As a holistic practitioner I am always asking the question whether an issue in the body is Structural, Biochemical or Emotional in origin. Structure includes joints, ligaments, tendons, muscles and fascia. Fascia is amazing stuff. Also known as connective tissue, Fascia is a network throughout the body. It runs from the Plantar Fascia up to the top of the skull. Until very recently, students in cadaver labs wouldn’t even see fascia, since it was regularly removed to better study the muscles. But within this thin film of tissue is a whole other world! Receptor sites for emotional polypeptides are found throughout the body in the fascia. (read Candace Pert’s book “Molecules of Emotion”). Research has also unveiled pathways of water molecules which directly follow the Meridian System as described in Chinese Medicine! And this is where it gets interesting.
For over 15 years, I have been practicing Neuroemotional Technique (NET). The technique utilizes muscle testing and addresses the emotional physiology of the body. Since we store emotional memory in our fascia, this technique allows the practitioner to access it in a non-emotive way, with the goal being to restore harmony in the physical body. My experience with acute low back episodes is that it is frequently associated with some other stress in a person’s life – usually relating to love or money! By following an NET set of algorithms and using muscle testing, we can often find an underlying cause (trigger) that may be setting off the low back. The low back is frequently directly triggered by a stressor in the digestive system, which shares the same Lumbar spinal nerves as the low back. I remember seeing Depak Chopra MD in the early 1990’s and he talked about how a gut feeling really was emotion manifesting in the body. What makes NET so special is how it incorporates Chinese Acupuncture theory so flawlessly, enabling the practitioner to determine which meridian is “out of balance,” as well as which emotion and even memory in a timeline (the seed) is triggering this event.
In a typical low back treatment, I may adjust a patient’s back or hips, release a tight muscle or engage a muscle that’s not fully “on,” and balance an emotional “charge” using NET. The order by which I find and correct these imbalances is determined through muscle testing and other diagnostics from Applied Kinesiology (AK). I may then address postural imbalances and introduce corrective exercises or stretches.
One thing I love about studying NET is that at any given professional training I will often meet Chiropractors, Acupuncturists, Psychotherapists, Nurse Practitioners and the occasional MD. It is a truly holistic technique, and is also supported by the ONE Foundation, which publishes ongoing research into mind-body medicine that you can find online on such sites as PubMed.
My purpose in this Blog article is to simply introduce the concept that emotions play out in the body. You can click here to goto the NET website to read a more detailed article about what NET is and how it works.