PhD research on Success Stories

Hello TMS Discussion Forum community,

My name is Tom Craig and I'm a PhD student in Psychoanalytic Psychotherapy and Research at the University of Exeter in the UK.

I’m also a TMSer myself. My own experience of struggling with my own unexplained physical symptoms, coming to Dr Sarno’s books, then the TMS Discussion Forum - particularly Success Stories - and finding some peace and recovery myself really informed my decision to beginning my training as a psychotherapist. I’ve carried my interest in mind-body work over into my work as a psychotherapist, working with individuals with unexplained physical symptoms to explore the links between these and their emotional lives, and deepening my understanding of this fascinating and widely misunderstood area. (Although of course not so misunderstood by members of this community.)

I am currently working on my PhD thesis project on approaches to working with psychophysiological conditions, and I’m very keen to go full circle and return to the source of my interest in these kinds of conditions and how individuals find ways to heal, namely TMS Discussion Forum, and specifically Success Stories. I think the Success Stories subforum is a really extraordinary archive of accounts of how people have managed to change their lives in fundamental, often self-directed ways, and I’m keen to draw on this rich body of knowledge and experience to add to the wider scientific discussion around the treatment of psychophysiological conditions. I hope that my research will lend a further voice to the efficacy of the TMS approach that this community has done so much to promote.

I am looking to draw on Success Stories as research data for my PhD project, which will involve me selecting around 15 stories which are relatively extended and rich in detail, and using a qualitative research approach to try to get inside the authors’ personal experiences of recovery. I’m looking to identify common themes amongst different Success Story authors, with the aim of doing justice to the complexity and profundity of the transformational experiences that forum members are describing.


Key information about the project:

· The only forum data I intend to use is the text of the Success Stories, which I understand as addressed to anyone that visits the forum in search of guidance, without needing to have a forum account.

· In terms of privacy, everything in the final research project would be completely anonymised, so that no author's username would be identifiable, and neither would the forum itself. I would also disguise any quotes, ensuring that nothing could be traced back to the forum via search engines.

· This research plan has been devised in consultation with and approved by the University of Exeter Psychology Research Ethics Committee and my supervisor, who is a specialist in online forum research. I can provide contact details for either if you have any questions or concerns.


If you do not want your Success Story to be included in the research project, please could I ask you to comment on this thread or contact me directly via forum direct message or email (tc604@exeter.ac.uk) to opt out. If you would like to opt out, please could I ask you to do so by Friday 24th April 2026.


If you have any questions about by project, I would be delighted to hear from you via DM or at tc604@exeter.ac.uk. I would also be very keen to share any findings at the conclusion of the project, in the hope that they might contribute something to this extraordinary community where I have learnt so much that has helped me personally.


Many thanks to you all,


Tom Craig