NET and Parkinson’s Disease: My weird & surprising experience

I want to share a recent experience with you.  It started with a nagging thought that in dealing with Parkinson’s I should check out a treatment I had done when I was dealing with my autoimmune issues, lupus and rheumatoid arthritis (RA) 20+ years ago.

I remember having some very painful low back pain.  It was the type of pain that I knew a chiropractor could address.  I didn’t have a chiropractor that I really liked, so I made an appointment to see someone new in Encinitas.  The chiropractor rather efficiently adjusted my back and I left feeling great.  But then a few days later the pain was back.  I made another appointment.  And again the chiropractor adjusted my back and I was fine.  But it happened again and I was back in the chiropractor’s office for the third time!

Underlying emotion is triggering my low back pain

On my next visit the doctor told me, “Sheryl, I suspect that you have an underlying emotional issue that may be triggering the back pain.  If we don’t treat the underlying cause it’s possible for this cycle to continue.  I’m trained in a technique I think could help you.  It’s called NET.  It stands for Neuro Emotional Technique.  I believe I might be able to use this technique to help you identify the triggering emotion and relieve it.”  Then he added, “Do you think there might be an emotional issue that could be triggering this?”

I’m sure I must have laughed at the question.  I had been going through a painful divorce.  So I was pretty positive I had some deep triggering emotions running through my body!  We talked a little about the technique and how he would first use muscle testing (which is sometimes referred to as applied kinesiology, though it has nothing to do with actual kinesiology) to identify the triggering emotion.  Then he would have me focus on the emotional situation while he tapped meridians along my back.  He would re-test my strength while I thought about the troubling situation again, and if my strength held, the treatment of my emotion was complete.  (Yes, it’s that easy!)

A little about muscle testing

Thankfully I had been introduced to muscle testing at San Diego State University when I was studying exercise physiology so I knew a little bit about it.  A teacher had 2 brown paper bags, each with something concealed inside.  We were to hold the bag while our muscle strength was tested.  What we experienced was a decrease in strength when holding one bag, but we were fine holding the other.  The teacher revealed that the one that caused weakness was filled with refined white sugar and the one that didn’t affect our strength was a red apple!

That was my first experience in muscle testing and I continue to find it to be a fascinating technique – though I don’t think it’s 100% accurate for a few reasons I don’t have time to get into.

But I do have to share with you that I often used the technique on my children when they were growing up.  I used it to see if they were telling me the truth when they told me they brushed their teeth.   If I doubted if they were telling me the truth, I would have them hold their arm out and say, “I brushed my teeth just now.”   I would test their arm strength while they were making the statement.  If they were telling me the truth, they would have the strength to hold their arm up while they made that statement. And if they couldn’t hold their arm up, they were lying to me!!  Finally after doing this with me multiple times – believing they could manage to lie and hold their arm out – they finally learned to just tell me the truth! 

NET Technique

So given my experience with muscle testing,  I was game for the chiropractor to try the NET technique.  He pretty quickly narrowed down the date or time frame the triggering incident first occurred.  Then he asked questions to further narrow down the specific troubling incident.  When we finally arrived at the situation that was causing me emotional distress, it was easy to identify it was a triggering emotion . . . I lost my muscle strength when I was asked to think about it. 

Once identified, the chiropractor had me focus on the emotion while he tapped on my back.  Then he did the adjustment to my back and said, “That’s it.  That adjustment should hold now.”

And it did.  I didn’t have to go back and have my back adjusted for many years.

Fast forward 20+ years

Now that I am newly facing another chronic illness and searching for techniques to uncover and release troubling emotions and memories, I recalled this remarkable experience with my back.  I decided to revisit the technique and explore how it might apply to Parkinson’s.   The problem was that I never did see that chiropractor again and I couldn’t recall his name!  But with a little luck and a search on the internet I was lucky to find the organization that trains NET practitioners and find a practitioner near me. 

I also watched an informative video on NET (above).  I learned about brain imaging before and after NET sessions revealed that there’s a significant reduction in activity in the area of the brain where traumatic memories are stored after a NET session.  And further research by the Marcus Institute at Jefferson Health showed that there were also changes after a NET session in the cerebellum. The cerebellum is recognized for it’s role in cognitive processing, emotional control, and increasingly in its role in motor coordination.   All of this intrigued me and further encouraged me to explore a NET session.

NET and Parkinson’s

The session last week was a little different than the one I did for my back problem 20+ years ago.   With my back we seemed to go directly to one triggering emotion.  Once the emotion was identified the chiropractor treated my back and that was that.

This time we identified several emotional quagmires.  Once identified, just like before, I simply focused on the troubling emotion/situation.  But this time instead of tapping meridians on my back, I held my wrist with one hand and forehead with the other while I emoted.  When my muscle strength was retested, I had my strength again. 

All told, the entire session took approximately 40 minutes.  And when I was done, I felt clear, calm and unexpectedly symptom-free!  All tremoring (invisible and visible) was gone and I felt GOOD – really GOOD and back to how I used to feel before the tremors ever started!  I was pretty excited.

Regrettably, I had a massage scheduled the same afternoon.   Normally I wouldn’t have tried to schedule both treatments in one day.  But when I made the last-minute appointment for the NET session I didn’t want to try to make any last minute schedule changes to the massage appointment. So I headed over to my massage after the treatment and I told myself it might actually be the best way to end the day after an emotional NET session. 

So off I went to my massage

It was late afternoon when I got done with my massage.  I felt wonderfully relaxed after the session and I headed home.   But I realized that I hadn’t eaten much that day.  In my hurry to get to my NET session after my morning workout at the gym I only grabbed a couple bites of watermelon for lunch.  It wasn’t enough to hold me.  I got home and grabbed a couple handfuls of cashews and showered before dinner.

And that’s when I started crashing . . .

Unfortunately I realized the sustenance was too late as I felt my energy quickly leaving my body.  I decided to put on pajamas early to conserve energy and I landed on the couch in the family room to try to recoup my energy.  It’s not unusual for me to need to lie down during the latter part of the day to re-energize, but today felt different.  I was really, really exhausted.

My husband was kind enough to take care of dinner and I ate mine from the couch.  I tried to watch TV but even that was too much.  I headed to bed at 8:30, barely able to drag my body to bed.  I was very feeling stiff and rigid.

And it got worse

I lay in bed unable to fall asleep, feeling too exhausted to even sleep.  Finally by the time my husband joined me in bed I started crying.  He held me and my whole body started to tremor.  I laid there crying and tremoring for a good 5 minutes.  Finally more exhausted than ever I eventually fell asleep.

I don’t know what happened

I don’t have a good end of the story here.  I’m committed to share both the good and bad experiences of my journey with you.  The truth is that I felt exhausted for days afterward.  My tremors got worse, twitching I rarely experienced around my eyes became frequent and annoying, and I was a little more rigid than previously.  All told, it took about a week to feel fully recovered from that day.

What do I blame it on?  I blame a culmination of factors: not enough food, an emotionally taxing experience, a thoroughly relaxing massage and Parkinson’s.  Bottom line, it was too much for my body to handle.  I wish I had gone home and hit the couch with a plate of food when I finished my NET session.  The NET experience was taxing enough to my body and it would have been nice to have allowed myself time to wallow in the wonderful, deeply relaxed way my body felt afterward. But I didn’t.  I pushed too hard.

That said, will I do it again?  Yes.  I had such fantastic success with NET on my back pain the first time that I know the process can have value.   Also, I felt immediately wonderful after this last session – really wonderful. So, I’ll try it again. But, will I do it again the same way?  No.  I’ll be more respectful of my more limited reserves while I have Parkinson’s;  I’ll make sure I’ve eaten, plan on down time afterward and I will limit the next session to 20 minutes.  Additionally, my NET practitioner followed up with me and had some ideas on what could be explored and what we might do differently. 

Wrapping up

I want to briefly mention that are two other techniques similar to NET that I am aware of and may be worth your time exploring if you find NET interesting:

• EFT – the Emotional Freedom Technique – also called Tapping
• The Emotion Code

I first learned about Tapping (EFT) from a counselor I saw at Kaiser many years ago.  She suggested that I look into it.  And I did!  It’s a great self-help tool that I’ve found useful to me right now when I find myself feeling fearful or anxious due to Parkinson’s.  I hope to share more with you about EFT in a later blog.  And although I briefly explored the Emotion Code many years ago, I just wasn’t enamored by it.

Here’s to the journey,