Why We're in Pain by Sarah St. Pierre

Clinical Somatic Educator Sarah St. Pierre published a new book on January 23rd entitled Why We're in Pain. In the book, St. Pierre explains what causes most musculoskeletal pain and degeneration and how we can prevent, alleviate and eliminate our pain with Clinical Somatic Education. St. Pierre, a co-owner of Somatic Movement Center, is passionate about helping people learn how to get out of pain. “Most people experience chronic pain and physical degeneration because of the way that they habitually use their bodies,” says St. Pierre. “The way that we stand and move is determined by deeply learned muscular patterns, and the best way to prevent pain and damage to our bodies is to change these patterns.”

The fact that the way we habitually use our bodies leads to pain and degeneration is not news. Many health professionals recognize this fact, yet they continue to try to fix musculoskeletal problems by manipulating the structure of the body instead of addressing the function—how the nervous system is telling the body to stand and move. When their techniques have limited success, they chalk it up to overuse or old age and assume that there is nothing that can be done. The life-changing news that St. Pierre discusses in the book is the fact that we have the ability to change habitual muscular patterns through an active learning process.

In Clinical Somatic Education lessons, students learn how to release chronically held muscular contraction by resetting the sensory-motor feedback loop which maintains our resting level of muscle tension. Next, students learn integrative full-body movements which teach natural, efficient movement patterns. Lastly, students are taught how to improve their posture and proprioception with sitting and standing exercises. Clinical Somatic Education stands out among therapeutic modalities and pain relief techniques because it is built upon the principle that people must learn how to take care of themselves.

At each lesson, students learn self-care exercises which are to be practiced at home daily. With regular practice of the self-care exercises, students are able to continue to make progress on their own at home without having to attend ongoing lessons.

Why We're in Pain is currently available for Amazon Kindle and B&N Nook. Visit http://www.somaticmovementcenter.com to learn more about Why We're in Pain and Clinical Somatic Education.

The Pain Community Recognizes Unsung Heroes

The Pain Community (TPC), a virtual home for people living with pain to find support, connection and purpose, paid homage to a pain hero every week during the month of September Pain Awareness Month.

TPC Pain Heroes are individuals who have made a significant and positive difference for all who live with pain. The Pain Community Hero's for September 2013 are: Judy Foreman, Journalist; Stewart B. Leavitt, MA, PhD, Founder/major contributor to Pain Treatment Topics; April Vallerand RN, PhD,  Professor and pain nurse researcher and Bob Twillman Ph, State Pain Policy Expert and Advocate.

TPC continues to honor an unsung hero every month. Our October 2013 hero is Jannie White, a dedicated and effective pain advocate who lives with the pain of Complex Regional Pain Syndrome (CPRS). To learn more about Jannie and our other heroes, visit TPC at www.paincommunity.org.

Honor our unsung heroes by telling us about your pain heroes. Take the first step. Become a member and join our online community. Welcome The Pain Community as your home for support, connection and purpose. Then, share this with your friends, family and others you know who live with pain.

Workshop for People Seeking Relief for Common Aches and Pains by Lynne Donahue

According to a report from the Institute of Medicine, more than 100 million Americans suffer from chronic pain at a cost of around $600 billion a year in medical treatments and lost productivity.

Holistic practitioners Lisa Medley of Soulistic Arts and Lynne Donahue of Fresh Plate Health are offering an inspiring, instructive, and informative workshop as an introduction to the MELT Hand & Foot Treatment. This workshop will teach chronic pain sufferers how to actively partake in a simple 10 minute per day treatment that has decreased symptoms of pain and stress in many people.

The MELT Hand & Foot Treatment is simple self treatment, using specialized techniques and small balls, that teaches how the connective tissue in hands and feet becomes dehydrated, the common aches and pains it causes, and how to rehydrate this essential system for vibrant health and pain-free movement.

This workshop will also offer powerful information about cellular hydration that is key to slowing the aging process, restoring youthful vivality, and supporting total health.

The MELT Method is an innovative self-treatment program that has been featured on the Dr. Oz Show and the NY Times Bestseller list.

Register:

Follow the link — http://www.eventbrite.com/e/introductory-evening-melt-r-h...
Call Lynne

Contact
Lynne Donahue
401-884-1114

PRESCRIPTION DRUG ADDICTION IS CLIMBING WITH NO END IN SIGHT! by Dr. Vera A. Brown , DMD

The problem begins here: in a 2009 study by the National Survey on Drug Use and Health found that nearly two million Americans were dependent on or abusing prescription pain relievers — nearly twice as great as the number of people addicted to cocaine.
Secondly, “over the past 20 years, the number of prescriptions for opiate analgesics in the US has gone from 40 million to 180 million” said Nora Volkow, director of the National Institute on Drug Abuse.
And, thirdly, the unintentional poisoning deaths involving psychotherapeutic drugs, such as sedative-hypnotics and anti-depressants, grew 84 percent from 1999 to 2004. Between 1995 and 2005, treatment admissions for dependence on prescription painkillers grew more than 300 percent.

Are you in a ‘fog’ from taking prescription painkillers? Do you know a loved one who has been died in their sleep from taking too many pain pills?

“Pain has an emotional component that must be addressed for complete healing.” Dr. Vera A. Brown, DMD.
I believe a more complete evaluation of the client is critical and requires time that most healthcare providers do not have.

A thorough medical history is important as well as a physical examination, and the critical part that is currently being ignored, is the emotional status of the client. This is where I bring my years of medical expertise and alternative healing techniques to provide complete healing of pain.

Pain may be emotional and manifest itself in the physical body. This is quite common, in fact, much more common than anyone cares to admit.

You must first see a healthcare provider who understands all aspects of pain, he/ she must be willing to spend the time to do a thorough medical history, examination and emotional exam.

In order to relieve physical pain we must take the time to evaluate all the components that make up pain, the physical body and emotional body. In addressing each part we can develop a complete treatment plan and get relief much faster with long lasting results.

You may need a decrease in the amount of pain medication you take, do physical therapy or bodywork, and receive emotional support to feel like the wonderful you again.

Regaining your life from chronic pain is a process and the great news is that there is hope and you can become pain free!

Dr. Vera A. Brown, DMD is a dentist and alternative practitioner. She has over 13 years experience in treating chronic pain and suffered from chronic pain for over 9 years. Dr. Brown is head of the Los Angeles Chiropractic College department for diagnosing and treating headaches, TMJ, and neck and arm pain. She is a sought after teacher for head and neck anatomy and how to treat head and neck pain.

Retrieving the Soul: The Way of the Shaman by Norman W Wilson, PhD

For 40,000 years or more the fundamental belief in the shamanic world has been and still is the soul or part of that soul may leave the body because of disease, being stolen, or even given away. The departure of the soul from the body causes the body to be ill and ultimately die. The idea here is a simple one, yet seldom voiced. The soul has a body in which it temporarily lives. It is fluid, and it is this fluidity that creates problems for the shaman. If the soul or its parts are missing; it is up to the shaman to locate and begin a retrieval of the soul.

To do this, the shaman must travel to the Spirit World; there seeks out the soul or its missing part(s). He takes with him his Spirit Animal or Spirit Guide who knows where the soul or its parts are located. Negotiating for the soul or its parts is an endeavor fought with danger for both the patient and the shaman. As a cautionary measure, the shaman does not use his own powers to retrieve the soul. Any such attempt could result in suffering, a serious depletion of his powers, skills, energy, and even his death.

A patient is surrounded with healing herbs, crystals, stones, and smudged with healing herbal smoke. The shaman may begin to chant, have a drum beat, or dance around the patient. During this stage of the procedure, the shaman alters his state of consciousness.

 If he is successful in retrieving the soul, the shaman returns to the present world and then literally blows the soul back into his patient's body. Is this procedure always successful? No, success is not guaranteed. Sometimes, the patient is so ill or broken hearted that any shamanic effort fails. 

Today, much is being written about shamanic soul retrieval as psychological counseling. The shift from real shamanic soul retrieval to considerations for psychological disassociation, depression, anxiety, sadness, low self-esteem, and or anger is a disservice. Caution needs to be the operative in such cases. A shaman is so much more than an early psychologist and to name modern psychological practices as shamanic are wrong.

A psychologist does not treat his patient with herbs and or herbals, he does  not uses sound to change the body's vibrational patterns, nor does he travel to the spiritual world for help in healing his patient. And all of that does not lessen the value of what a psychologist does; mainly guiding his or her patient through their issues to find the answers for themselves. 

The Johari Window

During this session we continue to explore who we are and bring that information to the conscious mind. Another great tool for helping in that exploration is the Johari Window.

“I know you know”
This public window is known to self and also known to others. It is the field of open communication. This is where trust may flourish.

“I don’t know you know”
This window represents your blind spots. It is the field where you might feel vulnerable. This is where self-discovery is a possibility for growth.

“I know you don’t know”
This private window is your mask. It is the hidden field. This is where you keep your secrets.

"I don’t know and you don’t know”
This window represents the black box. It is the unknown field. This is where there is room for potential.


The Johari Window is a graphic demonstration of what we know about ourselves versus what others know about us. Analyzing this window helps you to expand the first window particularly in relationships where you wish to have a more intimate relationship. Open communication is vital to promote trust in a relationship. Even though you may feel you are open and honest in a relationship, if the other person in that relationship doesn’t feel that you are, they will have a difficult time trusting you.
It’s also important to your journey to bring material from all sources possible including your friends and your own unconscious to enable you to examine what is beyond your knowing about yourself. In some cases you may be able to ask people in your outer world. Although some things that are known about you will not be revealed to you by your friends because they don’t want to hurt your feelings. This is one of the main areas where your dream-maker is most helpful. Your dream-maker will always be honest with you. However since dreams usually speak in the language of symbols you may have difficulty understanding the message. We will discuss dreamwork in coming sessions. Our next session will deal with the Call to Adventure/Evolution. Asking you to begin paying attention to and interact with your dreams is indeed a call to adventure and evolution.


You may also want to explore what people in your life know about you that you do not know. The following link to an interactive Johari Window test may help. After choosing words you think describe yourself, you are asked to send the test to your friends so that you can compare what they endorse about you with what you yourself endorsed.
http://kevan.org/johari



Assignment:
Journal about your secrets. Journal about what you think others might say about you. Remember this is your private journal. If you can’t be open and honest with yourself for fear of your journal being found, consider keeping your journal online where it can be kept private. Then even if you die, no one will be able to access your private journal. There are several services available for keeping a private journal. I recommend. DreamJournal.net or LiveJournal.com. Both have an option for making your journal open, so make sure you have your settings right.

Jungian Typoloogy

We are taking personality tests in the first part of this journey so that you will know yourself better and many attitudes you may have not been aware of previously will now be conscious.
It's important to understand that a person's psychological make-up is always working on two levels: the conscious and the unconscious. According to Jung, a person's 'psyche' (a person's 'whole being') is represented by their conscious and unconscious parts. A person's conscious and unconscious states are in a way 'self-balancing', that is to say if a person's conscious side (or 'attitude') becomes dominant or extreme, then the unconscious will surface or manifest in some way to correct the balance. This might be in dreams or internal images, or via more physical externally visible illness or emotional disturbance.
We each have a primary way of relating to the world, but if we get too out of balance our unconscious processes will take over and “act out” or manifest in some way, the opposite. People will say, “That was not like her at all.” But it was very much like your secondary functions.
Jung’s complex theory has it, that all of us are made up of different individuals (complexes), that we all have multiply complexes that function like personalities. The only thing that keeps us from being diagnosed as having multiple personality disorder is a greater ability to keep the parts of our personality together.
Jung said that we need a function to tell us what is, and that is sensation. We need a function to give it a name, and that’s thinking. We need a function to tell us what it is worth, and that’s feeling, and we need a function to tell us what its possibilities are, where it is headed, and that’s intuition.
Most Jungian type tests place you on a sliding scale based on how you prefer to use those functions. These are determined by where you land on a scale with two different ways of using a function – one at each end of the scale as shown below. Depending on which side of the center mark you fall your primary type will be determined.

Extravert ___________________|__________________________ Introvert
Feeling _____________________|___________________________ Thinking
Intuition ____________________|__________________________ Sensation

If you are introverted you will tend to withdraw when trying to figure things out, while if you are extroverted you tend to like to “talk things out” with someone you trust. When making value judgments you will either make that judgment based on what is logical (thinking type) or on what “feels right.” (feeling type.) The final scale measures how we gather and organize information. The sensing type will gather information using his or her senses and will use some known structure to organize it, while an intuitive type seems to gather information from out of the air and immediately organizes it holistically by its potential. Your secondary type or “inferior function” will be of the opposite type. We’ll talk more about that in a later section.
Assignment:
Take one of the Jungian type tests available on the internet. Links below:
http://www.humanmetrics.com/cgi-win/JTypes1.htm
http://webspace.ship.edu/cgboer/jungiantypestest.html
http://www.mypersonality.info/personality-types/

After you have determined your type, journal about how you relate to that information and how you have seen it manifest in your life.
Don’t forget we have discussion session on Wednesday afternoon at 2pm MT at Wiziq.com/Julia-Widdop. If you have not received an invitation to the next class, please call me at 970-462-7132.