Fibromyalgia
by Lara Coulson
This Fibromyalgia message was posted to the IASH site by Lara
Coulson on August 20th 1999.
After working successfully with approximately 20 women with
fibromyalgia, I am in the process of forming a model for an appropriate NLP
intervention. I thought I'd test out the model, being I had the perfect
opportunity, last weekend, working with yet another woman with fibromyalgia
(I'll tell you about that in a few).
Some of the things I noticed in common with these women, was at or
about the time of the onset of the pain, there was some kind of second position
shift, either conscious or unconscious, creating an identity ownership of the
pain, "my pain", or fibromyalgia. Once the pain became theirs, it became worse,
and once the pain became fibromyalgia, it became constant.
With the majority of the women, the pain became an "it". "It makes
my bones hurt" (yet "it" was not a definable part of "them" etc. The pain
became nominalized (do the wheelbarrow test!) The pain owned a separate set of
submodalities, depending on the area of the body it manifested itself. In one
woman, she had suffered chronic pain central to all four areas of her body.
Each area had a separate set of submodality distinctions. Once the
submodalities were expanded upon and opened up, "it" became an introject of a
person, and occaisionally, an object with distinct characteristic traits.
There was only one common belief among the women, "I have no
control". With each woman, I was able to trace the initial (the first place in
their body where they began to feel pain) area of pain to imprint experience,
where they had done a second position shift, and mindread the "pain they (other
in the imprint) must be feeling", and had unconsciously taken "it" out on
themselves.
So, let me give you an example of one client, this woman had three
central areas of pain, and the addition of severe swelling in her ankles and
feet. Follow closely, as the underlying processes and results are basically the
same for every woman.
When I met with Jan, she was sitting/leaning back on her couch,
with her feet elevated. I noticed the swelling in her ankles, and when she made
any body movements, even minute, she would cringe in pain. I knew for right
now, I would not comfortably be able to do stand up work with her.
Jan had broken her tailbone approximately 15 years ago, and had
been experiencing chronic pain for the last five. Her recovery from the broken
tailbone had been excellent, and she could not understand how so many years
later, it could begin to cause her pain again. When asked to point out where
THE pain was centrally located, she incongruently pointed to her neck and
shoulders, then her lower back, and then her thighs. She had been on high doses
of pain medication, and had been pretty much immobilized for the last two
weeks. She did not want to take pain medication any longer, as it was not
congruent with her definition of a healthy body.
We decided to proceed in her hierachy of criteria, and began with
her neck. I asked her to put my hands on the pain. She did so, then I explained
to her that I was going to hold on to it. I then asked her to move her neck
forward, away from my hands, and leave the pain in my hands (nice Milton there
huh). As soon as she pulled forward away from the pain, I quickly said YUK! and
threw it out on the floor in front of her! Being she had a visual lead, I
proceeded to say, "now, that's better, now we can take a look at what's really
going on here". I had her imagine where abouts the pain had landed and she
followed my eyes to the floor. I asked her, "Now, if there was a colour to this
pain thing, what would it be?". She said imediately, "Red!, Bright Red" so
again, onto submos. Is it lifesize? "No", OK, let's just imagine putting it in
a stretcher for a second here, and go ahead and stop when the red shape is
approximately life size. OK..... Does it feel too close, or too far away
(implying that it is too something). It was definitely too close, so we moved
it back, a foot at a time, until it suddenly began to take on shape.
I then asked her if it had a texture, or feel, and she suddenly
began to burst into shaking tears. I instantly pulled her out of it, and
explained that I recognized that whatever, or whoever this pain was, was part
of an imprint experience (following her pupils, it was obvious, that the red
shape was connected to many traumatic imprints). I explained to her that there
were both positive and negative imprints, and that an imprint was an experience
that was so powerful to THAT person, that it causes them to make a decision, or
form a belief, that causes them to act differently from that point in time on.
I then offered her a choice of options, and explained each of them.
I told her that we could do one of two things. We could do a reimprint, and
actually find the experience, and go into it, and add some resources and shift
the experience, removing the trauma, or we could create a new imprint, just
before the traumatic one, that may help her to move through the experience more
resourcefully (I knew that we would need to go into the experience, due to the
physiology of her facial, and hand and leg posture, and her lack of words. I
could easily guess that the imprint was around the age of two or three).
She decided to do a reimprint. We did the ol' time line thing, and
ended up at the age two give or take 6 months. Her physiology shifted to one of
unhappiness, and loneliness. She expressed this. She also expressed that she
resented herself (now, it is obvious that a 2 year old child cannot resent
themselves, they are not yet emotionally capable of doing so) So I asked her
who else was in the experience with her. She immediately pointed and said my
mommy. Mommy doesn't want me. She won't come to my cry. I pulled her off her
time line, and had her examine the situation. She noticed immediately that the
mother had a look of resentment on her face. I asked her to step into the mom's
shoes for a moment, to check in with how she was feeling. The mother was
feeling lonely and resentful. We then stepped into the child's shoes, and took
off the feelings that didn't belog to her, and gave them back to mom,
explaining that we were next going to help mom not to feel that way anymore.
We then gave the child the resources of safety, and well beingness,
and the happiness and wonder of being a little girl. Then gave mom resources of
safety and self confidence. We then grew her back up, and again pulled mom off
her neck, the color and other submos had immediately shifted, I then explained
to her that this was not really her mother, and really a part of herself and
that she had allowed to take on the form of her mother. We got the positive
intent of the other, which was wanting her to have self confidence, and self
love. We then transformed the other into the image of Jan, and allowed her to
see herself as that person with self confidence and self love, and brought Jan
back into herself.
She was now able to stand easily, and the pain in her neck was
gone, and her flexibility and mobility in her neck was returned to normal, no,
better than normal. The pain, had also lost it's "it". Her language patterns
had shifted incredibly, and now we were easily able to move to the other area
The basic strategy I have been using that has been working, is to
ask he client which areas the pain is centred, not as a Separatist move, but
more to chunk things down. The language patterns I have noticed with
fibromyalgia are the "always", "everywhere" very big chunk. So by dividing up
the central locations, my intent is to unconsciously form a counter example in
the clients mind. Once I find several areas of central pain. Then, I go with
the second position shift presupposition, and immediately form a dissociation
from the pain, by myself physically removing, or myself holding on to the pain,
and having the client walk away from it. Then I identify the submodalities of
whatever I pulled off. I do my best not to give it a NOM. Then, the basic moves
from there, are to transorm in some way, the image/sound/feeling that was
removed, into something else, and whatever it becomes, I work from there.
Usually, by adjusting the submos, an image of a person will unfold,
then judging on the physiology of the client at the time, I can tell if there
is an imprint going on, or trauma, or an introject. If it is an introject, the
language patterns are usually second position person, and critical. If it is an
introject of a person, then have the client step into the others shoes, get the
positive intent, step back into self, receive the positive intent, then explain
to the client, that this is not actually this person, but only a part of
yourself, that has taken on the form of this person, then allow the image in
some way to transform back into the image of the client (Tim Halbom's
Remodelling Process). Have them see the other over there with this positive
intent. Now allow them to bring this part back into themselves (sometimes six
step reframing is needed here). If a submodality image/shape/object appears,
and you've had no luck of the object turning into a person, which is often the
case, transform it into something else with different submodalities.
Such as with one client, with chronic pain in her right leg, a
green box came into shape. It was very heavy, and had three holes in it. It was
very geometric in shape abot 3 feet tall and smooth in texture. And a
silentsound. First we tried to shrink it. It wouldn't shrink. We tried to fit a
key into each of the holes, and see if it would open, wouldn't open. Next, we
used pretend sink drains, and plugged the holes. Aha! suddenly the box became
lighter now that we could lift it, we put it in a pretend plastic garbage bag,
imagined driving it to the dump, watched the garbage worker drive over it and
bury it with a CAT, and then decided it was biodegradable. We imagined watching
it decay, and grow into a beautiful 3 foot tall sunflower.
The pain had left her leg, and it has been four weeks, painfree.
She had been having chronic pain in her leg since 1978. So, we didn't get a
positive intent, didn't bring the part back in to her, and didn't identify any
moment in time where she had associated with the part. And were still
successful. So whatever process you do, as long as you remember the underlying
goals, of DISSOCIATION, and TRANSFORMATION, the model will work.
Lara
Responses
Post by Terry Marshall - August 26th 1999
Lara,
I am anxiously awaiting the story about testing your fibromyalgia
model with that woman....BTW why is it you've worked with only women with
fibro? Have you heard of many men diagnosed with this?
I am going to "walk" with my friend tonight who has been "labelled"
as having fibromyalgia. I would like to know how you have helped with fibro in
so many cases, just in case I run across it again - as I'm sure i will.
Terry
Post by Terry Marshall - August 31st 1999
Do you do reimprints for the other sources of pain as well, or are
these different in some way? I worked with my friend before your last post and
I'd the positive intent of one area of pain, which was to get her to relax and
not push herself so hard. We worked with that and "it" decided that it would
use a different signal for this message. While this has been working for that
site....other areas have been active. So I was wondering what the general
format has been for all of your success with these women? I'm also still
wondering if you've heard of any men being "diagnosed" with fibromyalgia?
Always smiling, Terry
Post by Cherie Newland - sept 2nd 1999
Terry,
Sounds as if you are coming right along on your own.
Regarding the other painful sites, here is something to ponder: If
you start by asking what they all have in common then ask if there is anything
else, the questions will group the sites together in an agreement frame, making
it easier to work with them as a "whole". The more a person/practitioner plays
into the idea of "separateness" the more "splitting" of one's self is suggested
by presupposition, if not by implication. Just be-with-it for a while and see
what your unconscious competency provides for you.
Cherie
Post by Terry Marshall - Sept 2nd 1999
Thanks for the suggestions Cherie!
So are you saying that I ask what they all have in common then ask
if there is anything else.... the anything else question will cover any other
site specific intent?
I'm really curious....in regards to health issues (or any others I
guess) what is your philosophy on "separateness" and "splitting"? Does it cause
more problems......make things more difficult? I respect everyone here at IASH
a lot and would welcome anybody's perspective on this....any experiential
anecdotes would be great as this helps my understanding tremendously.
Always smiling, Terry
Post by Cherie Newland Sept 3rd 1999
Terry,
Yes, going for what the 'parts' have in common is a way to approach
'the seemingly many' as one united front, so to speak. It neutralizes the
'overload/threshold' factor. When I ask for 'anything else' and get yet another
intention/function, I follow with 'thankyou for that communication and tell me,
how is that an example of (positive intention #1)'. Or I might ask 'How does
this relate to (already stated positive intention #1)'. Listen to the structure
being presented and respond accordingly. I want to get all aspects relating to
one another under a common intent and go for the cause. You will have to chunk
up to get a common intent, but it's well worth it in the long run. Which
process you will use will be defined by how the client verbally structures what
they perceive as a limitation, i.e the presenting problem.
Cherie
Post by Terry Marshall - Sept 3rd 1999
Hey eveyone!
I got to work with my friend last night that "had"
fibromyalgia......I say "had" because after we were done....she commented
without prompting how her whole body felt better and that she couldn't believe
she wasn't feeling any pain....she had been in some sort of constant pain for
as long as she could remember (and she ain't no spring chicken either).
The previous work we had done on the pain in her hip had held for
the whole week and she was very aware tha there was no pain.....she kept
telling herself that if there was even a "twinge" she was going to give me
hell.
This time we talked about what was happening with her hip....she
really started to get pains all over her body.... I asked her which place hurt
the worst. Her knee; she had had surgery on it and it hurt ever since. So,
thinking about what Lara had said with the general intervention of
"dissociation" and "transformation" I did the same thing as Lara described in
working with Jan. I "grabbed" the pain and threw it on the floor. Then asked
her to describe it....it was really interesting.... but no images came so I
went the same route Lara did with the other woman and she eventually was going
to destroy it, but "something" told her not to and after a little prompting she
turned this area that the pain had occupied into a playground using the
transformed stuff that had been the pain as the cushioning for the ground of
the playground!
I could see the change in her body as we went through this and knew
that it was successful....and I also knew we weren't done. We sat down and now
her knee felt fine but the other areas that she felt pain in were even worse (I
felt like they were calling out for us to help them!)
Letting my subconscious guide me as well as thinking about what
Cherie had said about asking what they all have in common and getting them all
under one umbrella, so to speak, they all wanted her to take care of herself
and relax. I asked her about the first time she could rmember having this pain
and she replied that when she was a teen she had it and she feared going to
sleep because it would hurt worse....I asked if she feared going to sleep
before she was a teen...yes...so I asked again when was the first time she
could remember having this pain....this time she looked right at me and said,
"I know when the first time I felt this was, I was in the womb"!!!!!!!
OK, shift gears Terry....so we walked the ol' time line and as a
just conceived embryo she felt abandoned because her mother didn't want her
(the baby interrupted the mother's marriage). Reimprint here, giving her mother
spiritual belief that everything happens for a reason, love for this child and
all children and a support group of friends that let her know she's not in it
alone....give the baby the knowledge that it is perfect....walk back up
and.....
Done.
This is my first work on something so pervasive....and I loved
it!!!! Thankyou to everyone here at IASH....special thanks to Lara and Cherie
for letting me "steal" your thoughts
Always smiling, Terry
Post by Lara Coulson - Sept 4th 1999
Steal them, steal them! We want you to use them. When we find
something that works here on the IASH board, we WANT all of you to test it. I
think it is a part of all of our common goals to change the world, and assist
others in changing their worlds. I am so happy for you Terry and your friend!
Hip! Hip! Hooray! (get it, hip hip.....). Good job!
Remember it may also be useful to teach her Aligning Perceptual
positions to make her future second position shifts clean ones. Lara
Post by Cherie Newland - Sept 4th 1999
Fabulous Terry!
Stealing?? I don't think so. For me, this site is here for the
express purpose of sharing ideas, sharing case studies, finding out what's
working or not. It's a continual learning process for us all. You are not only
welcome to use what you read here but are free to evolve it to the next
level....and, of course tell us about your discoveries! Successes are very
exciting indeed, and so can challenges be on the edge of exciting new things to
learn.
Thanks again for bringing your case here for open discussion. I
have a question: So what new adventures were in her future that she hadn't even
thought possible until now, when you future paced how she would be utilizing
all that freed energy? I love this part of the session. I've found that
sometimes a little boost in a client's motivation or planning strategy could be
applied at this point.
Great work, thanks again for sharing with us.
Cherie
Post by Lara Coulson - Sept 17th 1999
Hey guys! success again. It seems as if the model is working. Two
more successes this week with fibro. Instantaneous painfree state achieved by
all. We need to do a research study for this one. It would be an awesome one
for books and NLP's reputation.
Lara
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