September has always felt to me like a threshold month. We gather ourselves. We look toward what remains of the year and ask what we still hope to accomplish before another one begins. This September feels especially consequential for ACEP.

Over the past year, I have had the privilege of seeing this organization from so many vantage points: through our conference, our courses and trainings, our committees and research, our humanitarian work, and, most importantly, through conversations with members around the world.

Again and again, I am struck by the extraordinary reservoir of knowledge, experience, creativity, and commitment within this community. I find myself returning to one question:

What becomes possible when the remarkable people within ACEP recognize that its future belongs to all of us, and will be shaped by what each of us chooses to bring?

That question is moving us into an important season of collective action.

Growing Our Community: 2,000 Members by New Year’s Eve

Today, ACEP is a professional home to more than 1,400 members. By New Year’s Eve, we intend to welcome 2,000 members into this community.

That is an ambitious goal. But our most powerful membership campaign will not begin with advertising.

It will begin with relationship.

Each of us knows people who should be part of ACEP: practitioners seeking a professional home; clinicians curious about integrating Energy Psychology into their work; researchers advancing the evidence base; coaches and allied professionals expanding what we understand about healing and human potential; students searching for the field in which they will make their contribution.

Imagine what could happen if each of us invited just one of them in.

Strengthening the Foundation Beneath Our Work

At the same time, we are launching our 2026 Annual Campaign, with a goal of raising $150,000 by December 31.

These resources will help strengthen the foundation beneath the work we are building together—supporting the areas of greatest need while advancing research, humanitarian initiatives, scholarships, and our capacity to gather and learn as a community.

These are more than fundraising and membership goals. They are stakes in the ground.

We are building toward the ACEP we want to become: more connected, more visible, more financially resilient, and increasingly capable of bringing the benefits of Energy Psychology to the people and communities who need them.

Gathering Again in 2027

And we are building toward something else I care deeply about: gathering again in person in October 2027.

Our last conference reminded me how much happens when we inhabit the same space—when ideas move from presentation to conversation, colleagues become friends and collaborators, and a professional association becomes a living community.

We want to safeguard that experience while building a stronger ecosystem around it, so that our conference becomes the flagship gathering of a flourishing ACEP.

From Leadership at the Center to Leadership Everywhere

None of this can be accomplished by a small staff or Board working harder. It will happen through distributed leadership.

Some of us will build this future by joining. Some by inviting. Some by giving. Others by teaching, researching, volunteering, mentoring, sharing stories, opening doors, or bringing forward partnerships we have not yet imagined.

When knowledge travels, leadership multiplies. When leadership multiplies, capacity expands.

That is the ACEP I see emerging, not an organization in which a few people create value for everyone else, but a community in which our collective intelligence, relationships, generosity, and expertise become the engine of what is possible.

What Will You Bring to ACEP’s Next Chapter?

As we enter this fall season, I invite you to consider three questions:

• Who should be part of ACEP who isn’t here yet?
• What part of our mission do you most want to strengthen?
• What might you contribute to ACEP’s next chapter that no one else can contribute in quite the same way?

You will hear much more from me this fall about where ACEP is headed and what we can build together. In October’s edition of The Energy Field, I’ll share a fuller vision of an ACEP designed for greater connection, opportunity, reach, and impact.

For now, we begin with one another.

Our first stake in the ground is 2,000 members by New Year’s Eve.

Who will you invite?

About the Author

Dawn Eidelman, PhD, is Executive Director of the Association for Comprehensive Energy Psychology (ACEP). She leads ACEP’s work to strengthen the field, expand its global community, and create opportunities for practitioners, researchers, educators, and leaders to advance the reach and impact of Energy Psychology.

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