The Energy of Energy Psychology

Abstract

The vague or controversial use of the term energy in the clinical subdiscipline known as “energy psychology” has been an obstacle to the field’s acceptance. This paper discusses five forms of energy and explores the role of each in energy psychology treatments. While patterns in (a) electrical signaling, (b) brain waves, and (c) electromagnetic fields are presumably shifted in any form of effective psychotherapy, a strength of energy psychology interventions is shown to be in their ability to initiate such effects in a deliberate and targeted manner. This paper examines the roles of these three well-established energy forms in explaining the rapid and durable outcomes seen with a wide range of conditions following energy psychology treatments. A fourth form of energy, “subtle energy,” is by definition too subtle for detection by conventional scientific instruments. These energies have, however, been recognized in at least 97 healing traditions around the world and are considered to be the infrastructure of the body’s physiological processes. Skepticism about subtle energies has, nonetheless, caused many critics to reject an energy psychology approach entirely, ignoring the substantial evidence base supporting it. Even more speculative are quantum influences that occur within energy psychology treatments, yet preliminary evidence for these dynamics, such as healing from a distance, has been accumulating. Although the more speculative mechanisms associated with energy psychology remain controversial, the measurable electromagnetic effects that have been shown to affect psychological states strongly support the use of the term “energy psychology.”