... DEH Articless

Healing Energetically
Marybeth Carden, Salem Monthly May 2004

With a therapy practice spanning over 20 years, Mary Hammond MA LPC offers a unique style of healing in Salem OR. Along with Howard Brockman LCSW, and Nancy Gordon LCSW, these three licensed therapists developed a healing strategy called Dynamic Energetic Healing®. I had a chance to interview Mary about this fascinating work and how it can benefit others. [Full Text]

Theoretical Overview of Dynamic Energetic Healing®
Mary Hammond 1998, All rights reserved

Energy is the basic foundation for everything; matter, water, air and fire. Everything, animate and inanimate, has a distinct energy field. When we work in that field with intention, energy shifts. Chinese Medicine and Quantum Physics, as well as many spiritual traditions, provide the theoretical bases for DEH. The basic purpose of the individual energy field is to support health and well-being.
[Full Text]

WHAT IS DYNAMIC ENERGETIC HEALING?

It is a synthesis of many models of energy psychology that Howard Brockman, Nancy Gordon and I developed in 1996-1997. It uses principles from Chinese medicine that say we have an energy field that is 8 to 20 feet around us, and that there are major meridian points that can be accessed easily by the client touching or tapping on the face and clothed upper body that clears physical, mental, emotional and spiritual trauma. It also uses muscle testing which uses pressure on the deltoid muscle to ask questions of the body energy field. It helps us by-pass the conscious mind and get more easily to the unconscious material which allows more thorough healing.

CAN YOU EXPLAIN MORE?  

So for instance, we develop an intention for healing such as, I heal my depression, or I heal anxiety or, I heal my anger in relationships and then we ask what current life origins, which are events that occur from pre-birth to present, what ancestral origins there are to heal, which is energy that is passed on through the generations which we can easily access. Then we ask what past life origins need healing, which is the energy that comes in with the soul that we can also easily access and heal.

HOW DOES THE ANCESTRAL HEALING WORK?  

The energy field of a child is the same as their parents until they are seven years old. Ancient eastern knowledge, as well as this century developmental authors such as Erik Erickson support this. So as a child is growing up with parents who have been depressed, lets say a mother who’s been depressed, who grew up with a father who was alcoholic, who grew up with a father who was abusive, some of that gets passed on energetically through the generations, and we carry that material energetically, that in fact is not ours but exacerbates whatever our issues are.

With the energy strategies we can heal ancestral patterns. Chinese medicine would say that we balance that energy in our field. We are beginning to understand that we also change at the level of DNA and the genes energetically also.

EXPLAIN THE PAST LIFE CONNECTION.

Some people believe in reincarnation, that a soul lived more than once with the same soul and had a series of events or traumas that affected that soul so that energy comes forward and again exacerbates whatever conditions are present for the person. With some light hypnotherapy, we access that past life and use the energy strategies to heal at a soul level and also heal the current conditions or problems. Some people do not believe in past lives. Some believe that the images that they get are metaphors about their condition, we than use energy strategies to work with those metaphors.  It does not matter to me which they believe because what I’m interested in is the healing result. When people do past life metaphor, spiritual metaphor, or past life work, the healing results are profound.

WHAT ARE THE RESULTS AND TECHNIQUES OF DYNAMIC ENERGETIC HEALING?  

I think the easiest technique to learn is tapping. Basically there are 14 places on the front of the body that one can easily tap on which activate the chi in Chinese medicine, similarly to acupuncture needles. With intent you can tap on the points with the intention of healing the problem you want cleared. I think that the first layer of results is getting relief from whatever problem or condition people come in with and that feels satisfying in and of itself. Beyond that, muscle testing and energy strategies like tapping and Tapas Acupressure techniques allow one to be more in touch with their own intuition and energy level, so that they can be better in touch with how to keep the emotional, mental or physical conditions from recurring, and taking care of themselves. In the end as I said before, a better connection with spirit occurs as a result of this work, which seems to be a positive force in most people’s lives.

WHOM DOES THIS WORK HELP?

I’m a licensed professional counselor, so I traditionally have treated people with depression, anxiety, post traumatic stress, attachment issues, addictions, relationship problems, family problems.....Instead of just doing talk therapy, we simply use the energy strategies, along with talking about what the issues are. Throughout my practice, what I noticed was that people that have really chronic mental/emotional problems also have a set of physical conditions which go along with them, and what I discovered is that as we were using energy psychology strategies to heal chronic depression, their migraines would go away or their backaches would get better, or allergies would disappear. Then I studied with a Naturopaths and Acupuncturist to learn more about the interface of the physical conditions and the emotional and mental conditions.

WHEN SOMEONE COMES TO SEE YOU, WHAT IS THE PROCESS?

First, I want to get to know them, so we spend some time talking, and I want to learn about their history and what have been the highs and lows of their life. Some people come to me because they know I do Dynamic Energetic Healing, and so we may get started on that in the first or second session. Other people don’t have any idea about what kind of strategies I use, so I’ll introduce them gradually through the first and second session. I may show them tapping on some of the distress they are having, and then by the third session, I will teach them muscle testing, and we’ll begin to develop an intention, traditionally called a treatment goal, for what it is they want to heal. Together we will come up with some words about what they want to heal. In each session we will talk some because people need that relationship with me, and I want to know what is going on in their lives. We then muscle test what origin needs healing today and we clear one or two of those in each session, until muscle testing tells us that their process is complete.

WHAT IS UNIQUE ABOUT THIS TYPE OF HEALING?

It is more thorough and I don’t have people recycling back into therapy as often or for as long as I use to. If people have a reoccurrence of symptoms, they often only need 1 or 2 sessions to heal. Howard Brockman and I published a chapter in Energy Psychotherapy in Energy Psychology with Fred Gallo PhD. We had done some clinical research that revealed we have a 99% cure rate with depression. They didn’t want to publish it because they said that was impossible because you can’t have that cure rate with depression. Fortunately, our editor was Fred Gallo, who is a leader in the energy psychology field fought for us and they did print our statistics. We do get a 99% cure rate with depression.

HOW DO CHILDREN RESPOND TO THIS TYPE OF HEALING STRATEGY?

Most children are very open to it. When I work with children I also see that it is a family problem, so I only work with children when the parents are willing to do some of the Dynamic Energetic Healing on their issues that interface with the children because of the overlap in the parents' and child's energy field. The parent can actually do some work that spills over into the healing for the child. I have been a play therapist for 20 years, so I have toys in my therapy office and I always start with that because play is a child's natural way of being and natural way of healing. Then as they show me fear or distress in their play, I teach them the acupressure points that they can tap on themselves, and they like the results just as well as adults.

HOW DOES THE SPIRITUAL ASPECT OF LIFE SERVE IN THIS HEALING?

The field of addictions and chemical dependency uses the 12 step program in treatment and in therapy, so the spiritual part has been a natural part of that healing. I came to mental health and didn’t know you weren’t supposed to do spiritual work and so I did. I always asked people about their spirituality and their religious background, and helped them figure out how they might incorporate that in our therapy. In the last decade, that has changed a lot. The National Association of Social Work has a task force on spirituality and most of the major counseling organizations recognize spirituality as an important aspect in healing. My experience and belief is that our individual energy field is our connection to the Universal Energy Field which is Creator, God, or whatever a Higher Power means to you, and that as we heal the splits, holes, and trauma in our individual energy field, it gives us a greater connection to the Universal Energy Field.

DO YOU WORK WITH PEOPLE WHO DO NOT BELIEVE IN GOD AND IF YOU DO, DOES THE WORK CONNECT THEM TO THE SPIRITUAL?   

Yes, I do work with people who don’t believe in God. My first job with people is to help with whatever condition they come with. People are open to this work, even though it may seem different or strange at first, because it produces some immediate relief. People who have been hurting emotionally or mentally want that relief, and they get it within the first few sessions. They come for the results they get, not for some greater spiritual awareness. I generally ask people that tell me they don’t have a religious or spiritual belief, “What inspires you?” Almost everyone has a person or philosophy or place in nature that does that. Then I use that image to help them make that inner connection. Generally, that will grow into some personal connection with the Universe or universal energy field.

 IS THERE ANYTHING ELSE WE SHOULD KNOW?  

We also use energy work in groups, because we find that the individual healing speeds up for people when they are doing it in the presence of other people who have the intention of helping them heal. So we can work through more origins more quickly in a group. Our practitioners offer many groups and workshops.

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Theoretical Overview of Dynamic Energetic Healing®
Mary Hammond 1998, All rights reserved

Energy is the basic foundation for everything; matter, water, air and fire.  Everything, animate and inanimate, has a distinct energy field. When we work in that field with intention, energy shifts. Chinese Medicine and Quantum Physics, as well as many spiritual traditions, provide the theoretical bases for DEH. The basic purpose of the individual energy field is to support health and well-being.  Dynamic Energetic Healing™ restores the energy field’s strength, seen as a brightened light or a tightened weaving of the field by those who can “see” energy. This strengthened field allows emotional and physical symptoms to dissipate.

From the theological point of view energy is Spirit. From the medical point of view energy is chi, the Chinese term synonymous with energy flow or life force. From the scientific point of view, energy is an electromagnetic field and the foundational form for air/gas, liquid and matter. From the psychological viewpoint, energy is thought form. The work in Dynamic Energetic Healing™ draws from all of these areas to transform thought form for healing. 

Dynamic Energetic Healing uses fourteen Chinese Medicine meridian points at places on the body where energy meridians (lines) overlap. These points used alone are from Emotional Freedom Techniques emofree.com Participants in DEH learn these self administered acupressure points, as well as frontal occipital holding, from Touch for Health Tapas Acupressure Techniques www.tat-intl.com/, chakra balancing, from Hindu and a variety of indigenous traditions, sound in many forms, guided imagery and Manual Muscle Testing from the chiropractic field. Permanent change for emotional, mental and physical conditions occur by shifting specific energy fields at current life, conception/birth, ancestral and karmic origins.