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Introduction

Carrie came to see me after suffering from Chronic Fatigue Syndrome (CFS) for eighteen years. When she entered my office she was thirty-eight years old but looked fifty-five. She was terribly depressed. But what was worse than the depression were her symptoms. She was in constant pain from the muscle aches that gave her no rest. She was plagued by headaches and nausea and each time she stood up it was all she could do to preserve her balance. This was the reason she walked everywhere with the aid of two walking sticks. But worst of all was the fatigue. She told me that hardly a day went by when she didn’t feel drained of energy. She felt so tired that all she wanted to do was sleep and then, when she got up, to go back to bed and try to sleep all over again. But sleep gave her no rest for she often felt as tired afterwards as she did before. She told me that she had no life, for one wearying day was much like the others with nothing to look forward to but pain and exhaustion. She had no job and although she had children and a marriage, she had little involvement with them beyond the small amount of time she could spare for them in between her fatigue spells.

Four sessions of Reverse Therapy later and Carrie had, as she put it, ‘got my life back’. Her symptoms were gone. To her family’s astonishment she had started running for twenty minutes a day (and had started to lose weight), was going to parties, organising shopping trips and driving everywhere. What was more, she was starting to look for a job and hoped to fulfil her life-long dream of working in some capacity in animal care. She was entirely free of pain and her energy level seemed to her to be sky-high. (It was probably normal but after years of fatigue, to her, it felt that way!)

With great emotion on both sides, I told Carrie that her treatment was over and she could get on with the rest of her life.

How was this cure possible? To give an explanation for this is the reason this book was written. If you are a reader who has been diagnosed as suffering from Chronic Fatigue Syndrome, M.E. (Myalgic Encephalomyelitis), Fibromyalgia or so-called Post-Viral Fatigue Syndrome, then you too can discover how Reverse Therapy can return you to health.

Reverse Therapy is essentially a simple process in which people learn to listen to their Bodymind and understand the deeper reasons why Bodymind needs to produce symptoms. This process of enlightenment goes side-by-side with dropping the many wrong and confused ideas people have been given about illness, recovery and health.

The misinformation given to sufferers with these illnesses – for example, that they are caused by unknown viral infections, or (the opposite view) that they are disguised forms of Depression – is one reason the cure has been so long in arriving. For neither view is correct. One of my aims in writing this book is to dispel the mystery surrounding these conditions and explain the true cause. Once the cause is understood then the remedy becomes plain.

Many people with M.E./CFS or FMS lead lives of fear, frustration and despair because not only are they struggling to cope with their condition, but also with widespread ignorance and lack of any available help. Too often their illnesses are dismissed or, if they are taken seriously, sufferers are told there is nothing that can be done for them.

The notion that symptoms of M.E./Chronic Fatigue Syndrome and Fibromyalgia are ‘all in the mind’ is one example of ignorance. As we shall see, this is very far from being the case. The symptoms are in fact created by glandular changes in the body and are very real indeed! These hormonal changes are, in turn, triggered by signals from the Emotional brain, which is the core mechanism of Bodymind.

One important theme of this book – in fact it is a key to understanding Reverse Therapy – is that we must learn to discard the over-emphasis on ‘Headmind’ in our culture and instead pay more attention to ‘Bodymind’, the emotive, protective function which works through glandular changes in the body to flag up distress. The real solution to the conditions mentioned above, as well as many others, lies in realising that they are neither mental nor viral in origin but ways in which Bodymind seeks to communicate to us about threatening situations and to encourage us to resolve them. When we do this the essential conditions for returning health are restored.

I have been learning, developing and experimenting with the ideas in this book since 1996. I would like to make it clear that none of the ingredients that go to make up Reverse Therapy are new, although the synthesis is, as well as the unique, step-by-step treatment process.

I have learned much from my many teachers, who have helped me on the way. These include: Ray Keedy, John Grinder, Bill O’Hanlon, Stephen Gilligan, Ernest Rossi and, standing behind us all, Milton Erickson. I have also learnt a great deal from Wilhelm Reich, Fritz Perls and Eugene Gendlin. To all these men I owe a great debt of thanks for, without them, Reverse Therapy could not have been born.

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