Healing The Physical Trauma of Child Abuse

Written by Don Shetterly

This Unified Therapy session wasn't easy.  It was tough beyond any words that I can write.  In fact, just getting myself to see Dr. Canali was more than difficult.  I procrastinated.  I tried to wish it away.  I tried to numb it away.

No matter what, as hard as I tried to wish it away, my avoidance was not helping the issue at all.  I was begging for mercy.  I wanted relief.  I could not find it on my own no matter what I was doing.  As I wrote a few days earlier in a blog post, it was the Rash That Won't Stop that got me to the point where I finally went to see Dr. Canali.

My life had become one of so much difficulty with little sleep.  The burning and itching I described in that blog post were no lies.  It was all too real.  My anger was hard to contain with everyone and everything.  I did not know at that moment before the session if I could make it through this.  I was not sure if I could make it through this.  The session with Dr. Canali had become my last hope.

What I had written, I shared...

I shared with him what I had written in that blog post. I couldn't even manage to get the words out.  My voice would not articulate them.  As he sat down beside the massage table and read them out loud to me, my eyes welled up with tears.  To most people, they are words on a page.  To me, they were heartaches and pain from the abuse I suffered.

As we began to go into what was coming up in my body, it was evident to Dr. Canali and myself just how locked up my pelvis and abdomen were.  In fact, most of my pants were not fitting at that time.  They felt like 5 sizes too small.  The itching in this area was intense.  Any touch anywhere close and the pain would shoot through my body like there was no end.

Moving through things, everything from the itching to the heat in my body and the pain would kick up.  We would take it as far as we could, and then Dr. Canali would allow me to drop back down.  It felt like a physical workout.  It felt like there were moments that were almost too much.  However, I knew that this was part of the healing process.

An empowerment boost of healing...

The more I started to see that we could go into all of these things and then drop back into a more peaceful state, the more empowered my body became. It was as if pushing into these difficult moments and then dropping back was an empowerment boost.  A boost that kept me taking on more of the trauma my body had been holding for many years.

Some of these trauma memories of abuse that I was dealing with, I have seen in other forms and ways at various times.  However, this one was the more physical side of being raped and held down with no way to stop it.  It started by the time I was around six years old and continued until I was much older.

As we moved through the session, we discussed those things, and I was allowed to share them.  It wasn't easy to say the words.  It wasn't easy to recognize just how much the evil and darkness of these abusers and tried to squash any hope for light and existence I had.

The Body Shows The Trauma...

The physical trauma resides in the body.  The body remembers even if we attempt to keep it from reliving memories from years past.  The brain will try to block it, but when the body shows the evidence, it is then that the brain is in survival and numbing.

As we went through the session, I could feel the physical tension leaving my body.  It was more than if I had gotten a relaxing massage.  It was where my body goes into that deep peace and rest that it desperately needs.  The itching came down.  The pain came down.  The elevated body temperature I was feeling dropped down.

I noticed as we left the office and went out into the summer heat of a South Florida afternoon, that I was tolerating the heat much better.  Before this moment, I could barely stand in the summer heat for a few minutes.

I noticed that the world around me seemed more at peace.  I sensed the quiet stillness accessible to me even though the hustle and bustle of the city continued.  I felt lighter and more joyful.  I felt more hopeful and alive than I had a little while earlier that day.

As we left to go back to the hotel, I started to notice that the pants which were tight on me before the session, were now needing a belt.  There was so much physical tension in my abdomen and waist that had released that I could barely keep my pants up.  It shocked me because it showed me just how much trauma I was holding in my physical body.

I went from not wanting anyone close to me touching me to allowing myself to be touched.  I went from wanting no intimacy to welcoming it happily.

In that session with Dr. Canali, so much physically changed in my body.  It was like I was coming back into my body and learning to live life again as was meant for me to experience.

Healing Is More Than A Mental Exercise...

Once again, the work and concepts that Dr. Canali has discovered are helping me understand what trauma does to the body and how we store all of this for years and years.  It is not just a mental exercise.  It is an exercise where you connect the mind with what comes up in the body and then you are gently guided in different ways how to let go of it all.  It is a process that helps you find deep healing and peace, that is more than a quick point of change.  This healing is lasting.

As I write this, several days after the session, I can still feel my body letting go and processing all that went on in that session.  I can feel how little moments in life kick up the body temperature or the itching while being able to talk myself back down and put reality in perspective with what I am feeling.

Yes, I've had moments of anger and frustration, but I can deal with them more appropriately than I was.  I'm able to go in and stop and rest and allow my body to just be in the moment.  I've been able to be in a hot tub and sauna, be outside in the heat of an afternoon and not feel like I was going to lose my mind or pass out and drop on the ground.

I'm working to take care of myself, changing how I see things in my life and observing how I react.  I want the reactions to be from a more mind and body centered approach than feeling like an unwilling participant.  I'm focusing on the bigger picture of my life much more than I have been and seeing how all of this plays into where my life goes.

I'm monitoring how much I let in from the world that is full of screaming, anger, rage, and disrespect because the actions I see every day do nothing to help me in my own life.  I'm allowing myself to disconnect from them and replace them with things that are genuinely helpful.  I know that if I get caught up in the darkness of the day, it will do nothing positive for me.

Most of all, I feel better.  I feel more empowered.  I feel more centered.  It is like there is now hope where I thought I had lost all hope.

I'm thankful for Unified Therapy and Dr. Paul Canali and what he knows and how he helps me.  He is one of a kind.  If there are others beyond him (and a few other practitioners) that can do what he does for me, I have not found them.  He is a pioneer in the field of healing trauma.

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Blog Post And Images (c) 2017 by Don Shetterly

• Permission required before any part of this blog post is reprinted, reworded or used in any form. 
• You are welcomed to share the LINK to this blog post.  

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Fearing The Fear

Written By Don Shetterly

If you've read much on my blog, you'll see that this subject has been one of my most challenging experiences in my life.  Fearing the fear consumed my life at one time, but over the years and through my healing, I've learned more how to deal with fear.


I am not going to sit here and write that fear is an easy thing for me to overcome.  I'm not going to give you some platitude or meme that says you can wave a magic wand and be in control of fear.  Those things are not helpful to healing and our growth.  They are stumbling blocks if we subscribe to them.

When I was in a healing session the other day, I started to notice the little things where fear would come on strong in me.  In these Unified Therapy healing sessions, we are encouraged to bring the fear up, not shove it down or hide from it or numb it.  It is the time to bring it up.

The "oh no" mode...

For me that day, the office air conditioning kicking on sent the fear going sky high.  It wasn't easy, and at first, I could notice my breath going into fear mode.  I could feel my body begin to tense up.  I could see that my mind was starting to go into the "oh no" mode.  It felt like everything was going to come crashing down on me and that my life at that moment would come to an end.

Fearing the fear was where I was in that particular moment.  There are reasons that all of this was coming up, but that detail is for another blog post.  Just recognizing how strong the fear was getting and how much was coming at me, my body went into the defensive mode of survival.

In a Unified Therapy healing session, you don't stay in this moment.  You are taken through it by Dr. Canali gently guiding you to feel in your body, sense what is going on, and remind yourself that it is fear, not the end of the world.

As you go in and begin to connect with the fear in your body, there are often emotions or physical sensations that appear as they did for me that day.  The anger and pain surfaced.  The emotions of sadness and grief showed up.  The point of not being able to stop what had happened to me as a kid was the dynamite ready to ignite.

In this session, I also did one more thing, and that was telling myself that what happened to me many years ago is not happening now.  Dr. Canali, of course, was coaching me through this, but just that realization in that particular moment was a big one for me.  It helped me to connect reality with fear.  It helped me to see that I feared the fear, but that the current reality was different.

Yes, there is a mental exercise in stopping how you deal with fear, but this approach that is so healing and empowering is body centered.  If I didn't deal with what was going on in my body, it would be nothing more than platitudes about how to treat fear.

Most of the time in healing, we deal with fear from an intellectual mind-centered level.  However, fear resides in the body, and if you fail to go in and touch the depths of it within the cells, you're only working with half the healing potential.

The further you can go in and feel it within the body, the more you will supercharge your healing.  Healing from the core of your cells in the body is lasting and life changing.

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Blog Post And Images (c) 2017 by Don Shetterly

• Permission required before any part of this blog post is reprinted, reworded or used in any form. 
• You are welcomed to share the LINK to this blog post.  

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The Rash That Won't Stop

 Written by Don Shetterly

At the slightest hint of anything, the rash picks up.  It changed from being constant to giving me moments of reprieve.  However, in exchange for this, it kicks up harder and with more fierceness than ever before.  The itching may subside after some moments, and if I’m lucky, the burning sensation doesn’t start in because it can last for a long time.  Most of the time lately, I’m not so lucky on that.

It doesn’t take much.  It can be fabric touching it.  It can be something touching me emotionally (good or bad).  It can be a conversation with someone.  It can be stepping outside in the warm summer weather or trying to wade in the pool.  It can be a phone call that I’m on or even listening in on these days.

When it picks up with intensity, I care barely sit still.  I struggle to keep my fingers from clawing at the rash.  Sometimes it won’t let me stop and sit down.  It keeps me pacing the floors screaming out in agony as if it won’t ever let me go.  Sometimes I find myself hitting and pounding my body just to numb it, as if I was doing what I once used to do as a kid.

My breathing gets shallow during these times.  Sleep is like something a million miles away.  My brain begins to run incessantly as if it must solve every issue known to man.  I find no relief – only distraction.  Most don’t understand.  In fact, it is almost too difficult to explain.  I feel ostracized by virtually everyone, but I want NO ONE to touch me or come close to me.

The images flood my mind of being held down while boiling water is poured upon me.  I know what they want me to allow them to do, but on that day, I’m fighting them.  I know I shouldn’t fight them for it will only get worse.  I just don’t want them to today.  I’m tired of enduring this.  I’m tired of them doing it to me.

Regardless, bad boys that don’t do as they are told suffer the consequences, and so the boiling water is poured on me as a punishment.  It seems boiling.  It could be hot water.  I can’t recall.  My body screams in pain.  My body shivers as the cold air of the winter in a drafty old house touches me.  I shiver and shake.  I tremble.  Just like in the days of the seizures.  I couldn’t control those either.  I would shake and tremble and flail around until exhaustion hit.  It went until I numbed and disconnected enough that I no longer was aware of what was happening.

But good little boys don’t have these images of their fathers and brothers.  Good little boys should never think about these things happening.  After all, God will torment and punish me forever for thinking this way and not obeying their every command.

My body wants some rest and relief.  It wants to numb at the same time because it is just too much at the time to deal with at this moment.  It is much too much even to want to deal with at this moment.  It seems like it has been an eternity that is has been happening when in reality, the rash only started last Christmas.

I try to tell my mind and my body that it will get better.  It laughs at me like a pack of hysterical hyenas.  It scoffs at me with ludicrous thoughts as if there is any way to get beyond this.  I try to have hope.  I try to have hope.  I know I’ve been in similar darkness before, but it is of little use because I feel too worn out and exhausted to care.

By the time anyone reads this blog post, I will have had some Unified Therapy sessions to hopefully help me get past this.  So, stay tuned for the follow-up blog posts.

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Blog Post And Images (c) 2017 by Don Shetterly

• Permission required before any part of this blog post is reprinted, reworded or used in any form. 
• You are welcomed to share the LINK to this blog post.  

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The Felt Sense

 By Don Shetterly

By far, we under-utilize this part of human biology and healing.  The felt sense is critical and powerful to changing the direction of our lives, increasing awareness, and consciousness and helping us heal the experiences of our day.

I've learned about the felt sense through the work of Dr. Paul Canali, known as Unified Therapy.  Felt sense, in my understanding, is about feeling the emotions and what is going on in life in the body.  It is the connection between those emotions and the body, including the mind.

All too often we only focus on what we feel, or that emotions are present.  We tend to focus on it from a mind approach where we are in our heads, but not in our bodies.

Emotions are outward manifestations of what is going on in life.  They are our reaction to events and experiences, originating from deep within us.

Felt sense takes us into the moment where we feel the experiences and emotions in our body, not just observe them in our reactions.  When we stop and allow ourselves to go in and feel them, it is then that we have the power to change them.

Most of us will feel the emotions, and feel pain in our bodies, but we don't connect the two together.  The felt sense is where we are able to do this.

Being aware of how these things connect to our body and our mind is the key to working with them.  The more we can work with the experiences and emotions we face, from a connected mind and body interface, the more we can make major changes in life.

These changes are not limited to physical only, but our increased consciousness and awareness.

A good quote from Eugene Gendlin's book, Focusing, puts this in perspective.

"The change process we have discovered is natural to the body, and it feels that way in the body.  The crucial move goes beneath the usual painful places to a bodily sensing that is at first unclear.  From this new vantage point, the traditional methods of working on oneself are seen to have been mostly pain-centered.  People get into and repeat over and over their painful emotions, without knowing how to use the body's own life-centered and inherently positive direction and force." (Focusing)

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Blog Post And Images (c) 2017 by Don Shetterly

• Permission required before any part of this blog post is reprinted, reworded or used in any form. 
• You are welcomed to share the LINK to this blog post.  

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Traumatized By Seizures

One of the things I experienced in 1991 was a condition called Conversion Disorder.  Many people see it in different ways, and there are many who do not understand this condition.  In a nutshell, it is like an overloaded circuit in the body that tends to flip the breaker and shut you down.  That is how I've come to understand it in my own healing and life.

Pseudo-seizures in Conversion Disorder are part of what I experienced after I lost control of my body through paralysis.  In those early moments, I could not walk or stand and function on my own.  Eating, talking, moving, and many other actions we take for granted were gone from me in the blink of an eye.

However, the seizures I went through was by far the worst.  I did not understand what was happening to me.  They would go on forever, it seemed.  My parents would watch me in the wheelchair I was sitting in as the seizures kicked in.  They would be frightened, and so would I.  The only thing that stopped the seizures was when my body got completely exhausted.

In these seizures (that's what I call them), my body would tremble and shake.  It felt like my arms and legs would move violently all over the place with absolutely no control.  It didn't feel as though I was present in the moment of what was happening, and it always felt like there was nothing I could do.

I was so frightened during these times.  I wanted so badly for someone to come and put their arm around me and hold me.  I didn't want people to stare at me as if I was some freak because they were afraid themselves.  If anyone talked to me or put a hand on me, I don't remember that.  I don't think that happened.

While I was in a healing session the other day, this is the subject that came up.  It took me by complete surprise because I had not even thought about it.  I sure didn't think I had been traumatized by the seizures.  However, I found out just how much is still locked up in my body from these seizures.

In the work I have gone through called Unified Therapy with Dr. Paul Canali, shaking and trembling are often part of the healing session.  It is normal for our bodies to shake and tremble to dissipate stress or trauma.  However, most of the time the mind and body stop this.  So if we allow ourselves into these healing moments, they can release so much locked energy within our cells, tissues, and our mind body.

It is important to make a note here that just shaking and trembling by themselves are not the healing part.  When you connect it to an emotion coming up in the body or some experience you've been through that automatically appears, then you have the basis for a very powerful healing moment.  If you're not careful though, you can get locked into this trembling and shaking and have it yield nothing more than re-traumatizing yourself or a person you are working with.

As the session went along, all of this came front and center and something that was actually healing and helpful was frightening to me.  Dr. Canali is able to understand this and work with me so that I don't go into the overwhelm moment.   I go up to the edge of it, where I am instead empowered.  While this may all sound like too much and too scary to go through in a session, he is careful not to re-traumatize you.  The more you can go into these moments, the more healing and awareness comes out as a result.  It becomes empowering to aid you in further healing and growth.

It did not dawn on me until this session that I was storing so much trauma in my body and my mind from the seizures.  I just thought that once they were done, it was all over and I had moved on.  As I keep gathering the fragmented pieces together of what I went through, I begin to see a new picture of who I am.

All too often, we think that once things are over we are past them and we've moved on.  In fact, we often tell ourselves and others that we have moved on, or that they should move on.  It isn't until we allow ourselves to connect all of these things together that we truly are in the healing part of the mind body connection.

This is what healing and awareness are all about, but it all depends on how far I'm willing to let myself go into these moments.  If I hold myself back, they will not happen.  If I let go and surrender to them, the other side of peace and joy that I gain is beyond any words I can use to describe it.  If I do not integrate them in and acknowledge their presence in my life, I will continue to wander through life as if it is another foggy day.

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Blog Post And Images (c) 2017 by Don Shetterly

• Permission required before any part of this blog post is reprinted, reworded or used in any form. 
• You are welcomed to share the LINK to this blog post.  

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Introducing Barbara and Insights Into Healing

I'm so happy and proud to announce the addition of another regular columnist to Mind Body Thoughts.  Barbara Lempereur is one of my long time friends who has helped me be more than I am, and helped countless others to help heal their lives.

One thing I so love about Barbara is her compassion, caring, and love for other people.  It is a pure love and compassion, without judgment that makes Barbara a true healer.  It is what has helped me find my way through difficult moments.

While I realize that Barbara has experienced some difficult things in her life, she has found a way to continue on.  Yet, she didn't stop there because she took that pain and found a way to help others walk through those difficult moments they were facing.

She has a very grounded view of healing and what helps get us through the moments that sometime seem impossible.  It isn't pie-in-the-sky thinking, but something that makes sense and is easy to grasp on to.  She uses her own experience to reach a healing hand out to others.

Barbara is also an assistant working with Dr. Paul Canali in Miami, Florida at the Evolutionary Healing Institute.  Through the work of Dr. Canali, she has learned and helped advance Unified Therapy.  It is the work that I've also been involved with and is life changing when it comes to healing trauma.

So, it is my pleasure to introduce Barbara Lempereur as the new regular columnist on Mind Body Thoughts.  Her blog posts will be appearing every other month, and I think the insight into healing that she will bring will benefit everyone that reads it.

So, help me welcome Barbara to the team!

For more information on Barbara and the articles she writes, go to the page on this blog, Insights Into Healing.  Look for her articles around the alternating fourth Monday of each month.

Stress Set Point In The Emergency Danger Zone

This is the continuation in a series on allostatic load.  In part 3, we discussed being disconnected from allostatic load and stress. 

If you haven't seen Part 3, go there first.

In Part 4, we will be discussing the stress set point in the emergency danger zone.

So what can you do if your set point has entered the emergency danger zone?

The first thing is to recognize it.  You can't keep running from the body and the mind.  You can't keep pushing your body past its limits.  You can't keep running from your past even if it is so horrible and painful to see.  Okay, you can keep running, but sooner or later, it will take you down to your knees and trust me, it gets much harder to come back.  I speak from experience on this.

In the early stages of recovering your set point and reducing allostatic load, you may need to take drastic measures for your own survival.  This may include medications and life saving procedures, but you must be careful that these do not become a crutch that is misinterpreted and misrepresented as healing.  It is far too easy to do this in your mind.  If you stay in this mode, it will not go easy for you in the physical side of your mind and body.

Support and stress reduction activities can be helpful, but they will only take you so far if you ignore what else is going on underneath.  Yoga, QiGong, and other movement activities can also help, but again, you need to go to the root cause.  It requires traveling into the pain and difficulty, not just treating the surface.

Even massage and bodywork of different flavors can help you to begin the process of balancing out and resetting the set point of your life.  Keep in mind though, these things can become the healing crutch rather than the healing.  They may often be good for you, but they can become a routine that keeps you at arms length from that which is raising the alarms within your body.

The best thing you can do to help reduce the allostatic load is by going in and learning to connect with your body.  Through the felt-sense, breathwork, and movement connected together with someone who is trained, you can begin to feel your body deep within.  You can begin to go into the outer edges of what is comfortable, thereby training your mind and body to increase your resilience and take back the power of what is draining your life.

This is not just a mind exercise.  It needs to happen at the cellular level to bring about true change in a body.  If you don't engage the body and nervous system at a cellular level, you're just putting a band-aid on a gushing wound, hoping it will stop the bleeding.

Sometimes this process is not easy in the beginning, but it is like an Olympic athlete training for the Olympics.  They don't start out on day one being able to run 25 miles.  They work their way up to it and often through the process, there is muscle discomfort and pain.  If they keep training and allowing for recovering, their muscles and body will be ready to do more and to take on more.

The same goes for healing your life and dropping the allostatic load you are under.  This is not pie-in-the-sky thinking.  It has been proven many times over with those that know how to take someone in and guide them through the process of waking up.  The important point though is that you have to go through the process to wake up and stop disconnecting from your life.  Anything short of that pushes the set point further and further toward the danger zone, past the point of no return.

The process I've gone through with Dr. Paul Canali of Evolutionary Healing Institute in Miami is called Unified Therapy.  In this process, he draws on the core truths of many modalities and then applies them at the right time.  He constantly keeps the person engaged through the process and keeps them feeling in their body.  When you are feeling in the body, you are in control, but when you have disconnected and are not feeling, that is when you're heading for the cliff.

It sounds so simple and yet complex to go through this, but I know for a fact that many people, including myself, have dropped the allostatic load in their lives.  It isn't just a one time moment of healing.  As you go through the process you learn to become more aware --  and the more aware you become, the more life shifts so that you can adapt better to stress, heal your life, and keep yourself from maladaptive problem solving.

Make sure you check out the next part in this 5 part series.  

 Part 5 is "The Best Part Of Dealing With Stress"

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Blog Post And Images (c) 2017 by Don Shetterly

• Permission required before any part of this blog post is reprinted, reworded or used in any form. 
• You are welcomed to share the LINK to this blog post.  

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If You Don't Deal With Stress

This is the continuation of a series on allostatic load.  In part 1, there are notes from a video discussion with Dr. Donald Bosch of the Headington Institute on allostatic load.  He does a very good job of explaining what allostatic load and allostasis are.

I really enjoy how he explains allostatic load.

If you have not seen Part 1, go there first.

I have always said that if you don't deal with stress, stress will deal with you.  We all will probably shake our heads and agree, but that's about as far as we take it.  We don't fully understand and comprehend what that means.  We are disconnected from what it means, in many ways.  However, I keep attempting to write about this so others can begin to understand it more.  I realize it is a complex subject that tends to sail right by, but it is important.

I speak from my own experience and that of what I have learned from Dr. Paul Canali of Evolutionary Healing Institute.  He understands this far better than I do , but I have experienced it firsthand in many ways.

Trauma can be simple everyday stuff...

In the video from part 1, Dr. Bosch talks about the set point and how the further we veer out of allostatic load, the further this set point gets moved.  It does not have to be trauma or child abuse or war or other means to cause this set point to shift.  It can be as simple as office work stress, caring for others, or just dealing with life when you were not taught great skills in adapting to stress that comes along.

We all like to think that we've got life by the horns and we are in control.  We all like to think that if we have a beer or a glass of wine that we've relaxed and the stress has all vanished.  We all like to think that if we manage to squeeze in a day off here and there or maybe a few days for a vacation once every couple of years that we're in charge of the stress in our life.  "We're handling it" is what we tell ourselves.

Daily buildup of stress is as harmful...

However, this could not be further from the truth.  The daily build up of stress is just as harmful as if we encountered some traumatic event in our life.  If we don't discharge that, it finds a home in our mind and body.  It moves the set point just a little further away from homeostasis.  Our body ends up staying in that constant state of alertness ready to handle what is bombarding us in life.  We have ended up pushing our allostatic load to the point where it is getting so far into the danger zone that turning back gets more difficult with each passing moment.

It happens before you know it.  It takes place in the blink of an eye.  It is not like you wake up one day and go, wow - I've pushed my set point way too far.  Okay, it can happen that way but more often than not, it goes unnoticed.  It goes undetected until something in our life happens that tries to wake us up.

In the meantime, we maybe experience things like headaches and muscle pains.  Sometimes we find out in a routine doctor visit that our blood pressure is high or our pulse rate stays at a constant high rate instead of dropping down into rest and repair mode.

We may experience fatigue, sleeplessness and nervous stomachs, acid reflux or other conditions.  Chronic health issues may set in and begin to become more pronounced.  We may encounter all kinds of health conditions as issues progress.

In worst case situations, we may go into Conversion Disorder like I did or experience health situations that are life and death.  It varies by person and it depends upon so many factors.  I'm not trying to say that there are not other underlying factors in the exhibition of illness and pain, but I am saying that allostatic load is the cart pushing the horse over the cliff.

Make sure you check out the next part in this 5 part series.  

 Part 3 is "Disconnected From Allostatic Load & Stress"

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Blog Post And Images (c) 2017 by Don Shetterly

• Permission required before any part of this blog post is reprinted, reworded or used in any form. 
• You are welcomed to share the LINK to this blog post.  

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Autonomic Nervous System and Stress On Our Body

In this video, Dr. Paul Canali and Jim Fazio discuss the Autonomic Nervous System, stress, and how it impacts our physical well-being.

Key Points In The Video

• The Autonomic Nervous System is responsible for our day to day function.
• Controls things like heart rate, blood pressure, hot, cold, sexual intimacy.
• Almost every function of the human body is under Autonomic Nervous System control.
• We're not always aware of it until something goes wrong.
• Negative impacts of stress are expressed through the Autonomic Nervous System.
• Sympathetic Nervous System
• One part of the Autonomic Nervous System (ANS).
• It increases and expends energy to meet the demand of the moment.
• Increases
• Blood Pressure
• Heart Rate
• The stress response
• The survival response
• Still in the "danger mode" so your body doesn't waste energy on digestion, sleep, rest, healing.  Even dangers that have long past gone away.
• Parasympathetic Nervous System
• Helps slow things down and bring things back into balance.
• If the threat, real or perceived, is still there, this will not engage.
• Parasympathetic helps in
• Sleep
• Digestion
• Rest
• Healing
• The longer we stay in stress or survival, the longer these systems will stay shut down and lead to constipation, inflammatory disease, and illness of all types. 
• Majority of doctor visits are due to stress or the maladaptation to stress.
• Treatments will only do so much unless you deal with the stress.
• If you don't correct your ways to adapt to stress, nature will take you out of the picture.
• Re-regulate stress by dumping allostatic load, which is how the body adapts to a stressful stimulus.
• Stress happens and it impacts the body, but in a short period of time, we should return back to a baseline called homeostasis.  Unfortunately, we don't always do this.
• Stresses can accumulate and keep us out of balance which ends up in situations where we are in severe pain, physical illness, and conditions that impact the body.

For More Information

1. Dr. Paul Canali, Evolutionary Healing Institute of Miami, Florida
2. Jim Fazio, Integrative Bodywork

Healing VS Symptom Relief

In this video, Jim Fazio of Integrative Bodywork sits down with Dr. Paul Canali of Evolutionary Healing Institute to discuss the topic of actual healing versus symptom relief.  All too often we focus on symptoms rather than true and complete healing.

Dr Canali understands that as you go through healing, you begin to learn how to interact with the pain and suffering you are experiencing.  It is a whole new body knowledge that takes us beyond just treating symptoms and finding temporary relief from symptoms.

As Dr. Canali notes, you hear people say that if it wasn't for what they had been through, they would have never become who they are at this moment.  When you're in the middle of the turmoil, despair, and agony, you just want it to go away, but as you heal deeper, you find that there is more to your suffering than you realized.  It is a deeper progression of healing.

To see the interview, watch the VIDEO or click the video image above.

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Blog Post And Images (c) 2017 by Don Shetterly

• Permission required before any part of this blog post is reprinted, reworded or used in any form. 
• You are welcomed to share the LINK to this blog post.  

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How Pain Is Felt In The Brain

Join Jim Fazio as he discusses "how pain is felt in the brain" with Dr. Paul Canali of Evolutionary Healing Institute.  This is part of an ongoing series of interviews Jim did with Dr. Paul Canali on chronic pain, PTSD, Healing Trauma and Unified Therapy.

Our Body's Health Is Up To Us

I know as soon as I write this someone is going to say, but "you don't have this experience" or "you don't understand" or "insert random statement here".

Yes, I probably don't know your situation and no, I've not had many of the other situations to deal with.  No, I probably don't fully understand.  All I can do is speak from my own experience.

Now, I'm not any magic genie mystical person that has all the answers.  Heck, I'm on the search for answers myself most of the time.  I have seen many things happen both to myself and others that regular health care would deem impossible.  I've heard the many lines that you have to live with a condition I had, but I proved them wrong.

Before you think I have some mystical powers, I don't!  I do have a willingness to shed paradigms of what I've been taught and not subscribe to the fear of whatever health situation it is.  Okay, sometimes the fear overtakes me too, but I'm able to back out of it.  I also just don't believe that we cannot impact our health in ways no one understand.

I've seen it with others.  I remember one friend of mine whose husband had this rare condition and the doctors gave him six months live.  He quit his job.  They got all of their finances together.  After several months, lo and behold the doctors were amazed because the rare condition that normally resulted in death was GONE!  There was no trace of it in this person's body.

I've heard stories from a doctor friend of mine that someone who was blind ended up being able to see for the first time out of both eyes after some treatments.  The doctors were all confused and struggling to treat this person.  It shocked this doctor friend of mine and it is almost too difficult to believe.

Check the story out of Dr. Joe Dispenza after an accident where the doctors thought he was nuts for not going through with a necessary spinal surgery.  He not only proved the surgery was unnecessary, but he found a way to heal himself.  It is a moving story of one I don't fully understand yet.  

As for myself, I went through a Conversion Disorder and in those days, they didn't know as much as they do now.  Yet, we still don't know as much on this condition as we need to know.  All the doctors and therapist concluded that most likely I would never function again (walk, talk, or work) like I did before it hit.  I proved them wrong!  Today, you would not be able to tell I was paralyzed and struggling to talk or move and next to death.

Yes, some might say these are miracles, but there are many more stories than these.  They exist.  They can be repeated.  Just check out Evolutionary Healing Institute in Miami, Florida with Dr. Paul Canali.  His concepts and processes aren't pie-in-the-sky.  They are very real and they are repeatable.  They are backed up by science.

The thing is, we don't feel like we impact our health as much as we really do.  We give lip service to health issues and keeping healthy, but the thing is - we really don't live a healthy life as much as we think we do.  Stress, past experiences and trauma impact the body, but most think that through thoughts alone, that's all that is needed to take care of it.  They forget the body half of the equation.

We impact our health in so many unconscious ways every day but we don't stop to see that.  We may see some of it on the surface, but the deeper stuff is usually covered by layers of fear and day after day experiences that only serve to cement it in place.

We tend to be a wounded people and instead of using that wounded side of us to explore and push the limits of our own growth, we get taken under by it.  Every year we ignore it, we add a little more to the pile of rubbish we place over the top of it.  Soon, we have ourselves convinced that if we just think good thoughts and avoid the terrible stuff in life, we'll make it.  Unfortunately, the longer you do that, the more it catches up with you.

Each one of us has our own path to walk with our own difficulties, trials, and stresses.  I can't tell you how to walk that path anymore than anyone else can.  It is up to each one of us though to challenge what we think we know and do with what truly can change our life from the inside out.

It isn't just about putting on a happy face.  It is allowing the happy face from deep within our physical body to shine to all the other inhabitants of the planet.

Don't take my word for what I'm saying.  Prove it to be true or false for yourself.  Challenge yourself to see how you can impact not only your mind, but your body.  What do you have to lose?

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Blog Post And Images (c) 2017 by Don Shetterly

• Permission required before any part of this blog post is reprinted, reworded or used in any form. 
• You are welcomed to share the LINK to this blog post.  

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Trauma Keeps Peace Away

I know other people have written much more in-depth about this subject and one of them that comes to my mind is Peter Levine in his book, "Waking The Tiger".  One of the most horrible things that trauma does long term to a person is it keeps the peace away.

Yes, we can begin to find peace, but trauma keeps the body revved up.  It keeps the moments of when the trauma happened in the forefront of our brain as if they are still happening.  Because of the impact of these moments, it keeps our nervous system on edge and our brain from slowing down.

If you read the book, "Waking The Tiger", you'll see a very good and healthy explanation of what trauma does to the body and the mind.  It is the basis for much of what I have learned along with what has physically been demonstrated to me in my own body through healing with Dr. Paul Canali of Unified Therapy.

You can compare trauma to walking through the jungle.  There are predators out there and if you don't watch out, you'll become lunch for an animal in the jungle.  Let's use being hunted by a Tiger as Dr. Peter Levine discusses.

Your body is revved up...

In trauma, the Tiger pounces and attacks just like walking through the jungle.  Even if you somehow escape the Tiger or the trauma, your body is still revved up like the event is happening.  We've all had those moments that shocks or frightens us and it takes a while to come down.  Trauma does the same thing, but to a much greater degree.  Trauma keeps us in that revved up state.  The long term impacts of it can be felt and see in the mind and body for years after it stopped. 

Even long after the trauma has passed, it is as if we are still experiencing it.  This is why reaching out to support groups, therapists and other body-centered trauma healing is essential.  It isn't about being weak, but learning and discovering how to let go of the residual impacts from the trauma.  It is about finding ways to heal from our inner core.  It is about reclaiming all that we are and learning how to show trauma the door.

As if things never ended...

I went through intense torture and childhood sexual abuse.  It shaped me in so many ways.  While I've done extensive deep body healing from the trauma with Dr. Paul Canali, there are moments that the triggers act as if the Tiger is still chasing me.  Of course, I know that the events have stopped, but in my mind and neural pathways, they are still acting as if things never ended.  Trauma keeps us in that state.

The body needs to be a central part of continued healing because even though we try to disconnect, forget and numb, the cells, muscles, nervous system and the brain still remember.  They don't forget.  Unless these parts of our bodies are healed deeply, they will continue to rev up the nervous system from the trauma and keep peace away.

Deep peace is difficult after Trauma...

If your body is on full alert because it believes there is a Tiger waiting to pounce, most likely you are not going to be able to lay down and take a nice restful nap.  It is the same with trauma.  As long as the trauma remains within us, true and deep peace will be difficult to grasp.

One of the things that I so love about Unified Therapy with Dr. Paul Canali is that after you've gone through a moment of deep release, the peace that ensues is unlike anything we have ever felt.  It is such a deep peace that you beg him to just leave you in that place, not wanting to come out from it.  It is hard to describe it, but in the process of healing through this work, when you do feel what I'm talking about, it will blow your mind!

In healing, we have to learn how to understand that the Tiger is no longer chasing us.  Our minds will make us believe that it is while keeping it from our conscious thought.  Our minds try so hard to protect us that we often stay in numbing and disconnectedness.  It is in reconciling these things that we will find further healing into a life that is truly ours.  It is in these moments of healing that we will discover more of who we are and that is a beautiful thing.  It is a place of peace.

Trauma may try to keep the peace away, but the more we work to heal, the more we will discover it.  Healing is about taking our life back from those things that stole it.  It is about finding that awareness which leads us to a greater peace than we've ever known. 

#HealTrauma

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Blog Post And Images (c) 2016 by Don Shetterly

• Permission required before any part of this blog post is reprinted, reworded or used in any form. 
• You are welcomed to share the LINK to this blog post.  

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Chronic Pain Is More Than Lifestyle Choices

Do you ever have one of those cartoon moments, where steam comes out your ears after reading something?  Well, today was one of those days.

When I read the following quote, it made steam come out of my ears.  No, I'm not going to name the source because far too many people think this way and quite frankly, they are only seeing "part" of the story.


The quote is:

Lifestyle is the cause of chronic illness and lifestyle is the only evidence-based solution for the prevention of, and recovery from, chronic illness.

In addition to the entire premise of this statement being short-sighted and downright wrong from my own experience, when you use the word "ONLY" as the foundation for your statement, you are standing on melting ice in the middle of a lake.  This is one of the things that is wrong with our health care system and why people don't get better.  I know the place that wrote this means well, but there is more to the picture than this "belief" about chronic illness.

Inadequate at best and harmful at worst...

I will not disagree that chronic pain often has lifestyle choices that are not healthy.  However, that is like telling a person with depression, to just be happy or a person who has sleep issues, that they should just go to bed at a set time.  These forms of advice and counseling and help are inadequate at best and harmful at worst.  They don't assist the person and help them.  They only cement the judgment and shame deeper into their consciousness.

In many of the chronic pain and chronic illness, there is something more below the surface.  There is something that set the person up for the situation they are now facing.  Maybe no one can see it.  Maybe no one can even begin to believe it.  Maybe it is something that no one is even thinking about, but it is there.  I've worked with far too many people and seen evidence of what I am saying, to not be able to believe that lifestyle changes along can help every situation.

All too often we've seen people look for help that isn't there.  We've seen this person or that product offering the "cure-all" for their condition.  I used to work in research evaluating products for a company before we took the plunge and spent millions to find out if something worked or not.  Of the products that were backed up by science and research and trials with big name companies, approximately 85% of them did not show a statistical improvement for whatever it was that we were testing.

Needless to say, these companies and even colleagues of mine would rip my research to shreds.  Yes, it was meticulously done and yes, myself and other individuals reviewed it before the data was released.

I find the same thing in the health and healing communities.  Some of the "products" out there make my eyes do flip-flops and the claims make me vomit.  Sorry, if you're one that does not want to hear this, but from my experience, it is the truth.

Chronic conditions have deep layers...

Chronic pain and chronic illness is present for a reason.  It has deep layers which I don't think we truly understand today.  However, there is new pioneering work that is being done and can often reverse these conditions or have a significant impact upon them.  Situations and health conditions that we thought were not treatable are now being seen that we can influence them.

Yes, lifestyle choices does make a difference, but if there are underlying situations and stresses below the surface, then you can beg someone to change all day long with little results.  Heck, even the person suffering from Chronic Pain and Chronic Illness can hope something changes, but unless the underlying pressures are released, this will be nothing but a prayer.

A message from our body to our brain...

Pain is there for a reason.  It is a message from our body to our brain trying to get our attention.  Sometimes, maybe most of the time, it is difficult to understand how this could even be true, let alone how we can solve it.  The answers are not from feel good statements, but are through interventions that takes us deep within where we feel our body.  It is not where we escape it.

Here is a good video by good friend Jim Fazio as he interviews Dr. Paul Canali about Chronic Pain.  Dr. Paul Canali is a pioneer in the treatment of trauma, pain, and anxiety and offers a new approach that is highly effective.  This is not belief or theory, but actually applied therapy that has helped thousands of people he has worked on.

I want to push each one of us, whether we suffer from chronic conditions or we are in the healing community try to help people deal with these conditions.  We cannot sit back and expect the tired and old practices that have become our paradigms to continue being ineffective in our healing modalities.  We have to be more and often that starts where we least expect it to begin.

Instead of limiting your healing beliefs to lifestyle changes only, find out what makes the person tick from the inside.  What is it that holds you or them back?

I used to think that Dr Canali had some special gift, but now I'm beginning to see that what he has learned resides in each one of us.  It was not just him that could help others.  Yes, it may take another compassionate and caring individual without judgment to walk through the healing fires with us, but healing comes from within us.  Let us not look at it through simple eyes, missing the deeper moments.

Chronic pain and illness is not easy.  However, there are therapies emerging that can help so much, if we allow ourselves to go check them out.

#ChronicPain

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Blog Post And Images (c) 2016 by Don Shetterly

• Permission required before any part of this blog post is reprinted, reworded or used in any form. 
• You are welcomed to share the LINK to this blog post.  

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Healing Conversion Disorder Podcast

While this interview was done a couple of years ago, the information is still relevant to Conversion Disorder today.  With the news of assisted suicide in Canada, where a woman found no way out of conversion disorder, I thought the time is right to highlight this interview again.  There is hope.  Don't ever give up!

I know of others that have been through this and found their way out.  In fact, I was one of those that went through Conversion Disorder with paralysis and pseudo-seizures, among many other things.  At the time, I could not piece everything together as to what caused it, but in time the story began to emerge.

This video interview podcast is a discussion I had with Dr. Paul Canali of the Evolutionary Healing Institute in Miami, Florida.  He is a pioneer in the treatment of trauma and helping people recover their lives from the inside-out.  Dr. Canali has been instrumental in helping me fully recover and several others that have been through Conversion Disorder.

I have hosted the podcast and more information on a another website I run, so please check it out. There is some excellent information in here that you most likely have not heard presented in the way that it is.  The website is Somatosync.com .

Some of the topics covered include in the interview:

1. What is Conversion Disorder?
2.  Is Conversion Disorder all in your head?
3. What are some examples of Conversion Disorder?
4. Does there have to be major trauma for Conversion Disorder?
5. What are some of the first steps a person can take to recover?

Listen to the Podcast with Dr. Paul Canali

(click image to read)

Diagnosis Of Conversion Disorder

Here is another great interview I found on Conversion Disorder by Dr.  Rochelle Caplan.  She had a very good way of helping to understand what Conversion Disorder is and the struggle to diagnose it.

(click image to read)

Read My Personal Story

To learn more about my personal story and journey through Conversion Disorder, please check out my book, Hope And Possibility Through Trauma by Don Shetterly.

When I was in the early stages, there was so much I did not realize and know.  This is part of Conversion Disorder from my experience because if we knew these things, then most likely we could avoid this horrible ordeal.

If you're going through Conversion Disorder, please know that you are not alone and there is hope.  There is a way through it, but it requires courage and going outside the box of paradigms.  I had to let go of much of what I thought was true in life to find out what really was true.

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Blog Post And Images (c) 2016 by Don Shetterly

• Permission required before any part of this blog post is reprinted, reworded or used in any form. 
• You are welcomed to share the LINK to this blog post.  

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Being Okay With The Uncomfortable

In a previous post, I shared a video about emotional fitness done by Dr Paul Canali and Jim Fazio.  I understand what Dr Canali and Jim are talking about, but as they know so well, it isn't always that easy to do this.  Being okay with the uncomfortable takes some work to get there.

For me, this has hit home front and center.  From being paralyzed by a Conversion Disorder almost 25 years ago to the physical pains I sometimes go through, I struggle with these moments.  I still struggle with my memory and that's not always easy for me.  I'm not always comfortable with these things.

Being okay with the uncomfortable is something I'm learning.  In every Unified Therapy session I go into, I learn more how to not get myself overwhelmed by what is coming up on the table.  I learn how to stop and stay present with it as long as I can.  Of course, I can't always do this for a prolonged period of time.

Emotional Fitness With Dr Canali and Jim Fazio

Emotions can be overwhelming and draining.  I know, because I'm one of those people that can easily be overwhelmed by feelings and emotions.  Especially if you are a highly sensitive person, it can be much more for you.

In life, if we don't process all that goes on in our day, these moments can build up and get the best of us.

Take a moment and check out the latest newsletter from Jim Fazio of Integrative Bodyworks where he and Dr. Canali discuss emotional fitness.

What Is Chronic Pain - Interview With Dr Paul Canali

This video interview is a very good one.  It is done by Jim Fazio and Dr. Paul Canali.  Unified Therapy by Dr. Paul Canali has changed my life.  He has helped me to understand that chronic pain can be treated and healed.

Chronic pain is in the brain, even though it feels like it is in each individual muscle of the body.  I know that may sound weird, but it is true.  I have felt it and experienced the difference in my own body going through the healing work of Unified Therapy.

Did you know that 15% to 20% of all adults in the world suffer from chronic pain.  It is what keeps doctors up at night and drug companies in business.  Yet, we aren't getting better as a world society and that is because don't fully understand chronic pain or the nature of pain.

Many research studies have been done in neuroscience and they are finding that the volume knob for chronic pain is not in the body, but in the brain.  They are also finding on brain scans that if the person experiences pain in the arm, it does not show up in the region of the brain for the arm.  Instead it shows up in the emotion centers of the brain.

My Intro As A Conversion Disorder Survivor

On the spur of the moment and a whim, I decided to try my hand at doing some YouTube videos.  I see a lot of people doing vlogs on YouTube and have thought about doing something of my own for a long time.  I didn't want my video to be about my everyday mundane life.  I wanted it to have more purpose than that.

Then I started to think about one area of life that I really am becoming interested in and that is teaching.  I caught the bug doing training on a computer project and I just love helping people learn.  In a million years, I never thought I would enjoy teaching others as much as I have.  Doing a video on YouTube gives me an way to begin doing some teaching.

The YouTube videos I plan on doing helps offer me the chance of learning more about finding my voice.  It helps me to hone my message and offer some support, encouragement, and knowledge to the world-at-large.  It gives me an outlet for my creative message and in the process, I hope it helps changes someone's life.

This particular video is my introduction as a Conversion Disorder Survivor.  I plan on doing many of these in short segments to highlight some of the things that I went through as a Conversion Disorder survivor and what I did to heal myself.

Healing My Painful Hand

If I have to experience this pain one more day, I'm going to start bashing everything I can.  That's how I've felt the past week, dealing with intense hand pain that also brought with it shoulder and neck pain.  When I say it hurt, I mean it hurt.  No meandering around on this one.

Trying to write was nearly impossible.  Trying to shake hands with anyone was excruciating.  Sleeping or moving around would bring on moments of major pain.  Attempting to grasp anything with my right hand was like an exercise in futility.  No matter what I did, the pain would not go away.

I could do relaxation type exercises and while it would feel good temporarily, the moment I started to attempt to function again, the pain would come on with a vengeance.  It was as if to say, "you think you're going to get rid of me that easy - think again oh buddy boy - it ain't going to happen".  While I would try to walk away in disgust, it did no good because I had to take my hand and shoulder along with me and also the pain.

I figure if I would have gone to a regular medical doctor with this pain, they would have diagnosed it as carpal tunnel or shoulder impingement or some other name and condition.  More than likely I would have been looking at medication of some type and possibly surgery.  While that may have solved the problem in the short term, it would have been a temporary fix, ignoring what laid beneath the emotional, mental and spiritual planes of the body.