Anyone who knows Róisín Devoy will agree that the world needs more people like her. For over 25 years, the Eden Energy Medicine practitioner, who is now completing her EEM Advanced Practitioner training, devoted herself to supporting her community in Dublin, Ireland. “I have been rooted in my community volunteering, teaching yoga and health-related classes. I coordinated a community food project to tackle food poverty by setting up community and school gardens and teaching low-budget food skills.” So it comes as no surprise that she was eventually drawn to help people as an Eden Energy Medicine practitioner. 

Róisín shares how she heard about Donna in the early 2000s but never followed up on energy medicine… at least not at first. “I think many people will be familiar with how EEM and Donna somehow mysteriously find them! It was the same for me,” she says. Somehow, despite not having the resources at the time, Róisín found herself at a Radiant Circuits weekend workshop in Cardiff in 2017. “Within the first few minutes of watching Donna, I experienced a feeling of being told, ‘you have to do this!’” Three weeks later, she started the EEM Fundamentals Level 1 with Madison King in England. 

Following The Energy

Róisín is currently studying for an MSc in Design Innovation on scholarship after completing her Bachelor’s Degree in Psychology at Maynooth University, Ireland. “I listen to and follow the energy which has resulted in work on inclusive learning projects and as a research assistant with the university, teaching and practicing EEM,” she explains. 

Róisín’s commitment to “follow the energy” has led to many wonderful experiences, including winning the Carmel Staunton Prize for Best Final Year Project for her research on Donna’s Daily Energy Routine. “Donna and her work inspired the research topic,” says Róisín. “Her work is amazing and has the potential to reach and help so many people. As Donna says – "raise the vibration of the planet one person at a time". I want to help bring that reality about, and I know scientific evidence can afford credibility and acceptance to a modality!”

Movement Intervention

But the road that led to Róisín’s award wasn’t easy. For one thing, she was acutely aware that most of her lecturers would not be open to the idea of conducting research on energy, and she was right. “I contacted five lecturers asking if they were willing to supervise my research on this topic, and only one responded positively and agreed to be my supervisor.” Róisín was advised to consider not using the word energy and to devise a phrase that would be more accessible or acceptable to a wider audience. “Hence, I came up with the phrase ‘movement intervention.’” Although she could not use the word “energy” in her research, Róisín made sure she credited Donna. “I describe the movement intervention as an 12-minute video routine, named the Daily Energy Routine by Donna Eden, as I wanted to acknowledge and name Donna and the DER.”

DER Versus Mindfulness

Róisín research essentially compares the Daily Energy Routine with mindfulness. Entitled “Effects Of A Mindfulness & Movement Based Intervention On Affect And Vitality,” which dives into measuring vitality and affect both before and after the research. Participants practiced both types of interventions -- mindfulness and DER. “I created an online survey, including an embedded video of Donna’s DER video and a Jon Kabat-Zinn mindfulness video, to which participants were randomly allocated by the survey software. Participants rated themselves on validated vitality and affect scales before and after each intervention.” Much to Róisín’s delight, the DER was rated higher by participants!

“In this particular research group, the evidence suggested that the DER increased vitality and positive mood significantly more than the mindfulness intervention,” says Róisín. “Analysing the data was really exciting as I had no idea what it would show, and there was a possibility that it could show no effect,” she remembers. “When I saw the significant effects, I was super excited and ran the stats several times. I also conducted cross-checks to make sure everything was right.”

A Radiant Circuit Moment

Róisín was awarded a very high grade for the research, and when it was announced that she had won the Carmel Staunton Prize at the conferring ceremony, she was thrilled. ”It was definitely a radiant circuit, awe, moment, and I tapped it in. It was wonderful that the psychology department and university acknowledged my work even though it was an area they were not comfortable with initially!” 

Róisín, who shares her “busy and blessed life, with two wonderful neurodiverse children, a husband, dogs, and horses.” thinks of her ability to trust the energy as one of the biggest gifts in her life. “It is such a joyful and stabilizing force in my life. I used it to help me deal with the stresses of university while juggling family and work and EEM study. While many of my fellow university students were falling apart with stress, I continued to find a way with EEM and often shared EEM with them, which they found helpful.”

Let Yourself Believe

Róisín says she uses EEM tools every day. “When I came to EEM, I had been suffering from sciatica for two years, finding no relief from any method or intervention. Within a few weeks of working with EEM to balance my energy the sciatica disappeared,” she shares. “Whenever I feel a sciatica niggle, I work to balance the energy, and it goes.” 

Róisín also says EEM has helped in many other ways. “It literally turned around my relationship with my husband, making it more light-hearted and harmonious. It has supported all the changes my family has gone through in the past six years with my children becoming young adults and completing state exams and me completing university,” she explains. “I have worked with EEM to bring animals to full recovery when the vets thought they wouldn’t make it through the night!”

When it comes to the one thing she’d like to share about EEM and the Daily Energy Routine, Róisín has two words, “Do it!” She adds, “Donna says, make it your own, bring it into your life in a way that works for you and let it bring you on a magical journey in raising the vibration of the planet!”  Róisín believes her experiences are proof that Donna is right and that we can really raise our vibration and that of the planet with EEM. “So let yourself believe in that possibility and work towards it!”