WHAT IS ENERGY PSYCHOLOGY? - ECONOMÍA - 2025

The energy psychology is a method that tries to combine two competing approaches but can be provided widely. This type of therapy uses the information provided by the Western research-based approach, and in turn also uses the knowledge obtained from the holistic approach.

In case you did not know the word "holistic", it refers to taking the person as a global being, as something more than his symptom, his pathology or his mind. Energy psychology raises awareness of the disease and the patient in a similar way to Chinese medicine and acupuncture. The method could be defined as acupuncture without needles.

Why can it be defined as acupuncture without needles?

Acupuncture has been a technique practiced in China, as well as other Asian countries, for many years. Traditional Chinese medicine is thousands of years older than our own conventional medicine, which is based on the ancient medicine of Hippocrates.

Today, acupuncture is considered a well-known therapy around the world. In fact, there is empirical and scientific evidence that supports the benefits of acupuncture to treat various pathologies or chronic or mild pain.

According to the WHO, the efficacy of acupuncture has been demonstrated both in numerous clinical trials and in laboratory experiments.

Acupuncture is considered as a form of alternative medicine, in which the treatment is based on the puncture of the body with fine needles at important points. These points are part of a body energy map made up of acupuncture points and meridians.

The idea is that energy travels through our body in a certain way, something like established channels through which the necessary and sufficient energy must pass for everything to function properly.

When the energy stagnates or begins to flow in a way that is not correct, bodily symptoms and pain appear. So the needles act by making the energy return to its natural and healthy channel.

It can be said that energy psychology is like acupuncture without needles because, instead of using them, it uses other associated methods such as light tapping or pressing on the necessary acupuncture points.

In the case of energy psychology, the process would be designed to send signals to the brain when tapping or pressing, to help it regulate the emotions associated with good mental health.

For example, in the case of a negative imprint caused by a traumatic event, energy psychology would instruct the patient to remember the event while the professional intervenes at an energetic level modifying the electrical fields of the body, giving new information to the brain about the memory of the event..

What is the theory of energy psychology?

According to energy psychology, for the body to be healthy it needs the energy that flows inside it to be balanced.

If the energy flow is altered, health will be too. According to this type of method, if we manipulate that energy, we can help the patient to recover optimally.

Psychologists who use this technique use physical interventions to regulate energy flow and are based on the idea of ​​hyperarousal or hyperarousal.

There is a basic principle at the organic level that is based on the amount of energy a body uses for a specific situation. For example, traumatic memories or phobias of some kind create a very high arousal in the person when they encounter the memory or stimulus that frightens them.

When the arousal state is very high, we refer to hyperarousal. It would be an increase in physical, physiological and psychological activity that implies that the entire organism is in a state of alert and tension. Not only our muscles are affected by this continued tension, but even our emotions.

You may feel a decrease in the pain threshold, muscle tension, negative feelings such as fear, insomnia, emotional hyperreactivity… etc.

Hyperarousal can also be seen in people who have disorders related to anxiety and stress. In fact, the pathological thing in these cases would be that the patient is almost constantly in a high state of alert, or at least when he does not have to be.

From energy psychology it is believed that if the negative stimulus is paired with the stimulation of the correct meridian point or points, people can begin to experience less activation and discomfort when they encounter the triggers that made them not feel well.

For example, imagine that you are afraid of dogs. According to this theory, the professional who practices energy psychology, while you expose yourself to this animal, whether in memory, in an image or in vivo, would stimulate certain energy points in you, so that the energy and activation return to their state. normal and your brain understood a new way to handle the situation when you met a dog again.

What approaches or techniques does energy psychology draw on?

Energy psychology is enriched with other techniques and therapies that make the person not only able to use a path to recovery, but there are several alternatives to get back to a state of well-being.

I show you which are below:

Mental field therapy or TFT

This therapy was developed by Dr. Roger Callahan. TFT can be known by several names: mental field therapy, holistic thought field therapy, or thought field therapy.

The technique includes the word field, which can be defined as an invisible structure or material that influences matter. The term was coined by Michel Faraday.

That is, when we speak of the mental field, we refer to a type of energy vibration that influences our body. Within energy psychology, when we think about something that causes us discomfort, it will influence the meridians and energy points of the body.

For example, if we have experienced a traumatic event, each time we recall the event our body will enter a nervous, hormonal, chemical and cognitive state identical to how it was at the time the event happened.

Therefore, TFT consists of acupressure or tapping on the meridians to stimulate the necessary points and return the body to a state of tranquility and well-being, rebalancing the autonomic nervous system.

Tapas acupressure technique or TAT

This technique was developed and coined by Tapas Fleming, a California therapist. Pressure is also used in TAT, but with the variant that the person can self-administer said pressure.

Self-pressure is done with the fingers, on the face and head.

The person should focus on negative images while pressing. Later they should think of positive images, and finally they should think and focus on what they think is the cause of the problems they have.

Once the procedure has been performed, the patient can be taught to perform it outside of therapy.

Emotional Freedom Techniques or EFT

EFT is based on the association of the memory of an event that was traumatic with tapping or tapping on specific meridians and the pronunciation of self-affirmations. EFT is one of the variants that TFT has, and its forerunner was Gary Craig.

Self-affirmations should be phrases directed towards ourselves where we process love, forgiveness and compassion. The idea is to stop hurting ourselves by those mistakes we make or other negative ideas.

Most of the techniques that energy psychology uses can be self-administered. The professional will be in charge of teaching the patient how to act and self-apply the technique depending on the problem that the person presents.

Keep in mind that there are many types of people, as well as different types of conflict and that if the problem is severe, self-administration is not as effective as direct application by a professional.

Application and practice of energy psychology

Energy psychology can be applied by those professionals who work with patients who suffer from symptoms and / or disorders, such as post-traumatic stress, anxiety states, phobias, addictions… in general, altered psychological states.

Energy psychology can not only be applied by psychologists, as there are training courses that can be accessed by a large number of professionals related to the health system. If it is true that as long as the professional has a certain basis, the development of the therapy will be more optimal.

Remember that only people with training and education should work with disorders or pathologies, whether mental or physical. Or at least, if you prefer to trust another type of professional, make sure that he has extensive experience and knows how to handle situations of this type correctly.

Criticisms and limitations of energy psychology

Like everything that arises in a novel way or we know little, we tend to evaluate whether or not it really can work for us. Energy psychology, like a large multitude of alternative therapies that have existed and currently exist, has generated controversy among different professionals in the health world.

The problem of qualifying a method, technique or treatment as effective or valid comes from the fact that time and financial resources have to be allocated to its research. The way to consider a method as reliable is to prove it scientifically, and in the case of those treatments or techniques that work with non-palpable elements (such as energy) this becomes an arduous task.

Perhaps one of the main criticisms obtained by this type of therapy is the fact that the mechanisms on which it acts cannot be observed or measured at the moment, since the technology currently necessary for it is not available.

The only way to make the technique reliable is to emphasize the percentage of patients who have chosen it and have been satisfied with the results.

In the scientific field, when research is carried out, several variables must be closely controlled that can make the results confusing as to their effectiveness. We would be referring to variables such as researcher bias or even the placebo effect of the patient.

Although it should be added that there are techniques and procedures that can be used in research so that the aforementioned variables affect the results of the studies as little as possible.

Be that as it may, it can be considered that if the patient goes to perform this type of therapy and finds improvement with it, what is obtained at the individual level may be more important than whether the technique is really considered reliable from a scientific point of view.