The Mickel Therapy Clinic, Auckland, Mickel Therapy - Frequently Asked Questions
Your questions answered by Dr David Mickel
FAQs from the Mickel Therapy ENewsletter
|
People who have been ill for months or years have often already tried many therapies. When progress is not being made, scepticism and doubt to trying 'yet another therapy' may set in. I know this well, having tried over 130 different therapies in my search for healing. My recommendation to you is NEVER GIVE UP, you will find the answers you are looking for. On this page you will find an array of commonly asked questions answered personally by Dr David Mickel in his Newsletter 'Vibrations of Truth'. I hope they will help to answer your questions, before and during your treatment.
|
Your Questions answered by Dr Mickel
What happens when people slip back during treatment?
I am writing to ask for your help. My husband started Mickel Therapy 3 months ago. Initially the change in him was incredible. He was energetic and had almost returned to his old self. Unfortunately in the last couple of weeks he has slipped back and is not keeping the notes for his sessions and has cancelled his last two appointments. What can I do to help him?
A: Thank you for your question. This is potentially very frustrating for you especially as you witnessed his improvement at the beginning. The difficulty really lies in the nature of Mickel Therapy as a treatment. In other words it is not a passive healing which makes people better. It teaches clients tools that if they apply them consistently then they essentially make themselves well again. It is difficult to know why your husband might have stopped applying the process. The best thing you can do is to encourage him to communicate with you and return to his practitioner to discuss things as this can usually be corrected relatively quickly.
Any comments on the recent BBC news piece on research into the viral origin of M.E/CFS?
Thank you for your question. Mickel Therapy's stance on the theory of viral cause of CFS/M.E has never been well received but we stand by it. Having seen many hundreds of cases diagnosed as 'post-viral' who have recovered with our techniques then we would find it hard to buy into this recent hypothesis of the involvement of XMRV in the cause of the conditions. We are not surprised therefore at the research reported at the following link http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/health/8441491.stm
However we do empathise with sufferers who have had their hopes raised by the previous US research and understand the concerns of Dr Shepherd of the ME Association who is quoted as saying "Some have been led into believing the cause and a test has been discovered and that a treatment is just around the corner and that is not the case."
This clearly cause added suffering to people with CFS and we at Mickel Therapy do wonder whether more thought should be given by the media before writing their articles on this highly sensitive group of illnesses. On a final note and with the likelihood of it falling on deaf ears, we continue to put Mickel Therapy forward for independent study of its effectiveness.
Indeed we would be especially interested to have the opportunity to apply our techniques to cases that have been diagnosed as positive for XMRV. To this end we will write to the authors of the US research to see if this is possible.
How come my symptoms seem to be aggravated when I feel good?
I have a question that I am interested in knowing a bit more about. I have been able to reduce my symptoms by a very large amount a lot of the time, however, I am a season ticket holder at a premier league football club my symptoms have become a lot worse since I have been. It's not the same kind of symptoms as say when I am bored or frustrated, I am fully aware of them and comfortable with dealing with them, but this is just one of adrenaline, perhaps it's the excitement that's making me feel this way, but I'm sure it isn't boring or other negative emotions, I just wondered what your thoughts are on this as it seems here my symptoms are caused by positive emotions rather than negative ones, which has confused me somewhat.
A: Thank you for your excellent question. We would probably need to explore the exact nature of the symptoms as it could be a case of heightened excitement symptoms which are common in the recovery stage when people are applying MT. These would feel like being 'speedy' or 'racy' but without feelings of malaise. However if they are more 'ill-state' symptoms then we would explore the full e-motional environment involved. This would include the passage of play, the score, if your side was winning, noise, comfort etc. Please contact us to explore this further.
How do you suggest to someone who feels they have tried everything and it hasn't helped that it would be a good idea to try Mickel Therapy.
I have suggested it to two different persons and in both cases this was their answer, plus a lot of scepticism? Thank you, Brenda.
A: Thank you for your question. Unfortunately the nature of the conditions and people's previous disappointments with other treatments makes their scepticism very understandable. Many of our clients have undergone innumerable other treatments which are at best palliative in nature because they deal with effects and not cause. So when they are told by others of their success with Mickel Therapy they obviously will fear further disappointment. To be quite honest this situation will only be fully resolved when we have published research into Mickel Therapy - which we are working hard to have fulfilled. Until this time there is only the testimony of over 2000 clients that we have treated to date worldwide.
I find your theory of emotions and health fascinating. Are there any other sources of like-minded thinking?
A: Thank you for your question. We are currently working with our Consultative Director, Dr Francis Teeney to gather together research material to back our work. We will start to make this available at
http://www.mickeltherapy.com/science-research.html
In the meantime you may want to Google two authors: William James and Randy Cornelius. Hope this is helpful.
I have read recently in the press that scientists again claim to have found a potential viral cause of M.E/CFS. What is Mickel Therapy's view on this?
A: Thank you for your question. We saw the articles in both 'The Independent' and 'The New York Times' recently and have written our responses to the editors of these papers. Rather frustratingly from Mickel Therapy's perspective this is not a new hypothesis but rather an old one being revisited again. We would like to make a couple of points here. Firstly it is our opinion that such viral infections (as described in the material on our website and in Dr Mickel's short book are effects rather than cause in M.E/CFS.
In other words we do not agree that the potential viral infection is causing the symptoms even if shown to be present. This is backed up by our experience of treating over 3000 cases of properly diagnosed M.E/CFS. The fact that they responded to our method means that any viral infection present could not have been the cause of their condition - since clearly we cannot profess to being able to remove viral infections. Furthermore research such as this one into monozygotic twins would create further doubt around the assertions made in these articles.
How come my symptoms get worse AFTER the activities, and not during. I do fun things, and afterwards I feel awful.
I've just returned from a wonderful romantic weekend break to Brussels during which time I did too much walking, did more than my normal activities and I am really exhausted now. Please could you explain this?
A: Thank you for your question. It is a common one and also fits in with the article above and last month's on 'Body Moods.' This is one of the biggest red herrings and challenges that clients face. During your trip it is likely that your body mood was much better satisfied and so a return to the world you normally inhabit can fill your body with slight dread that the mundane will take over again.
In other words it enjoyed the break but would also like you to have similar degree of fun even back in the real world. The Mickel Therapy process is designed to show you how to follow your body's wisdom and create this without the need to be in places like Brussels. Just a few points about your comments of having done 'too much walking' etc - this only creates healthy tiredness. The body does not send symptoms to seek rest - it only ever sends them to bring your attention to its e-motional moods in the hope you will respond to the latter instead.
The only question I have that doesn't seem to be answerable is how come my symptoms get worse AFTER the activities, and not during.
I do fun things, and afterwards I feel awful. I've just returned from a wonderful romantic weekend break to Brussels during which time I did too much walking, did more than my normal activities and I am really exhausted now. Please could you explain this?
A: Thank you for your question. It is a common one and also fits in with the article above and last month's on 'Body Moods.' This is one of the biggest red herrings and challenges that clients face. During your trip it is likely that your body mood was much better satisfied and so a return to the world you normally inhabit can fill your body with slight dread that the mundane will take over again. In other words it enjoyed the break but would also like you to have similar degree of fun even back in the real world. The Mickel Therapy process is designed to show you how to follow your body's wisdom and create this without the need to be in places like Brussels. Just a few points about your comments of having done 'too much walking' etc - this only creates healthy tiredness. The body does not send symptoms to seek rest - it only ever sends them to bring your attention to its e-motional moods in the hope you will res pond to the latter instead.
I have been undertaking Mickel Therapy and enjoying a gradual return to health.
However when I read some of your testimonials I am often frustrated that people seem to have completed the process much quicker. Can you explain this?
A: Thank you for your question. This is a common source of people's frustration going through the Mickel Therapy process. We have studied in detail the reasons for the differences in time to recovery. Firstly it became clear that surprisingly the length of illness did not play a significant role in this. Severity of symptoms logically can be a factor because in severe cases breaking the pattern of symptoms can be more challenging.
The principle reason for the discrepancy is that symptoms are created and maintained by body, primary e-motions arising in a person's life. These are created spontaneously as our body interacts with each situation that we encounter in daily life and importantly cannot be altered by changing thought processes because they are not created by wrong thinking.
So, one person may have been fortunate enough to still hold down employment despite illness, have supportive relat ionships and very few situations provoking negative body e-motions generally. We would expect their recovery to be quicker than someone whose day to day life is further removed from this. Our practitioners and their supervisors can usually give some clue as to likely time to recovery after the first couple of sessions of Mickel Therapy.
Is there any "test" that you are able to use to determine if hypothalamitis is the underlying cause of CFS?
Q: Is there any "test" that you are able to use to determine if hypothalamitis is the underlying cause of CFS? Of the 10% of people who are not able to be "cured" by Mickel Therapy, what are the main reasons for this? Why do you think we are seeing such an explosion in the numbers of people with CFS? Are the stresses and emotional crises of modern life the culprit for these increases?
A: There is currently no test to confirm the hypothesis of 'hypothalamitis'. One of our research goals is to have this done. There is some work in the USA that is looking at GHRF (growth hormone releasing factor) levels in people with CFS but this is really in its early stages. In fact, we have been fortunate enough to have treated 2 clients from the USA (with MT) who had pre and post treatment levels of this hormone done. This showed in both cases that the levels returned to normal following MT.
There are many reasons as to why there is a worldwide increase in these conditions and we will address this in a feature article in "Vibrations of Truth".
How does Mickel Therapy work with children?
Q: I have read Dr Mickel's book and read in depth your website. It states that it has helped children as young as 9 to overcome ME/Chronic fatigue. As Mickel is based on a talking process and re-generating your thinking, how can my 11 year old child understand this? After all she is still young and all she wants to do is play football, swim and have fun with us and her friends?
A: Thank you for your question. It raises two good points. Firstly we need to clarify that Mickel Therapy does not work with thinking processes, which is why it is not a form of psychotherapy. It focuses instead on non-thought generated emotional signals from a person's body, as it is these that have their effect on physical cells and how the latter function. Secondly the Mickel Therapy process has evolved a model for working with children of all ages. The secret to the success of our process is dependant on keeping it simple for all clients regardless of age. We hope that this answers your question but if you need more clinical information then you can e-mail Dr Mickel on askdoctor@mickeltherapy.com
Does with Mickel Therapy work for Epstein Barr Virus?
Q: I was curious if your work can help people with Epstein-Barr. I don't know if that is enough like Chronic Fatigue Syndrome or not, such that you could treat it.
Thanks in advance.
A: Thank you for your question. It is a commonly held theory that CFS and related conditions could be created by infections such as Epstein-Barr. We do not believe this to be strictly true. As described in Dr Mickel's book, we believe that the infections are effects of an already dysfunctioning hypothalamus and not actually the cause. In other words if symptoms of fatigue are prolonged after such an infection then a new diagnosis should be considered of CFS. Mickel Therapy has had many clients report a full recovery from their symptoms in such cases.
Can Mickel Therapy help with OCD?
Q: Can Mickel Therapy be used to treat OCD?
A: Yes we have had many cases report successful application of Mickel Therapy in cases of OCD. Interestingly we treat this in an indirect way. We do not focus on the OCD behaviour, unlike conventional treatments, but rather we work with primary e-motional cause that avoids the trap of working with secondary effects.
Why is Mickel Therapy expensive?
Q: In reply to your email, I would agree that the cost is high and there is no doubt that this puts off many people. I would like to ask why MT is so much more expensive. I do not doubt its value in any way otherwise I would not be using it for my son. I am I suppose always the type that thinks that health is worth it and would easily give up a holiday for this.
Besides, being a practitioner myself of energy therapies (Bi-Aura Therapy, Reiki, Body Mirror System) I value therapies a great deal but I am not sure why MT has to be that costly? We all pay a lot of money for our training and no less than the cost of training for MT. Training in Bi-Aura Therapy costs £2000 for the course fees. The training is 21 days spread out over 10 months, 10 full weekends. Accommodation and travel is in addition.
A: Thank you for your questions. They raise several points that we will answer individually. We agree that is lamentable that the process of MT is a private treatment for now and the costs reflect this. In order for our organisation and practitioners to expand the service that we provide these costs are necessary. Our accounts are open to public scrutiny if you want to access them through Companies House then you will see that the profit margin is very small indeed.
We cannot comment on the other modalities that you mention since they are not comparable to MT in terms of effectiveness or their application, as you will know having undergone them as well as your Mickel Therapy treatment.
Discounts are at the discretion of each individual practitioner. We would point out however that there are many costs involved for a person to be able to provide Mickel Therapy including insurance, ongoing clinical training and room costs.
Why is there a hostile response from some ME Associations and related bodies?
Q: My friends and I, who suffer from CFS/M.E, are puzzled by a couple of points. Why is there such a hostile response to Mickel Therapy by the ME Association and related bodies? We have had very negative responses from these groups when we asked their advice about embarking on Mickel Therapy. Why would this be? If your reported results are even one third of what you say they are then surely this is miles better that any currently available treatments?
A: Thank you very much for this question. We find it very difficult to answer this in a level fashion due to the frustration and confusion we feel as an organisation about this matter. To be honest this question is one that would be better put to the groups that you mention as only they can answer it. However if we just look at the facts then maybe it will answer your question partly? The British ME Association quite rightly points out that our results based on the testimony of our clients who have fully recovered in their opinion have not been confirmed by the necessary clinical research.
Indeed in the recent Radio interview on Radio Scotland you will hear that both Dr Mickel and the representatives from the Association are both calling for this research to be done. So it is indeed mysterious that they would not help have this done. As you say even if our work had one third of the success that our clients claim then it would be already far superior to existing recommended treatments of CBT and Graded exercise programs.
One additional frustration is that the research done into these treatments uses very different outcome measures than MT does. In other words they study how a person is able to cope better in terms of managing their illness. Mickel Therapy's outcome measure is much simpler: do you still have symptoms or not? This makes a very good case for randomised controlled trial being created to compare MT with the existing recommended treatments of CBT and Graded Exercise. We will continue to fight for this.
A: This is a very common question and one that can be answered differently according to the angle that you choose to look at things. Firstly it has to be understood that we are all 'wired' in a different way. In other words we have different predispositions as to how life and all that it brings affects us. Mickel Therapy believes that, without completely disregarding environmental factors such as diet etc, the major influences on our health at a cellular level are primary or body e-motions. These are not created by thought but arise spontaneously as and when they must. In some people this goes unnoticed and they perhaps do not manifest a symptomatic 'dis-ease' state until later in life, such as arthritis, high blood pressure, coronary heart disease etc. In other words the effect of e-motional energy is slower in its production of 'dis-ease'. People, like many of you, instead develop very quickly the manifestation of 'energy disorders' such as CFS/ME, Fibromyalgia, and Ir ritable Bowel Syndrome etc. There could be many reasons for this - some of which we do speculate on. But really the most important thing is that we can now show you how to correct this. One thing that we are still contemplating is the fact that those who get one of the 'energy disorders' definitely appear to be less at risk of other chronic conditions such as the above. It is almost as if, while being very disabling in their effects, CFS/ME etc are in some way protective in terms of other illness.
A: We are often asked this question and hear of lots of people who having been told that they have this problem have spent a lot of time and money having their fillings removed. The simple answer would be that Mickel Therapy could not treat you if the metal poisoning was the true cause of your condition. However it would appear that this is almost never the case. Certainly in the last 7 years Mickel Therapy has treated successfully many people who have been told that their health problem is caused by things like mercury poisoning. This of course could not be have been true or else applying Mickel Therapy would have not worked for the clients. We would suggest that if a much larger population was studied involving ill and well people that there would be an enormous amount of 'metal poisoning' diagnosed in completely symptomatic people. In short Mickel Therapy has seen it s clients become entirely symptom free while still having a 'positive' test and suggestion for their f illings to be removed. So our advice is just think twice about this.
A: We would normally leave this question to be dealt with in your treatment sessions with your practitioner but it is such a common experience that we feel it justifies a short answer here. During recovery from CFS/ME or Fibromyalgia we see that some clients go through several layers of differing symptoms. These include low mood, anxiety, and irritability to name a few. The good news is that these are all very good signs for your practitioner - while uncomfortable for you the sufferer. Our one word of advice would be do not wait for your mood to lift or apathy to reduce as they are e-motional states that seek your help in creating things that make each day worthwhile. Just know that around the corner from what you are experiencing now is often a return to your full health.
A: This is a good question. The reasons for this are that we have piloted unsupported Mickel Therapy in groups of people who had all the theory explained to them and the tools taught to them. Unfortunately the success rate was very poor. We know that this is due to a variety of factors. There are too many red herrings relating to symptoms and what makes them worse or indeed improve. We saw that these created such confusion and frustration that a person could not maintain application of the Mickel Therapy process without help with these problems. It was also clear that it was almost like trying to study oneself through a microscope while being underneath it - almost impossible. We do provide starter packs for treatment and also one-day seminars for the same purpose but we strongly recommend that people then have the input of a trained practitioner who is undergoing supervision to help with the process. The good news is that the Mickel Therapy process has evolved hugely and sub sequently gets quicker results so at least this keeps
More Frequently Asked Questions about Mickel Therapy
Contact the Chronic Fatigue Clinic
Phone 09 833 6553 / 021 410 633
(10-5pm weekdays)
or email info "at" mickeltherapy.co.nz