Counselling and Psychotherapy Research, September 2012; 12(3): 224
232

Energy psychology and psychotherapy: A study of the use of energy

psychology in psychotherapy practice

ELIZABETH MASON*
Trowbridge, Wiltshire, UK

Abstract
Aim: The aim of the study was to increase understanding of how energy psychology informs and affects counselling/
psychotherapy practice. By undertaking phenomenological interviews with experienced clinicians, the aim was to enrich and
expand on the scientific approaches to energy psychology research. Method: This research is based on in-depth semistructured interviews using interpretative phenomenological analysis (IPA). Five experienced psychotherapists who are also
practitioners of energy psychology were interviewed. Findings: Four main themes emerged from the analysis: energy
psychology as a potent intervention that facilitates shifts in emotions, cognitions, behaviours and physiology; the safety of
energy psychology techniques; the role of the therapeutic relationship when using energy psychology techniques; and the
challenges of integrating energy psychology into the work context, highlighting the need for more complex, systemic models
to understand how people experience distress and how change is facilitated. Conclusion: Overall, participants in this study
found energy psychology to be a valuable supplement to counselling and psychotherapy. The implications for current
practice are discussed.

Keywords: counselling; energy psychology; meridian energy therapies; psychotherapy; emotional freedom
techniques; thought field therapy

Introduction
Energy psychology (EP) refers to a range of therapies
that link psychological and physiological distress
with disturbances in the energy fields of the body
(Grudermeyer, 2002, as cited in Mollon, 2005).
It does this by working with the bodys energy
pathways (acupuncture meridians); energy centres
(chakras) and biofield (aura) alongside cognitive
procedures that facilitate therapeutic shifts in
targeted emotions, cognitions and behaviours.
While some of the methods involved in energy
psychology are new, the concept of energy is
ancient and found in many parts of the world. The
energy system is thought to include 14 main
meridians, connecting with seven major energy
centres known as chakras, all contained within an
aura. Many forms of complementary medicine
draw upon the concept of energy fields (Mollon,
2005). Cell biologist Oschman (2000, 2003) has
studied extensively the nature of energy medicine
from a scientific perspective. He maintains that there

is a system within the human body that transfers and

processes information in ways that are different from
the nervous, hormonal and biochemical systems
as they are usually portrayed. He states that by
focusing most of our attention on molecular reactions, we have missed the larger picture: the role of
electrons, electromagnetic fields, and related energetic and quantum processes; the properties of
space; and consciousness itself. He concludes that
the single most important attribute of the organism
is its systemic interconnectedness (p. xxxi). He cites
advancements in our understanding of the mechanisms and measurements of some of these energetic
exchanges.

The development of energy psychology

Energy psychology builds upon the work of chiropractor George Goodheart in the 1960s who
discovered that muscle testing could be used to
find information about the interlinking areas of the

*Email: lizmason@talktalk.net; www.soulworks-uk.co.uk

ISSN 1473-3145 print/1746-1405 online # 2012 British Association for Counselling and Psychotherapy
http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/14733145.2012.657208

Energy psychology and psychotherapy

body, mind and meridian energy system (Mollon,
2010). Psychiatrist Dr John Diamond extended this
work further into emotional and psychological domains (Diamond, 1985). Clinical psychologist Roger
Callahan (2001) built on Goodhearts system developing Thought Field Therapy (TFT), a comprehensive psychological approach based on observations
that when a particular sequence of acupressure
points is tapped, an associated anxiety or other
psychological distress is eliminated. Gary Craig
(2008), a personal performance coach, subsequently
developed Emotional Freedom Techniques (EFT), a
modified, simpler version of TFT. Through his
website, training manuals and EFT practitioner
training, he has enabled energy psychology to be
accessible and easy to learn (http://www.emofree.
com).
During the 1990s, clinical psychologist Fred Gallo
(1999) coined the term energy psychology. He
defines this as:
. . . the branch of psychology that studies the
effects of energy systems on emotions and behaviour. (Gallo, 1999, p. xi)
Development of energy psychology in psychotherapy
. . . purely talk-based forms of psychotherapy,
although not without value, are simply not able
to engage effectively with the realm in which
patterns of emotional distress are encoded
the
area at the interface of the psyche and the soma,
the bodys energy field. (Mollon, 2008, p. 2).
The concept of working with energy is not new in
psychotherapy and, therapists continue to explore
the specific applications of energy psychology in
psychotherapy. Mollon (2005, 2008) has developed
Psychoanalytic Energy Psychotherapy (PEP). He
suggests that psychoanalytic theories and the concepts of energy psychology are compatible. For
example, he cites Freud describing the ego as first
and foremost a body ego, his early work being
concerned with libido and hysterical disturbances
of the body function. Clinton (2011) has developed
an approach called Advanced Integrative Therapy
(AIT), which has psychodynamic underpinnings and
is also informed by spiritual traditions (http://www.
seemorgmatrix.org). Both psychotherapists have developed comprehensive models to integrate energy
psychology into psychotherapy.

225

Energy psychology has continued to develop

with practitioners bringing their own specialism
to the field. Some of the more well-known
approaches include Tapas Acupressure Techniques
(TAT) (http://www.tatlife.com), and Emotrance
(Hartmann, 2003).

How energy psychology works

Feinstein (2008, 2010) states that the mechanisms of
energy psychology have not been empirically validated and are therefore controversial, however, he
suggests it is an exposure-based treatment, the
effectiveness of which is well established in the
treatment of post traumatic stress disorder (PTSD)
and anxiety disorders. He offers a hypothesis based
on established research findings that involve: (1)
Acupoint stimulation during hyper arousal which
can send deactivation signals to brain structures that
regulate affect; (2) Reconsolidation of a memory or
thought, which diminishes their ability to trigger
hyper arousal, and after a number of exposures leads
to the extinction of an elevated limbic response.
Mollon (2008) also suggests that the observational
stance inherent in the EFT procedure is similar to
the practice of mindfulness in cognitive therapy.
These explanations do not fully embrace the concept
of an energy system which is at the root of energy
psychology.

Energy psychology research

In the early 1990s, Figley, dissatisfied with the
limited success of talking therapies in the treatment
of trauma, invited therapists to nominate treatment
programmes for further research that could be
observed under laboratory conditions. TFT was
amongst those found to be most effective (Carbonell
& Figley, 1999, as cited in Mollon 2008). Subsequently, Feinstein (2008) reviewed evidence regarding the efficacy of energy psychology. He reports on
a wide range of studies from anecdotal reports to
controlled trials. He suggests that energy psychology
may be unprecedented in the amount of systematically collected anecdotal outcome data it has
accumulated. Four trials with limited generalisability
were reported on. The largest involved approximately 5,000 patients diagnosed with a range of
anxiety disorders, assigned to either TFT or cognitive behavioural therapy (CBT). Complete remission
was reported by 76% of patients in the TFT group

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E. Mason

and 63% of the CBT group (Andrade & Feinstein,

2004).
Of the 11 controlled trials with stronger generalisability reviewed, he suggests that two of these
studies, EFT for the treatment of specific phobias
(Wells, Polglase, Andrews, Carrington, & Baker,
2003) and a study using TAT for maintaining weight
loss (Elder et al., 2007), bring energy psychology
past the threshold as a probably efficacious treatment or specific phobias and TAT as a probably
efficacious treatment for weight loss. Feinstein
acknowledges limitations in the quality of studies
available and there are design limitations of his
review.
More recently, Church (2010) looked at the
treatment of 11 veterans and family members for
combat trauma using EFT. After treatment, the
group no longer scored positive for PTSD and their
psychological distress decreased significantly. In a
study by Sakai, Connolly, and Oas (2010), the
treatment of 50 adolescent Rwandan genocide
survivors with a single session of TFT also demonstrated dramatic reductions in PTSD symptoms.
The use of TFT on a peer utilised basis was then
applied and follow-up a year later showed the initial
improvements had been maintained.
Method
The aim of this research was to increase understanding about how energy psychology informs and
affects counselling/psychotherapy practice. It is
based on in-depth semi-structured interviews using
interpretative phenomenological analysis (IPA) as its
underpinning. The central research question being:
What are counsellors/psychotherapists personal
and professional experiences of using energy
psychology?
IPA is informed by phenomenology, hermeneutics
and idiography. It is concerned with the participants
personal perceptions and accounts of the topic. The
researcher then makes sense of the participants
personal world through interpretative activity. The
analysis is cyclical and involves identifying and
building on themes and connections in the data
(Smith, Larkin, & Flowers, 2009).
Research participants
Participants were selected using a snowball sampling
approach, building on existing contacts and new
leads. There was also an element of purposeful

sampling in order to include as far as possible

participants with differing therapeutic orientations
and those who can bring a range of perspectives to
the research.
Five experienced, registered psychotherapists who
were also practitioners of one or more approaches to
energy psychology were interviewed. Participants
ages ranged from 50
71 years, four were female and
one male. Psychotherapy schools represented
include: Cognitive Analytic Psychotherapy; Transpersonal Psychotherapy; Integrative Psychotherapy;
Family Therapy and Transactional Analysis. Different approaches to Energy Psychology were represented and all participants were familiar with EFT.
All participants were in private practice.
Ethical considerations
The whole population of counsellors/psychotherapists using energy psychology approaches is small in
the UK therefore particular considerations were
made to issues around power, access, respect,
anonymity and confidentiality when considering
participant involvement (Blaxter, Hughes, & Tight,
1996). Particular attention was given to the confidentiality and anonymity of clients by the researcher and participants throughout. All names used in
this paper are pseudonyms.
Permission was granted from the CCPE and
De Montfort University Research Ethics Board for
the MA research project. Research participants have
since read and approved the ensuing results.
Reflexive statement
My first personal experience of energy psychology
had a profound impact on me. While it instantly,
unexpectedly and rather dramatically precipitated a
transformative change, it has taken me years to
integrate and make sense of this. I am curious about
approaches that can shed a different light on how
change is facilitated but also cautious about claims of
rapid changes in a process I consider to be relational.
In practice, I have found energy psychology to be
surprisingly effective in freeing clients from debilitating symptoms such as PTSD and phobias as well
as being able to offer an effective self-help tool that
helps raise awareness and changes established
patterns which cause distress. With some clients
the techniques have formed only part of the therapy,
while with others the techniques have not been
introduced at all. I am mindful of managing the

Energy psychology and psychotherapy

expectations and disruptions that can potentially be
evoked for people who can be desperate for change. I
have also come across some over-simplified and
overstated claims in energy psychology. These aspects, alongside the intangibility of the concept of
energy may account for some of the scepticism of
energy psychology I have encountered in the psychotherapy field. However, I have also witnessed
much curiosity about these approaches and reports
of rapid and effective changes that in my view
deserve further attention and understanding.

Participant use of energy psychology

Participants used energy psychology for the specific
treatment of conditions such as: PTSD; addictions;
anger; phobias; depression and anxiety. Other applications were supporting a personal development
process such as: creative exploration; changing
patterns of relating to self and others; releasing and
regulating emotional states.

All participants described the facilitation of physical and emotional releases and commented on how
clients looked more relaxed and freer after working
with EFT techniques. Rachel described EFT as
transformational in facilitating changes with men
who have difficulties with anger. Two men had
reported feeling much calmer after using EFT. One
commented on how his wife noticed the tension had
gone out of his face and his body. This in turn helped
to relieve some physical pain in his body, highlighting the connection between somatic and emotional states.
Lucy described working with EFT as a way of
tapping into the person on a physical and energetic
level. Her personal experience of this was of waking
the self up when she has been sapped of energy and
feeling low. Lucy also described a dramatic shift
when using EFT with a client who had low selfesteem and had experienced severe trauma in her
childhood:
. . . she seemed to shift completely with her body,
all these feelings were let out and she felt much
better . . . which would normally take years of
therapy . . . That was very powerful on both sides,
shes a very defended person. (p. 17.18)

Results
Four main themes emerged from the analysis as
follows (see Table I).

Theme One: Energy psychology as facilitative of

therapeutic change
Experiences of a shift. When using energy psychology techniques, participants felt they were at times
able to facilitate change more effectively than by
talking therapies alone and were struck by the speed
in which change could occur. They described energy
psychology as facilitating a shift, some change which
could occur in emotions, cognitions, behaviours, and
physiology. They also described being able to change
established patterns with energy psychology that
could be occurring on these different levels.

227

The initial shift was experienced on a physical and then

emotional level. It is hard to know how the changes
impacted on the client in the long term, although it is
clear that the client felt relief after the work.
Claire gave another example of a shift occurring
rapidly with a young woman who had experienced a
very traumatic event. In this instance she used TAT.
This involved holding specific meridian and chakra
points while focusing on a sequence of thoughts
relating to the trauma.
I did TAT with her, and the mother phoned me up
and said shes completely different. She just
changed, the anger went out of her. (p. 10.13)

Table I. The four main themes which emerged from the analysis.
Theme One:
Energy psychology as facilitative of therapeutic change.
Theme Two:
The respectful nature of energy psychology.
Theme Three:
The impact of energy psychology on the therapeutic relationship.
Theme Four:
The challenges of integrating energy psychology into the work context.

Sub theme one: Experiences of a shift

Sub theme two: Linking the psyche and soma

Sub theme one: Therapeutic alliance

Sub theme two: Power in the relationship
Sub theme three: Connection in the relationship

Note: Quotes in the analysis are referenced to the original interview transcripts: for example p. 19.27 refers to page 19 line 27 in the original
transcript.

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E. Mason

The mother subsequently described how this session

helped to improve relationships in the family by
being less reactive to each other.
Claire explained the shift:
. . . I think I cleared the trauma out of her system.
Not all of it because we only did one session, but it
was enough to bring down the levels of reactivity.
(p. 10.23)
Claire also felt spiritual qualities were evoked in this
session.
In most of the examples given in the interviews,
shifts on an energetic, somatic or emotional level
have preceded changes in cognitions and behaviours
rather than the other way round. This is illustrated in
Rachels own experience of a shift occurring during
an EFT session where she was working on a longterm fear:
. . . doing tapping on some deep issues for myself
and feeling that energy shift and then just noticing
I was different because of it, at a somatic level, so
it had no words. (p. 2.26)
. . . and then I feel a loss of something, I catch
myself over the next few days, looking for it . . . I
feel strange without it until my body catches up
and gets used to it, and then I never notice it again
and then the difference is that it makes a difference
in my thinking and the way I am. (p. 8.8)
This demonstrates how Rachel was able to embrace this change at an energetic and somatic level
even though she couldnt initially rationalise it. It
was only once the somatic shifts had occurred that
she was able to make changes in her thinking and
behaviours relating to her fear.
Linking the psyche and soma. All participants thought
the linking of the psyche and the soma by formulating
the right words to represent experiences was an
important element of the work. Claire commented:
. . . the unconscious is very literal and finding the
best linguistic match to the experience helps . . .
(p. 16.2)
For example, Rachel identified and tapped on the
words deprivation and anger which precisely
matched a somatic state she believed linked to preverbal experiences. She also identified these words as

matching current states she sometimes experienced

in her relationships and her eating patterns. Once
she was able to identify and free the somatic state
through EFT, she was then able, over time, to
change cognitive and behavioural patterns relating
to her eating and in her relationships.

Theme Two: The respectful nature of energy psychology

Energy psychology was generally experienced by
participants as a safe and gentle intervention. Claire
commented on the gratitude clients generally felt to
be relieved of distress. In some examples, clients
were given permission not to have to talk about or
engage with the affect of the trauma directly while
working through energy psychology protocols to
clear distress. This also at times included using
bilateral stimulation to help desensitization and
processing of emotional states.
Rachel worked with clients who suffered abuse
and found the tapping techniques a much gentler
approach to processing their experiences than talking alone. Likewise she has found it helpful with two
clients who had been in road traffic accidents to help
clear the flashbacks and anger they were still
experiencing. George, Lucy and Sandra reported
only temporary emotional or physiological discomfort through the use of energy psychology, which
settled before completion of the session.
However, changes can be rapid and recognition
and integration of the changes need supporting.
Rachel reflected on her initial training of EFT where
the trainer stated that the techniques wouldnt harm
anybody. She had one experience that contradicted
this advice. She spoke about the fear and disintegration experienced by a client:
I think it scared him, he was really angry, he said
youve fucked with my brain. (p. 3.21)
. . . its that bodily shift, the experience of being left
without this energy that youre carrying. This
doesnt feel like me anymore. And that is what I
think scared him. (p. 3.44)
On reflection Rachel felt she had not acknowledged
how fragile the client was and the extent to which he
needed to stay in control. This was also something
Claire recognised with a long term client who was
resistant to using energy psychology:

Energy psychology and psychotherapy

He has huge control issues, very intrusive traumatic experiences and he has to stay in control.
(p. 2.22)
Claire felt that one can go too deeply, too quickly
and the boundaries and context of the work are
important. Rachel reflected on her understanding of
transactional analysis and the need to strengthen the
adult ego state with fragile clients. Claire also
commented on the emphasis in her AIT training of
the importance of building ego strength.
Participants described the need for thorough
assessment processes that identifies with whom,
how and when particular interventions are made.
Claire identified this as an integral part of AIT and
PEP, while other participants related their assessment back to their primary psychotherapy modalities. This may also account for the low level of
adverse affects experienced from the use of energy
psychology with a client group who can often be
fragile.

Theme Three: The impact of energy psychology on the

therapeutic relationship
Therapeutic alliance. Overall, there was a relatively
high percentage of clients who were either not
offered energy psychology or chose not to take it
up. Reasons identified by participants include: the
need for a reparative relationship; suspicion of
unfamiliar techniques; the need to address and
work through transference or attend to other aspects
of the therapeutic alliance. For example, Claire
worked with a long-term client who chose not to
use energy psychology because she wanted to assert
autonomy in the sessions. This linked directly into
issues arising from her family of origin. Claire also
identified the need to attend to transference issues in
the therapeutic relationship with another client
before doing energy psychology work.
Both Sandra and Claire reported that the need for
a reparative relationship was the primary reason at
times for not using energy psychology. Claire comments:
. . . I had two young people say I dont want to
do that because it was too technique based.
(p. 3.4)
Claire thought that as practitioners working with
a range of distress, we need all our skills as

229

psychotherapists to work through complex issues.

It was clear that all participants were doing this, and
at times this also meant not using energy psychology.
Power in the relationship. The energy psychology
techniques were described by participants as a
powerful tool with a potent impact upon the clients.
Participants were excited by the way clients could be
taught to use the techniques as a self-help tool. They
reported how clients were able to shift certain
emotional states for themselves which in turn
increased their confidence and ability to self-regulate
certain states such as anger and anxiety. Rachel
stated:
. . . I wish more people would take it up and use it,
because I think it is the most powerful skill I can
teach somebody. (p. 18.35)
Lucy described some work with a woman who had
initially been resistant to EFT:
It helped to clear the blocks . . . I lent her the CDs
and she felt empowered by it and interested in it.
(p. 9.18)
This suggests a dynamic where the client feels more
in control, more able to affect their own change and
therefore empowered by the process.
Lucy was attracted to energy psychology work
because it was quick, powerful and effective.
Conversely, she was also sensitive to how the use of
the techniques would impact on her role as a
psychotherapist. One of her concerns was over the
changing dynamics when introducing something
that is not necessarily invited and imposing her
own personality on the clients work.
Claire comments on the need to stay attuned to
the impact of the interventions:
. . . Its more interventionalist and you have to be
careful, like with anything, you have to pay
attention to the impact its having, what the
patient is experiencing. (p. 23.8)
Connection in the relationship. Energy psychology was
described by participants as a creative process within
the relationship, one which is developmental and
fluid once the techniques are integrated. Lucy states:
Basically I just use it as a vehicle. Thats what I
think it is, to harness your intuition through some
method. (p. 5.49)

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E. Mason

Participants explored how energy psychology helped

them to attune to clients and be fully present in the
relationship. Rachel noticed that clients often reported that the techniques were more powerful
during a session with her than when clients used
them on their own. She wondered if tapping alongside clients enabled her to tune into an energetic
connection with her client. She also thought that
tapping alongside her client could be experienced as
important mirroring. Lucy discovered that using
EFT personally after sessions with very distressed
clients helped to reduce the impact of countertransference. This in turn had a positive impact on
the client work. Claire, Sandra and George also felt
some of the energy work could help them connect
with clients on a spiritual level, which they felt
enabled deeper healing.

Im using all the tools of my trade to help people,

using relaxation techniques, anxiety management
techniques. (p. 8.17)
Participants discussed ways in which they measured
effects of energy psychology. These measurements
are to differing extents embedded in the different
modalities of energy psychology. Claire stated that
the concept of a diagnosis and the development of a
treatment plan is central to AIT and is similar to
a psychodynamic model of diagnosis. However
Rachels example above highlights the difficulty of
evidencing changes on a somatic level and poses a
dilemma within mental health services which puts
high value on measuring cognitive and behavioural
changes.

Discussion
Theme Four: The challenges of integrating energy
psychology into the work context
The impact of the participants work context on
their use of energy psychology varied enormously.
Sandra and George felt the concept of working
with energy was already embedded in their work,
therefore it did not pose a dilemma. Lucy, Claire
and Rachel on the other hand felt that the way
change is experienced and described in the use of
energy psychology does not fit easily with prevailing
mental health services. When receiving referrals
from the NHS, Lucy feels that the prevailing
paradigm limits her freedom to explore these
techniques. Rachel felt that working on somatic
and emotional levels were not trusted or valued by
some professionals working within the prevailing
mental health system:
I was trying to explain that shift, and the psychologist that was definitely against it, wouldnt go
near feelings . . . so it wasnt just to do with the
EFT I wanted to use. (p. 6.33)
There were numerous ways in which participants
described how they bridged these paradigms. Both
George and Sandra felt that the concepts of neuroscience and energy work were confluent, that it
used different language to describe the same effect.
Claire stated that at times she needed to re-frame
definitions of energy psychology work in order to fit
the NHS paradigm by saying:

Jungian analyst Wilkinson (2006) has applied

insights gained from neuroscience to psychotherapy.
She argues that experience comes to us through our
body and our senses and therefore it is our body that
can teach us how to work with trauma. The findings
in this research support this viewpoint, where, in
most of the examples given, shifts on an energetic,
somatic or emotional level seem to have preceded
changes in cognitions and behaviours. Linking the
psyche and soma through working at this interface,
was seen as an important aspect of the work.
Energy psychology was generally experienced as a
safe intervention and Carbonell and Figleys research
(1999, as cited in Mollon, 2008) attributes this, in
part, to trauma being recalled in the presence of
relaxation or the absence of stress. Wilkinson (2006)
describes how over-reaction of the amygdala is
perceived to give rise to PTSD. She argues that
patients can unconsciously seek re-traumatisation in
the consulting room in order to experience an
endorphic high which can become an addictive
response to repetitive trauma. This could explain in
part why participants felt having tools to directly
address traumas without clients having to repeatedly
re-engage with them was helpful.
The field of energy psychology brings a rich
tapestry of knowledge and experience to our understanding of health from different paradigms and
theoretical stances. It is not surprising therefore that
there are different theories and hypotheses about
the underlying mechanisms of energy psychology
(Feinstein, 2008, 2009). This at times, appears to
lead to confusing information about what energy

Energy psychology and psychotherapy

psychology is and how it works. The confusion may
in part be symptomatic of trying to bridge paradigms
of east and west, interchanging language and concepts that sit uneasily together. At the root of energy
psychology, the concept of an energy system is
perhaps the most controversial aspect of the work
within the prevailing paradigms. The systemic
interconnection of our beings that Oschman
(2003) identifies, is, I believe an important concept
to embrace in counselling and psychotherapy practice if we are to effectively engage with clients
holistically.
One of the difficulties of using energy psychology
emanates from a positivistic framework within which
energy psychology generally resides, setting up expectations that all therapy can be rapid. Transpersonal psychologist Rowan (2005) reminds us there is
no quick route to transformation and this could be
delusional as well as being potentially dangerous.
With its roots in ancient healing traditions and
claims of rapid results, it is easy to see how this
dichotomy could be present in energy psychology.
Psychotherapist White (1999) also reminds us that
transformational change, of necessity, means that we
are no longer the person we knew. This was evident
in Rachels description of how she experienced
change when using EFT. He points out:
. . .transformation, particularly if it has to do with
meaning, purpose or spirit, is all too often a rude,
frightening and unwanted awakening. (White,
1999, p. 6)
This disruption is essential in order for the old ways
of being to make way for the new. Psychotherapist
Moore (1992) also emphasises the importance of
learning from our distress. Rather than trying to get
rid of symptoms, we sometimes need to listen to
them and understand their role in our lives. These
vital aspects of change are hinted at in participant
interviews, but on the whole unacknowledged in
energy psychology literature.

Limitations of the study

By focusing broadly on personal and professional use
of energy psychology I was able to collect a range of
perspectives and experiences on the use of energy
psychology. However, some of the richer phenomenological data came from participants personal
experiences and it was at times difficult to extract
phenomenological data from their professional use.

231

This was in part due to the way I set the questions,

resulting in a lack of depth to some of the data and
subsequent analysis of the results. This was exacerbated by the different paradigms and methods of
energy psychology and participant approaches to
psychotherapy. Putting more emphasis on different
concepts to analyse the data could easily draw
different conclusions.
A specific energy psychology exercise for participants with follow up interviews may have been a
useful way of keeping a focus on the experiential
phenomena. This experience also highlighted the
potential the value of including ex-clients directly as
research participants, something I shied away from
because of ethical issues.

Implications for practice

Energy psychology has provided participants with
tools to help some of their clients to clear a range of
distressing symptoms more easily, safely and effectively than with psychological interventions alone.
Working at the interface of the psyche and soma
was experienced as an essential aspect of this work.
This suggests that approaches addressing primarily
cognitions and behaviours to the exclusion of other
aspects of our beings will be limited in effecting
changes with some clients. These findings and
further study into energy psychology could challenge
current developments in Improving Access to Psychological Therapies (IAPT), which limits interventions to cognitions and behaviours through the
practice of CBT (Perren & Robinson, 2010).
Participant experiences support the notion that
distress can be held in our whole body system and
the concept of systemic interconnection of our
beings. This requires us to re-think what we understand about how people experience distress, where
distress is located and about what causes change in
counselling and psychotherapy practice. This in turn
requires us to re-consider how practice-based research can incorporate complex systemic models of
treatment that represent a wider reality of how
human beings restore and maintain mental health.
This research also identified the need for careful
assessment and support in helping clients to pace
and tolerate rapid changes. These findings, as well as
the relational aspects of the work, run counter to
Craigs (2009) aim to reduce therapy into hours and
minutes with EFT and for the techniques to be
applied to any problem. This claim poses a danger of
energy psychology losing the complexities inherent

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E. Mason

in its ancient wisdom and being swallowed up by its

positivistic claims.
Conclusion
Participants found energy psychology to be a valuable supplement to psychotherapy and found ways of
integrating the techniques into their practice. The
need to embrace complex, holistic ways of supporting people in restoring and maintaining mental
health has been highlighted. Issues of employing
potentially powerful techniques have been explored.
Energy psychology approaches have been made
freely available worldwide and are accessible to a
diverse range of people. It is maybe not so much
about using powerful techniques in psychotherapy,
so much as being in our own power with integrity that
is complex and challenging.
Acknowledgements
I would like to thank the research participants as well
as tutors from CCPE and De Montfort University
who have inspired me and made this research
possible. Thank you also to Otto Rheinschmiedt
and colleagues who have supported me with their
wisdom, healthy scepticism and encouragement.
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Biography
Elizabeth Mason has an established psychotherapy, supervision and training practice. She works
with individuals, groups and organisations in the
public and private sectors. This paper is based on an
MA research undertaken at the Centre for Counselling and Psychotherapy Education (CCPE) in association with De Montfort University, UK.

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