By Dr. Lisa Morse
I remember it vividly: The day during my clinicals of naturopathic medicine that I realized how much thoughts and emotions affect our physical health.
I was seeing a 70-year-old woman who had a full-body itchy rash. She was attached to the idea that candida was the cause. Upon questioning, it was revealed that the day before she broke out in the rash, her son had come into her home and threatened her with a gun. It was obvious she had extreme stress from this incident.
The next patient who presented was a 12-year-old girl who had repeated incidents of fainting. Upon investigation by her conventional medical doctor, it was determined that she had abnormally low blood sugar. Her father had abandoned the family days before the fainting started. On that day, I realized that our emotions and thoughts are amazingly powerful in affecting our physical bodies.
How would you feel if I told you that all physical symptoms are a result of the disruption of our mental, emotional, and spiritual realm? I have come to believe it, even though I have not entirely employed it in my medical practice. Typically, I have encouraged my patients to seek that support from other practitioners, including traditional talk therapy.
But just this past month, I became trained in 3 different modalities that I can use to support my patients in this arena: Neurolinguistic programming (NLP), Quantum Time Technique (QTT), and hypnosis. These therapies are extremely powerful and quick in restoring health to the whole body.
NLP, which originated in the 1970s, is a process of examining the words we use, the thoughts we think, and the ways we act. By shifting those things, we are able to get the outcomes we want in life.
Consider the fact that we are constantly bombarded with millions of bits of information coming at us every second in life, but that our brains can only accept a much smaller amount – around 130 bits of information per second. Imagine those bits of information are toothpicks. As we go through life, we pick up certain toothpicks based on what it is we are looking for, and which toothpicks we select is partly based on our past experiences.
We can delete, distort, and generalize based on which toothpicks we pick up. If we are looking for reasons why we don’t belong, are unhealthy, or aren’t good enough, then those are the toothpicks we are going to pick up. The toothpicks we pick up in life will determine our destiny. Working with a NLP-trained practitioner can help you become more aware of what those toothpicks are, how they are limiting your potential, and which toothpicks you want to pick up instead. This can give you amazing potential in all areas!
Have you ever wanted to talk to someone or something you are at odds with? One of the many exercises that I experienced in my NLP training was Perceptual Positions. This is where I spoke directly to a part of my body that I have felt at odds with throughout my life – my gut. I let it all out and spoke freely to my gut, and then I shifted my position and acted as my gut, speaking to myself as a person. Lastly, I got into a position of a third party, where I spoke to both my gut and myself as a person. The insights that came up from these conversations were that I need to “let go” and “just be me.” This is a powerful exercise that can be used to help shift perspectives and adjust what toothpicks are being picked up.
It’s estimated that 95% of the steps we take in life are directed by our subconscious mind. This means that most of how we live comes from a place that we aren’t even aware of. How daunting is that? Even more daunting is that most of our subconscious programming is installed during the first seven years of our lives. That is because, up to age seven, our brains are in a theta wave pattern, which is basically a hypnotic state. Everything that is said to us and everything that happens to us becomes part of our subconscious.
This is where QTT can be helpful. This involves putting our conscious brains aside and tapping into the unconscious. In doing this, we identify the events in our lives, particularly those prior to age 7, that have caused us to be stuck in a negative emotional pattern, holding us back. By discovering the initial event that put us into the pattern, we can then reveal what we have to learn from that event and what our unconscious wants instead.
Releasing the big six emotions – anger, sadness, fear, hurt, guilt, and shame – can be a powerful exercise to free up our bodies’ healing energy and restore physical health. This exercise can also be used to limit beliefs and phobias, which also usually come from events in our childhood. It is amazingly powerful, and can produce a quick shift in mental, emotional, and physical health.
The last technique I experienced and trained in was hypnotherapy. It is best used after the other techniques because the new beliefs and goals can be laid down after the ones that are holding us back have been shifted. Hypnotherapy on its own can be effective, but usually needs much more repetition than if it is done after NLP and QTT.
Going forward and utilizing NLP, QTT, and hypnosis, I look forward to being able to address the mental and emotional aspects of health with my patients in a quick and effective manner, resulting in a significant effect on their physical health.
To find out more, contact me via my website www.ferncovenaturalmedicine.com or via phone at 206-693-4143.
Dr. Lisa Morse is a Naturopathic Physician who has been helping patients for over 10 years with various medical conditions. She specializes in Irritable Bowel Syndrome and is passionate about helping patients get to the root cause of their symptoms so that they can live the life that they desire.
