Complementary and Alternative Medicine

A Patient’s Guide to Pain Management: Body Talk

Introduction

Complementary and alternative medicine (CAM) has become more and more popular as a way to maintain or regain health. CAM refers to a wide range of therapies that complement (go along with) traditional approaches. But when allopathic doctors (those who practice traditional medicine) combine efforts with others who provide alternative care, the practice is referred to as complementary and integrative medicine (CIM).

Body Talk is one of these CIM treatment methods offered by medical doctors and other health care professionals. Alternative or nontraditional care of this type tends to be more holistic in the way we view the whole patient.

This guide will help you understand

• what body talk is
• how body talk works
• who can benefit from body talk
• what to expect from body talk

Each individual is viewed as a whole including the mind, body, emotions, and spirit. Holistic reflects the idea that these parts can’t be separated. It is believed that they are held together by energy that flows throughout the body.

Anything that disrupts this energy force alters the balance of health and can result in distress, disease, and other unnatural conditions. By rebalancing the mind-body vital life force, the body can heal itself and restore natural health and an inner balance among all the systems.

What is Body Talk?

Body Talk is an alternative form of health care that allows the body’s energy systems to regain homeostasis. Homeostasis is the stable, normal state of any body system. Injuries, illness, surgery, and stress are just a few examples of things that can cause the body to function less optimally or become unbalanced.

Body Talk encompasses a wide range of knowledge from Western medicine, Chinese acupuncture, and osteopathic and chiropractic philosophy. It even incorporates up-to-date physics and mathematics concepts. The goal of Body Talk is to resynchronize or rebalance the body’s energy systems. It is considered a form of energy medicine designed to optimize the body’s internal communications.

How Body Talk Works

When the body is functioning normally and maintaining homeostasis, each system, organ, and microscopic cell are in constant communication with each other. Anything that disrupts this balance can compromise these lines of communication. When communication is altered, overloaded, or cut off, there can be a decline in holistic health. Again, this includes body function and/or emotional, psychologic, and spiritual health.

The Body Talk method relies on using neuromuscular biofeedback to reconnect and integrate communication pathways. The practitioner uses muscle testing and a series of “yes” or “no” questions to find imbalances that the innate wisdom of the body considers a priority.

Rather than treating the final signs and symptoms of dysfunction, the original layers of miscommunication or broken communication are restored first. Any area that is not communicating correctly or is out of balance with the rest of the body is linked back together.

The practitioner helps the body return to a state of homeostasis or balance by focusing on the areas that have been identified as a priority. Then the practitioner gently taps on the patient’s head (alerting the brain to the new communication pathways) and on the sternum (storing the new information in the heart to be passed on throughout the rest of the body).

Literally by tapping into the nervous system, Body Talk has been effective in turning off areas of physiologic function that are over working. Using this same method, Body Talk can turn on areas that may not be working at all or functioning less than optimally.

Likewise, for patients experiencing chronic pain, the nervous system may have set up a negative feedback loop involving stress, pain and emotion. As we respond to a stressor, our nervous system is aroused and we become tense and hyperalert.

This is called the fight, flight, or freeze response. Muscles contract and don’t relax even when we think we are at rest. The function of our organs and endocrine systems may be put on hold but don’t get turned back to a state of homeostasis.

The more tense and aroused we are in response to a stressor, the more uncomfortable we are emotionally, and the more we hurt. The more uncomfortable and sore we are, the tenser we become and so on. Body Talk helps re-establish normal patterns of energy flow and communication between the brain, nervous system, and body.

Who Can Benefit from Body Talk?

Anyone can benefit from the balancing Body Talk offers regardless of age, health, or diagnosis. Some rely on it to maintain a healthy balance, while others use it to restore health. Body Talk has provided benefits to many individuals with a wide range of problems including headaches, infections, viruses, back pain, allergies, digestive disorders, and chronic fatigue.

Athletes and sports participants may seek out the skills of a Body Talk practitioner to enhance performance or speed recovery from sports injuries. Other individuals with learning disorders, phobias, and emotional disorders have been helped by this method.

What You Can Expect from Body Talk

The Body Talk process restores function at optimal levels to speed up healing. Because communication pathways between cells, organs, and systems are balanced, the patient experiences more than just short-term relief from symptoms. The overall flow and balance of energy throughout the body is vastly improved.

The corrected energy patterns are stored in the body’s cellular memory. Long-term improvement in health is the expected result. Body Talk is a noninvasive technique that is safe and effective. Benefits can be seen immediately. It can be used alone or in conjunction with other CIM/CAM techniques.

Body Talk does not diagnose or treat specific diseases, conditions, or disorders. Some individuals may still need medical care from a traditional allopathic (medical) doctor.

Where Can I Go to Get Body Talk?

Certified Body Talk practitioners must undergo a rigorous series of steps in training before taking both a written and a practical test. This assures that you receive care from a practitioner who is adequately trained.

Many health care organizations and private clinics in the United States and around the world offer these services. You can find more information and the location of a practitioner near you by contacting the International Body Talk Association at www.bodytalksystem.com or by calling 1-877-519-9119 (U.S. only).