Online Coaching, Counseling and Therapy

FIBROMYALGIA

There is a lot of controversy about the physical and psychological aspects of fibromyalgia. My clients come to me with real pain and I treat them with a  combination of EMDR therapy and body work which is done simultaneously with a massage therapist.  The mind and body are treated as one.

During the protocol we process the physical and emotional pain with slow bilateral stimulation to facilitate “parasympathetic processing”.  The bilateral movement is a soft beeping sound produced through a headset that the patient wears.  The bilateral stimulation (beeping) can help to prevent the hyper-activated abreactions and dissociative numbness and can make  processing possible.

 Many times  as we begin to work deeply, clients will deny their feelings that are related to the pain. There is a resistance in the body. They are used to the pain and it’s presence. When they are encouraged to continue they describe the visual experience, feelings emerge  and the massage therapist assists the body memories to release by relaxing the ends of the muscles which are holding the tension.

 Since the body sensations hold vulnerability and contact with the dissociative process, we move slowly and start with as much preparation time as needed so that a safe place is established. During our first sessions we work slowly. I have found that many chronic pain sufferers aren’t always ready to give up their pain, even though they think they are (one woman recently told me that  she didn’t know who she’d be w/o her pain) and others have secondary issues underlying the pain or they just want the pain to go away and don’t want to explore the pain around it. Some of my  clients tell me that they want to let go but there is resistance. We start with the  most recent memories and I suggest ‘paint a picture of the memory with every sensory detail’.  We continue with  slow bilateral stimulation to facilitate “parasympathetic processing”. Visualization continues and at times scary, angry painful memories emerge. These can appear as parts that have been unconsciously functioning to protect  but in protecting they hold the pain and memory. Allowing communication and compromise for a  less painful way of protecting is offered and is processed with EMDR. The emotions and pain are released emotionally and  further through the release of their body muscles.  EMDR and body work are done simultaneously. I help my clients to identify their current strengths which helps them to stay in the present and allow the release of old protective mechanisms that are no longer helpful and in fact are causing pain. Any unfinished emotions are reviewed and released or contained until the next session. 

 Our beliefs can hold conflict and unconscious stress in our bodies. I have used EMDR with Therapeutic Massage on clients with fibromyalgia pain and find it to be more helpful than EMDR  or body work alone. When the muscle is constricted bilateral stimulation has a positive effect of bypassing the resistance. It also seems to deepen the verbal work by releasing body resistance and memories during our EMDR / talk  sessions in the office.  I welcome your questions and comments.