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Energy Psychology

Although most of the modalities within Energy Psychology are evidenced-based, many of the tools are still not widely used in addiction treatement. At Avery Lane, we have used these tools with our clients since our inception and have seen incredible results. Tools applied from Energy Psychology have been shown to support clients overcome mental health symptoms, minimize trauma patterns, and reduce relapse risk post-treatment.

WHAT IS ENERGY PSYCHOLOGY?

Energy psychology

“Energy Psychology is a collection of mind-body approaches for understanding and improving human functioning. Energy Psychology focuses on the relationship between thoughts, emotions, sensations, and behaviors, and known bioenergy systems (such as meridians and the biofield). Within the Energy Psychology framework, emotional and physical issues are seen, and treated, as bio-energetic patterns within a mind-body-energy system. The mind and body are thought to be interwoven and interactive within this mind-body-energy system, which involves complex communication involving neurobiological processes, innate electrophysiology, psychoneuroimmunology (PNI), consciousness, and cognitive-behavioral-emotional patterns.”  From the Association of Comprehensive Energy Psychology (ACEP); energypsych.org

Historically, Energy Psychology methods integrate concepts and techniques from related fields, including acupuncture meridian theory, neuroscience, physics/quantum mechanics, biology, medicine, chiropractic and psychology to facilitate change. Since the 1970s, these methods have been further developed, refined, and supported via clinical experience and research across multiple areas of application.

Benefits of Energy Psychology:

  • Reduce and eliminate effects of trauma more quickly and effectively than traditional talk therapy
  • Gives access to insight and positive memories that were obscured by trauma
  • Self-help method, can use the tools individually yourself and increases sense of self-control
  • Calms individuals down without use of medications
  • Cost-effective and can shorten the length of treatment while providing quick responses

Energy Psychology Uses at Avery Lane:

  • Cravings to use and memories of using
  • Triggers, especially trauma related triggers
  • Physical pain
  • Emotional issues
  • Shame/guilt
  • Fear/doubt
  • Dissociation
  • Feelings of emptiness and disconnection
  • Cross addictions
  • Co-dependency
  • Grief/loss including loss of drug of choice
  • Traumatic memories
  • Ambivalence to change
  • Catastrophic and other distorted thinking patterns

Specific Modalities within Energy Psychology:

  • Be Set Free Fast (BSFF)
  • Brain Spotting
  • Access Consciousness

Contact Avery Lane Admissions Today

Summer Lan Franco
MA, MFT-t, Primary Therapist

Summer Lan Franco loves working with people to facilitate recovery from substance use disorders, disordered eating, mental health issues and complex trauma. She earned her BS in Nutrition and Food Science from California State University Chico and MS in Counseling Psychology from Dominican University of California. She has worked in community-based and private practice settings. Her approach is personable and sincere. Summer believes in helping people rediscover their true selves by uncovering barriers that stand in the way. Her warmth and earnest interest in others’ wellbeing are always present in the work she does with people seeking help. She has experience with trauma recovery, substance abuse recovery, codependency, family issues, disordered eating, treatment for anxiety and depression, and working with personality disorders.

Alaina Dunér
Office Manager, Sound Healing Group Facilitator, Reiki Master

Alaina Dunér is a Sonoma County native. She studied sociology and outdoor adventure programming for two years at Loyola University of New Orleans and Warren Wilson College. In 2016 Alaina was on a recreational skydive and had a crash landing that resulted in her fracturing multiple vertebrae in her spine. Since her accident, Alaina has emersed herself in understanding the nuances and complexities of health and spirituality. She is passionate about supporting clients through Reiki and Sound. Since taking a pause from university, Alaina has become a certified Reiki Master Teacher in the Tibetan Usui system, an Ayurvedic yoga instructor, a health coach from the Institute of Integrative Nutrition, and a trauma informed sound facilitator. At the end of 2022 Alaina will attend Southern Utah University to complete her bachelor’s in aerospace and aviation with an emphasis on rotary flight.

Emotional Freedom Technique

Stress and anxiety are felt by everyone to some degree, but they can easily spiral out of control and dramatically affect one’s life. Stress often leads to addiction by increasing levels of certain brain chemicals that are tied to “a cascade of biological responses” – responses that can drive people towards substance abuse.

When it comes to addiction, stress and anxiety serve as some of the most common causes of relapse. Any solid approach to treating addiction has to address the underlying issues that trigger it, not just the addiction itself. Avery Lane offers participants many valuable techniques in dealing with stress in a healthy way, among them Emotional Freedom Technique, or EFT.

EFT is a self-help and stress reduction tool based upon releasing stress through the stimulation or physical tapping of acupressure points. Based on the concept of energy pathways known as meridians within the body, EFT works by combining principles from Cognitive Therapy, Exposure Therapy, and Acupressure. Tapping specific acupressure points on the body releases brain chemicals, or neuropeptides, that combat anxiety and create feelings of calmness and overall well-being. EFT helps participants at Avery Lane focus on and release the feelings of stress and unease that are attached to a specific psychological issue, whether a negative belief, emotion, or thought pattern.

EFT is one of the most heavily studied energy psychology techniques. It is a safe and effective method for releasing the stresses and anxieties that can lead to addiction. When used in conjunction with other methods of emotional and psychological healing, EFT can contribute to a healthier mind and body that is better able to face, and constructively deal with difficult emotional states. With the guidance and care of the staff at Avery Lane, our participants learn to use EFT and many other tools to beat substance abuse and addiction and create a healthier, happier life.

Neuro Emotional Technique

Stress plays a major role in addiction for many women. Many turn to drugs in order to cope with financial, personal, or emotional issues, hoping to escape their pain and anxiety. At Avery Lane, we provide our participants with many tools and techniques to cope with such stresses, so that healthy stress management removes the desire to turn to substance abuse or other harmful addictions. Among these tools is Neuro Emotional Technique, commonly known as NET.

NET is a mind-body stress reduction technique that is easy to implement and helpful in ridding patients of unwanted emotional patterns that often arise from past traumas and stresses. NET is used to locate and remove neurological imbalances and emotional blockages. NET recognizes that emotions are physiologically based, and can lead to physical expressions within the body. These physiological markers of unresolved tension – also known as Neuro Emotional Complexes – appear as conditioned responses to trauma and stress patterns.

As the patient visualizes a stressful event or feeling, the NET practitioner seeks out the location of its physical manifestation in the patient. These are then addressed with various physical corrections depending on the afflicted area, helping the patient’s body to complete the processing of emotions that occur naturally. This decreases the patient’s stress and helps them to heal emotionally and physically, leading to a sense of greater well-being.

Avery Lane uses NET alongside other treatment modalities to help participants learn how to control their stress and work through their worries in healthy, productive ways. The more healthy approaches and behaviors one learns to react to, and manage these emotions, the less likely it is that one will turn to substance abuse. With its gentle, easy to practice nature, NET can prove a valuable tool in reaching and sustaining a healthy mind and body free of addiction.

Sunnie Skillman
Energy Worker

Sunnie has worked within the field of Energy Psychology for over 20 years and has been trained in a number of healing modalities, including EFT (Emotional Freedom Technique) and Access Consciousness. She has been using the tools of Access Consciousness for 23 years, teaching classes and working with clients using various hands-on energy body work techniques. She specializes working with clients who have symptoms of PTSD and assisting in clearing where trauma is stored in the body.
Sunnie brings her personal experience with trauma healing as well as her kind and
caring energy to support the ladies interested in working with other healing modalities
at Avery Lane.

Nicole Collins,
AMFT, Primary Therapist

Nicole Collins entered the field of healing after receiving her BA from Colorado State University
in Human Services, which led her to work in domestic violence. Following her beliefs and
passion in the body-mind-spirit connection and the Intelligence of the Self-healing power, she
got her MS from Touro University in Vallejo. She believes that addiction, alcoholism,
depression, the things that push against your joy, calm, serenity, and sense of security, are
powerful and baffling. Still, there is something unique inside of you that is ready to push back
against it all. The fear, anxiety, depression, and trauma that press against your head and chest
are real, but they should not define you. She feels her role is to help you find the resources
within to overcome the challenges and suffering that life may bring. She specializes in trauma,
substance abuse, LGBTQIA+ community, matters of belonging, helping individuals heal in their
relationships within themselves. In your work together, she will meet you where you are and
support you in reacquainting you, with all parts of yourself, including your inherent wisdom.

Erin Miller, RADT
Recovery Counselor

Erin is a Registered Alcohol Drug Technician, Certified Recovery Coach, and Certified Clinical
Trauma Specialist-A (Trauma and Addiction). She is currently pursuing her Bachelor of Arts in
Psychology and Addiction Studies at Aspen University. Through her personal experience with
alcohol addiction and recovery, Erin was inspired to support others on their recovery journeys.
She brings kindness, compassion, and encouragement to her work at Avery Lane. Erin lives in
Sonoma County with her husband and their two adventurous children.

Laurel LeMohn
Recovery Counselor

is a Mendocino County native. She received her Bachelor of Arts degree from Sonoma State University in 2014 and is currently pursuing her Master’s degree in Counseling Psychology from Dominican University. She has been a Recovery Counselor at Avery Lane since October, 2021, and works from a trauma-informed, psychodynamic, and humanistic lens. She has had a desire towards helping others since she was young and looks forward to working with you as you transition your life into one where you are thriving and proud to be living.