The Promise of Energy Psychology: Revolutionary Tools for Dramatic Personal Change [Paperback]

David Feinstein (Author), Donna Eden (Author), Gary Craig (Author), Mike Bowen (Illustrator), Candace Pert (Foreword)

Book Description

Release date: November 3, 2005

This groundbreaking book explains how to tap into your body's energy not only to change your health, but to change your behaviors and thought patterns as well.  
Your body is comprised of energy pathways and energy centers that are in constant motion, a dynamic interplay with other energies and with your cells, organs, immune system, mood, and thoughts. If you can shift these energies, you can influence your physical health, your emotional patterns, and your state of mind.  

The Promise of Energy Psychology gives simple step-by-step instructions that will help you to:
 
- overcome fear, guilt, shame, jealousy, or anger 
- change unwanted habits and behaviors 
- enhance your ability to love, succeed, and enjoy life
 
The energy approach presented in this book can help bring about significant change in your life. With this strategy, stubborn phobias often fade in minutes; the lifelong effects of an early trauma can frequently be reduced or completely eliminated; uncontrollable anger can rapidly become manageable; even elusive physical problems may respond where other treatments have failed. The Promise of Energy Psychology is an amazing tool that puts the ability to effect change directly into your hands, and finally gives you control over your fears, pain, and destructive behaviors.

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

The authors readily admit their bold claims—"Your emotional health, your success in the world, and your level of joy can all be dramatically enhanced by shifting the energies that regulate them"—are not backed by empirical research. Nonetheless, Feinstein, a clinical psychologist and national director of the Energy Medicine Institute; his wife, Eden, a renowned energy healer (and Feinstein's coauthor on Energy Medicine); along with Craig, founder of Emotional Freedom Techniques (EFT), assert that phobias and anxieties often fade in minutes, trauma might be alleviated in a few sessions, anger can be decreased, depression may be managed without medication, and young children can be given an achievement boost by following their techniques. The theory is that "stimulating energy points on the skin, paired with specified mental activities, can instantly shift your brain's electrochemistry." Despite the wide use of acupuncture in alternative Western medicine, not much is known about the body's energies and how that energy can be used in healing. The authors say this book can be approached with a "show-me" attitude. Indeed, Feinstein, Eden and Craig will have to "show" empirical evidence before their method can be supported by the mental health field. (Nov.)
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

About the Author

David Feinstein, Ph.D., is a clinical psychologist who serves as national director of the Energy Medicine Institute.  

Donna Eden has been teaching people how to understand their body's energies for more than twenty-five years. She has treated more than ten thousand clients individually and has taught hundreds of classes throughout the world.  

Gary Craig is the founder of Emotional Freedom Techniques (EFT), the most widely used of all the techniques within the burgeoning new field of energy psychology.

Product Details

• Paperback: 336 pages
• Publisher: Jeremy P. Tarcher/The Penguin Group (November 3, 2005)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1585424420
• ISBN-13: 978-1585424429
• Product Dimensions: 9.1 x 6.1 x 0.9 inches
• Shipping Weight: 14.4 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.5 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (35 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #28,232 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

256 of 260 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars Outstanding, readable introduction to energy psychology and personal change April 14, 2006

By O. Brown HALL OF FAMETOP 50 REVIEWERVINE™ VOICE

Format:Paperback|Amazon Verified Purchase

*****

While I would describe this book as "phenomenal" for those unfamiliar with but simply curious about energy psychology, it is also chock full of in-depth information that would be helpful to experienced EFT (Emotional Freedom Techniques) practitioners. I should say that I myself am an experienced EFT practitioner; I have been waiting for something like this book. Past EFT books have not been as well-written, or else have been sensationalized, with descriptions of one-minute wonders and miracle cures; with EFT, such things do happen all the time, but they are atypical. EFT is a wonderful modality, an incredibly useful tool that can be used by virtually anyone after ten minutes or so of instruction; likewise, it can be used elegantly, creatively, and artistically after years of experience in the hands of a studied and credentialed EFT practitioner.

What makes "The Promise of Energy Psychology" work is its credibility. Much of it is written by David Feinstein, a seasoned psychologist, in a professional, non-hyperbolic way, describing the process of EFT and energy psychology. This is, in my opinion, the best writing done to date about EFT. The forward is written by Candace Pert, who is well-respected in the scientific community. That said, this is NOT a scholarly tome, but an accessible, well-written manual for those who want to understand this emerging paradigm for emotional healing that has become wildly popular in the last ten years.

Other parts of the book was written by Gary Craig, the founder of EFT, and Donna Eden, the author of the classic book on energy medicine and Dr. Feinstein's wife. These parts also conform to the same high standards and great utility as the rest of the book. Those readers who have familiarity with either Gary Craig's admirable work in developing and establishing EFT as a viable tool for personal change or with Donna Eden's extensive work in the energy medicine field will not be disappointed with this book. The book is pretty much split into two parts, with the first half focusing on EFT and the second half focusing on energy medicine.

Use Amazon's "Search inside this book" feature to explore the book more; I am grateful that the authors enabled this feature. I am certain that if you are interested at all in this area (EFT, energy psychology, energy medicine), you'll be pleased with the book. If you have downloaded EFT's free manual from their web site, but really wanted something more in-depth, scientific, credible, and less self-promoting, you will also love this book.

My favorite aspect of the book is the logical and understandable explanations for WHY EFT works. It's true that very little scientific research has been done on this technique, but the speculative informed explanations by the authors are so helpful. I am more of the type of person who likes to understand WHY I'm using a technique that is perceived by others as so... "out there"...or well..."weird", and this book gives me intelligent explanations for how and why it works!

Buy this book if you want to know more about EFT than is available on EFT's web site (www.emofree.com) or in the free manual downloadable from there. Buy it if you are a psychotherapeutic professional and absolutely require information that is not sensationalized or hyperbolic or self-promoting. Buy it if you want to learn to do EFT on your own. Buy it if you are interested at all in energy medicine, or if you're an alternative health care practitioner. Especially buy it if you are a psychotherapeutic professional (especially someone familiar with EMDR) and want to know about effective emerging tools. If you don't buy it, you'll wish you did, as you'll be hearing more and more about energy work in the future and then will want to remember "that book" that discussed these tools in a non-New-Agey, reasonable, intelligent fashion.

*****

178 of 183 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars ...and I thought the high standard setup by Energy Medicine book would be hard to match November 24, 2005

By tomasd

Format:Paperback

Techniques included in this book changed my life for much better (and if you wonder why so shortly after the book was published, it is because some of them I have known for a longer time, from Energy Medicine (EM) book by same authors, and from other sources).

What I like so much are the pictures included with every technique, that will help graps the "how to" much better than a mere textual description. Invaluable. Technically, the only thing that I miss is the index at the end of the book - it was in the EM book and it has proven to be very valuable there.

The basic differences from the EM book by same authors, as I could grasp quickly: EFT (emotional freedom techniques) from Gary Craig included, pictures for each exercise (there were many pictures in EM book too, but sometimes I was confused as for the details of certain exercises, these are now thankfully included in this book), research evidence, joy circuits covered in detail (you owe them to yourself and your body!). EM book was more about energies while this one is more about personal change applications, though there is a wide intersection for sure.

Scientific validations included will definitely be important for some people. I personally don't care for it too much - my validation as with everything is whether it WORKED FOR ME after I have used it - in that respect saying I'm SATISFIED is an understatement.

There are books by authors that are good at writing. Others are experts in their field. Some others are just inventors but lack when it comes to spreading their message. Donna Eden, David Feinstein and Gary Craig are rare authors in respect of a unique trinity of skills: being gifted as teachers (authors and spreaders of the message), inventors and experts (and doers) all together.

Pure diamond.

86 of 86 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars A Landmark Book In This Burgeoning New Field January 3, 2006

By Charles Curtis

Format:Paperback|Amazon Verified Purchase

Many therapists from different disciplines, myself among them, are discovering the power of the amazing techniques described here. I have seen clients eliminate physical pain and emotional distress, sometimes in just a few minutes, by tapping on certain acupuncture points in the prescribed way. Gary Craig, one of the coauthors, is the developer of EFT (Emotional Freedom Technique). In the first half of the book, EFT is described and then shown by example how it can be used for various situations, from expunging old negative emotions to achieving brand new goals. The writeup of the technique itself is explained simply enough that a layperson should be able to understand this technology. So whether someone is dealing with a "stuck feeling" or a chronic pain, and whether they apply it to themselves in a self-help way, or find a qualified therapist to assist them, learning this technique will be life-changing.

The second half of the book expands on this information by including ways to energize and balance the body's health, immune system function, etc, by other energy techniques. Anyone who has read coauthor Donna Eden's excellent "Energy Medicine" will find themselves on familiar ground with the new material she was written here.

While written simply enough to be usable by a layperson, this book is also usable as a resource by professional therapists, as its many examples are all of various clinical cases, some quite complex, and how they were handled. Very well written, very worth while, and a bargain at the price.