David Gruder is the founder of Integrity Revolution (San Diego, CA) and the co-founder and first president of the Association for Comprehensive Energy Psychology (ACEP). David’s career has been focused on organizational and clinical psychology. He has a passion for working with corporate and government leaders to affect societal change through increasing practices that are more ethical and socially responsible.

David attended his first training in energy psychology in 1995 as a skeptic, but left the training as a believer. He quickly realized that energy psychology represented a “quantum leap forward in how healing can happen.”

ACEP emerges

 David first voiced the concept for ACEP during a conversation one evening with one of his original energy psychology trainers, Greg Nicosia. He felt strongly that there was a need for an organization to unite the field of energy psychology. Greg agreed, and told David that he needed to be the one to create it.

A few years later, in December 1998, David collaborated with co-founder Dorothea Hover Kramer to incorporate ACEP as a nonprofit organization. (If you don't know, Dorothea was a pioneer in energy psychology and energy healing. She passed on in 2013.) As ACEP’s first president, his primary goal was to establish the organization’s infrastructure to allow for ongoing evolution and growth. David and Dorothea created the policies and procedures that would carry ACEP forward and developed the first comprehensive code of ethics for energy psychology. David also wanted to be sure that the full range of energy psychology approaches were represented.

“The purpose of ACEP was for us to stop being siloed, and to come together as a family - not only to cross-fertilize each other and collaborate, but also to collectively establish the credibility of these methods.” - David Gruder

David was pleased to discover that his idea was just what the field needed. He knew that he and Dorothea had read the marketplace accurately when every energy psychology innovator of the time joined ACEP. These EP innovators, researchers, and practitioners stated clearly that ACEP was what they had been waiting for.

ACEP was opened for membership at the first annual conference in May 1999, with about 100 people joining. Fast-forward to 2023 and ACEP boasts a membership of over 1400 heading into its 25th International Energy Psychology Conference.

Looking forward

David has a bold view for the future of ACEP and energy psychology. He wants to see energy psychology approaches reach “standard of care” status with the American Psychological Association. David envisions the field moving from “assessment by mechanical means” to “assessment by intuition” and from “mechanical interventions” to “intervention by intention.” His hope is that ACEP maintains its “maverick entrepreneurial spirit”; continuing to be thought leaders in the human potential movement. David regards energy psychology as playing a pivotal role in healing individuals’ trauma, which he sees as essential for human evolution.

Interested in attending ACEP’s 25th International Energy Psychology Conference? Join us in Baltimore, MD at the Hyatt Regency Inner Harbor or live, online June 1-5, 2023 for “The Art & Science of Transformational Change.”

Author

Renée LaFountain, LMHC, is a licensed mental health counselor in Massachusetts. She is the director of clinical teams and a staff therapist at Bay State Counseling and Wellness Center, with a passion for serving individuals who are the helpers and “deep feelers” of the world. Renée is a member of the ACEP Communications Committee and is a provider for Unite for HER.