CLINIC AL VIEWPOINT
8 steps on a journey to healing Frances Goodall EFT trainer; Wellbeing coach
I am a therapist, coach, trainer, speaker, mother and the author of You can heal chronic illness: the lotus process, 8 steps to health and happiness. Over five years, aged 19 to 24, I went from housebound with chronic fatigue to running half marathons, and later having a son who is now five. I’ve since spent a decade dedicating my life to supporting hundreds of women recover their health. I am a master emotional freedom technique trainer and advanced practitioner (AAMET Accredited), a Gupta amygdala retraining coach, and a health recovery coach specialising in supporting women to heal from chronic illness.
Introduction For five years the author was disabled by chronic fatigue syndrome. This much misunderstood and in many ways mysterious condition has no known ‘cure’. The question then – and it is a hard one – is how, in order to bounce forward from such debilitating physical and mental exhaustion, can a person garner the energy and gather the support that will build resilience. Here is one woman’s roadmap for this journey, as travelled by one who now uses her experiences to help and guide others on the road to recovery.
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This article is a summary of my book You can heal chronic illness the lotus process: 8 steps to health and happiness. May it provide a roadmap for you or your clients, friends or family members for taking the journey from illness to health. It is based on the experience of my own journey from five years of disabling Chronic Fatigue Syndrome to vibrant health, and on those of clients and women in our Women’s Wellness Circle community. I believe we all have vast potential for healing ourselves physically if we follow all these steps, many of which I have no doubt will be familiar to you already.
Step 1: Acceptance and surrender The first stage of healing was to accept what is, for now. The more I could let go into surrender and acceptance, and practice gratitude, the more I was able to build a strong foundation to support a health recovery path. Many times over the last decade in my work with clients, and in my own journey to health before that, I have witnessed the power of accepting what is, just for now. Once there is acceptance and peace about what is, the body and nervous system relax and our health can start to improve.
It is said that ‘what we resist persists, what we accept can change’. To truly reach acceptance there may be a need to work through grief, anger or frustration first, and that’s okay too, in fact it is often a part of the process of moving to a deeper acceptance and surrender.
Step 2: Belief and commitment This step draws on the power of belief and commitment to support recovery, and offers some tools to help in those moments of fear and doubt to return to a more resourceful place. Taken in the right way, this step is a foundation to a steadfast and gentle commitment to your healing. Belief in one’s ability to heal is a powerful support for physical healing, and for commitment to a path towards wellbeing: a belief that it is possible to heal chronic illness: the belief in keeping going, and getting back on track when doubts come up, and to believe they can be worked through. In order to heal, I had to believe it could happen and believe in the process or techniques that support the process. I have done this and, having supported hundreds of people in oneto-one and group settings, I believe others can too.
© Journal of holistic healthcare
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Volume 15 Issue 2 Summer 2018
