Sarah's Arthritis

Although only slightly overweight, Sarah came to me having suffered from a lifetime of food obsession. Now in her young 50s, she had been suffering from arthritis since she was about 18 years old. The pain was making it difficult to exercise.

Her symptoms had come and gone, but “had come to stay” in the last 3 years. Originally in her hips, most of the pain was now in her neck and back.

I asked her what she wanted. “to be pain free” she quickly replied. I then asked her what “pain free” would feel like in her body, and I asked her to state her answer in the positive. She paused after my request, as she had never gotten beyond the thought getting rid of the pain.

She then replied “It would be as if there were a spaciousness in my joints, and a fluidity of movement. There would be more room there.”

“Excellent” I responded. “This sounds very possible to me. I can imagine that” I said as I tried it on in my body.

I then pointed out that because the pain had come and gone for many years, and because she had originally had pain in her hips that had gone away, we knew that her body knew how to heal itself of the arthritis. She thought about this a moment, and agreed.

I then said, “I wonder what this is about.. Sarah, what is the best part of having arthritis in your neck and shoulders? What’s the upside?” She was amused by my question and thought for a long moment. Finally, she confided, “I give myself a break when I have the pain, and I’m able to feel my body”.

She continued “My grandmother had arthritis, and she passed away when I was about 18. In a funny sort of way, I guess I felt a connection to her because I had it too.”

“Connection to your Grandmother, and you give yourself a break. These sound like really worthwhile things to have.” I commented. “Sarah, I wonder, if we could speak with the part of you that has been causing the arthritis pain, you know, the part that really wants you to have a connection with your Grandmother and to give you a break, I wonder if this part could find other ways, ways that worked even better than the pain, to bring you the connection and the break that is so important to you, if it would be willing to do those other things?”

“In other words, I’m guessing that this part of you, at the time it came up with the arthritis, didn’t have a whole lot of options.” She shook her head in agreement. “You were young, and the arthritis was probably the best of a very few options, perhaps even the only option, to try to bring you these positive things.

Of course, if this part of you had other, better options, my guess it that it would certainly want to do those other things. It would probably be grateful to finally have some better ways to bring you what it REALLY cares about, the connection with your grandmother and the way to give yourself a break.” Sarah nodded emphatically in agreement. “Absolutely” she said.

We were running out of time in our session, so I concluded by saying “of course you probably have no idea what those other ways are just yet, but I bet that simply realizing that there might be other better ways has already started a process of curiosity, of exploring to discover what they are”. Again, she nodded and got a curious, almost child like expression of anticipation on her face. “I’ll be so interested to follow up with you next time” I said as we concluded the session.

I didn’t see her for a couple of weeks after that and was very interested to learn how she was doing.

“I’ve actually been pain free for three days now Renée, which is amazing because I haven’t been pain free in 3 years”. She continued “After our session the pain was pretty bad for a while, until Sunday when I went to an all day yoga workshop. Since then, I have felt really good and in my body.” It must have been the yoga workshop, but then again, I’ve been to lots of yoga workshops, and it’s never made a difference before.”