Freedom from ME/CFS - A Specialist Site from The Optimum Health Clinic

What methods are you using?
What’s the difference between what you do and Cognitive Behavioural Therapy (CBT)?
I’ve heard of the Lightning Process and Alex mentions it in his book – is that something you use?
What about Reverse Therapy/Mickel Therapy?
How do sessions work?

1. What methods are you using?

The methods we use are a combination of all of our research in traditional psychology, NLP, hypnotherapy, EFT, and various other modalities, together with our experiences of what worked for us in our own individual cases, and for those of the hundreds of people we have worked with. We integrate many aspects of different therapies, rather than working with only one method, because we recognise that every individual is different and every case of M.E is different. We know (as we are sure you do!) that what works for one person will not necessarily work for another; our aim is to be best equipped to find what works best for each patient.

2. What’s the difference between what you do and Cognitive Behavioural Therapy (CBT)?

Both our work and CBT focus on changing the thinking and anxiety patterns. However, there are some very significant differences. CBT’s aim is to empower patients to feel more positive about their illness. Our aim is to help them to recover.

CBT focuses on changing negative thought patterns into positive thought patterns – what we call ‘rationalising’ the thought. We take the view that if the thought has already been triggered, you have already sent your body into a stress state and into rationalising, (when these initial thoughts are not rational to begin with), and therefore is not the most effective way of changing how your body responds. Moreover, rationalising with fear, takes even more energy, when the result we want is to use less energy thinking! Our approach and methods, therefore, work on changing the way we think, the structure of our thinking, and our entire focus – to change the relationship between mind and body.

3. I’ve heard of the Lightning Process and Alex mentions it in his book – is that something you use?

Alex’s book was responsible for originally introducing The Lightning Process as a treatment for M.E.; he was part of the first ever Lightning Process training seminar for practitioners, and in fact was asked to put together the book on the subject (although ultimately he chose not to). Alex has also been further developing and refining the methods within The Lightning Process throughout his professional career, but he chose not to remain associated with the technique, or even continue to use its name. This was primarily because he was unhappy with how it was being marketed with extremely over-inflated claims of success rates, and the blaming of delegates for not using it properly when they did not get better.

In our approach, we use the development of the Lightning Process as a part of what we do. For some people it can indeed seem like a miraculous solution, but for others M.E. is a more complex illness and in reality, if there was one ‘quick-fix’ for M.E then no-one would be ill any more! We also feel from our own recovery process and that of hundreds of others, that to discount the physical aspect of the illness is to ignore a vital factor in healing. We are, after all, a mind, body and spirit, rather than just one of these. For these reasons, none of our practitioners are licensed Lightning Process practitioners anymore.

4. What about Reverse Therapy/Mickel Therapy?

When Anna was ill, one of the major factors in her recovery was the recognition that her body – emotionally and physically – was a ‘feedback’ mechanism, and that at least some of the emotional and symptomatic information she was getting had to be in some way ‘useful’. She understood that this information would be key in helping her to get well, that her body had an innate intelligence, and that by working in harmony with this, by learning to speak its language, we are more likely to create a state of health.

As a clinic, therefore, we have always sought to incorporate these ideas into our approach in ways most useful to the patient.

5. How do sessions work?

We offer treatment on the psychology side of the clinic in three ways:

The 90 Day Programme: This is the clinics groundbreaking psychology based training course for M.E. – further information follows, and full details can be found at www.The90DayProgramme.com
Face to face sessions: These take place at the clinic in Central London, and there is also some availability in Darlington. Initial sessions are usually 1 ½ - 2 hours, and follow up sessions usually last an hour.
Telephone sessions: These sessions are appropriate if you are either unable to travel, or for ongoing support after The 90 Day Programme. Initial sessions are usually an hour, with follows up sessions of forty-five minutes.

The best way to find out which of these is most appropriate for you is in a 15 minute chat.