Emotional Stress & IBS – A Case History

I was asked by Jane Thurnell-Read, to write a case study for her book, "Kinesiology - learn about the potential of kinesiology to heal the world.”

Jenny (not her real name) came to see me suffering with stomach ache, bloating and wind, (which her GP had diagnosed as irritable bowel syndrome). Jenny, who was in her thirties, had been careful with what she was eating and had tried leaving things out of her diet, but this had not helped.

As a result there was a lot of anxiety around eating and she would comfort eat at times. Jenny was taking anti-depressants, which her doctor had prescribed to try and lessen the comfort eating. She now wanted to stop taking these and replace them with a more natural approach, if possible.

During her first session with me, Jenny chose a full Reiki session. As often happens, whilst giving Reiki I sensed that her energy field was offering me some information, which I passed on to Jenny to see what it meant to her. The phrases I was given were: ‘life’s a struggle’, and ‘a psychological battle is going on’.

As a consequence, Jenny talked about her relationship with her mother and father, both of whom she found unsupportive in relation to the line of work she wished to pursue. She said she was distressed doing a job that she did not like. There was a lot of stress around this subject, so we did Emotional Stress Release, whilst she thought about how she could better deal with her parents – and she came up with great solutions.

I also did Reiki healing around her stomach area and solar plexus chakra, in the same area.

At Jenny’s second session she told me she had had no symptoms of IBS since our first meeting.

Under the guidance of her GP, she was now taking fewer anti-depressants and was hoping to finish taking them altogether by the end of the next month. S

he had found a new job and wished to use this session to work on preparing herself calmly to manage the challenges of this new role.

We decided to do an Integrated Healing balance for this second session, the main corrections for which were Reiki healing, mostly on her left side. I also focused energy into her kidney points on the soles of the feet (a good energy boost).

We then checked whether Jenny needed any extra support to help with her balance, so far. Muscle testing pinpointed a statement from the Raw Affirmation Book, which read: ‘I release ……’s energies. I am my own person and am responsible for me only’.

Jenny responded to this by saying she felt that her parents were pulling on her emotions, even when she was away from them. We checked again (using muscle monitoring) and found there was indeed an energetic connection (energetic cords) to feelings that belonged to her parents, rather than herself.

These were affecting her energy levels and emotional feelings. We cleared these using Reiki and visualisation and re-checked that we had successfully cleared them afterwards.

No foods showed up as being a problem for Jenny, and she reported feeling much lighter and relaxed afterwards.

When Jenny came for her final appointment, her goal was to maintain good energy levels and work-life balance to help her train for the Race for Life, a five kilometer charity run.

She had finished her course of anti-depressants and said she was feeling fine without them.

A final message from her energy field in this session was ‘self acceptance without judgment’. We again used ESR with this as the focus (ESR can be used for future events, performance and changing behaviors) while Jenny visualised being less hard on herself and generally more self accepting and supportive of herself.

This is a beautiful example of how when we get in touch with what is really going on for us, not just emotionally and physically, but in the context of our lives, changes can happen fast – not only in our bodies, but with our journey in life!

When we set ourselves on the right track, the path that is right for us and the right opportunities seem to appear.

Once Jenny had released the stress that had built up around her circumstance of being in the wrong job, and torn about leaving because this was not her parents wish for her, she became clear about the direction she wished to go in and had a great offer of a job she wanted.

We were then able to clear the feelings and energies that had been holding her back, enabling her to move freely in the direction she wished.

(Tabitha Gale 2011)