Lifestyle Prescriptions® University graduate, Eileen Strong from the UK, sent this inspiring story about her chronic back pain client.
“I was really interested in hearing about the recent research study by Lifestyle Prescriptions® Health Coach Specialist, Jane Oelke, ND, PhD, on Beliefs Affecting Chronic Pain Responses. It looked at belief patterns in relation to very specific bodily locations of chronic pain e.g. lower back, neck, finger, hip, ankle and so on. Jane found that the top two belief patterns she discovered, “I am not strong enough” and “I have too many responsibilities” correlated with the ability to control situations and the ability to manage or cope with chronic pain.
Recently, I worked with a client who had suffered chronic lower back pain for more than 4 years.
- I used the Lifestyle Prescriptions® 10-Step Root-Cause Analysis Process to help me to help my client make some transformative changes … and let go of her 4 year back pain in 4 weeks.
- First we assessed where the client was currently – Daily lower back pain, varying from 2 to 8/10 intensity.
- Then we explored the conflict theme – a core self-devaluation, not strong enough, not supported, can’t cope with pressure (Cerebral Medulla -/+) and established a timeline – Chronic for 4 years.
- The next stage was to work with the clients emotions and beliefs – Emotions experienced: Deep Sorrow SUD 10/10, Hurt SUD 8/10 (reducing to 0/10 after the first session).
- We then established the stress triggers – Stress trigger memory: client extremely upset when close friends moved away from the area, whom she would “never see again”. Beliefs: “I’ll miss them terribly. They loved and supported me. They were like my support system”
Using the Lifestyle Prescriptions® Protocols & Techniques, the client was able to release the sorrow and hurt, and gained the insights that when her friend had moved away, it had been a significant turning point in life for both of them as they went on to explore new paths in life they may not have done otherwise.
With the benefit of hindsight (upgrading the brain) she could see she was now a wiser person, and believed she could now connect more deeply with gratitude, love, connection and the support of her Higher Self. She also recognized how it was powerful to support other people on their journeys through life too.
As a Lifestyle Prescription®, the client chose to focus on adding two new moves to her morning Yoga routine, to help strengthen the lower back (from the book “Organ-Mind-Brain-Yoga” by Johannes R. Fisslinger), and take a moment to stretch afterwards, stand tall and step into the “wiser version of myself, connecting with the love and support from the Universe” as she prepared to get on with her day.
The back pain reduced consistently over the next 2 weeks, and by 4 weeks had completely disappeared.
“I just love success stories!”
This is a brilliant example of how straightforward and effective Lifestyle Medicine and specifically Lifestyle Prescriptions® Root-Cause Health Coaching can be and how important it is to find an empathic Root-Cause Health Coaching practitioner who really hears you and is able to decode Organ-Mind-Brain Anatomy.
Written by Eileen Strong, LPHCS
