Energy is what makes everything happen: stars glow, rivers flow, and winds blow. Nothing happens unless energy is involved. Even the appearance of nothing happening requires energy, as when opposing forces create stasis, a vibrating stalemate of equally strong tendencies.

An object continues moving without interruption or change in direction due to its innate momentum; that is, due to the force initially exerted upon it. A person’s life is no different. The emotional force exerted upon someone in childhood can cause a life to carry on along the same path long after the initial impulse of emotional energy. A father telling his daughter in a myriad of ways from birth onward that she is worthless, ensures her lifelong trajectory of powerlessness and self-loathing – unless another energy intervenes.

In my practice for psychotherapy I have discovered that mental disorders have patterns of energy that are distinguishable from one another. Men on the verge of burnout display one form; women just diagnosed with breast cancer present another.

 Energy – too much, too little, the wrong kind, the wrong place – is always the reason someone enters my practice. It is hardly surprising, then, that these disorders are treatable with energy. Energy can be applied, as one might apply a compress, administer an injection, or even launch a slap to the head. Energy can be removed, as a doctor draws blood, cuts out a cancerous tumor, or dislodges a lump of steak with the Heimlich manouver.

Energy can be dispensed as a fine mist around a patient, much like Lister’s disinfecting cloud of carbolic acid. Just as there are medicinal baths for the arthritic, there are energy baths for the neurotic! Energy can be bestowed as a motivation, meted out as a stop-gap, or erected as an obstruction to an obsession.

In short, Energy Medicine, like any medicine, can be used to change, manipulate, sedate, alleviate – and heal.