Internally driven magnetohydrodynamic disturbances frequently occur in plasmas when the drive associated with pressure gradients and magnetic geometry exceeds the stabilising magnetic field line bending associated with shear Alfvén waves. Mirror trapped collisionless energetic ion populations typically interact with such instabilities in the magnetosphere and in toroidal laboratory plasma devices such as the tokamak. Unique to the toroidal configuration are confined energetic particles that are not mirror trapped. Ordinarily in tokamak plasmas, the combined effect of trapped and circulating energetic ions is strongly, but not fully, stabilising to low frequency MHD oscillations, sometimes resulting in less frequent but dangerously enlarged plasma reorganisation and possible plasma termination. Here, we show that hybrid kinetic-magnetohydrodynamic theory has provided new insight into phase space engineering techniques for controlling stability in the Joint European Torus tokamak. Manipulation of auxiliary ion heating systems can take advantage of the properties of circulating ions, enabling an asymmetry in the distribution of ions in the velocity orientated along magnetic field lines. We show experiments in which large sawtooth collapses have been controlled, and neoclassical tearing modes avoided, in high performance reactor relevant plasmas.