In the past few years I've undergone a tremendous revolution in how I see the world and what I'm now able to accomplish.

A few years ago, I was really looking to change my life--looking for something more meaningful to me and directly helpful to other people. I had joined a very unusual expedition in the waters of the Silver Banks off the coast of the Dominican Republic. We swam in the water with humpback whales--an extraordinary experience. It is the subject of the book about to published, Swimming With Whales, which describes my journey from being a "left-brained" (logic and reasoning) person to opening up the "right brain" (intuition).

On that expedition, I met a doctor from Canada, who introduced me to a whole new concept in therapy. I won't call it "psychotherapy" because it deals with both the mind and the body equally. She practiced a type of "Energy Psychology" on me that she, herself, had developed and it was as if she had waved a magic wand over me. Chronic headaches, nosebleeds and coughs I'd had for ages, disappeared after a few sessions. So, too, did a lot of sadness and fear. No wonder she has a four-year waiting list of people trying to see her!

She told me about the Association for Comprehensive Energy Psychology, an international organization of psychiatrists, psychologists, social workers and other health care professionals, which I joined. I am now proud to have been trained and certified by that organization. Soon, a whole new world opened up to me and I began to learn how to practice the kind of therapy Dr. Beattie had invented along with several other modalities. Inside of a few months, I was beginning to see amazing things happen with the people I did my "Internship" on. One person who had been asthmatic since childhood no longer needed her medication on a regular basis. My husband, who has had "Acid Reflux Disease" for three decades and needed medication daily, no longer takes any medication! It's harder to describe the psychological changes but they, too, have been abundant. Now that I've been an Energy Psychologist for awhile, I've seen extraordinary changes in people ranging from the dissolution of Obsessive Compulsive Disorder to the disappearance of colitis and migraines. In addition, people's relationships change. A spouse who had been in an abusive relationship, found that her husband was able to stop his abusive behavior.

Since that whale trip, I have become an explorer in this "right brained" world. I have become a Reiki Master and a "Comprehensive Energy Psychology Practitioner." I am a user of meridian-based therapies as well as chakra-based protocols such as the Bio-Energetic Access Method. They include the Emotional Freedom Technique [EFT], Tapas Acupressure Technique [TAT], Thought Field Therapy [TFT], Bi-Lateral Tapping [BLT], Quantum Touch, and Integrated Energy Therapy [IET] and a variety of other techniques to get the energy flowing and keep it free. I continue to be a seeker of metaphysical knowledge.

But most of all, I take such joy in finally having the power to do what I was looking to do 25 years ago when I first began graduate school in Psychology -- help individuals out of the labyrinth of their own emotional and physical problems into true health!

Diane Eyer, PhD

• For 25 years, an academic psychologist and nationally recognized author
• Taught Psychology at the University of Pennsylvania and Temple University, in Philadelphia
• In 1988, obtained her Ph.D. in Interdisciplinary Psychology (with Distinction) from the University of Pennsylvania
• Prior to 1988, ran an alternative school and community center and also practiced various forms of counseling
• Wrote 3 books--all of them about how psychological science gets distorted in the process of becoming prescriptions for healthy living. The first two books, Mother-Infant Bonding, Yale University Press, and Motherguilt, Random House, were reviewed in the New York Times, The Wall Street Journal and many other journals as well as occasioning the usual TV appearances (including The Today Show), lectures and radio shows (including Dan Gottlieb's Voices in the Family). The third book, written with two colleagues, Einstein Never Used Flashcards, Rodale Press, won a prestigious award for the best self-help book in psychology.

It's so exciting, to see the growth of Energy Psychology being supported by organizations like ACEP (the Association for Comprehensive Energy Psychology) and ISSEEM, the International Society for the Study of Subtle Energies. These organizations are on the cutting edge of a whole new paradigm in healing that combines the best of both Eastern and Western medicine. They are beginning to do the high quality research needed to explore and validate the Energy Therapies and to educate professionals and the public about the gentle but powerful benefits.

Evidence for the efficacy of Energy Psychology is accumulating. One study followed 31,400 patients who received energy therapy treatments over a 14-year period at 11 allied treatment centers in Argentina and Uruguay. The most prevalent diagnosis was Anxiety Disorder. Clinical success rates exceeded what would be expected from the established treatment of choice for anxiety disorders--the coordinated use of cognitive-behavioral therapy and medication. Beyond this large-scale clinical trial, which had no control group, randomized controlled pilot studies have also been conducted. One of these compared 2,500 patients receiving cognitive behavioral therapy and medication to those receiving only Energy Psychology treatment. 76% of the Energy Psychology group showed complete remission of symptoms compared to 51% of the cognitive therapy/medication group. [see Resources, Feinstein, D. 2004 p. 10]