Association for Comprehensive Energy Psychology (ACEP) "Outstanding Contribution" Award

April 26, 2007/ SANTA ROSA, CA: Author Dawson Church, PhD, is being honored for making the most “outstanding contribution” to the health field by the therapists and researchers of the Association for Comprehensive Energy Psychology (ACEP). At the ninth annual ACEP conference in Chantilly, Virginia, on April 20, Church was presented with the award by Larry Stoler, PhD, president of ACEP, a month before the May 20 publication date of his forthcoming book called The Genie in Your Genes (Elite Books, April 2007, hardcover $24.95, ISBN: 1-60070-022-5, www.GenieInYourGenes.com), which describes the genetic advances that are reshaping twenty first century medicine.

Church is the first researcher to define a new group of therapies that affect which genes are activated by the body. He has coined the term “Epigenetic Medicine” (“epi” meaning above, ad “epigenetic” meaning the triggering of the genome from outside the cell) to describe such medical and psychological interventions.

“For a long time, scientists and doctors have understood that a healthy belief system and a healthy lifestyle could affect health,” says Church. “But only recently have we begun to develop systematic therapies that take advantage of this effect to influence health.” In The Genie in Your Genes, Church describes the work of several teams of laboratory researchers who have studied the beliefs, emotions, spiritual practices, and physical gestures of subjects. They find that those people who release their stresses on a regular basis through such therapies have a wide variety of biological benefits, from improved immune system function to better sports performance. “While humans intuitively know that the ability to de-stress can help everything from our bodies to our relationships,” he asserts, “we now have an accumulation of scientific evidence that shows the precise pathways by which certain stress reduction routines affect the activation of genes.”

Church describes some of the simple therapies that engage this stress-reduction effect, from changing specific beliefs, to self-massage points which have potent immune-boosting properties. Many of these techniques appear to work epigenetically, activating genes in a part of the brain called the hippocampus to dampen the stress response. Church is engaged in several new research projects studying epigenetic interventions; the ACEP award is one of several honors recognizing his work.

Journalists: to arrange an interview or obtain a review copy, please contact Jennifer Geronimo, (415) 444-0401 or jmgeronimo@aol.com>. Dr. Church’s website is www.SoulMedicineInstitute.org