Development of SIRPA – Part 2

Continued… To read part 1 click here

I was also beginning to wonder why, if core stability is so important in preventing and resolving back pain, I was seeing so many people who had often already worked for months on programmes for core stability, yet they then came to me for pain relief. Other times symptoms would move around the body, bearing no relation to any physical ‘abnormality’ that might have been found on MRI. There were also frequent occasions over the years when patients would become completely pain free, despite still having the severe degeneration that had been attributed to the pain.

Making Connections

As well as observing my patient’s anomalies I myself developed severe sciatica soon after leaving the NHS to set up my own clinic, yet I had had no injury. It soon became clear to me that this was completely related to the stress I was feeling due to setting up my own business and not having a monthly salary any more.

In 2007, after years of searching for an answer, I received an email from Amazon recommending a book by John E Sarno MD. I often don’t even look at these, but something made me click on the link and then read the reviews. I remember thinking it all sounded too good to be true, but by this point I was so open-minded I decided to buy the book anyway and see what it was all about. This was the beginning of another major change in direction for me, yet I might not have been open to it if I had read it 10 years earlier.

Interestingly, while I was reading the book, I woke up one morning with severe neck pain. I was immediately able to work out what inner turmoil was causing it, although unfortunately I hadn’t reached the point in the book which told me what to do! I remained in pain for 3 days because I was unable to continue with the book, yet once the issue resolved my pain disappeared within an hour.

This was powerful enough for me to really take on board all Dr Sarno was saying in his book and I recognised that there didn’t even have to be an obviously stressful past or current ‘trauma’ to trigger a symptom. However happy our upbringing, there are always going to be situations when our ‘buttons are pressed’ and personality plays a huge part in how we react to what’s happening around us, which then effects how much inner turmoil we might feel. We are also so used to the pace of lives these days that we often don’t even recognise how ‘stressed’ we are feeling because it has become the ‘norm’ as we continue to ‘cope’ with what’s happening in our lives.

Breaking Through

Over the next few weeks and months, I came to understand just how many of my own recurring health problems were actually stress induced and was able to resolve them all. It became very interesting looking at a timeline of when I had symptoms and what was going on in my life at the time. This in itself reinforced to me the potential for this approach and I went from going for treatment for various recurring problems every three months or so, especially since setting up my own business, to none at all since that time, yet being fitter than ever.

During my research I came across numerous studies from the 1970’s to recent years which demonstrated that spinal degeneration found on MRI scans is often coincidental and that it is just as common in people with or without back pain. Studies like these, plus what I was observing with my patients and my own health, reinforced to me the importance of this work and that it wasn’t just a placebo effect.

As I couldn’t find anyone in Europe using this approach, I arranged to spend time with Dr Sarno in November 2007. On my return and with Dr Sarno’s blessing, I set up my own TMS Recovery Programme (now SIRPA Recovery Programme). Over the past few years, I have developed a specialism in this field by returning to the States three more times and building relationships and peer support links with the main specialists over there. There is a strong movement now to raise the profile of this concept and millions of dollars of funding have been granted for further research. I now also train other Practitioners to integrate this approach into their own work.

Although I now focus my whole work on this non-hands-on approach to chronic pain, I accept that as we are pushing boundaries and long held beliefs about the cause of chronic pain, there will continue to be resistance for a long time yet. However, just as something as simple as washing hands could reduce mortality in babies and their Mothers was initially ridiculed, I have no doubt that in time this concept will also become widely accepted.

I cannot ignore the fact that since I changed my whole understanding about the cause and treatment of chronic pain, I am not only healthier than I have ever been, but I am now able to help so many people not just manage, but resolve, their pain. I also love the fact that it is all about education and self-empowerment once an individual accepts the possibility that this might be an answer to their own symptoms, which therefore also has massive cost saving benefits.

Click on the links to find out how the SIRPA approach could help you or if you are a health professional/coach, how you could integrate the SIRPA approach into your own practice.