How I support clients with auto-immune conditions
This is a relatively new area of expertise for me having recently qualified as a nutritional advisor has allowed me to support clients experiencing autoimmune dysfunction in a whole new way. I also have the added benefit of having an expert as a business partner, the incredibly knowledgeable Laura Shipp.
I take a background history with all my clients and depending on what I’m told will indicate to me what pathway to follow – this is probably true of all practitioners.
If there are indications of autoimmune conditions – whether diagnosed or not, I tend to look in more depth at these three key areas:
Lifestyle, including diet and relationships.
Quality of the clients’ thoughts towards themselves and others.
Adverse Child Events and unresolved trauma whether big T or little T*.
All of these elements (and more) contribute to a person’s current experience and can layer to a point where the body turns on itself and creates symptoms. This is a generic and broad brush and is covered in greater detail across the industry.
Out of these three key areas, I will ascertain which one seems to be having the greatest negative impact on the client and use this as a starting point.
Diet
This is one of the almost inevitable areas when working with a client with autoimmune dysfunction. There are six types of eaters and most probably the misinformed eater shows up most often here. Recently, I worked with a client who had seen another holistic professional who had prescribed supplements that were many times over the recommended RDA. Whilst causing no harm, overloading your physiological system is one of the key contributors to immune function. They were also following a well-known dieting plan which promotes a low-fat diet and low-sugar diet, this invariably means an increase in artificial sweeteners, and out of desperation to find something that worked, had adopted a Vegan diet. These were major negative contributors to this client’s health and once changed, promoted very quick and noticeable positive changes.
A new way of viewing food, the relationship with food and creating a sustainable way of supporting one’s own physiology was created with the use of the client’s blood group as a basis.
Lifestyle and relationships
Conflict and disharmonious relationships are also key indicators, regardless of whether those relationships are present or unresolved from the past. In this scenario, I invariably draw upon my NLP training to teach my clients how to deal with conflict more effectively so that they are less affected by it.
In terms of lifestyle, I will be looking at what supports a client and what diminishes them and see what can be changed for the better.
Quality of thoughts
For me, this is a big area of the work that I do. If you come across a person who is negative, critical, and judgemental, you can choose to limit the time you spend with them or cut ties. When this is the person inside your head, it’s you, then there is no opportunity to cut ties, break the relationship off or divorce, you’re stuck with them and the consequences to your physical health can be catastrophic.
Changing the narrative, and converting the inner critic to an inner coach is a key concept of the work that I do with clients.
Adverse Child Events and Unresolved Traumas
There isn’t a single case of autoimmune dysfunction that doesn’t include either or both of these – usually both.
Adverse Child Events (ACE) are signified by a recognised list of childhood events that are considered adverse. These include but are by no means limited to:
Loss of a parent or sibling
Domestic violence.
Parental abandonment through separation or divorce.
A parent with a mental health condition and or substance abuse
Being the victim of abuse (physical, sexual and/or emotional)
Being the victim of neglect (physical and emotional)
A member of the household is in prison.
Traumas are not signified by the event itself but by the emotional response to an event.
*There are two main categories of trauma commonly referred to as Big “T” and little “t.”
Big “T” traumas are the events most commonly associated with post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) and include but are not limited to:
Serious injury
Sexual violence
Life-threatening experiences
Threats of serious physical injury, death, or sexual violence can cause intense trauma even if the person is never physically harmed. Witnesses to big “T” events or people living and working in close proximity to trauma survivors are also vulnerable to PTSD, especially those who encounter emotional shock on a regular basis like paramedics, therapists, and police officers.
Little “t” traumas are highly distressing events that affect individuals on a personal level but don’t fall into the big “T” category. Examples of little “t” trauma include but are not limited to:
Non-life-threatening injuries
Emotional abuse
Death of a pet
Bullying or harassment
Loss of significant relationships.
A person’s response to a situation will define the level of trauma rather than the event itself.
People have unique capacities to handle stress, referred to as grit or resilience, which impacts their ability to cope with trauma. What is highly distressing and traumatic to one person may not cause the same emotional response in someone else, so the key to understanding little “t” trauma is to examine how it affects the individual rather than focusing on the event itself.
Unresolved traumas can be the key to physical symptoms in the body where there is no apparent medical cause. Almost all addicts tick the boxes of both big “T” and little “T” traumas and are unresolved. I’m not an addiction specialist therefore will leave that to the experts. For more information on trauma and addiction Dr Gabor Mate is an excellent resource.
Looking at these key areas provides a good starting point in helping anyone overcome their issues. Not everyone will end up with autoimmune dysfunction as a result of the above, but I have found that all those that I have worked with who identify with having autoimmune conditions tick all the boxes above.
Working with these three key areas gives the client almost immediate positive results, usually from changing their diet and improving the quality of their thoughts which then allows headspace to work on the more in-depth and complex aspects of ACE and unresolved trauma.
If you identify and resonate with the above and want to make positive changes to your health and life then please get in touch to discuss your unique needs – every person’s journey is different and one size certainly does not fit all.