Hypnotheraphy as an alternaive theraphy: post polio syndrome.

In all my reading about polio and post polio syndrome, I have found and continue to find articles regarding polio, what polio did to my body, my physical ability, my physical disabilities, my limited mobility, my inability to find knowledgeable physicians, and medical professionals, my use of orthotics, bracing, assistive devices, and the list could go on and on about physically "fixing" my disabling condition(s).

There is a body/mind/spirit connection that is primarily omitted in everything I read on a daily basis. In all the paperwork I have collected over the years from knowledgeable doctors, nothing in any of them had addressed the aspect of healing the body with mind and spirit forces that we all possess from birth. This omission is included in newspapers, magazines, journals and health articles as well. This body/mind/spirit connection is convoluted but simple to address. It is an alternative therapy that needs your attention.

I have been fortunate enough to meet a Master Hypnotherapist who has guided me, and a few other survivors, on a journey that each and everyone who has a disabling condition must go on. My primary purpose for contacting the therapist was to have him speak at my support group meeting. Members had expressed an interest in having someone come and talk about that body/mind/spirit connection which we all have as human beings. I'm not talking about religion here, but the honest to goodness spirituality and soundness of mind, of which we are all made.

This therapist, Charles Kinney, PhD, a Certified Hypnotherapist, was eager to take on the challenge of learning about post polio syndrome and would, if he could, help me and others heal in body/mind/spirit on our PPS journey.

I needed to accept my post polio, and in accepting my inability to function as I thought I should function as a 59 year old woman, I could relearn and realign my thinking to be my source of strength, my source of healing, and my source of energy. To conserve energy, I needed to accept my body limits, what I can and cannot do; what I should and should not do.

So far, I have been able to work on three main issues of my post polio journey. First, Dr. Kinney and I addressed my chronic pain. I daily found myself functioning, or rather trying to function at a level 9 of chronic pain. After my first session of hypnotherapy, I found that I had a reduced pain level of 1. I did not perceive my pain level to be a 1, but it is genuinely a 1. My pain level has remained at a "one" since my therapy began.

Next we worked on my fears. I fear the uncertainty of my future and what it will bring. I fear that I cannot be the wife and mother I once was. I fear that I cannot be as physically active on some days as others, I fear what people say, think or do when they learn about me slowly returning to a disabling condition. After all, I now wear two leg braces I've never used before.

I know that I need to address my physical limitations. I truly know what they are and I know how to control them. "Conserve to preserve" has real meaning to me now. I feel weakness. I feel the need to sit down when my legs say so. I am compelled to do what I know I should do and I do so because I know my energy is needed at another time. I don't feel desperate in my need to DO things I believe are expected of me. I have a stillness about me that is more important than what I thought needed to be done now.

Instead of being on a collision course with my PPS, I am now working body/mind and spirit in living with my PPS. I am not on the downward spiral that I once was on. I was on that downward spiral a few weeks ago. Ask the other members of my support group and they will echo what I have said: body, mind and spirit are all connected. You are what you think and you are what you believe. My body knows this, without a doubt.

Barbara Oniszczak, Facilitator--Northeast MI Support Group

As appeared in Michigan Polio Network Inc., National Publication: Polio Perspectives, Vol. 22, Number 3, Fall 2007

Charles Kinney is a graduate of Infinity Institutewww.infinityinst.com