Addressing psychological health challenges
Andrew Craft, Non‐medical practitioner, Kempsey, Australia
Introduction
Hello, my name is Andrew Craft, and I am a Non‐Medical practitioner working in Kempsey, Australia. Thank you to Regumed for inviting me to present at this year’s international congress, and thank you for taking the time to listen to my presentation today.
According to WHO statistics approximately 1 in 4 people will suffer from a mental health condition at some point in their life.
With mental health becoming such a significant part of clinical work I’m sure many of you have also asked yourselves how can we, as BICOM® method practitioners, offer help and support to clients who are facing these challenges?
This can be quite a complicated task. Particularly while also being careful not to overstep the bounds of our therapy. What I would like to share with you all today is the technique I use in my clinic. I’ve found this technique to be an effective way of supporting clients who are dealing with psychological health challenges.
Defining the basis for psychological health
Is psychological health based solely in the mind?
For many years the fields of Psychology and General Medicine were considered to be separate. One focused on the mind and the other on the body. But as time has passed our understanding of the impact our biology places on our psychology, as well as vice versa, has grown substantially. As evidence of this many schools of psychology now favour the Biopsychosocial model.
In short, this model asserts that our psychology is impacted by both our biology and our social environment. From this perspective, psychological wellbeing is not simply a product of the mind, but rather is the end product of both intrinsic and extrinsic factors. To better understand what aspects are involved in psychological wellbeing let’s take a look at these factors through the lens of BICOM® therapy.
The Biological factors
Inherited disease predispositions, as well as acquired stress from radiation, injuries and scars, pathogenic strains, toxicity, allergens. These are all elements we are familiar with in our work with the BICOM® method. All these factors contribute to the biological functioning of the human body.
Once the functional capacity of the body has been overtaxed by these stressors, and homeostasis begins to be negatively impacted, we begin to manifest a broad variety of symptoms.
But, while these stressors are targeting the biological level of the body, are the symptoms produced confined purely to the biological health of a client?
Many of the traditional methods of medicine practiced throughout the world, such as Traditional Chinese Medicine (TCM), view organs as being multidimensional in function rather than serving merely as physical viscera.
For example, in TCM the liver is not confined merely to a physical organ of metabolism, but rather is seen to also have impacts on the emotional and mental aspects of a person’s wellbeing.
TCM asserts that on an emotional level the liver has the capacity to produce calmness of mind, or in contrast when under strain to produce the dominant emotion of anger. Likewise, on the psychological level the liver is said to have the capacity to allow us to visualise possible futures which we would like to navigate our way towards. In contrast, when under strain the liver will tend to create stagnation of purpose or drive as we have no “destination” to work towards.
While the idea that physical viscera can have any impact on psychological health has long been viewed with a healthy degree of scepticism by modern medicine, current re‐ search into what is being termed “organ crosstalk”, is demonstrating that the communication within our body is much more complex than initially thought.
Rather than being governed purely by the overarching functions of the Nervous and Endocrine systems, homeostasis, is maintained by a complex communication between every organ in the body by means of chemical signalling molecules. And, as we can all appreciate, on a biophysical level this is facilitated by interaction of biophotons, or frequency information, between both individual cells as well as the discreet organs which these cells form.
Given that organs have mutual interaction with each other it becomes clear that if any part of the body were to be functioning in a suboptimal capacity this would directly influence the function of all other organs and systems of the body.
In our work with clients, I am sure you would all agree that functional imbalances in organs commonly manifest effects on, not only a physiological level, but also on an emotional and psychological level as well. It seems to be the case that If the function of these organs becomes compromised, as the result of physiological strain on the viscera, then it will likewise influence the related psychological and emotional aspects as well.
Psychological factors
We’ve established that the biological functioning of the body, and it’s viscera, can have an impact on psychological functioning. In some cases, however, the psychological challenges our clients are facing may be due to maladaptive, that is non‐productive, psychological patterns themselves.
These patterns may be either conscious or unconscious an idea first proposed by Sigmond Freud. Freud introduced, the then foreign idea, that the mind was composed of more than just the readily accessible part of the mind in which our active thought processes take place. Freud termed this area of the mind the conscious. He theorised that below the conscious was the less accessible subconscious, and a deeper area he termed unconscious, an area not directly accessible by the conscious mind in which motives and desires are held outside of conscious awareness. Further, he postulated that these motives and desires in the unconscious had an impact on the conscious mind. In short, that conscious behaviour was at times driven by unconscious motives.
The logical approach to the treatment of psychological illness then, as Freud saw it, was to make the processes taking place in the unconscious conscious. This idea gave birth to the psychoanalytical approach, a therapy which essentially focuses on identifying the underlying cause of a psychopathology, and in doing so making it conscious. A reductionist approach, psychoanalysis is aimed at finding the “problem”.
While it is still debated as to whether we do in fact possess an unconscious in the sense that Freud described it, it is often accepted that we are in part guided by various desires and motives of which we are not always readily aware. And it is these desires and motives outside of our awareness that tend to drive maladaptive behaviours. Often these desires and motives may arise from attitudes, beliefs, or perceptions that have originated as the result of negative experiences.
The psychologist Carl Jung theorised that as we grow, we go through a natural process called individuation in which all the elements and experiences that form our personality are integrated into a well‐functioning whole. During this process we continually challenge our attitudes, beliefs, and perceptions until we find a pattern which is adaptive and beneficial to us as an individual. Normally, this process should allow us to process and move on from negative experiences gradually as we grow as an individual. In this context, then, psychopathologies represent a stagnation of the individuation process, and an inability to process and resolve past emotions and experiences.
Psychologically, it is important that we can process emotions and life events, be they positive or negative, if we are to keep moving forward and not become stuck in past or present negative experiences.
Social and Environmental Factors
Given that our social environment seems to be a primary source of our attitudes, beliefs, and perceptions, relating to ourselves and the world around us, the importance of social and environmental factors becomes clear.
The school of Behavioural Psychotherapy, started by John Watson, is based on the premise that all behaviours are learned through interaction with the environment through a process called conditioning. This effectively explained behaviours as being learned responses to environmental stimuli.
The idea was that all humans are born as a blank slate, or tabula rasa. If maladaptive behaviours are learned during formative years this later manifests as psychopathologies. So rather than Freuds idea of unconscious drives leading to abnormal behaviour, Behavioural psychology asserts, that if the learned response to a given stimuli is maladaptive, this results in abnormal behaviour. Eventually dissatisfaction with this model grew, as it was solely focused on external triggers, and provided little framework to explain internal processes.
In the 1960’s as the world became more familiar with the idea of information processing being used in computers a new cognitive framework was being developed to explain internal psychological processes.
The idea of schemas, mental frameworks developed through experience, was introduced. These schemas acted as cognitive frameworks to organise and interpret the information from the world around us. However, because these frameworks were based on past experiences, they are subject to distortion. In other words, we experience all current circumstances through the lens of past experiences.
Both the cognitive and behavioural approaches to psychotherapy nicely demonstrate the way in which our social environment can impact our psychological health and well-being.
The ideas derived from these schools of psychology are still very much in use today, such as in Cognitive Behavioural Therapy, and can often be quite effective. While the methods and ideas vary from school to school what is common between them is that they all are focused once again on the psychopathology, on “the problem”.
Are we then the victims of our biology, psychological patterns, and social environment?
While the reductionist viewpoints we’ve discussed have merit it was also felt by some that these schools were “de‐humanising” by effectively reducing the human being to a creature driven by base instincts and controlled by their environment and social programming.
In a construct such as this little room is left for free will and the right to choose one’s course of life. This view led to a variety of psychological schools which are collectively known today as positive psychology.
Humanistic Psychology, one school of positive psychology, asserts that each human being has the innate desire to grow as an individual and to reach fulfilment and contentment in life. According to Abraham Maslow this is accomplished by means of what he termed “self‐actualisation”, that is the reaching of our potential as a unique human being. By means of his Hierarchy of Needs Abraham Maslow acknowledged, in similar manner to Freud, that we do have underlying drives to obtain certain necessary elements in our life such as physiological needs, safety needs, and belonging needs. But in contrast to these other schools Maslow saw maladaptive behaviours as something to be transcended or overcome by means of free will. An idea which also fits with Jung’s concept of individuation.
So instead of simply reinforcing what is “wrong” with the patient, it becomes about focusing on what is “right”. The goal becomes to build the patient ́s resilience to face their challenges and to help the patient to grow as an individual to overcome these challenges themselves. Rather than victims of our biology, psychology, and social environment we have the right to choose how we see ourselves and the world around us.
Changing the Status Quo
All of us are familiar with acute, short lived, illnesses such as a cold. Provided the symptoms are regulated safely, these acute issues often pass reasonably quickly on their own.
But chronic health conditions are a different matter altogether. Chronic health conditions represent a kind of status quo, in which after a long‐term exposure to various stressors, the body has begun to lose its ability to maintain homeostasis. As such the solution is to change the pattern by removing the strains and stressors holding this maladaptive pattern in place.
This is the same when working with maladaptive psychological patterns. The first step is to remove the stressors holding the maladaptive pattern in place. This represents our working on the biological factors we discussed earlier and our supporting the physical viscera. This is done with conventional BICOM® therapy, something we are all very familiar with.
In some instances, this is enough for the psychological aspects of the pattern to change to a more adaptive pattern. But in other instances, we may need to assist the body in this process.
How can we do this?
Homeopathic medicine, which is based on the principle of “like cures like”, uses a remedy, which has a similar pattern to that of the maladaptive pattern found in the clients system, to challenge the body to change.
Within the homeopathic Materia Medica the various remedies can be divided into the Animal, Plant, and Mineral kingdoms. Each of these kingdoms has distinct themes. The Animal kingdom has the theme of Survival and has a primary resonance with the Physical body. The Plant kingdom has the theme of Adaptability and has a primary resonance with the Emotional body. The Mineral kingdom has the theme of Structure and has a primary resonance with the Mental Body.
As such Mineral remedies are of particular benefit when working with psychological health challenges as they resonate with various psychological archetypes and patterns. The work of Homeopath Jan Scholten is notable in this regard.
In my practice I have found that, not only element remedies, but also in particular gemstone remedies are an excellent way to work with maladaptive psychological patterns.
After all gemstones are effectively crystalline minerals. For testing and treatment you can also use the test set “Gemstones and Minerals” from REGUMED.
While the less differentiated psychological archetypes represented by element remedies can be helpful, more commonly it is the compound mineral remedies, belonging to the Gemstones and their “compound or blended archetypes” which resonate with clients. Interestingly, while many of us would associate the use of gemstone with being somewhat “new age” the use of gemstones has a long history in a number of modalities including the Ayurvedic tradition.
The protocol
In previous appointments.
Removal of all blockages. General regulation should be stable.
Treatment of strains on the system. The “five elements” should be stable and all organs should likewise be stable in function. If any substantial instability is present it may adversely affect the psychological level of the organism.
The chakra system should be stable. This is to ensure that energy and information can move between all levels of the organism unimpeded.
The appointment for psychological balancing.
1. Establish a “Baseline test”. Establish a baseline to enable us to access the effectiveness of the treatment post‐therapy.
Test for resonance or dissonance to a variety of terms representing emotions or concepts. Personally, I test this with 10 vials representing the primary emotions of Anger, Apathy, Braveness, Fear, Happiness, Love, Lust, Peace, Pride, and Sadness. It may also be helpful to test for specific things a client is having trouble with such as “Fear of Enclosed Spaces”, “Fear of Heights”, or any other specific issue the client mentions they would like to work with. However, several important points should be made here.
Firstly, no judgement should be made of the way the client ́s system reacts to these terms. What is important to us is simply that there is no blockage in their system to the processing of the cognitive or emotional constructs represented by these terms.
Secondly, this testing should be done with sensitivity. We need to be careful not to reinforce any pattern which arises in testing and not to trigger the client in any way. Often clients lack a complete understanding of what we are doing and may misinterpret the findings of the baseline test. Additionally, please show consideration to the client and do not ask questions which may be invasive in any way. That is not the point of the baseline test.
Using the “Seven control organ” vials from the “Control and Metabolism Test set” ensure that the Corpus Callosum, Pineal gland, Pituitary gland, Hypothalamus, Limbic system, Medulla oblongata, and Thalamus are all stable. In cases where clients present with psychological health challenges there is almost always an imbalance in one or more of these areas of the brain. These areas must be energetically stabilised to ensure that they can receive therapy information in the next step.
Test up for the various gemstone remedies. Once a resonating remedy is found run on program 192 with individualised parameters. Because each remedy represents a kind of archetypal pattern, we are effectively offering the body a new, more adaptive, pattern to use in place of its current maladaptive pattern. This fits with our goal of supporting the growth and individuation process of the individual to allow them to overcome the psychological challenges they are currently facing. The test kit Chakra’s and Bach flowers contains gemstone mix vials which may be used for this. Or individual gemstones may also be used.
Retest the baseline to see the effectiveness of the therapy. One of Three things will happen.Firstly, all of the results may have changed indicating that client’s system is able to now process these concepts without any blockage to the process. This is the optimal goal of this protocol.Secondly, no change may have occurred at all. If this is the case go back to basics and check for blocks in the system, especially chakra blocks or hidden strains within an organ.
Thirdly, some change has occurred, but some terms are still showing as dissonant. This is quite common with long‐term or more complex conditions such as PTSD. This simply means there are several layers to be worked through. This Protocol will have to be run several times through to have maximum effect.
While I make no claim that this will work for every client dealing with psychological health challenges, I have found this to be an excellent way to support the majority of my clients who are facing psychological health issues. The Beauty of this technique is that we can offer support to clients while they can also be working with a primary care practitioner such as a psychologist.
Case studies
Client: Male, 55 years old.
Initially presented with claustrophobia that had been triggered some years ago through confinement in a small space. Since then has had difficulties in being in any spaces without a clearly visible way out.
In the initial two appointments therapy was carried out to remove any treatment blockages, and to stabilise the “five elements” and their associated organs.
On the third appointment the statement “fear of enclosed spaces” was tested using tensor testing and displayed positive resonance. Following this, as a first step, the chakra system was stabilised. Then the “seven control organ vials” were tested which demonstrated the need to stabilise the Hypothalamus, Medulla Oblongata, Corpus Callosum, and Thalamus. The Gemstone vials were then tested, and the Citrine vial displayed positive resonance. The vial was then treated on program 192 with individualised parameters.
Afterwards the baseline test was rechecked and the term “fear of enclosed spaces” no longer displayed positive resonance. The appointment was concluded with basic therapies.
After the protocol was carried out the client noticed an immediate sense of relief, which improved further over several weeks. At last I spoke this client; he was no longer having any problems with feeling claustrophobic in spaces.
Client: Female, 46 years old.
Initially presented with symptoms of adrenal fatigue and burnout, as well as significant long‐term anxiety symptoms leading to insomnia.
In the first three appointments therapy consisted of removing therapy blockages and stabilising the five elements and the associated organ systems. On the fourth appointment, it became obvious the anxiety symptoms were becoming the priority.
The appointment started with programs 3093 and 3095 to reduce the client ́s state of anxiety. After this the chakra system was tested and had remained stable from the last appointment.
The baseline was tested using kinesiology and the terms Anger, Fear, and Sadness displayed a weak muscle test. The seven control organ vials were tested and the vials Hypothalamus and Limbic system displayed positive resonance. These vials were treated on program 192 with individualised parameters.
The gemstone vials were next tested, and the Opal vial displayed positive resonance. This was treated on program 192 with individualised parameters.
Afterwards the baseline was retested, and the term Anger, Fear and Sadness no longer demonstrated a weak muscle test. The client noted feeling lighter and “as though something was different”.
On the next appointment the terms were retested, and the term Peace displayed a weak muscle test. The same process was repeated and the Corpus Callosum required treatment followed by the Rose Quartz vial.
This demonstrates that we are supporting the natural growth process of the individual. So, when dealing with psychological issues that have been a long‐term challenge it is normal for several treatments to be needed to work through a psychological challenge.
Useful Tips
I often also find it helpful to finish a psychological balancing session with both a basic therapy and Bach flower essences using the vials from the CTT Chakra’s and Bach Essence kit. These programs work very well if put into drops to be given to the client to take after the appointment. The vials can of course be tested for individual resonance, but there are several combinations I find of particular help for certain symptoms. These are based on the work of Dr. Gotz Blome.
Nervous Collapse, on the verge of: Cherry Plum + Elm
Collapse Caused by mental/emotional trauma: Elm + Star of Bethlehem
On the verge of breakdown due to stress and overwork: Cherry plum + Oak
“New Beginnings”, for large life transitions: Agrimony + Chicory + Gentian + Honeysuckle + Larch + Mimulus + Wild Oat
Useful elements and gemstones for this technique
Aurum Metal (Gold), Argentum Metal (Silver), Agate, Amethyst, Arsenolite, Chalcedony, Citrine, Olivine, Chrysoprase, Cinnabar, Selenite, Coral, Garnet, Graphite, Carnelian, Pearl, Onyx, Opal, Quartz, Rose Quartz, Red tourmaline, Ruby, Sapphire, Amber, Topaz
Thank you for taking the time to listen to my presentation. And please give this protocol a try, I’m sure you’ll be happy with the results.
Warmest Regards,
Andrew Craft
