MindBodyFactor Introduction and Coaching Question

Hi All,

After being a Long-time lurker, I want to introduce myself and share my story. I also have a question about how I can give back to the TMS community.

First off, my name is Will - I am in my late 20s, male, have struggled with low back pain since I was 16 years old (now healed 100%) and with pelvic pain/pelvic floor dysfunction for the past 4 years (70-80% healed now).

I wrote my stories about both of these symptoms in my Substack (linked below), but will give a short summary. When I was a teenager, I “injured” my back deadlifting in the gym (MRI showed a bulging disc in L4/L5 - I now know this may have simply been to natural aging processes) - pursued traditional PT which informed me that I “would never be able to lift weights again”. From here on, I lived in constant fear during physical activity and daily life of reinjuring my back and having a pain episode.

Over COVID (actually slightly before), I decided I had had enough. I had watched my body recede into a shell of my former, athletic self and committed myself to becoming strong and active again - no matter if I had a bulging disc in my low back. I think by this point I had watched enough YouTube fitness influencers and strongman who had bulging and herniated discs themselves and yet somehow were still lifting weights and performing crazy athletic feats that I thought, “if they can do it, why can’t I?”

I pulled out every trick in the book - traditional stretching, stretching from a harness on the ceiling, massage gun, trying out new movement patterns / weightlifting form to “decompress my spine”. I had already tried many of these but the key here was, after I would do these “spinal decompression” or mobility exercises - I would then go lift weights, sprint, etc. and Face my Fear of reinjuring my back. I truly desired and convinced myself that I would become a strong, athletic version of myself again - bulging disc be damned. I convinced myself, reckless or not, that the bulging disc could not damage me and that I simply needed to strengthen my body to stay out of chronic back pain.

This worked. I completely removed lower back pain as a factor from my life - without knowledge of Dr. Sarno, TMS, or anything.

In hindsight, I understand that the key to my healing was my belief in the existing structural anomaly (bulging disc) not having an effect on my pain sensations, my conviction in returning to a normal level of activity for a man in his 20s, and standing up to the pain and abolishing any fear of it.

Exactly as Sarno and TMS theory explains.

Unfortunately, TMS then decided to “move around on me”. After a painful breakup and cross-country move, I began experiencing the most harrowing, disruptive Pelvic Floor symptoms I could think of. My symptoms were not “painful” in the traditional sense most of the time, which made them that much more scary. I could not find an answer online, despite possibly spending literal months Googling and searching forums. Doctors and PTs found nothing wrong and were rather useless.

I will spare you guys on the gross details (they are on my Substack post though) but I somehow escaped the surgical blade, and found the TMS community and Dr. Sarno for real this time.

I had a hard time accepting the TMS idea and concepts because I didn’t have “traditional” pain in my Pelvic Floor - but I saw the correlation between my previous back pain. Dr. Sarno’s dense medical language also confused me and I probably wasted a lot of time by trying to understand every term and simply not understanding the true message.

I bought an old copy of his video lectures from eBay and it finally started to click with me. I began exploring other TMS material and found some it very helpful, and some of it very unhelpful. I personally think the type of person delivering the TMS content matters a lot when it comes to effectiveness here, and unfortunately I do not have the personality type that meshes well with a lot of the “healer” types out there.

Recently I have been loving Nicole Sachs’ every man / woman approach to presenting this material, and Howard Schubiner’s stuff as well.

Free-form, unstructured Journaling (like Sachs teaches) has really been the step-function in my improvement in Pelvic Floor Symptoms. I did the entire MindBody Workbook by Dr. Schechter, hated every minute of it, and did not see results. Perhaps it set the stage for my later success with Nicole’s work though.

I am still healing from my Pelvic Floor symptoms and obviously from TMS as well. I would say I am 70-80% healed and can pursue regular life / romantic relationships without fearing the symptoms. There are simply so many triggers with PFD and my symptoms like to show up any time I take a piss . I have not had a major flare-up in the past year though, since focusing on the more “emotional” side of TMS healing, rather than just on the “educational” side.

My question for you all is - what is the TMS community’s opinion on 1:1 MindBody coaching (not therapy)? Do you find it worth it, or helpful for you? Or is it unethical if you are not a therapist or doctor? I am interested in giving back to the community and helping others, but it does not make sense financially for me to return to school to become a licensed therapist. I am interested in obtaining a certification through the Sachs x Sarno or Schubiner program though. I understand my role would be limited to providing educational, mindset, and accountability coaching - discussing actual repressed emotions would be out of my scope. I would love to hear any and all thoughts on this topic.

My Substack: https://mindbodyfactor.substack.com/ (MindBodyFactor - Recover from the MindBody Syndrome (TMS) | Mind Body Factor | Substack)

 

Coaching takes work. Honestly, you don’t really get paid for developing materials and doing all your own things like social media to bring in clients. It takes time to develop this.
I do suggest taking courses. My own coach took Schubiner’s course, Pain Reprocessing and graduated from Lorimer Mosley’s Uni courses. She is not a therapist but has worked in coaching for a long time. I think adding a coaching course to your repertoire is pretty essential if you’ve never been in any kind of eg. Managerial position. You need to learn skills to work with people, especially in such a challenging role. Great thing is, you can learn all these skills while being employed elsewhere for a time. Pick your target audience to kind of “brand” yourself at least to start out with -maybe based on your experience and age and then you can develop things further as you go. Eg. Dani Fagan worked primarily with TMS targeted yoga for women and now is coaching. Phil dela Hay is a SIRPA coach and eventually became IFS certified (without being a psychologist) because it was his own best tool while healing. My own coach focuses on injured athletes and mature active folks.. whatever your personal interests are can help you connect with others.

 

I love Phil so much. Moderates in Nicole's group and has their own and they are so incredibly nice.