How to Use Energy Psychology for Rapid Emotional Change

Imagine if you could relieve stress, release emotional pain, and eliminate bad habits in just a few minutes using only your fingertips. No complicated equipment. No pills. No endless talk therapy. Just a simple, powerful technique that works fast and anywhere.

That’s the power of energy psychology. And once you understand how it works, you can use it to transform your emotional state in an instant, and live a more empowered, peaceful life. 

This blog post breaks it all down. You’ll learn the origins of energy psychology, why it works, how to use Mike's six-step tapping method, and how to apply it in real-world situations. You’ll even discover how to install powerful emotional states after clearing out the negative ones.

Let’s dive in.

What Is Energy Psychology?

Energy psychology is rooted in traditional Chinese medicine and the discovery that tapping specific acupuncture points on the body while focusing on a troubling thought or emotion can rapidly shift your mental state.

The field was born in the 1980s, thanks to psychologist Roger Callahan. He was treating a client with a severe phobia of water. One day, he asked her to tap under her eye, a location that corresponds to the stomach meridian in traditional Chinese medicine, because she felt sick when thinking about water. Amazingly, her phobia disappeared.

This set off decades of exploration and refinement. Practitioners discovered that specific tapping sequences could neutralize fear, anxiety, grief, guilt, and more. The approach combines focused attention, physical tapping, and speech to collapse emotional distress in real time. The results often feel miraculous, even though the process is grounded in practical neurology.

Why Is It So Effective?

The brilliance of energy psychology lies in its mechanical simplicity and neurological power. It’s not based on wishful thinking or visualization alone. It works because you are engaging your brain while tuning into a very specific emotional or physical experience.

Here’s what makes it work:

1. You activate the neural network associated with a specific issue
2. You interrupt the pattern using physical stimulation (tapping) on acupuncture points
3. You release emotional intensity from the body-mind system
4. You then have the opportunity to install positive emotional states

The tapping points are connected to the body’s energetic pathways, known as meridians, which have been used in acupuncture for thousands of years. What energy psychology discovered is that you can often get the same emotional benefits without needles, simply by tapping.

Mike's Journey with Energy Psychology

Mike Mandel, co-founder of the Mike Mandel Hypnosis Academy, was a practicing therapist in the 1990s when he first encountered energy psychology. His wife encouraged him to attend a weekend seminar taught by Swiss psychologist Willem Lammers.

During the seminar, Mike volunteered for a demonstration. He had been carrying unresolved grief over the loss of his beloved bull terrier. In just a few minutes of tapping, that grief vanished.

The effect was so profound that Mike went on to study and refine the process, ultimately teaching his own enhanced version based on the most effective methods, including Gary Craig’s EFT and Robert Smith’s Faster EFT.

Mike's version reduces unnecessary complexity and adds a sixth tapping point specifically for clearing anxiety. It’s fast. It’s easy. And it's changing lives.

Real-Life Transformations Using Energy Psychology

Energy psychology is not just theory. It has helped thousands of people overcome real, life-altering problems in just minutes.

Here are a few success stories:

Chronic pain

Mike suffered from diagnosed fibromyalgia for years. Pain would strike his entire body, forcing him to lie on the floor and take codeine. After using tapping to target the emotional root of the symptoms, he cleared the pain in a single session. It never returned.

Phobias

A woman and her teenage son came in with intense spider phobias. Mike ran separate tapping sessions with both. The phobias were gone. Two years later, the woman confirmed they never came back.

Smoking cessation

In restaurants and bars, Mike and Chris helped a waitress quit smoking by teaching her the method. The desire to smoke disappears after just a few tapping rounds. She stopped smoking that day.

Panic attacks

One of Mike's clients from Vancouver flew to Toronto to address panic attacks. After learning the technique, she stopped a panic attack in a restaurant restroom in just two quick tapping rounds. She never needed her emergency medication again.

How to Use the Six-Step Tapping Method

This six-step process is the backbone of energy psychology as taught in the Mike Mandel Hypnosis Academy. It is based on proven techniques but optimized for speed, simplicity, and power.

Here’s how it works.

Step 1: Feel the Problem in Your Body 

You must tune into the emotion or physical sensation. Choose your own word for it. Whether it’s “stress,” “tight throat,” or “guilt,” the key is to feel it now, not to make sense of it.

Step 2: Rate the Intensity

On a scale from 0 to 10, how strong is the feeling right now? Try to increase it slightly. You need to access the pattern fully to disrupt it.
Read: Subjective Units of Distress (SUDs): A Hypnotist’s Guide to Measuring Change

Step 3: Tap the Six Points While Saying the Word 

Tap with your fingertips while repeating the word and feeling the emotion.

The points are:

• Top of the head
• Center of the forehead
• Outer corner of the eye
• Under the eye
• Under the collarbone
• Squeeze the wrist

Say the emotion or symptom aloud at each point. After the final point, take a deep breath, exhale, and say “peace”.

Step 4: Re-Check the Intensity

Ask yourself: What is the number now? Has it gone from 7 to 3? If it’s not zero, repeat the process.

Step 5: Address New Layers

If the emotion shifts into something new, tap on that. Often, a new emotional “layer” will surface. Keep going until everything is cleared.

Step 6: Zero It Out

Do not stop until the intensity reaches zero. Half-clearing an emotion only leaves room for it to come back. Get it completely neutralized.

Backfilling with Positive States

Once you have cleared a negative emotion, it’s time to install a positive one. This prevents old patterns from creeping back in and gives you a powerful boost.

Use this backfilling technique:

• Tap between the ring and little finger on the back of your hand
• Say strong, empowering phrases like
  “I feel strong again”
  “I’m totally free”
  “I love how calm I feel”
• Feel the emotion in your body
• Pinch your thumb and fingertip together
• Stare at the point of contact and say “awesome”

This creates a positive anchor that you can access any time. It’s like wiring in a new emotional response.

When and Where to Use Energy Psychology

One of the best parts about energy psychology is how portable and practical it is. You can use it anytime you feel a negative emotion.

In public or professional settings, you can use a discreet version known as touch and breathe. Simply touch each of the same tapping points while silently thinking of the problem word. This works especially well during meetings or on airplanes.

If needed, excuse yourself and run the process in private. It only takes a minute or two to clear most emotional states.

What to Do If It Doesn’t Work Right Away

This method works for most people when done correctly. If you don’t get results immediately, check the following:

• Are you feeling the emotion physically, or just thinking about it?
• Are you hydrated? If not, drink water and do it again in ten minutes.
• Are you in a distracting environment? Try a different room.
• Are you stopping too early? Take it all the way to zero.

If you’re working with someone else, tap along with them. Doing the process together increases the impact and reduces any feelings of awkwardness.

Energy psychology is one of the most powerful tools available for everyday emotional change. Use it to dissolve anxiety, crush cravings, and transform limiting emotions in minutes. The results speak for themselves.