An inquirer to our email helpline has requested feedback – good or bad – on two approaches to ME/CFS that he has heard about. They are Reverse Therapy and something called ‘Somatic Experiencing’.
If you have tried either of these approaches, please let us know and we shall pass on your information. If you can help, please send an email to our helpline: meconnect@meassociation.org.uk. Please type ‘Website feedback (for TB)’ in the subject line.
Sorry, but ‘Reverse Therapy’… 🙂
I’m surprised this site’s news doesn’t include the Lorraine show on ITV last Wednesday. Truly appalling piece on ME and an out and out advertisement for the Lightning Process. And by a TV Dr as well.
May
I’m very reluctant to include it – because it was such an uncritical report about LP. The piece lacked robust appraisal and balance.
The ME Association is unwilling to include such straightforward advertising for an unproven approach to ME.
Tony
That’s perfectly reasonable Tony. I was only thinking about people being made aware so they could voice their objections but I really appreciate your reluctance to cover it.
May I ask, is the ME Association contacting the show or Dr Hillary about the piece? I just feel it was so very bad and unbalanced and the fact also it was on a major channel and by a well known doctor.
They’ll be people needing advice and this is what they get. There was also an terrible piece in the latest issue of Good Housekeeping. The doctor Q and A. A Dr Sarah Jarvis told a woman with CFS who was seeking advice, that aerobic exercise is good for curing tiredness. That was it. It’s just devastating to think this is the position of high profile doctors.
Thanks, May.
I’ve already been in touch with ‘Daybreak with Lorraine’ to voice our concerns.
I didn’t put the ‘Good Housekeeping’ piece up as I was concerned that people might take it at face value. Perhaps I should have, so that people can comment on it.
Tony
Good morning May,
I know AFME have written and raised their concerns about the programme in question, as it was they who had been included in the ‘feature’ – though they were subject to a hatchet – cut and paste job -:
Any chance of you finding and posting a link to the Good Housekeeping piece you mentioned? Only I couldn’t find it on-line.
Thanks 🙂
May, I complained immediately after the Daybreak item. I have not yet received a reply though I will be surprised if I do.
Thanks Tony for contacting the Lorraine show. Again, I appreciate the dilemma of putting the GHK article up. I’d only say that for me, this site is a useful site for finding our what coverage ME is getting and maybe that should include the very bad as well as the bad and the good. Maybe with a little piece about what the ME Association advises or something? Totally understand if not though.
Firestormm the GHK site isn’t very good and I personally can’t find the article. It was in the June 2011 issue in the Ask Sarah section. I’d happily type it on here, if Tony is ok with that?
Nice one Eleanor. I think you’ll be part of a collective voice and that at least may be answered. Here’s hoping.
Thanks, May. If you’d like to type up the Dr Sarah Jarvis piece from this month’s issue of Good Housekeeping, that’s fine by us.
It came up on Google Alerts a few days ago but I deleted the alert as soon as I read the good doc’s advice on exercise. So unfortunately I can’t give you the URL for the online version.
Tried Reverse Therapy a few years ago. Very high charges for something that seemed to me to be a bad version of Cognitive Behaviour Therapy. Also read a book by one of the founders – a lot of pseudo-scientific nonsense. Sorry, don’t waste your money. Or at least ask to speak to several ‘cured’ patients of that practitioner, or for some other evidence.
I was just recommending Reverse Therapy to somebody and looking up the website address when I noticed your request for anyone that has experienced it. It is unbelievably fantastic and cured me after four years of M.E. in two sessions!
I can’t believe that one comment by ‘fish’ states that it is a waste of money and just like a bad form of CBT.
After suffering from M.E. for four years, I was recommended to Reverse Therapy by a friend (who had suffered very badly from M.E. for six years) and, after three sessions of Reverse Therapy was well again and has remained so ever since.
After trying so many different therapies and treatments, which treated the symptoms and not the cause (including CBT), I tried Reverse Therapy six years ago.
Before my first session, I read John Eaton’s book on Reverse Therapy and believed that this approach might really make me better – it looks at personal triggers now and link triggers at the time of the origin of the symptoms. It’s not “pseudo-scientific nonsense” as ‘fish’ claimed, but a very careful explanation of how the brain, body and illness are interconnected. If ‘head-mind’ is not in balance with ‘body-mind’, certain parts of the brain can be affected and cause the body to go into a state of imbalance – or illness. However, to do Reverse Therapy, you have to be open to your own deepest needs and to acting to get those needs met. After my first session with Kathleen Haden, I came out feeling like I could fly (after feeling I was dragging myself through thick mud). I also woke up the next day with no pain. The second session was two weeks later. I cancelled my third session as I felt so well! I am well and got my life back.
‘Fish’ states it’s over-priced. The therapists really put their work in and concentrate on treating the individual. When I got better, I kicked myself that I hadn’t found Reverse Therapy before and had wasted so much money on other failed treatments & therapies…. and time off work!
Since then, I have recommended Reverse Therapy to many people with M.E. who have also had amazing results. It makes me really cross that it’s not offered on the NHS and all they offer is CBT!
I have recently had some treatment from John Eaton (who developed Reverse Therapy) after a big trauma in my life and I was suffering from panic attacks. He diagnosed me with Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder and, after two 1 hour sessions with him where he gave me EMDR treatment, I can sleep at night and no longer have panic attacks or heart palpitations.
I never hesitate to recommend reverse therapy to anyone who is suffering from M.E. – but not only M.E.; the approach treats many other illnesses. Look at the website:
http://www.reverse-therapy.com/
I sincerely hope someone reading this gives themselves a chance to get well and gives it a try.
Caroline Chapman