Warning: The article includes mention of domestic abuse.

“You have cancer.” These words were not something I thought I would ever hear, let alone at the age of 28. I had just been diagnosed with papillary thyroid cancer, along with hypothyroidism and early-stage Hashimoto’s autoimmune disease. Even though my physician said this was one of the more easily treatable cancers, it still felt daunting to learn I had the “C-word.”

Following a total thyroidectomy surgery, I was pronounced cured of cancer by the doctors. We luckily had caught the cancer early, so my surgeon didn’t recommend radioactive iodine treatment, a common treatment to kill any remaining thyroid tissue after surgery. I was relieved to have this health scare behind me, yet I was still not feeling like myself with my anxiety and depression at all-time high levels. I had been dealing with anxiety and depression for years, even before my cancer diagnosis, but it was getting worse.

I was working in healthcare staffing at the time, working with hospitals and healthcare administrators to improve physician staffing shortages and strategically optimize the business side of healthcare. It felt ironic working in healthcare and allopathic medicine, which potentially helped save my life, but the Western medicine approach alone was not proving to be successful at improving my wellbeing, nor could answer why I got cancer in the first place. While anxiety and depression medication can be highly beneficial, I decided to explore other healing methods to complement the allopathic care I was receiving.

Improving Healing Using Complementary Medicine

My journey back to health began two years later when my counselor suggested I try BodyTalk, a mind-body medicine modality to help improve my anxiety and depression, chronic back pain, as well as my quality of life in general. BodyTalk can be effectively practiced virtually or remotely, though I found a local practitioner for an in-person session.

I was new to experimenting with mind-body medicine and didn’t know what to expect. My interest was immediately piqued when the practitioner shared that she formerly had thyroid issues as well, but her body had completely healed from hypothyroidism and Hashimoto’s disease—using BodyTalk.

The practitioner started by balancing my thyroid and endocrine systems, which is done by bringing awareness to what needs to shift energetically and consciously followed by tapping on different parts of the body. She explained that even though I no longer had a thyroid in my body (due to the total thyroidectomy surgery), I still had the energy of a thyroid. She energetically recalibrated my endocrine system, as well as the rest of my mind and body to accommodate for this missing endocrine gland.

As she worked to bring my thyroid and endocrine system into balance, something interesting happened. I had flashbacks and visual memories of a former relationship that involved domestic violence, specifically of me being physically strangled by my partner. This was a very traumatic experience for me and one that I thought I had mostly healed from. Yet there those memories were, flooding back to the surface, accompanied by many tears and emotions. As hard as it was to relive those memories from my past, it was relieving to let it all out, as if a deeply-held trauma was coming to the surface for me to process and heal. I wasn’t expecting this to happen, but it was worth noting that perhaps that trauma was somehow related to my thyroid cancer and/or thyroid disorders.

Getting to the Root Cause of Illness

According to the American Cancer Society, there are two main causes of papillary thyroid cancer—excessive radiation exposure or genetics. Since I hadn’t had excessive radiation exposure, my physician said my thyroid cancer was due to genetics or gene mutation. At the time of my diagnosis, no one in my immediate or extended family had a history of thyroid cancer or thyroid disorders that required medical intervention. I found myself curious as to what factors may have led to my getting cancer. The full truth I may never know.

Many scientific studies have shown the relationship between stress and chronic illnesses and disease. While I’ve found this to be true in my work as a practitioner, there’s typically not one “root cause” or single stress event for someone’s physical symptoms. It’s usually an accumulation of stress built up from belief systems, active memories from traumas, environmental factors, and habit patterns which add up over time and ultimately lead to the body bringing attention to the stress in the form of physical symptoms.

There are many therapies within the field of mind-body medicine and energy medicine, BodyTalk being one of them, that use the philosophy that certain states of consciousness are held within each organ, endocrine, and body part. For example, the thyroid can energetically hold states of consciousness such as communication, self-expression, giving, activity, metabolism, etc. If any of these concepts or themes are out of balance in a person’s life or if trauma is experienced related to one of these themes, there could be potential for the body to try to get attention in the form of physical symptoms in the thyroid, throat, or neck area. This theory could also support why I may have potentially had flashback memories while my thyroid was being energetically balanced during my first BodyTalk session.

Using BodyTalk as a Complementary Therapy for Mental Health

After working with a BodyTalk practitioner as a client for a couple of years, I was so blown away by my healing results that I decided to become a BodyTalk practitioner in 2018. Not only was I feeling more like myself, but my anxiety and depression symptoms had gone away. My chronic back pain, which I had dealt with most of my life, went away completely after three sessions, something that years of work with chiropractors and physical therapists couldn’t resolve. I had also worked through and healed from many traumas as well.

Just to be clear—BodyTalk does not treat, cure, prevent or diagnose, but what it is great at doing is optimizing the body’s ability to heal itself. It’s a fascinating and oddly simple concept, bringing balance to the body’s energy fields to help improve innate healing abilities, but I’ve seen it work with incredible results for hundreds of my clients. If you know any basic principles about quantum physics and the fact that our bodies are made up of 99.9999999% energy potential, you can start to connect the dots on how this could potentially work from a scientific perspective.

For clients seeking help through BodyTalk, usually for a large variety of reasons, I’ve found that if they have any issues with anxiety, it’s usually one of the first symptoms to start correcting itself. The reason why is because BodyTalk works based on priority, meaning, the most important balance for healing will come up first, the second most important balance for healing will come up second, and so forth. Typically, anxiety is addressed either directly or indirectly within the first session or two, because healing takes place when the parasympathetic nervous system is activated. It’s difficult to address other types of healing until the body can get out of fight or flight mode, or sympathetic nervous system response, which is when anxiety symptoms occur.

Also, because BodyTalk takes a holistic approach and treats the mind and body as one dynamic system, with physical, mental, emotional, and spiritual health all being interconnected, every balance that happens in a session affects the whole. So, if someone comes to a BodyTalk practitioner for help in improving their physical health, mental and emotional health are addressed automatically.

BodyTalk has been instrumental in improving my health and wellbeing, including for many people around the world. That being said, there are so many ways to improve healing, especially for mental and emotional health. It’s often not a one-size-fits-all approach and I find that using a combination of different modalities and techniques can help, including taking advantage of the many resources provided by Nivati, such as Cognitive Behavioral Therapy from licensed counselors, life coaching, yoga, and much more.

For more on this topic, check out this article: How to Get Out of a Health Rut‍

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