TMS Practitioner Training?

[Alyssa]

I've recently read Dr Sarno's "Healing Back Pain" and extremely taken by it. I'm an acupuncturist and can absolutely attest to the mind body connection, particularly with pain. I would love to begin educating my patients about TMS. I was wondering if there is any type of practitioner training or qualifications one needs to do this?

I am particularly curious where the exact locations are for the spots of tenderness that are generally found in TMS patients.

Thank you for your help!

 

[BruceMC]

I go to an acupuncturist-Chinese medicine guy, Alyssa, whenever I get an intuition that I need to have a deep tissue massage-acupuncture session. I don't do it for relieving TMS pain so much as because it allows me to "travel" inside my central nervous system to those places where I have repressed emotions in my physical body. A successful acupuncture session also lets me monitor how I'm doing with my TMS therapy. It's like a laboratory environment where I actually get to visualize how much emotionality I'm repressing in my physical body. For me at least, it seems to function as a guided meditation that lets me feel my repressed emotions and actively release them. What I'm saying is that acupuncture shouldn't just be used for pain relief but as a way to go "deep" psychologically and directly experience the mind-body connection. I don't know how this correlates with your experience as a practitioner, but it sure seems to work for me! It's not so much as if I go to the acupuncturist-massage therapist to have him "fix" me as much as I interact with the therapist to fix and heal myself. A two-way dialog if you will.

Would be nice to hear how much my experience correlates with your own?

 

[Forest]

Hi Alyssa,

It is great to hear that you are interested in learning how to incorporate TMS treatment into your practice. There is without question a need for more TMS practitioners. As MorComm mentioned, I would be intrigued to learn how you incorporate it in acupuncture. In terms of formal training there two organizations that are doing it or are planning on doing it. The PPDA is currently planning on developing a training protocol for practitioners. Given the high quality of its board members I am positive it would be terrific. Of course, if you are looking for something sooner, SIRPA is currently holding training sessions in the UK. SIRPA is run by Georgie Oldfield who has done something like 17 trainings so far, and I think they are excellent.

In the interim, you may be able to find another practitioner in your area who would be able to mentor you and let you shadow them as they treat TMS patients. I would suggest checking out our Find a Doctor or Therapist page to see if there is a practitioner in your area. A lot of the practitioners are really eager to help other people develop their skills, and it wouldn't hurt to reach out to a few of them.

You may also want to check out the flyer attached to this post. It is a flyer from the recent NYC conference about various programs the Peer Network has for practitioners. It might be worth checking out.

 

[veronica73]

Hi Alyssa,

I'm a Reiki Master and I've started mentioning TMS to some clients and referring a few of them to my own TMS doctor. I also mention Dr. Sarno in some of my classes where it seems relevant. I'm happy to talk about it more with you if you message me.

~ Veronica

 

[Steve Ozanich]

Those tender points aren't in everyone, and not necessary to have TMS. I think it's just one more check-off on their TMS check-lists. No one knows why they exist. I called them TMS black holes; wingtip or toroidal vortices. All matter and time are crushed out of existence. I would guess it reveals that the ANS is in hyper-mode.

SO

 

[BruceMC]

I would guess it reveals that the ANS is in hyper-mode.

I would have to agree with you there, Steve. I believe they're referred to as 'trigger points'. My acupuncturist-Chinese medicine-'witch doctor' first evaluates me, then releases these 'trigger points'. If he can't eliminate one of these with massage, he goes on to acupressure. If that won't get the area to relax, he brings out his needles and lances it. Sometimes there's a great release of energy in me when the 'trigger point' finally relaxes. What I notice too is that the same time I'm also moving through my inner consciousness. Sometimes memories come back from childhood or high school. Any latent psychological content also comes out as the 'trigger point' relaxes. I would imagine Alyssa knows a whole lot more about this stuff than me. All I know is that after an acupuncture session I come away really, really relaxed and in a positive frame of mind that lasts maybe 48 hours. But the changes do seem increment over time too.

If you looked at these 'trigger points' from the perspective of Dr Sarno's TMS theory, it seems like their existence is an indication that the patient is repressing emotions into his unconscious mind and in the process stirring up the ANS. I know that according to the Chinese system we all have astral bodies that reside in our physical bodies and that each area of the astral body is associated with a particular emotion. The lower lumbar region in particular being associated with fear.

But all this alchemical-astrological mumbo jumbo aside, it still sounds as if what you need to do to really stop those 'trigger points' from appearing is to stop repressing your emotions in the here and now. Not really sure whether acupuncture has helped me resolve my TMS, but it certainly does let you get in direct contact with your body-mind.