The end of the story

I believe that therapy work requires us to honour the delicate balance between providing sufficient clarity about someone’s condition and over indulging in the drama of their story.

The strength of kinesiology, the therapy I practice, is its ability to find answers, to explain to someone how and why their symptoms have arisen. If this information requires a change of diet to avoid allergens, then it is clearly important to have this discussion. Equally, it can be reassuring to know that a skin complaint is the expression of a suppressed childhood trauma rather than a reaction to a cleaning product.

That said, we can sometimes over-indulge the intellect by dismantling every thought and emotion. It is possible to almost revel in the validation such an explanation gives us and use it as an excuse for the lack of progress or recovery. ‘I would eat sensibly if I didn’t have so much left over anger from my childhood.’ If this dynamic is left even partially untreated it creates an energy of its own – ‘I eat too much, that is bad, I do so because I have repressed anger, my dad is to blame’ etc. It becomes hard to break out of this self energising paradigm if there is substantial attachment to the story.

I see a growing number of people these days who take an almost Buddhist view of detachment and ask me not to engage with the dynamics of their specific story but simply bring in healing to support their intent for change or growth. They often move forward more quickly on their journey by steering clear of the ego and its desire to attach to a drama.

I appreciate that this is a controversial area within most therapies. Reiki practitioners debate whether targeted treatments are more powerful than simply following a generic protocol; hypnotherapists debate the difference between solution focused sessions and exploring the issues that led to their client’s current condition. Some forms of meditation could be seen as the ultimate act of detachment but is it the perfect therapy or just a good generic protocol that can help us to some extent? Can we release a complex energy dynamic if we don’t even know it is there?

Personally, I believe that some information and explanation is fundamentally helpful in the early stages of our healing journey. Thereafter, as we start to understand the mind, body, spirit connection and the dynamics of how life works, we can take a softer view of the drama and choose to detach from it. That appreciation of simplicity comes about because we have already looked into our story and come to terms with the mechanics of our existence. It is a right of passage that, as with most expertise, allows us to move into simplicity and ease. Having reached this stage, we have the awareness to recognise unwelcome emotional or physical responses as just being the expression of our story. We can then treat them lightly and observe them without judgment. This disempowers the whole dynamic and allows us to move on through our lives casting only a small shadow and leaving only gentle footprints on our way.

With blessings

Andrew Kemp

