I made some pretty bold claims yesterday. And I know, I know, it sounds pretty gimmicky. But I promise you, it’s actually not. This is all just science and rehabilitation medicine. It’s a legitimate field of medicine and research. You just have to have some pretty tragic things happen to you to normally get access to this kind of information. And as humans, we tend to not be great at thinking about things that haven’t happened to us yet.
So, for the record, I’m not going to push a bunch of useless supplements at you or tell you to just think positive thoughts. You’re not going to find any toxic positivity or grift here.
The thing about the method I’m going to be teaching people is that it’s incredibly individual and specific, so it really isn’t very marketable or ‘Brand-able’. If someone is getting into trying to be some health guru, this is definitely not what they’re going to teach people.
Each and every one of you is unique. You all have your own mix of traumas and experiences. Incredibly different things are going to work for different people. What one person finds relieving, another person is going to find incredibly stressful. That’s why this process is best done on an individual, one-on-one basis. It requires a practitioner to really get to know you as a person.
The problem is that this process is typically done over the course of multiple, very expensive appointments. It usually takes at least 12, over the span of a year, at a cost of between $140-$250 an hour, depending on who you go see for it. I charge $145.
What I’ve distilled into a 4 hour seminar, it’s going to take you time on your own to implement. It won’t be easy. There are no quick fixes in rehabilitation. You’re going to have to be dedicated to your own self care in a way that most people are incapable of unless it becomes a necessity. And so very frequently, as soon as people get themselves back to a good place, they immediately forget all of the things that got them there, stop doing them, and backslide. It takes commitment and dedication to make it a lifelong change, like any other lifestyle medicine.
But! It does work.
Think of it like how diet and exercise are really the foundational keys to healthy weight management. There are all kinds of gimmicks and fads, but it really does come down to some basic fundamentals. This is the same. Only no one has really taught these basic fundamentals before on a large-scale basis because it’s such a niche group of people who generally ever really need them that so few people specialize in this kind of a field of study.
Like I said, usually people use them long enough to get back to a good place and then quit using them. I just happen to have the kind of injuries combined with a very physically demanding job that means that I’m locked in for life. Because of that, I just haven’t quit using them. And because of THAT, I got interested in seeing what else I could do. Could these things, used when a person is mostly healthy, make a functional difference in the person’s life?
You’ll have to ask my patients about that, but there’s a reason I have such die-hard followers.
Now, to be clear, this will be the first time ever that a program like this is being attempted at scale. It may or may not work. It’s definitely going to be a bit of an experiment. I have no idea if it’s going to work, and there’s going to be A LOT of learning and troubleshooting as the tour progresses, but I’m certainly game to try if you are?
To that end, I’m going to be setting up some things over the next bit to help people, like Facebook groups and the like, so that as I do this tour, there are resources to help people actually troubleshoot and implement the changes that I’m going to be teaching you over time. Because I actually do genuinely believe in making this kind of care easily accessible to people. So, I know the cost of the seminars seems a bit steep upfront, but when you realize that it’s actually saving you about $1600-$2800, you’ll see why I’m so excited to get to teach this to people.
My promotions and marketing team are going to love that I’m publishing this, but, from an informed consent and ethical standpoint, it’s more important to me that you guys know what you’re signing up for. You all get to choose your treatment. My job is to inform you of the options and then help you figure out the best ways to implement them for you. I’m not here to tell you that you have to do something ONLY this one specific way blah blah. That’s not healthcare. That’s ego and a lack of respect of other peoples’ autonomy.
But I digress…
For me, all of this is important to making sure that as I go forward, we go forward together, the RIGHT way. It’s the reason I have the team of people helping with this that I do. They may not always understand why I have to do things a certain way, but they support and respect me in my authority over myself to make those decisions. Which is the way healthcare should be. So, it’s important to me that I’m setting all of this up in a way that does that for all of you too.
Again, we’ll likely have to trial and error some of it along the way, but we’ll figure it out.
So, all of that disclaimer stuff said, let’s talk about some key pieces of information each of you will want some time to figure out before the events - what do you love to do, and what makes you feel safe?
You just need one example for each, and often it’s actually one combined thing, but if you have more, write them down too.
I’m going to explain why. It will help this begin to make sense.
First - we have a tendency as humans to focus on all of the things we don’t have, the things we can’t do anymore, or the things we never could do. These things stress us out and make us feel unsafe. A foundational tenet of rehabilitation is start where you are, use what you have, do what you can. Focus on what you STILL have, what you’re good at, what you CAN do, and then work to expand that list.
We’re going to be applying that same principle many, many times over the course of our work together. It’s going to be the thing that we come back to over and over and over.
Why I want you all to start thinking about it NOW is that every single time when I ask a new patient this question, I get the same 3 self care answers that everyone thinks is true for them but isn’t. ‘I love to go for walks on the beach, or reading a good book, or taking a long bath.’ And I apologize to those who genuinely DO love those things, but when was the last time you actually did them? If that was actually the thing you really loved to do, you’d be doing it way more often. They would be the things you forced yourself out of bed for, MADE time for when everything else was falling apart, did even though they are starting to cause you physical pain, etc.
So, I’ll pose the question another way - what’s the thing you NEED to do when the world stops making sense? When the shit hits the fan and you need time to yourself to get your head right? What’s that thing that brings you back down? Is it scrubbing the bathroom? Cooking? Knitting? Organizing? Working on your car or motorcycle? Video games?
What gives you back a sense of control?
THAT is the thing that makes your nervous system feel safe. That’s what I mean by that thing you LOVE to do. You won’t even think of those things because they are so ingrained and such habitual things that they will absolutely not be the first thing you answer that question with. Because you don’t think of them that way. We overlook the things we’re actually good at and do all the time. We dismiss them as just ‘being that thing we do’, because we do them. Our brains covet what we DON’T have or do, remember. We put way more value in something we don’t know how to do than the stuff we do offhand. But I need you to think about all of those things now, because all of those things are the things that are the keys to taking control of your nervous system and learning how to manipulate it into a parasympathetic state at will.
That’s why all of those ‘self care’ things people tout all the time feel like extra work and you wind up not actually doing them. They’re not the go-to things your nervous system has been using for years to induce a parasympathetic response. Those things you do automatically without even considering what they’re doing for you.
This is what I mean by this is a very individual process. All of you are going to have different answers for this. And that’s a good thing. I want you to embrace that uniqueness. I don’t want the answers you think you SHOULD want. I want the real ones. You don’t even have to say them out loud. I just need you to know what they are.
So, start paying attention over the next few days. What do you do when you get home from a stressful day at work to transition to home life? THAT’S the thing that brings your nervous system back down.
For me, it’s putting away groceries. The number of times I’ll stop for stuff at the store we absolutely don’t need just so I have groceries to put away is ridiculous. And no one is allowed to help me do it. If I come home with groceries, Alan knows to leave me to it and I’ll let him know when I’m done.
So, think about it like that. What’s YOUR thing? What gives you back a sense of control over your existence?
My next post will explain why this thing is important and what it’s doing for you, so you can understand why it’s the key to this whole thing.
You can put your answer in the comments for this post, or just keep it to yourself and be sure to bring it with you on April 20th to find out what to do with it now that you have it.
You can get your tickets for the event here:
https://www.eventbrite.ca/e/dr-stephanie-the-world-record-tour-tickets-876639240567
I’m really looking forward to helping all of you learn how to take control over your nervous system responses. No matter what, knowing this bit of information alone will help you in so, so many ways. Again, I’ll explain why in my next post. So stay tuned!
Till next time, folks!