What Is Deep Energy Transformation?

An interview with Dr. Donn Jay Wiedershine about Deep Energy Transformation.

Dr. Donn Jay Wiedershine is no stranger to tough challenges. After over 40 years as a psychiatrist, including time on New York City streets helping the city’s most desperate, as an ACT Psychiatrist, he’s now a healer guiding people through a practice he calls “Deep Energy Transformation.”

In preparation for this article in Astoria Magazine, I sat down with Dr. Donn Jay Wiedershine during a phone interview before he was about to have lunch at one of his favorite restaurants in New York City. I wanted to learn more about his unique approach and how it helps people. After writing a couple of other articles, I felt we needed to take this a step further to explain more about DET to readers.

Background and Bio.

Dr. Donn Jay wrote to me about his background and experiences in his Bio. The following is a synopsis.

From 2018 to 2021, Dr. Wiedershine was a full-time ACT psychiatrist at Samaritan Daytop Village. ACT stands for Assertive Community Treatment. He was a member of a team of specialists in the areas of nursing and psychiatry, anger management, substance abuse, and employment, providing care for a large number of homeless, psychotic, addicted, and dangerous individuals with serious mental illness who were usually in and out of psychiatric hospitals.

Dr. Wiedershine would meet with and handle medication management for these individuals on the streets, in shelters, or at their apartments, often collaborating with inpatient psychiatrists. During his tenure as an ACT psychiatrist, after much soul searching, prayer, and meditation, he realized that many traditional treatments were masking symptoms but not healing his patients. Dr. Wiedershine discovered his true inner abilities, which led him to create a program called
Deep Energy Transformation.
Dr. Donn Jay

The Conversation.

Trina: Dr. Donn, you’ve had an incredible career—over 40 years as a psychiatrist, and now this shift to Deep Energy Transformation. Can you tell us how you got here?

Dr. Donn Jay Wiedershine: Sure, I’d be glad to. I spent decades as a psychiatrist, working with people carrying heavy loads—addiction, trauma, hopelessness. From 2018 to 2021, I was with Samaritan Daytop Village’s Assertive Community Treatment team, meeting patients on the streets, in shelters, and wherever they were. I handled their meds, but I saw limits—pills couldn’t touch the deeper pain. Or alter their mindset to improve their lives. I’d been meditating for many years, and that taught me to listen in a different way. I began to try to help people more through a more wholistic and spiritual approach.

Over time, this evolved into what I call Deep Energy Transformation—DET for short—to help people let go of what’s weighing them down. I use everything I’ve learned in my practice and my understanding of energy and our deepest selves to help people do this.

Trina: What exactly is Deep Energy Transformation? It sounds intriguing, but it may be a little mysterious to someone new to it.

Dr. Donn Jay Wiedershine: It’s not as mysterious as it might sound! At its core, DET is about getting to the root of what’s holding you back—stress, old habits, buried pain—and letting it go. Think of it like clearing boulders from a river so the water flows free. I’ve worked with folks who couldn’t see their own patterns—like trauma stuck in their system—and DET helps release that. It’s quieter than talk therapy; I use meditation, silent treatment, and focus to guide people past those blocks. It’s not about quick fixes like acupuncture or reiki might offer—it’s deeper, aiming for real, lasting change.

Trina: You mentioned your meditation background—How does that tie into DET?

Dr. Donn Jay Wiedershine: Meditation enabled me to awaken something more within me, and somehow, I received the gift of healing. I remember going through an evolution within me of being able to know what are the deepest issues in a person and then being able to lift those issues completely out of the client. It happened relatively quickly, yet the ability has continued evolving as I help others.

Trina: Does working with those who are disturbed bring you down? If so, how do you cope with that?

Dr. Donn Jay Wiedershine: In a way, my colleagues and I all seem to experience a greater connection to something higher with each person we treat. Even though I initially take on some disturbing elements during treatment, there is no ill effect on me. It is like connecting with a great source of profound love and well-being that dissipates the problem and feels like a warm release.

Trina: What is the main difference, would you say, in DET as regards traditional psychiatry?

Dr. Donn Jay Wiedershine: In psychiatry, I listened to words; in DET, I feel what’s unspoken—stress, old wounds. I sense what’s beneath the surface in my patients’ energy fields.

In all earnestness, I am humbled by this—really! I’ve seen it work with desperate cases—psychotic homeless patients who’d calm down after even just one session.

Trina: You’ve talked about a shift happening in the world lately. What do you mean by that, and how does DET fit in?

Dr. Donn Jay Wiedershine: Well now… I help regular folks, too. A lot of people are concerned about things happening in their lives; they’re under tremendous pressure in their jobs, or some trauma they have gone through keeps them tied to lower emotions. So, I work with many people here in New York City and remotely all over the world. There is a great need for people to find that same calm and renewal.

Trina: Yes, I guess the world is changing fast. There are careers people have had for a lifetime that are becoming irrelevant. New technologies are coming online faster than ever, and how do we cope?

Dr. Donn Jay Wiedershine: Yes, since around 2021, I’ve noticed radical changes—not just in my work, but in how we’re all living. It’s like the ground’s shifting—tech, politics, the environment, people feeling more alienated from family—and it’s picking up speed.

People are rethinking what matters: Less about ‘What pays the most?’ and more about ‘What am I good at? How can I make a difference?’ Money’s still there, but, increasingly, it’s not running the show anymore. DET fits because it helps you stay steady through that. The world’s messy right now—old ways shaking out—but I’ve seen patients ride change more smoothly when they face what’s off in their world both inside and out, and let it go. It’s about starting that healing from the inside.

Trina: That idea of ‘facing what’s off.’ Can you unpack that? It sounds like there’s some tough stuff involved.

Dr. Donn Jay Wiedershine: Yeah, it’s not always easy. We’re waking up to what’s broken—selfishness, unfairness, the stress we’ve ignored. I’m not here to scare anyone—it’s about seeing it so we can move past it. Back in the days of treating street people, I worked with many so lost in pain—addiction, trauma—they couldn’t see their own patterns. It’s like that old saying, ‘They couldn’t see the forest for the trees.’ DET’s about spotting those hidden blocks—old hurts, false ideas—and letting them disappear. It’s practical: you can’t heal what you don’t face. But it is often too hard to face some things alone.

With DET you can let go of an issue in a minute that you’ve been holding onto for decades.

Trina: How does a DET session actually work? What might someone experience if they try it?

Dr. Donn Jay Wiedershine: It’s simple but powerful. You sit with me or one of my trained associates—no big talk, just quiet. I tune in—years of meditation let’s me sense what’s heavy for you, like stress or an old wound. We start with an initial session to diagnose the problems. We also offer introductory sessions like Happiness Energy, Removing Negativity, Celestial Energy, and Surrender Energy, each one of which is a step to lift that load. People often feel lighter and calmer—like a bad movie in their head stops playing. Some notice it right away—better sleep, less worry. One patient said their negative thoughts had just vanished; another said it was magical. They floated blissfully all day.

Trina: You mention training others in this, too, right? How do you teach something so intuitive?

Dr. Donn Jay Wiedershine: I do—I’ve got a small team of colleagues who’ve studied DET with me. It starts with reaching a very deep level within themselves after they’ve gone through 4 to 9 DET sessions with me. Then, with their depth fully stabilized, they learn how to give deep energy to others. It’s personal—but it is very teachable.

We did a group event in Queens last summer, and people there felt the difference. It’s a kind of deep, energetic/spiritual thing; I’m able to softly enable people to go deep inside without all the stress and issues. That is the birthplace of growth. Then, I am able to quickly train them to give the specific beautiful energy that is present inside them to others.

Trina: People are skeptical, though. They might wonder, does this really work? What’s the catch? Where’s the proof?

Dr. Donn Jay Wiedershine: Fair question. If they see it, help, as I have, when they feel the results in themselves or see it in others, they start to realize there is something here.

You know, —science and quantum physics are beginning to find all kinds of things we thought were just too woo-woo before. I know because I’ve worked with so many psychotic folks now. I’ve watched them start calming down—their disjointed energy, being healed, and going on to change their lives for the better. I’ve watched professionals who knew them or family members stunned and can’t believe what happened.

Others who are not psychotic at all —but who are just feeling off their game —experience being able to sleep better. They can cope better, are happier, and feel renewed.

Trina: Can you give some specifics?

One woman said her migraines eased; another felt peace after years of anxiety. Is it science? Not in a lab sense—there’s no machine measuring ‘energy blocks’ yet. 😊

Dr. Donn and I shared a laugh at this. It conjured up someone sitting in a chair with wires connected to their body while doctors and nurses in white lab coats, muttering as a node would light up different colors —or emit grungy black chimney-like smoke—and someone would call out, “Block, block, over here, I see a block!”

“ Meditation has proven to cut stress, and I think DET amplifies that many-fold.“

The catch? It’s not a pill—it takes facing yourself, and not everyone’s ready. The proof is in the accounts, for now—the hundreds of people I’ve helped and the referrals. I’d love to see studies someday, but I’ll leave that to researchers. For me, satisfaction comes from seeing the effects and how a disjointed person’s life can be changed. It does take someone who is caring! All of the colleagues I’ve trained are that kind of people. You have to have empathy.

Trina: You’ve got a big vision—living more from who we are. What’s that look like for someone reading this?

Dr. Donn Jay Wiedershine: It’s not a fancy—it’s happening already. You ask, ‘What do I care about?’ instead of chasing what you’re told. Maybe it’s picking a job that fits your skills and makes you happy, having a life for a change. It’s not just the paycheck—or letting go of stress or childhood trauma you didn’t know was still affecting you. People sometimes get dragged down and don’t understand why untoward things happen to them!

Especially today, the world is bumpy, and we are on the equivalent of a roller coaster ride: hilarious, fun, and scary too; we wonder, are we going to land in one piece or be thrown off into space to land who knows where?

Life can be messy. The challenges we face in the world are shaking us up. But history shows that these leaps eventually settle; we just have to hold on during the transition. DET is a tool to help someone ride it out and live more authentically inside their skin.

Trina: I understand you may be working with some people in the criminal justice system. That sounds interesting. How will DET help criminal offenders?

Dr. Donn Jay Wiedershine: Yes, I just met with the head of an alternative sentencing program in New York City.

My work with people on the streets, many of whom were repeat offenders of some sort, made me realize how unfortunate some of these people are. Often, they are those who, through one misdemeanor, one angry, frustrated, and violent outburst, get themselves on a downward spiral that gets worse and worse and can last most of their lives. Some come out of it in one way or another, and some go down the road to more and more incarceration.

I would like to see many of these people get their lives back. Instead of punitive sentencing, offenders could be sentenced to supervised DET instead of jail time. Something that would help them turn their lives around.

Still, I am negotiating and offering a trial period of working with a few such people to show before and after results. It is about building trust step by step.

There are tools like the Pretrial Assessment Tool (part of the ORAS system) to measure progress and prove that DET can change chaotic lives. It is an enormous undertaking, and we would have to demonstrate DET relevance for this kind of treatment.

Trina: You surely have big goals. This would be a hugely expensive project. Once you show proof of concept, how will you fund the project?

Dr. Donn Jay Wiedershine: Well, first things first, I am donating my own time for the first few offenders and submitting to testing to gain proof. Then, once we show some success, we will have to fundraise.

Trina: Will the colleagues you’ve already trained be able to help you take on this? That’s a lot of people in the criminal justice system that need help!

Dr. Donn Jay Wiedershine: Well, I have also reached out to a group of therapists in Manhattan who deal with trauma patients using traditional therapies. One person I’ve begun talking with about this feels that her group of Therapists could see DET as an enhanced therapy to help their clients.

I worked with her to show her the initial process and immediately identified some of the issues she was dealing with. Her reaction was amazing!

Trina: You told me about an experience you had recently with an autistic man. I found that incredible since I have met autistic people who are high-functioning and some who are also very violent.

Dr. Donn Jay Wiedershine: Yes, I had not treated an autistic person before with DET, but a mother who had first-hand experienced DET was very excited about using DET on her son. Her 26-year-old autistic son, who was also bipolar and violent, is living in a group home.

I did a few sessions with him—quiet, intuitive, like always. We made huge progress. The mom was amazed—she said her son is calmer and less volatile. The group home manager was also impressed, calling it ‘amazing progress’ in a relatively short time.

No one can imagine how this turnaround made this mother feel. She wants to continue the treatment and see how much more it can help her son.

DET has a ripple effect —one patient’s shift at a time, and gradually, the effectiveness of DET is realized. That’s what DET can do—start small—change a lot.

Trina: I heard the clatter of plates clinking in the background. Dr. Donn’s food arrived, and the interview ended.