Hypnotherapy and Kinesiology

Applied Kinesiology - Help for the Physical Body

If you or someone you know has a chronic physical problem, ache or pain, you’ll want to keep reading this article. People suffering with lower back issues, restricted range of motion, fibromyalgia, chronic fatigue syndrome, and other physical issues that western medical care does not adequately address may find great benefit from Applied Kinesiology. Applied Kinesiology is the branch of kinesiology that works specifically with the physical body, and is an ideal method to use when working on returning your body to its best possible state of health. 

First, let me discuss what Applied Kinesiology actually is, and how it works. Applied Kinesiology (AK) is a form of complimentary health care based on the Chinese technique of Acupuncture. The basic theory in both acupuncture and AK is that there is an energy flow that flows through the body in a continuous stream, called Chi. This energy flow is divided into 14 different segments, called meridians. The entire meridian system powers the body and allows us to do the activities we do in our daily lives. If there is a physical problem in the body that hasn’t been caused by a trauma of some sort, the theory is that one or more meridians are disrupted in some way, and that is what is causing the problem in the physical body. Problems of this type may show up as an ache, pain, or other chronic disturbance that causes you to modify your activities of daily living. By finding disruptions in the meridian flows and adjusting them so the meridians are flowing freely, the pain, ache or other chronic problem diminishes or goes away, and that allows you to go back to your normal routine in your daily life.

While acupuncture practitioners use thin needles put in very specific points on the body to adjust meridian flows, Applied Kinesiology practitioners use pressure on those same points, applied with the fingers. By using my fingers to apply pressure to those points that an acupuncturist would be sticking needles into, I am able to adjust the meridian flows where necessary to allow the body to function better, and this helps to relieve the chronic problem in the body. This is the basic theory behind Applied Kinesiology, so now I’ll go into more specifics. 

Each meridian directly affects a specific organ or glandular system in the body, and specific muscles as well. To check for disruptions in the meridian system, we check the muscles associated with each meridian. If the meridian is flowing freely, the muscles of that meridian will be balanced and equal in their function on both the right and left sides of the body. If there is a disruption in the meridian, the muscles affected by that meridian will not be equal in their ability to work in accomplishing movement. When such an imbalance is found, the pressure points are stimulated for 15 to 30 seconds to help restore the flow of energy to its natural strength. This results in an equalization of the muscles on each side of the body, with the meridian flowing freely. By testing the flow of all 14 meridians and adjusting them where necessary, the problem a client had will be lessened or diminished noticeably. Applied Kinesiology helps many people with chronic conditions get back to their normal daily activities where other methods have failed.

Behavioral Kinesiology -- Getting to the Root of the Problem 

As a kinesiologist, I know when a meridian is disrupted or flowing in a weakened state, and there has been no physical damage to the body, the disruption is likely due to emotional stress. When a person is engaging in destructive behaviors, such as addictions, obsessions, or compulsions, those behaviors are usually caused by unresolved emotional stress, either from the past or present. By finding the emotional stress involved and changing the subconscious mind's perception of it, the meridian begins to flow freely or the destructive behavior diminishes or stops. Before I go into detail about this and give you case histories, I need to give you some theoretical background.

When I work with a client, I am working with three ego states: the adult, the inner child, and the inner parent. The adult ego functions at the client's current age, has understanding of time, mathematics, logic, the consequences of actions, and it uses no emotion at all. The adult could be called the "computer" part of the mind. The adult is also called the conscious mind, and is about ten percent of the brain. For example, the adult is the part of the mind that recognizes that smoking is damaging to the body, and if the behavior continues, health problems will come about as a result of the smoking. Although the adult knows this, it is only ten percent of the brain and has limited control over what we do.

The other ninety percent of the brain is the subconscious mind. There are many important functions the subconscious mind performs without us consciously being aware of them. The subconscious is the part of the mind that performs all autonomic functions in the body: breathing, circulation of fluids, digestion, elimination, etc. This is the part of the mind that has control of the physical body. When we move, we do not have to consciously think about what muscles to contract and what muscles to relax; that is all done "automatically." In reality, the subconscious is constantly sending messages to the appropriate muscles, via nerve impulses, to contract and relax the muscles in order to accomplish any movement in any part of the body.

Another function the subconscious mind performs is long term memory storage. The subconscious functions, in one respect, in much the same way that a cam-corder does: it takes a picture and a sound bite every tenth of a second. The difference between the subconscious and a cam-corder is that the subconscious never forgets and cannot be erased. All of the events of your life, from the time of birth to the present day, are recorded in your subconscious. 

I work primarily with two egos in the subconscious mind: the inner child and the inner parent.

The inner child usually operates at about the age of two years. The inner child has the perceptions and understanding of a two year old, not that of an adult. Because of this, there are many things that go on and that a person experiences that the inner child may be frightened or bewildered by. The inner child is also the ego where all emotion comes from. When we laugh, cry, love, hate, have fear about a person, situation, or thing, this is the inner child expressing him/her self. If you've had children, think back to when they were two years old; there is no reasoning with a two year old, they are only interested in gratification. They don't care about or understand the consequences of doing something, their only concern is how something that happens will affect them. "I want it, and I want it NOW" would be a common statement made by a two year old, and is also a good way to characterize the inner child.

The inner parent usually operates at about the age of seven, and therefore has the perceptions and understanding that a seven year old would have. This ego is called the parent because its primary job is to try to protect and take care of the inner child. Whatever a child is shown by its parents from the time of birth until about seven is what the inner parent uses to accomplish its primary job. If the parents of a child use criticism as a means of teaching, the inner parent will carry that technique into adult life, in its attempt to protect the inner child. This is called a critical inner parent, and a typical statement or thought by him/her would be: "That was stupid, why did I do that?" or "I should know better than to do something like that." Unfortunately, criticism is a common method of teaching that parents use, and they use it not in an attempt to hurt their child, but because that is what they were taught by their parents. We tend to hand down to our children those things that we were taught by our parents. 

Another method that is used by parents to protect and teach their children is one that focuses on learning from mistakes so that the mistakes are not made again. This helps to develop the child's independence and ability to reason out the consequences of actions, making the child responsible for his/her own happiness. This is a much more nurturing way of treating children -- unfortunately it is very rare. In my practice, I almost never see clients who were raised in this manner; people raised in a nurturing environment are generally very well balanced on an emotional level and have little need of my services.

To summarize, these are some important aspects of the subconscious mind.

* it is 90% of the brain

* it is responsible for all autonomic functions of the body

* it literally has control of all muscles in the body

* it is where long term memory storage is held

* one part of it is the inner child, operating at the age of two

* one part of it is the inner parent, operating at the age of seven

When you realize that all of these aspects are what make up the subconscious mind, you realize that it is very powerful, although it functions only at the level of a child. Everything that happens to a person throughout their daily life is perceived by all three egos. The inner child and inner parent have very limited perceptions and cannot call on the life's experiences of the adult for help because they are "stuck" at the ages that they are. No matter how much you try to explain or reason with a two year old, it doesn't work because it simply has no comprehension of what you are talking about. The same thing applies when you consider the events of your daily life. 

Let me give an example: Let's suppose that you and a close friend or family member are talking when this other person makes a sarcastic comment in a joking manner about you. From the point of view of the adult ego, you recognize this comment for what it is; a joke, and you probably respond appropriately. Both you and your friend laugh and go on, talking about whatever comes up. The inner child and the inner parent however, have totally different perceptions. The inner child is probably hurt by the comment. The inner parent wants to respond to the comment, not in a joking manner, but in a manner that will "fend off the attack" of this person who, from the inner parent's point of view, used to be your friend. This is because the inner child has perceived this event through the eyes of a two year old, and doesn't understand how the adult can be so casual about a remark that was so hurtful. The inner parent, responding to the hurt feeling of the inner child, wants to protect the inner child by attacking back. When the adult doesn't, the inner parent then views not only this other person as a potentially harmful person, but also begins to view the adult ego with caution. This can set up a lot of emotional stress within a person. 

As I said earlier, emotional stress can be one of the causes that affects meridians, causing them to flow in a weakened manner in the first place. Now think about all the times that some similar event or some other emotional stress has happened to you throughout your life: life as a small child, trying to please mom and dad even though what they want is not what you wanted, going through puberty and the teenage years, trying to gain acceptance from peers, in the adult years, trying to please your boss, trying to please your life-partner, etc. As you do this, you begin to realize the potential for a lot of emotional stress being held onto by the subconscious mind. This sets up the potential for meridians not flowing freely, and if they are allowed to flow in a weakened state for many years, eventually physical problems will manifest in the body.

The method that the subconscious mind uses to let the conscious mind know of its discontent if the conscious mind is not aware of it, is pain or illness in the body. It is as though a small child is saying: "All right, if you won't listen to me, I'll hurt you until you do!" When a person's body is functioning in any manner other than optimum health and there is no physical damage that caused the malfunction, it is the subconscious mind's attempt to get the conscious mind to pay attention to it. When a person is engaging in some destructive behavior, that behavior is being used by the subconscious to try to make it self feel better; it is a self-medicating behavior. By using the muscles of the body, I can directly access the subconscious mind and determine what the emotion or emotions are behind a weakness in any meridian or a destructive behavior. Then, by asking a series of questions, I can find the age that this emotional response was learned, who was involved, why the subconscious is holding on to the emotional response (usually for protection or punishment), and what I can do to help release or resolve the particular issue. After we have gone through the resolution of all the emotions associated with the problem, the meridians begin to flow freely, and any pain in the body associated with that emotion lessens or disappears. If it is a sickness or disease, the body begins to heal itself naturally, usually with no further intervention necessary, other than good nutrition. If we are working to resolve a destructive behavior, such as an addiction, it becomes much easier to stop the destructive behavior because the subconscious mind is no longer trying to use that behavior for self-medication. I view the work that I do not as a substitute or alternative to conventional medical care, but as a first course, prior to doing any invasive techniques, such as drug therapy or surgery. 

    Hypnosis -- Nothing to Fear

Many people have a preconceived idea of what hypnosis is and how it is used. Unfortunately, many of those ideas are based on the “B” movies common in the 50's and 60's, showing a person in a hypnotic state of mind as a zombie, completely without a will of his or her own. Nothing could be further from the truth! Hypnosis is simply a focused, yet relaxed, state of mind and is completely safe. At no time do I, as a hypnotherapist, have control over the client that I am working with. When a person is in a hypnotic state of mind, they are aware of everything that is said and done and are totally in control of themselves. 

My goal during a hypnosis session is to help put into the subconscious mind of my client lifestyle changes that the client feels will affect their life in a positive way. The most common things that I use hypnosis for are: Helping a client stop smoking, Helping a client control their weight, and Helping a client deal with stress in an appropriate way. My method for putting someone in a hypnotic state is simply talking to them, getting them to relax and open themselves up to a lifestyle change that they want and desire. I usually have some soft music playing, and have my clients sitting in a comfortable chair. When the client has reached the desired state of mind, I mention the lifestyle changes that they want to achieve and point out the advantages of accepting those changes. In this way, hypnosis is very similar to guided meditation. After the session is over, I frequently receive comments from first time clients telling me how surprised they are that what they just experienced is hypnosis saying: " I remember everything that happened", or "I could hear other noises and sounds, but they just were not important", or "I'm amazed at how good I feel; totally relaxed, yet energized!" Because I am a Kinesiologist in addition to being a Clinical Hypnotherapist, I very rarely, use hypnosis on its own. The advantage that I have as a Kinesiologist is that I can very quickly find out why a client is behaving in a particular manner and what needs to be done to change that behavior. After discovering kinesiology and incorporating it into my practice, my success rate with my clients instantly jumped far above what it was with hypnosis alone. To give you an example, an honest hypnotherapist knows that his or her success rate in getting clients to give up smoking will be between 30% & 50%. That means that at least half of the clients that go through a hypnotherapy program to stop smoking, start smoking again very quickly or never stop in the first place. The reason for this is simple: people use certain behaviors and do certain things, even harmful or destructive things such as smoking, for emotional need. By first removing the emotional need to smoke through the use of kinesiology, and then using hypnosis as a follow up tool, I average an 80% success rate with clients becoming non-smokers. 

Truly, hypnosis is a very pleasant experience, and a powerful tool that can be very beneficial in helping you change your life in a positive way. It is certainly nothing to fear!