I was recommended kinesiology by my boyfriend who had visited a practitioner due to being continually run down and was treated mainly with food allergy testing. After doing some research on the Internet, I decided to give it a go, having reached the stage where I would try anything. The idea that you could rectify problems and stress that you just tend to put up with and accept as consequences of modern day life appealed to me. I had been suffering on and off for about five years with what I would call a weak digestion system. I was always constipated, which made my skin spotty and dull. This consequently made me feel bloated and sluggish. This, in turn, was making me depressed, as I had no energy to go out and do the things I enjoyed.
I classified my problem as physical when I first when to see Joy, which was having consequences on my mental health; I had concentrated in the past on making diet changes, detoxing and taking laxatives. However, I soon came to realise that it was the emotional problems underneath that were causing my body to behave in this way. It was my body’s natural reaction to the stress, burdens and emotional baggage I had carried with me from my teenage years; my body was shouting out at me for help for years and I just ignored it and suffered on, exacerbating the problem no doubt.
At first I was a bit dubious about kinesiology, as I think most people probably are, but once I started seeing the effects, I fully believed in its healing power. It wasn’t really an immediate cure for me; it took a few months with fortnightly sessions to feel things were really coming together. But the realisation that there were reasons why I felt the way I did was immediate. Beginning to recognise the problems for what they were and then starting to understand them decreased the stress and the pressure I put upon myself. I used to think that I was just being lazy, or not doing enough exercise to get my body going, or perhaps I was depressed, or maybe I had MS…? All these thoughts ran through my mind over the years, and other people tended to think I was a hypochondriac when I repeatedly trotted out the phrase, ‘I am just so tired’. It caused problems at work and strained my friendships and personal life. Yet working through personal issues involving an alcoholic father and an abusive home life were causing these blocks to my energy, which in turn were affecting my bodily functions. I had got it the wrong way round: emotional, rather than physical, problems were the root cause of my feeling unwell.
I was amazed to see how so many different aspects of my life interrelated. I am naturally quite a highly-strung person, but hadn’t realised how much it affected the various parts of my life. The same emotions, in my case, guilt, resentment, motivation, letting go and so on, acquired over time and kept coming up again and again in my home life, social life, love life, friendships and work. So much information came out, particularly in the beginning sessions, that I was astounded and would have to make notes on the way home to try and remember it all. It all seemed to be coming together and I was able to understand my own health and emotional and mental state of being. The aim set at the beginning of each session or every few sessions really gave me something to focus and work on at home, and this small step-approach enabled me to track my progress and gave me a sense of achievement as the weeks passed, which was affirmative and positive.
Kinesiology is different to conventional health remedies and is still not widely known about. There are a variety of different techniques used in kinesiology and your practitioner will use the one that suits you; your body will tell you this through muscle testing (withholding or resisting a low amount of pressure put against your lower arms). My body seemed particularly keen on flower remedies (I write in the passive because so many of your reactions are subconscious and you channel them through the physical reactions in your body), but I also used visualisations and stress remedies.
I would thoroughly recommend Joy Gillies as a kinesiologist and kinesiology in general as a form of holistic healing. She works in a professional manner and strives to explain everything that she does and the reasons why she does them, be they scientific or emotional. At the same time, she always made me feel comfortable and safe. She genuinely cares about her clients and I felt a strong bond had grown between us by the end of our sessions.
I am not necessarily ‘cured’ for life; the same problems may reoccur as time goes on, or new ones may arise. But I would definitely place my trust in kinesiology again; I feel assured it will help me to deal with whatever life throws at me. And for now, the results speak for themselves. I have learned how to deal with my father in a more positive way; I feel less guilty about going out, rather than spending time at home with my mum; I try to not allow work to stress me out, especially once the weekend comes; I feel more ‘myself’ – funny, social, positive; I go to the gym three times a week; my digestive system seems to have regulated and I have more energy to go out and have fun, which has improved my personal relationships.
Claire Shanahan, July 2005