Understanding the Difference between The Healing Process and A Healing Crisis

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By Dr.  John Veltheim

An issue that occasionally comes up with clients is the need to understand the difference between a healing crisis and a healing process. As you know, I often talk about the fact that frequently in different forms of therapy, including natural therapy, the way it is performed can lead to a crisis situation in the body. In BodyTalk, however, the way we perform our treatments should never cause a crisis.

 

​A healing crisis is when, for example, a toxic liver is overstimulated using certain herbs or homeopathic remedies, and it is forced to cleanse itself too quickly. In this case, either the liver itself or the supporting organs are not quite ready, and, thus, the client can feel quite ill for a period. There may be symptoms like nausea, vomiting, extreme fatigue, irritable bowels, and headaches. This type of healing crisis is such that had the various parts of the liver and intestines been treated in the proper sequence, then the whole process would have unfolded smoothly and would not have felt like a crisis. While a healing crisis often ends up good and the person does feel better, they usually go through a lot of unpleasant symptoms and feel like things get worse before they get better. This is generally quite unnecessary. It all comes down to the techniques being applied and the sequencing of them.

We must remember, however, that if we are bringing about change in various body parts through BodyTalk, there is going to be a healing process.  While this is quite different from a healing crisis, we must still understand what a healing process looks like. For example, if someone has an arthritic hip and we do a BodyTalk treatment that increases circulation and nerve supply to the muscles and articular capsule, there is going to be better functioning of the joint. At this point, it is likely that the joint will become sore because it is working more, moving more and there is repair going on. Not only is this unavoidable, but it is part of the natural healing process. If you start being able to use a joint that has not functioned properly in years, there is going to be some pain as it gets moving again. A healing process can occur in any part of the body where you are bringing about a change. Such changes can cause things to feel stirred up. The difference is that this discomfort is associated with a straightforward path of repair versus a healing crisis which can be severe, sudden, and so stressful that it reduces the effectiveness of a treatment.

In BodyTalk, another common example of a healing process is when treating a chronic virus. When the treatment starts, the client will often report a high temperature with some aches and pains. This is the most straightforward and natural way for the body to get rid of the virus. By actively assaulting it, the virus gets stirred up leading to some aches and pains, and the increase in body temperature is the immune system's standard method for killing off viruses. In these situations, we want to warn the client that they may notice a fever and some aches as part of their healing process.

So, once again, a healing process is quite natural as opposed to a healing crisis which is triggered by therapies that force repair or follow a sequence that is less than ideal.​