For a few patients, the Gillespie Approach can possibly be life changing.
A forty-five-year-old woman, who had a prominent job in the healthcare profession, presented with chronic fatigue—tired all of the time. She had an unusual history of trauma that started her on her journey for healing.
At 17, she was hit in her car by a drunk driver, then spun around, and slammed into a telephone pole. The two people in the other car were killed, but she survived.
She suffered many injuries to her body—a concussion, orbital trauma, facial trauma, and left arm trauma. She also required a skin graft and multiple surgeries.
She “recovered” as much as she could and powered through her medical education and job until age 35, when she contracted Guillain–Barre Syndrome (GBS). This disease is characterized by the immune system attacking the nervous system.
She was in chronic pain and barely able to walk for years. When the pandemic hit in 2020, she became ill and was bedridden. Now five years later, a normal life was nowhere on her radar screen.
She had consulted with the best of the best in the Philadelphia area without any answers. She even went to Johns Hopkins in Baltimore, the most prominent medical institution in the world, for evaluation. They politely told her, “We cannot help you.”
Being in the medical profession, she went down the mental demoralizing rabbit hole of the distinct possibility of never getting well. That was hard to accept because she was the type of person loaded with energy and ready to work.
By chance, she had seen a great improvement in a treated relative and decided to experience the Gillespie Approach. On examination, she had the expected zero-second brain cycle and was incredibly tight.
I felt two aspects of her case were true: the car accident predisposed her to GBS, and she needed to revisit that accident physically and emotionally, unpleasant as it may be, to have authentic healing.
Initially, her central nervous system responded well. After two visits, her brain cycle opened to 150 seconds and, after five visits, over 200 seconds—wow. But her fascial web was still actively releasing and detoxing. I was encouraged because her body was slowly healing itself.
She was now able to sleep better as her nervous system shifted from sympathetic (fight or flight) to parasympathetic (calm and relaxed) mode. Sleep and rest are so important in healing. She had pushed at work for so long and had to take time to recharge her batteries.
On the eighth visit, she said for the first time that she was quite sore after the previous session. I hypothesized that she was now entering the car accident layer of her onion. I anticipate a rough road for a while but am expecting better health on the other side.
Hope is a good thing. I expect her to someday return to a working normal life.
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