Thoughts about continuing traditional therapy

Hi @Bk1959 and welcome!

Before I discovered Dr. Sarno in 2011, at age 60, I was seeing an "alternative" MD who practiced cranio-sacral therapy - which it turns out is a mindbody practice designed to get the patient in touch with their body, and communicate with it using healing and loving thoughts. Kind of TMS-y, but a lot more woo-woo and without any of the education. I quit seeing that very expensive doc as soon as I read The Divided Mind by Dr. Sarno, and joined this forum. BUT the story I wanted to tell is that this MD asked me to stop seeing my beloved chiropractor of twenty+ years, who I believed was the only one who could keep my neck spasms and disabling headaches under control. (My PCP also did not care for me getting regular adjustments). This MD did not approve of constant adjustments, and so I said, okay, I'll stop and see what happens. And.... nothing happened, because the work he did actually helped me get over the neck spasms, even "Before Sarno". When I felt the A-O joint in my neck going out (and it really did - my husband could feel the lump next to my cervical spine when this happened) I would visualize it going back in place, and I would gently stroke it (no pressure) in the direction where it needed to be. I would do this several times, especially at bedtime, and the next day, instead of waking up with an immobile neck and one of my infamous 5-ibuprofen headaches, I would be totally fine. I still use this technique eleven years later, although I can literally count on one hand the number of times I've needed it in all those years. It TOTALLY works. This is the power of self-healing, and we all have it.

Mind you, I also had a lot of other symptoms that started getting worse (aka, the "symptom imperative" as Dr. Sarno describes), and I did not start recovering from that vicious cycle until "After Sarno". Feel free to read my profile for the complete story and my list of favorite resources.

Now - all that being said, I have had a very favorite PT for many years who does a whole-body balancing therapy called strain-counterstrain, and I love going to him every few months just for a complete going-over after he assesses my stance, balance, and walking. Going to him is like a "laying on of hands" and a reassurance from someone that I'm overall doing just fine. I also have stress-induced RA (thank you 2020) and my feet do feel quite wonderful after I see him, but overall I see it as a tool to enhance my well-being at age 71. And if "1959" is your birth year, you're starting to know what I'm talking about. My other health-related tools are eating properly, staying hydrated, and exercising regularly, including yoga once a week.

Oh, and I did actually start seeing a new PT in 2010 or 11 (I forget): a Personal Trainer, who specialized in working with older clients and knew how to push me beyond my comfort zone, but never past any danger zone that I could detect. Before the shutdown in 2020, at age 69, I was curling 12-pound free-weights, bench-pressing 40 pounds, dead-lifting 45 and doing full lunges across the gym - things I had never done in my life before age 60.

So: what all this boils down to is that there's probably no reason to continue going to the chiropractor, and if you continue with PT, it needs to be with an eye towards whole-body rehabilitation and learning how to push yourself, rather than focusing on whatever body part you're concerned about. A good PT is focused on rehab, not maintenance. The best back pain resource we have is Dr. David Hanscom and his Back In Control website, book, and program. He retired from his back surgery practice at Swedish Hospital in Seattle to concentrate on his mindbody program, after achieving a high level of pre-surgery patients who cancelled their surgeries thanks to his program.

Good luck - it sure sounds like you're in the right place!

~Jan