Recently I had yet another person thank me for recommending the book: The Journey, by Brandon Bays, published by Pocket Books, a division of Simon & Schuster, Inc. The synopsis of the book is that Brandon tells her story of eliminating a basketball size tumor in her abdomen, without surgery, radiation or chemo-therapy.

One of the key concepts that Brandon relied on in her journey, is the belief that every illness, or disease that our bodies do not heal, contains a message or a lesson for us. Once the lesson is learned the body is free to let go of that pattern of disease or illness and heal itself. This is a critical concept for an increasing number of health professionals both in the physical and mental/emotional areas. The core of this process is understood by Depth-Oriented Brief Therapy, and the constructivist movement in psychology.

There are an increasing number of theoretical and practical approaches which are not based on seeing the person as diseased, or having a pathology. These approaches recognize that the person is responding in adaptive and survival oriented patterns regardless of how unhealthy the response may seem to an outside observer. The basic premise in these approaches is to help the person understand the hidden motivations they hold for creating the very pattern they are trying to eliminate by going to the doctor or therapist. Once the motivations are understood, and the adaptive nature of the person’s response pattern is clear, then the person can choose to change the pattern, or continue it with the understanding that it is needed.

These patterns can be anything; over-eating, anxiety, depression, any compulsive behavior, a series of unhealthy relationships, anger problems, shyness or any other symptom pattern that brings a person to a doctor or therapist’s office. The understanding is that the individual is not sick, and that the individual’s behavior makes sense in a protective and adaptive manner, once all the subconscious and emotional truths are known.

This basic understanding is, in my opinion, one of the most important factors in helping people quickly achieve lasting change in their lives. The rate of change in this system is not limited by what the therapist thinks is needed. The rate of change is only dictated by the individual’s willingness to move forward. When it is understood that the individual is creating the very pattern they are asking the therapist to eliminate, the individual understands that they alone have the ability to change that pattern. Once the individual understands why and how they have been creating the pattern, they will know whether the pattern is truly needed, or whether there is another, more comfortable way to satisfy their needs.

Brandon used her knowledge of this process to eliminate the barriers to her body’s healing of a basketball size tumor. Many others have used the knowledge of this process to free themselves of physical and emotional problems ranging from headaches to suicidal thoughts and depression. Brandon outlines the steps in her book which makes it possible for others to duplicate her process.

Last week I received two comments on my post Healing and Healers. One was helpful, the other just angry. The helpful post commented that the healer in question does indeed facilitate others to use their body’s own energy to do the work of healing, and gave a more extensive quote from the website to substantiate this. The other comment was just angry and attacked me for what I wrote.

The comments I made were only sparked by what I saw on the television and I gave the website for that healer so that others could check it out for themselves. There is an old saying that there is no such thing as bad publicity. The television show was probably, like most other shows, just trying to be controversial to promote their ratings and therefore giving a biased view of the work the healer does. The point of my article is not to focus on any specific healer but to address the general pattern of being passive with regard to our health.

The point I was making is that anyone who tries to tell you that you need them to heal, is no different from the physician, or the drug company that insists you need their procedure or product to heal or be healthy. What I am advocating is for each individual to be active in their pursuit of health, rather than waiting for illness or disease to take hold and then scramble around trying to find a “cure”. The cure that most physicians and drug companies offer is, most often, a masking or elimination of symptoms, rather than a lifestyle that facilitates the body’s health.

Earlier this week I saw part of the ABC Television Special about Adam, a nineteen year old boy in Canada. His website refers to him as …”a gifted distant energy healer and best-selling author of three books about his work”.

I was moved to write about this because Adam claims to heal people and to access energy that he directs, which does the healing to the person. All of the good “healers” I have known and read about over the years are clear that they don’t heal anyone. They are clear that the human body and the power that made the human body are what heals the human body. At best the great “healers” facilitate a process which the body carries out naturally. Most often this process is facilitated by removing toxins, or other blocks to the healing process and adding nutrition which the body needs to heal itself.

There are many good examples of people who work with healing energy, who are very clear about the fact that they are not “doing the healing to anyone”. Several examples of this are the Bio Energetic Synchronization Technique, the Neuro-Emotional Technique, and the Emotional Freedom Technique. ( www.morter.com www.netmindbody.com www.emofree.com )

I encourage everyone to move away from the traditional medical model precisely because it assumes that the body is diseased and needs a physician to intervene and give a medication or perform a surgical procedure to fix the problem. This is no different from needing to go to a “healer” who will perform the act of healing on the person.

The difficulty with this approach is that patient is a passive participant in the process. The patient simply lives their life without regard for their health, and then when problems arise, they go to the doctor, or the healer to get fixed. I strongly encourage people to get actively involved in their life and their health since this is the only approach I have ever seen which provides lasting results.

Take charge of your life and actively work to give your body what it needs to perform the miracle of healing and health!

You can learn more about Adam at www.dreamhealer.com

Anger is part of a seemingly miraculous and exceedingly complex system that has allowed humans to survive for thousands of years. Since anger is a survival level defense mechanism, it creates powerful and extensive physical changes in our bodies, each time we experience anger. This is true even if we are not consciously aware that we are angry. The anger response is a survival level response which triggers our bodies to prepare for escape, or battle. This means that specific chemicals and hormones are released into our blood, the blood flow changes throughout the body and a specialized portion of our nervous system is engaged to ensure that the major muscle groups have more oxygen and are ready for serious physical exertion. During the time that the body is experiencing the anger response, it is not able to relax, or heal, or rejuvenate. This is just the biological truth of the way the human body operates.

The partner to the anger response is the “Relaxation Response”. This is the pattern of “shutting-down” that happens once the physical threat has passed. During the relaxation response, the body shifts the blood flow and engages an entirely different set of neurological and hormonal processes which are designed to help the body recuperate and restore its normal functioning. This may involve sleep or it may simply involve relaxation but it includes a period of calm and rest from the intense physical activity that was needed to escape or fight for survival.

It is important to remember that the only healthy reason for anger is to protect a person from serious physical harm or death. Any time you experience anger and your physical survival is not being threatened, you are needlessly putting your body into a position in which it cannot fight infection, recuperate from stress, disease or physical injury, or eliminate toxins that have been introduced into your system.

Sadly the nature of our thought process and the culture we have created puts most of us in the position where we are frequently angry, either consciously or sub-consciously. The result is that we have come to accept frequent anger and frustration as part of our daily lives. This is literally killing us!

Perhaps the single biggest thing you can do to improve your health, and stop interfering with your body’s ability to heal itself and fight disease, is to monitor your feelings of anger and frustration and find a way to change them to feelings of gratitude and acceptance. Some of us are so stuck in the pattern of anger and frustration that we will not be able to simply stop. If your physical-emotional response pattern is too strong to respond to your logic, try using a technique like The Emotional Freedom Technique, (EFT). This is a simple and effective way to give yourself an acupressure treatment for your emotions. The manual is available free on the internet at http://www.emofree.com/. It is simple, powerful and effective!

Let go of your anger and frustration and give your body permission to heal itself and restore your health!

Dr. Morter has been creating and improving his health system for forty years. The basis of his system is putting the patient in control of their health so that they are constantly working to improve their health and strengthen their immune system. He insists that the traditional medical model is dead even though it has not yet been buried.

There are a growing number of options for people who don’t want to wait until they are ill and then go to the doctor for a pill to remove their symptoms. Dr. Morter has developed the B.E.S.T. system as just one of these options. I highly recommend this system because it focuses on several key components that are not included in many other systems.

One key component to the Morter health system is the awareness of the body’s acid/alkaline balance. There have been many complex books written recently about the need to decrease the acidity in the body, but Dr. Morter makes this process easy to understand.

Another important aspect of the Morter health system is the recognition that our thoughts create physical responses in our bodies. Negative thoughts and beliefs create a stress response which produces acid, among other things, that needs to be eliminated.

The Morter Health System blends the knowledge of the body’s physiology, the body’s energy systems and the psychology of emotions into one comprehensive system for health. They are not the only system which does this, but they are perhaps the most comprehensive and well established.

Check out Morter Health Systems at www.morter.com They have a listing of providers on their website so you can even visit a practitioner to learn the benefits first hand.

Live Connected, Congruent and Flowing!

I just received a invitation to a new blog from a friend.

It reminded me that I had created this blog back in December.

Since I created this blog I have had two additional trainings in energy techniques.

The Bio Energetic Synchronization Technique, (B.E.S.T.) was created by a chiropractor and is the centerpiece in a total health system that is highly effective. It calls upon the individual to actively participate in their health.

The fundamental philosophy is that everything that is happening with us physically and emotionally is a perfect response to the energy that created us, and the interference we place in it’s way. This interference is primarily thoughts, beliefs and old emotional patterns that get triggered repeatedly.

Within this system there are six health essentials to monitor. Everything we: eat, drink, breathe, excercise, rest and think. The acronym for this is “uncle E.D.B.E.R.T.” The system pays close attention to the acid/alkaline balance in our body and blood stream, and they teach you how to increase your alkaline reserve so that your body can handle stress and fight disease more effectively. It is a great system!

You can learn more details at www.morter.com

One week from the date of the surgery on my toe, 12/19/2005.
I went to the surgeon for a dressing change and was told by the surgeon that my toe looks like it has been healing for a month rather than just one week. He asked me if I was a fast healer. I told him that even though I am fifty-one years old, no one has ever called me a fast healer before. This includes this same surgeon who repaired my broken ankle six years ago.

The only thing I can attribute this lack of pain and increased healing to is the consistent use of EFT tapping beginning the night of the injury and continuing through the surgery as mentioned in a previous post on this blog.

EFT is the Emotional Freedom Technique which is one of the many new forms of “meridian” therapy which uses knowledge of the energy meridians in the human body and the five element theory which is involved in accupuncture. www.emofree.com for more information and a free manual explaining how to use the tapping technique.

The night of the surgery, I took two prescription pain killers and left one out to take in the middle of the night if I needed it. I never took that third pill and on the day after surgery I took only three 200 mg ibuprophen tablets for the entire day. On each day since the surgery the most I have felt the need to take is three 200 mg ibuprophen tablets, and several days I needed nothing.

Today the surgeon was amazed at the lack of redness, lack of swelling, the overall stability of the toe, and my ability to flex it without intense pain.

I am amazed at the lack of pain and swelling considering the trauma to the toe in the original injury, and the subsequent removal of almost a half an inch of bone from the toe, and the lengthening of tendon.

I have continued to use the EFT basic recipe with a wide variety of affirmations related to the toe surgery and recovery, including the pain, the lack of mobility, my clumsiness, and others.

It makes very good sense to me that if I can decrease my intense negative emotions, I will have more energy for my body to focus on healing and recovery. However I never imagined such a dramatic difference in the experience of a serious trauma involving a broken bone, dislocated bone, and surgery involving bone removal.

I will post an update on the recovery and my use of EFT in about a week.

Using EFT for Anxiety and Nausea During Toe Surgery. 12/13/2005

I am a clinical psychologist with over thirty-one years of experience doing therapy in various forms. I was introduced to EFT just three months ago, by one of my teenage patients who stated, “My grandfather told me I can get this stuff free off the internet, and I don’t need a dumb old psychologist.” He told me the website was www.emofree.com . I looked it up that very evening.

When the patient returned the next week, I told him to tell his grandfather that he was correct! Since then I have been sharing this technique with my patients who are interested and even giving them photocopies of The Basic Recipe section of the manual, to support what we have done in our sessions.

Two nights ago, I tripped and fell and dislocated and broke one of my toes. A trip to the emergency room in the middle of the night confirmed that it was badly injured and would need an orthopedic surgeon to treat it.

After a very uncomfortable night, with very little sleep, I contacted the orthopedic surgeon and arranged for an appointment yesterday afternoon. When I got there, the surgeon quickly assessed the situation and suggested surgery in his office, right then and there. I agreed and he shot the toe with medicine to numb it up and then proceeded to arrange the tools he would need for the surgery.

As I lay there trying to relax before the surgery, I found myself getting anxious and feeling queasy in my stomach. I just closed my eyes and began tapping out the Basic Recipe, with the affirmation of, “Even though I am in pain, and nervous, I deeply and completely accept myself.” Occasionally as I went through the tapping it felt appropriate to change the affirmation to “Even though I am in pain and nervous, I deeply and completely forgive and accept myself.”

I felt the queasy stomach fade away almost instantly, and I just kept tapping through several repetitions of the Basic Recipe, while the surgeon and his nurse prepared for the surgery.

Soon after the procedure started, the surgeon told the nurse that if she needed to, she could step out of the office and he would call her when he needed her. This caused me to open my eyes and turn my head around to find that the nurse was standing behind me, facing away from the surgery, and looking “white as a sheet”.

I just launched into my therapist mode and told her that she looked very uncomfortable and that she could feel much better if she repeated after me and started tapping. She tried to tell me that she was not uncomfortable but the surgeon corrected her and let me in on the fact that this was her first time assisting him in a surgery, because their regular nurse was out on maternity leave as of that day.

I continued to show the nurse how to tap, and as she tapped I simply repeated the affirmation for her; “Even though I am nervous, I deeply and completely accept myself.” After just one complete cycle of the Basic Recipe the nurse looked more relaxed, stated that she felt much better, although mystified as to why, and spent the rest of the time of the surgery, actually watching and helping the surgeon.

As he worked, the surgeon was so impressed with my composure and the change in his nurse’s ability to work with him in the surgery that he started talking about how he would give me a discount on his fees, since I had helped them so much during the surgery.

I was floored by the entire process. I was amazed at how calm and focused I was after tapping about the pain and nausea. I was also amazed at the transformation I observed in the nurse. She went from not being able to look at the surgery, to being able to actively assist in the surgery.

The rest of the story is that I used tapping several times during the afternoon, evening and night, last night, to decrease my pain and anxiety. As I sit here typing this summary, it is only 23 hours since the surgery in which the surgeon had to remove a half an inch of bone from my toe and lengthen two tendons and I have not had any pain medication other than one dose of over the counter ibuprofen today.

Thanks for reading. Happy, Healthy Tapping!

Sincerely,

Timothy J. Hayes, Psy.D.
Licensed Clinical Psychologist
www.ch4cs.com

Depth Oriented Brief Therapy (DOBT) is one of many revolutionary models for working with people in therapy. The basis of DOBT is the assumption that once you know all of the factors operating in a person’s life, it will make perfect sense of whatever it is they are doing.

I summarize this by telling my clients that they are not, Sick, Crazy, Stupid, Lazy, or Masochistic! As such, everything they do is meant to make their lives better in one way or another, even if they themselves cannot seem to understand why or how.

DOBT was created by Bruce Ecker and Laurel Hulley and introduced in the book: Depth Oriented Brief Therapy; How to work brief when you were trained to work deep and vice versa.

The theory and practice outlined in the book and the trainings emphasize that many different techniques from a variety of other therapies can and should be used within the DOBT model. The purpose of the therapy is to help the individual understand the various factors that are motivating them to act, react, and feel the way they do. Since learning the DOBT model and taking the training, my ability to help people has exploded.

One of the most powerful systems I have learned, and integrated with DOBT is the Neuro Emotional Technique (NET).

The Neuro Emotional Technique (NET) was created by a chiropractor, Dr. Scott Walker, and uses the mind/body connection to help determine and correct a variety of problems that may prevent a person from healing. The NET approach is based on the five element theory used in accupuncture and accupressure. It also combines knowledge of homeopathic remedies and chiropractic science to provide a holistic approach to healing within the person, using the body’s own immune system to create health.

NET allows the clinician to use the muscle response of the client as a form of biofeedback to locate where the body’s energy has been disrupted, or disconnected. Then, with simple, non-intrusive techniques, reconnect the body’s energy and help the person understand the logical connection to the current events in the person’s life.

The NET system also includes ways to evaluate the person’s toxicity, and nutritional levels as they may relate to the body’s energy meridians and energy flow.

This is a very powerful and efficient system for helping a person heal, both physically and emotionally. The NET training is available to licensed health professionals and is very well documented and organized, with international research that is building to demonstrate its effectiveness.

The Emotional Freedom Technique (EFT) is one of several newer “tapping” therapies that apply some knowledge of the five element theory and the body’s energy meridians used in accupuncture and accupressure. The main premise with most of these therapies is that the body’s immune and energy systems are connected with the person’s emotional energy and belief systems. As such, whenever there is a disruption or disconnect in any of these systems, is has a powerful effect on the other systems. The most common result of disruption in any one of these systems is decreased ability to heal, either physically or emotionally.

Emotional Freedom Technique (EFT) is a powerful tool for therapists to use with their clients to help dispell intense, negative emotions during a session. This may allow a client to look at important factors they have been afraid to remember or address, which affect issues they are trying to resolve. In the hands of an experienced therapist EFT can be used in a variety of ways to help identify and resolve problems for the client which can be both emotionally and physically based.

EFT does not require a person to diagnose which energy meridian may be blocked and therefore provides a valuable tool for clients to use between therapy sessions or visits to the chiropractor.

It also functions as a wonderful brief form of meditation or “an emotional strengthening exercise” which can take as little as two minutes to complete when used regularly for this purpose.

There are a varitey of newer techniques and systems in therapy and holistic healing which use the same basic mechanisms for helping a person change, heal and grow. Some of them focus more on the energy. Some of them focus more on the emotional content. Still others focus more on the thoughts and words we use to express our experience. This is an exciting time to be alive and learning!

Thanks for reading!

Dear Readers,

This blog is being created to help spread the word about the human mind/body connection and how it can be recognized and used to help make life better on this planet, one person at a time.

I will be writing about things I have read, heard or discovered which may be helpful to others who are eager to learn more about themselves and the newer “therapies” and discoveries that affect us all.

I have been doing therapy in one form or another for over 31 years. I love to teach and write about whatever I learn.

I hope you find the things posted here as useful as I have found them.

I will only post those things that I find very helpful, or very stimulating in terms of the questions they raise.

I learned long ago that one good question is worth a thousand solid answers.

Also somewhere on this site, I will post a listing of my favorite sayings collected over the years. These are mostly reminders of my priorities and key values, but occasionally they are humorous as well.

Thaks for reading!
Sincerely
TJH, Psy.D.