Newspaper Article

The big thaw: Disturbing flashbacks triggered by some therapies are being successfully treated in a controversial process some call 'thawing.'

Zdeb, Chris

2003

Overview

When people encounter a traumatic event, [Hugh Gilbert] says, they instinctively react by a fight or flight response. If they can do neither, they freeze. He gives the example of being caught in traffic, looking in the rearview mirror and seeing a truck that you know won't be able to stop in time. Everything in the body tenses in anticipation of the crash. You say \"Oh my God!\" and then, bang!, you get hit. Every emotion you had in that second is trapped or frozen in the fascia, he says. \"He'll start talking about it, releasing the pain and trauma by reliving it,\" Gilbert says. He's seen patients shake and sweat as they let go of memories and emotions that have been trapped for years. \"Patients basically heal themselves,\" he says. After myofascial release, a patient will say things like, \"I finally feel like myself again,\" or \"My sense of calm has returned,\" Gilbert says. Sometimes a patient leaves then complains days later of feeling more pain and thinks the physiotherapist caused it or becomes angry from a perceived lack of care, but it's actually trauma, fear or abuse percolating its way out of the body.

• Publisher: Postmedia Network Inc
• Subject: Gilbert, Hugh / Smith, Karen