing her to have relationships like the one she just left.

Abby is told that it’s possible, using several energy psychotherapy modalities, to heal, not only the rape trauma, but the patterns, the beliefs, and possibly even the allergy-like symptoms she has to dairy, and wheat. Anything that is in the environment or the body during a traumatic incident can become an energy toxin producing allergy-like reactions, and it is possible that her sensitivities to wheat and dairy developed from the pizza she had been eating right before she was raped.

All the new Power Therapy techniques and treatments are rooted in the revolutionary discovery that all emotional distress is caused by a disruption in the body’s bioenergy systems. The first manifestation of emotional distress is a change in the body’s electrical system. The energetic disruption then causes a chain reaction of neurological, hormonal, chemical and cognitive changes, resulting in negative emotional states, and physical abreactions. When we stimulate the flow of energy through the meridians or the energy centers, while thinking about an emotionally distressing issue, startlingly rapid and effective results are attained.

SUMMARY

In summary, Energy Psychotherapy provides relief for acute emotional distress, and for the relief of chronic problems like addictive urges, and chronic pain. Additionally, it the work heals unhealthy life patterns - non-productive behaviors that seem to keep repeating themselves in our lives as a result of traumas sustained in our past, and the beliefs that we have developed as a result of them. Energy Psychotherapy alleviates the traumatic stress associated with fixed emotional states. It is also used for the detection and correction of negative core beliefs, and learned limitations, and for the psychological treatment of allergy-like symptoms. Together, these modalities offer multi-dimensional psychotherapy, healing that bypasses the cognitive. treating the problems at their source - the body’s energy systems.

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Author's Bio:

Nancy Gnecco, LPC, is extensively trained in the use of psychological symptom management and the emotional effects of psychogenic illness. As a Licensed Professional Counselor, Nancy brings to the Energy Psychotherapy session a solid background in mental health and school counseling. She incorporates dynamic short-term modalities which provide rapid, effective, often permanent relief from most psychological problems, without abreaction, without the damage effects of re-traumatization, and without the use of medication.

These modalities offer multi-dimensional depth psychotherapy: healing that bypasses the cognitive and treats problems at their source - the body’s energy.

Nancy has attained the highest certification possible in the EFT community - then called EFT Master, now called EFT Honors Certification, and has been utilizing and teaching Meridian Tapping since 1997. With a Master's Degree in Education, Nancy brings a wealth of professional and personal experience to her highly experiential sessions and workshops.  She is also a certified Trainer in Tapas Acupressure Technique, and Comprehensive Chakra Therapy, as well as an ACEP Diplomat.

2 Comments

Rehana Webster
Posted January 28, 2011 04:24 PM

Hi Nancy,
Thanks for another beautifully written and clear article on the use of EFT/EP

Nancy Gnecco
Posted January 28, 2011 04:46 PM

Dear Rehana,

Thank you so much for reading the article, and for your kind comments. You made my day!

Blessings,
Nancy

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