Healing Body Blog

Working with Trauma

11/11/2011 12:48:00

Trauma is often the reason for the physical symptoms that I see in my practice. Trauma is an event that is so overwhelming to the person that there is a disruption of the natural flow of energy and function within the nervous system. One of my methods for treating hidden traumatic responses is Family & Systemic Constellation work.

Trauma can begin with a physical injury, accident and/or emotional injuries. In these moments we can create a survival strategy that is initiated by our defensive physiology. Our body’s response to danger is a series of physiological changes meant to protect us. Long after the event we may be physically and/or emotionally stuck in a constant state of survival that is expressed as pain and other symptoms.

Family & Systemic Constellations are a technique that uses a “Knowing Field” around each of us to help us to understand the hidden influences on our thoughts, feelings, behaviors and physical symptoms often resulting from issues in our family system. The Constellation process involves setting up a physical representation of the underlying patterns and allowing for these elements to move into a new and healthier way of being. Constellations can be setup specifically to change the dynamics of trauma. During these constellations the patient can explore their trauma, survival strategies and the possibility of living beyond them.

Calcium D Glucurate helps reduces toxins

07/20/2011 12:15:00

We live in an increasingly toxic environment. Since WWII we have entered a “Chemical Age” where industrial and agricultural chemicals are constantly added to our water, soil, air and our food. We are faced daily with pesticides, herbicides, insecticides, food additives, drugs, petroleum and petroleum products such as plastics. Some scientists have estimated that 50 to 95 percent of cancers are caused by diet and environmentent.

A key ingredient that can help increase our body’s detoxification process is Calcium D-Glucarate. Our main way of removing toxins takes place in the liver in a process called Phase II detoxification. During this process Calcium D-Glucarate bonds with toxins (making them more water-soluble) and easily removed from the body.

The E Coli bacteria in our gut produce an enzyme that inhibits detoxification. Calcium D-Glucarate is changed in the GI tract to a form that prevents that enzyme from interfering, allowing toxins to be eliminated naturally. A high-fat, high-meat diet leads to higher levels of this enzyme known as B-glucuronidase.

More than 20 studies published in cancer research journals have shown that Calcium D-Glucarate may inhibit the development of cancer in lab animals. Calcium D-Glucarate may help to prevent breast and other hormonally based cancers by blocking the effects of chemicals that mimic estrogen (xenoestrogens) and can stimulate cancer growth.

Resources

http://www.ahaclinic.net/documents/Glucarate_Report-1.pdf

http://blog.drlark.com/blog/female-hormones

http://www.nhlbi.nih.gov/whi/whi_faq.htm

www.ahaclinic.net/documents/Glucarate_Report-1.pdf

http://www.orendainternational.com/content.asp?page_id=163

IBID.

10. http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/8940980

Article on the Holistic Approach

07/07/2011 13:25:00

Holistic Approach: Benefiting from CAM, an Alternative to Western Medicine.

By JODY BOWES Hernando Today correspondent Published: July 7, 2011

"CAM focuses on the whole person as a unique individual as well as the energy of the body and its influence on health and disease, the healing power of nature combined with the mobilization of the body's own resources to heal itself, and on the treatment of the underlying causes, rather than symptoms, of disease."

http://www2.hernandotoday.com/content/2011/jul/07/071356/holistic-approach/

Complimentary issue of Body Sense magazine

07/06/2011 14:41:00

I want to share this complimentary issue of Body Sense magazine with you.

www.abmp.com/bodysense/summer-2011

Body Sense provides valuable information about how to make massage and bodywork a part of your healthy lifestyle. Inside you’ll find helpful articles on massage as a wellness strategy, how bodywork can relieve pain caused by excessive smartphone usage, and discover three important principles of stretching.

Got lower back pain? Massage may help!

07/05/2011 01:19:00

"A new study in the Annals of Internal Medicine finds that massage may be an effective therapy for treating lower back pain, when compared with conventional medical treatment."

Read the rest!

http://thechart.blogs.cnn.com/2011/07/04/got-lower-back-pain-massage-may-help/

Family Constellations: The Orders of Love Between Parents, Children and Excluded Members

07/03/2011 00:51:00

Family Constellations reveal deeply hidden dynamics within family systems. Bert Hellinger, the founder of this therapy, saw consistent patterns that led to specific disturbances.

He eventually called one set of patterns "the Orders of Love." He believes that love requires particular kinds of arrangements and movements to be completely given and received "for a healthy and satisfying life."

(1)  In the first Order of Love a healthy dynamic occurs when children accept their parents and the gift of life as they are without reservations, with all that goes with it. Our parents and the life they gave us is a fact, it is not negotiable and cannot be altered. When we fight against this notion we don't really accept the whole of life and we can never be complete. Setting up a constellation where clients can choose to accept their parents can be a very important movement.

"Our parents are the only possible ones for us. Imagining anything else to be possible is an illusion." (¹)

In the second Order of Love, children need to take what their parents gave, (in addition to life), as being enough. When we believe that we did not get what we needed from our parents, we never really separate from them; we continue to hold-on and cannot stand as unique beings. In accepting what they gave as sufficient we are free to live ours lives without being dependent on them. If not:

"These "children cannot separate from their parents. Their accusations and demands tie them to their parents so that, although they are bound to their parents, the children have no parents. They then feel empty, needy and weak." (IBID)

In the third Order of Love Hellinger saw that children would often try to carry the guilt of their parents (or parent) out of love. This also creates an unhealthy connection to parents that deprives the child of a full and healthy life. In these cases constellations can be set up that allow the client to give back what belongs to the parent and accept that the parents will take care of their own problems.

The fourth Order of Love is closely related to the third. In this pattern children may feel that are as big as their parents or bigger. They may try to fix something that the parent is unable to address or acknowledge. Only by being smaller than our parents can we receive from them. The flow of love must go forward. In turn we pass along what is given to us.

"Between parents and children, reciprocity in giving and taking is achieved by giving on to others what has been taken. It makes parents very happy when children say, "I take everything you give, and when I'm big, I'll pass it on." (IBID)

The next Order of Love is about the larger family. Hellinger believes that in this pattern all family members have an equal right to belong. He believes each family has a conscience at a deep level of the system. This conscience does not tolerate a member being excluded, shunned or forgotten. To correct this imbalance younger members of the family system are likely to identify with the missing family member. This is a frequent element in constellations.

"Much serious dysfunction in families-behavioural disturbances in children, but also illnesses, proneness to accidents and suicidal behaviour-occur when children unconsciously represent an excluded person and seek to satisfy that person's need for restitution." (IBID)

Younger family members can be released from an entanglement with a missing family member by creating a constellation in which the excluded member is recognized and restored to their proper place in the family. At the same time the representative for the younger family member can be encouraged to let go of the identification and the responsibility that is clearly not their own.

My own experience as a constellation facilitator is that some aspects of these orders are found in most constellations as they unfold. There are variations and some differences based on culture, nationality and the particular fate of each family. Addressing the proper flow of love in family systems is very healing and powerful way of finding our place in the world.

 (1) Bert Hellinger, "How Love Works"

History of Osteopathy

06/16/2011 22:45:00

In second half of the 19th century Andrew Taylor Stills, D.O. (1828-1917) evolved from a conventional physician to become founder of a new kind of healing modality that initially challenged orthodox medicine. During his life he was influenced by: homeopathy, magnetic healing, bone setting, and various popular health movements. Yet, despite these influences Still developed principles and methods that were uniquely his own. He began calling his work Osteopathy in 1874.  

Dr. Still’s contributions included a new emphasis on the alignment of vertebrae and bones in the healing process and a theory of disease that focused on obstructions or imbalances in the spine as the central factor in illness. According to A.T. Still it was the disruption of the vital flow of fluids that led to disease. He believed that re-alignment of the spine could be used to treat all illnesses. Throughout his life he fought against the use of drugs, which he thought of as more toxic to the body than helpful. He believed that the body was capable of healing itself when the source of obstructions or imbalances was corrected.  

He stated that his practice of medicine would be based on three principles:  

1. The body produces its own healing substances 

2. Health is dependent upon structural integrity 

3. Perverted structure is a fundamental cause of disease.  

He asked his followers to be witnesses to the wonders of the human body in both structure and function. Dr. Still fully believed that healers could only heal through an ongoing attempt to commune with the divine intelligence within all of our cells and structures.

Lymph Drainage Therapy supports the proper movement of lymph through the body.

05/07/2011 20:19:00

Lymph Drainage techniques are a gentle and efficient hands-on technique. Developed by French physician Bruno Chikly, LDT is among the most scientifically documented, gentle and efficient hands-on therapeutic tools practiced today. It is a very unique approach to promoting health.

The Lymphatic System is very important to good health. This system drains fluids, detoxifies and regenerates tissues, filters out toxins and foreign substances and helps us maintain a healthy immune system.

If lymph circulation stagnates however, toxins accumulate which can help create inflammation and irritation to muscle tissues causing pain and muscle spasm.

Practitioners of LDT learn how to “manually attune the specific rhythm, pressure, quality and direction of the lymph flow by using precise hand techniques.” This allows the practitioner to restore the normal flow of fluids from the tissues to the circulatory system.

Contraindications of LDT include: acute infectious/early onset inflammatory disease and fever, serious circulatory problems such as thrombosis, major cardiac problems including acute angina pectoris and coronary thrombosis (heart attack), hemorrhage (bleeding) and active-cancer patients if the tumor has not been removed and is not under medical control.

Medical Schools Embrace Alternative Medicine

04/15/2011 11:21:00

"Patients' desire for alternative therapies is driving changes in medical education."

By MERYL DAVIDS LANDAU (FROM USnews.com)

Now that nearly 40 percent of American adults swear by some form of complementary and alternative medicine, or CAM—from nutrition and mental relaxation to acupuncture, magnet therapy, and foreign healing systems like traditional Chinese medicine and Indian ayurveda—a growing number of medical schools, too, are supplementing medication with meditation.

Read the rest of this article.

The History of Zone Therapy and Reflexology

04/14/2011 23:49:00

The Zone Theory was the precursor to modern Reflexology, which began with Dr. William H. Fitzgerald, M.D in 1913. Dr. Fitzgerald, an American ear, nose and throat surgeon, noted that pressure on specific parts of the body could have an anaesthetizing effect on a related area. He called his work Zone Analgesia.

Dr. Fitzgerald divided the body into ten equal and vertical zones, ending in the fingers and toes. He concluded that pressure on one part of a zone could affect everything else within that zone. Dr. Shelby Riley, D.C., N.D., worked closely with Dr. Fitzgerald and further developed the Zone Theory by added horizontal zones across the hands and feet, together with the longitudinal zones.

Eunice D. Ingham (1889-1974) a Physio-therapist worked closely with Dr. Riley and was fascinated by the concept of Zone Therapy and started developing her foot reflex theory in the early 1930's. She had the opportunity to treat hundreds of patients where each reflex point was carefully and thoughtfully checked and rechecked until she was able to determine that the reflexes on the feet were an exact mirror image of the organs of the body.

Dr. Riley encouraged her to write her first book entitled

Stories The Feet Can Tell where she documented her cases and carefully mapped out the reflexes on the feet, as we know them today. This book was published in 1938 and was later translated into seven foreign languages.