Reverse Therapy

We teach people how to increase awareness of the body and understand it's purpose in raising symptoms. This could be to warn and guide the individual, to encourage emotional expression, to reverse harmful thoughts and attitudes, or push for lifestyle changes. Once the person has understood the symptoms and taken appropriate action the symptoms can be eliminated for good.

We can work with any problem in which you are experiencing a symptom of some kind, such as: chronic fatigue syndrome, pain, fibromyalgia, nausea, dizziness, headaches, irritable bowel, stomach ulcer, sleeplessness, agitation. high blood pressure, eczema, psoriasis, and immune system disorders.

And also with traditional problems such as: anxiety, stress, trauma, and post-traumatic stress disorder.

Emotional issues, too: anger, hurt, rage, fear, boredom, frustration, sadness and grief.

Our core insight is that all the above problems arise when people lose their connection to Bodymind (and the ability to live in the present moment), get stuck in negative mental states, fail to act on their emotional needs and, as a result, they lose their personal power and their innermost drive towards personal fulfilment and happiness - becoming the child / parent / partner / friend / employee / employer / creative artist / helper / entrepreneur, etc. they were meant to be.

Linked to this insight is John Eaton's discovery that emotions and brain processes interact with the Hypothalamus-Pituitary-Adrenal glands (the 'HPA Axis') that trigger changes to the Sympathetic Nervous System and the Immune System. These, in turn, lead to a variety of symptom states. John has written about these interactions in his books on Reverse Therapy and shows clearly that the symptoms of Chronic Fatigue Syndrome and related problems arise when Bodymind is trying to draw attention to the problems below:

conflict between Bodymind (the emotional, intuitive, sensitive self) and Headmind (the conditioned, cerebral, conformist, worried self)

uncleared emotions, which clog brain processes

unresolved stressors

unmet needs

loss of joy, excitement and surprise

loss of work/life balance

A further problem that John Eaton draws attention to what he calls 'the illness loop' in which many sufferers can become stuck and which gets in the way of understanding the real purpose of the symptom. In this loop, the person gets stuck in Headmind negativity and becomes obsessed with 'illness' (rather than on 'wellness' and 'recovery'). This can end in the individual spending endless amounts of time going from one doctor, one hospital, one clinic to the next, describing about how sick they have become, researching the web for 'cures', reading books and magazines about the condition and getting more and more hopeless and frightened. Another feature of the illness loop is that, instead of understanding and working with the symptoms the person tries to resist them. So she might give up work, withdraw from family and friends, reduce enjoyable activities, and stop exercising. As well as this the person might also try to pace and rest, carefully rationing physical efforts in a very compulsive way. But this strategy only increases the sense that the person is now trapped, to which realisation Bodymind reacts by increasing the related emotions of frustration and boredom - in an attempt to signal that the person needs to break out of the prison. But when those emotions, too are misunderstood and ignored, even more symptoms will result, as Bodymind tries still more frantically to get the person's attention.

From the very first session Reverse Therapy puts the client very firmly on the recovery path. We teach people:

To understand the real cause of the symptoms

To raise Awareness for situations which trigger symptoms

To make links between their unresolved emotions and an increase in symptoms

To use Mindfulness and stay in Awareness in the Present Moment as much as possible

To stay out of negative mental states

To develop positive mental states

To be more assertive

To be more active

To return to a health-sustaining lifestyle

NEXT: REVERSE THERAPY FOR CHILDREN