Healing House stories: Sadie

Sadie came to us three weeks ago in desperate shape, almost constantly in panic, shaking like a leaf, unable to function much of the time.  She had called us a month earlier, but there had been no appointments and we referred her to several other practitioners — who suggested that she go to the hospital.  Sadie refused, afraid of being drugged more than she already was and having been sent home the 4 or 5 times that she had already gone.

When she finally sat in my office, I immediately asked her to lie on the table and did some breathing work with her while Laura Stark, our new ND, held her feet.  Her shaking stopped, but she was still afraid to go home.  I asked her to come back the next day and then kidnapped her for the weekend to the healing house to determine if we could offer her space to heal.  By Monday we all agreed Sadie was in the right place.  We already felt a strong affection for her and were confident that we could help.

Much has happened since.  We have set up a team to work together, including her daughter, a therapist, massage therapist,  German New Medicine specialist, homeopath, her medical doctor, her psychiatrist, Laura as the naturopathic doctor and myself as healing house host and general coordinator.  We are literally supporting this woman’s fight for her life.

Now Sadie is on a program of good food according to her Biotron food sensitivity test, emotional support, regular therapy and massages, exercise, homeopathic remedies, herbs, supplements—and constant reassurance.  Her psychiatrist is helping her wean off her current drug with a natural sedative and her doctor prescribed a brain catscan and ordered more blood tests so we can more clearly identify what is going on.

The result so far is that every other day is good, without any symptoms whatsoever.  Then the next day there is shaking and panic again.  How we understand this is that Sadie has been suppressing a lifetime of pain that needs to be released as well as a nervous system that has been depleted and needs to be restored.  So we help her get through her “bad” days and the relief gives her a good one.  As the process moves forward, the distance between bad days should increase and our goal is to teach Sadie to realize that the bad days are an essential emotional detox and to be able to breathe through them with less and less panic.

The healing house is a perfect place for Sadie to be as we have a constant stream of interesting visitors who understand and support this process—as well as engaging our guests in fascinating discussions.  Tonight we had a master carpenter join us for Thanksgiving dinner and share innovative ideas on building energy efficient houses.  At the same time, having gone through his own rather intense healing process, he was able to offer support and encouragement.  This kind of positive outward focus helps prevent the inner process from becoming too intense…

At this point we are expecting a substantial change by Christmas, with plans for helping Sadie transition back to her life as she would like to live it.  Sadie has much to offer already and will have profoundly more as she learns to navigate this healing of body and mind with which so many other people are struggling in this culture where the only answer to “how are you” is the almost obligatory, “I’m fine”. . . .

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Mariah (see last month’s posts) recently emailed that her hemoglobin is still increasing and that she is able to maintain her program with steady improvement.  We are wildly pleased! Mariah keeps a blog at healthworkspt.blogspot.com: One woman’s journey through the confusing world of health and healing. I encourage the new reader to start at the beginning post (July 8, 2008) and read at least through “The Biological Revolution” to get the story of my experience with cancer, different approaches to health, and how I am growing out of the mindset of fear.

We haven’t heard from Amanda much after she successfully completed her trauma and addiction program and wish her well with the challenge to create a new life. . . be patient, it takes time. . . .