A local therapist’s third children’s book aims to help kids understand how energy impacts their mental health. “Be the Boss of Your Energy” was recently released by Jan Yordy, an Elmira resident who practices in Kitchener .

Yordy’s work focuses on what is called “energy psychology” which she describes as “using our energy pathways in our body to clear emotions.”

“We have a physical body, but our body is also made of energy. The thoughts create the feelings which are electromagnetic. And so we have Meridian pathways in our body.”

According to Yordy, acupuncture is a form of energy psychology.

“Acupuncture is where the energy comes up to the surface of the body so they can easily reach it with an acupuncture needle. So what they discovered in energy psychology is there were different ways like tapping at key energy hotspots, which are acupuncture points, while you’re thinking about something to release that energy from the body,” she said.

Yordy’s first book, “Be the Boss of Your Emotions,” focuses on another form of energy psychology called emotional freedom technique (EFT). According to the Toronto-based Wellness Institute, EFT involves “stimulating meridian points by tapping on them with your fingertips while you talk about your problem.”

Yordy wrote Be the Boss of Your Energy during the height of pandemic lockdowns when she was unable to see patients.

“I thought children and their parents and everybody else needs a basic introduction to what energy is. So this is something that would help you to understand energy, and I’ve distilled it down so that we can use it with kids,” she explained.

The book focuses on several different ways in which kids can be a boss of their energy, including connecting with nature.

“I give different suggestions about spending time in nature, about grounding their energy, connecting to the earth’s energy. So there are different ways that we can approach helping kids to calm down and to feel okay about who they are,” she explained.

This topic is not too advanced for kids to understand, Yordy said.

“Kids today are different. They’re coming in with a kind of awareness and knowledge that not every kid 15-20-30 years ago came in with so we’re getting a new type of child. And what happens is we shut down their gifts and abilities when we don’t understand they already have this energy awareness, but we as adults condition them into certain patterns,” she said.

“All of my books are basically about helping kids to learn how to regulate emotions, how to understand that, it’s not bad to have feelings, and that we can do things that calm and relax us,” she added.

Although Yordy said some energy psychology ideas have been around for centuries, she admits it is not a mainstream idea.

“It’s been called new age, it’s been called voodoo. It’s been called all kinds of things. And I’m not trying to convert anybody. I’m trying to say, ‘Hey, we are energy beings. Our heart is electrical. Our brain-they can measure the brainwaves,’” she explained.

While the conversation around mental health has become more mainstream that has happened because of circumstances and people making a greater effort to remove the stigma.

“The increase in mental health issues is just going up and up and up. So I think it’s not just ‘oh, we’re talking about it more’ there’s a bigger problem than there used to be. Just like the rate of suicide is going up and up and up.”