Are you are one of those people who has at some point decided to make a change to your life that you knew was good for you and then abandoned it once it got too hard or it didn’t work? Don’t worry, we all do it and whether we are aware of it or not most of us have experienced a healing crisis at some point in our lives. So just what is a healing crisis and how do we get through it? Well, understanding what to expect is the first hurdle to helping us implement and maintain changes to our lifestyle and achieve greater levels of health and wellbeing.

What is a healing crisis?

At a very basic level, a healing crisis is your body’s way of rebalancing itself after treatment for illness or injury or when you take on a new training program or lifestyle change. As your body and mind begin to realign and become accustomed to the changes you are making you will often exhibit the symptoms of a healing crisis which may appear as resistance to the very changes you are trying to make. This resistance may appear on an emotional or physical level, or more commonly on both levels at the same time.

What to expect:

Many complementary therapists often rely on a healing crisis to occur as this shows that change is happening, that your body is rebalancing itself. A good therapist should prepare you to experience change, most will be positive but some will be seemingly negative. It is difficult to predict what each individual may experience in regards to symptoms and severity. In chronic conditions you may experience a temporary worsening of symptoms and question whether or not treatment was successful. In most cases your discomfort will pass in a day or two or depending on the depth of the issue you’re working with it may take up to a week. Once this has passed you will often feel much better, lighter, and more energetic. If the symptoms do not start to clear up within a week you should consult your health professional, a follow up session may help to speed up the process, or they may refer you on to another practitioner for alternative advice or treatment.

What are the symptoms:

Those experiencing a healing crisis may experience some of the following symptoms which may range in severity
Physical symptoms may include bit are not limited to:
• Sleepiness or fatigue
• Thirst
• Nausea
• Cramps
• Diarrhoea
• Headaches
• Shooting Pains
• Excessive build-up of mucous
• Coughing
• Loss of strength

Emotional symptoms may include but are not limited to:
• Feelings of anger or resentment
• Frustration or anxiety
• Feelings of overwhelm
• Hyper- emotional sensitivity
• A period of questioning your treatment or your ability to continue treatment
• A period of feeling ‘different’ or that you are not yourself
• Bouts of crying for no apparent reason

How to deal with this situation:

Prepare - When you enter into the process of healing or change be aware that you may experience a period of discomfort. Preparation for you may mean surrendering something in your life to allow you the time and energy to focus on your recovery. Is it time to take a break? Can someone else pick up the slack on something at home, or at work?
Commit- Be committed to a period of healing and change for the better. Your therapist may discuss a treatment timeline with you; try not to allow other things to creep into your life, or to create excuses for not sticking to your treatment plan.
Listen to your body - It is usually recommended that you follow whatever direction your body is giving you. If you feel tired, rest. Take a day off work if necessary. If you feel thirsty drink plenty of fresh clean water. If you experience emotional symptoms such as excessive anger take it out on a punching bag at your local gym or alternatively write down all of the things that are coming up for you so that you can return to them at a later date and make positive changes to those situations. If your condition is physical and you are experiencing pain do not try to ‘work through it’, rest and allow your body to recover in its own time. Try not to take pharmaceutical pain relievers if possible as often they act to block the messages your body is sending you, they allow you to keep going when your body is telling you it wants to rest.
Process - Put aside some time to process the emotions that are coming up for you. What negative beliefs and judgements about your ability to recover or change are surfacing? Write them down then replace them with affirmations, if you have never done this before, find a therapist who can help you out because ultimately you are what you believe and your full recovery depends on you being open to change, which means being open to new beliefs about who you are and what you can accomplish.

If you believe you are experiencing a healing crisis and want to work through it with a professional let your therapist know that you have recently made changes to your lifestyle, what your symptoms are and that you believe you are experiencing a healing crisis. There are a number of therapists who work with these issues including kinesiologists, counsellors and psychologists to name a few.