What Is Energetic Psychology?
By Bart Sharp
Energetic psychology is a growing field of therapy and study that includes how psychological and emotional concepts are used in forms of energetic healing, spirituality and other forms of alternative transformative healing arts such as shamanic healing.
From the perspective of a shamanic healer the concept of energetic psychology has many similarities. As a shamanic healer I interact with the mind and the body similar to many therapists do today using somatic experience counseling. What they hold in common is stimulating memories of unresolved emotional issues through feeling the body while the traumas of the unresolved story of their past are recalled. As we learn how to feel vibrations inside of us related to our repressed memories we open to something deeper to the emotional memory that is repressed.
Shamanism is one aspect energetic psychology, it is exploring how emotions and the body work together. As someone who uses shamanic forms of healing I explore repressed memories in the body and interact with the body memory. It is an energetic experience because I feel when the sensation of a unresolved trauma as a spirit of the person that is separated from him/her. When the unresolved trauma is interacted with a visceral or energetic release that opens the person to a transformational experience. This is similar to the counselors to therapists that do somatic experience training, they are getting in touch with a body memory and interacting with the body trauma.
These forms of energetic psychology are a new type of emotional transformation because they are taking psychological and emotional concepts beyond the intellectual interactions and seeing how they are applied and held inside the body. Energetic psychology includes the idea that the body and mind need to transform together in order for a greater consciousness to be discovered for each individual. As a shamanic healer I witnessed this with many people; as they see their deepest repressed parts brought out, interacted with and transformed they open to a greater personal resolution. From there the person can begin to interact with themselves differently because they are no longer being influenced by unknown, repressed parts of themselves.
In the field of energetic psychology and shamanistic work we see all body parts holding different types of considerations especially in the trunk area of the body. For example, the liver often holds anger and fear while the spleen is commonly associated with sadness. The masculine aspects of the persona seem to be more on the right side of the body and work in a more defensive position where the feminine holder more creative and nurturing side. We begin to learn through shamanistic work and energetic psychology how the body holds emotions and works with them. We can begin to transform things much quicker and easier using these tools and techniques. The mind, memory and stories we hold about our life are the beginning pathway unfolding into a greater knowledge of ourselves by seeing how the body and mind work together.
Bart Sharp does shamanic work on a wide variety of personal limitations. He is available by in personal, by phone or SKYPE worldwide. heartofturtle@earthlink.net www.bartsharp.com