New Healthcare for the PAIN-Demic

WE CANNOT DO HEALTHCARE ANYMORE BY NOT ASKING OUR PATIENTS’ ABOUT THEIR LIVES AND NOT GIVING A DAMN ABOUT WHAT HAPPENED TO THEM IN THE PAST. WE CANNOT GIVE THEM HEAVY NARCOTICS AND NOT EXPECT THEM TO BECOME ADDICTED AND THEN SHAME THEM FOR IT WHEN THEY ARE HOMELESS, STEALING YOUR BIKES, CARS, PACKAGES AND EATING FROM THE TRASHCANS. WE CANNOT TAKE A WOMAN THROUGH A SLEW OF MEDICAL TESTING AND EXAMINATIONS FOR HER ABNORMAL MENSTRUATION SYMPTOMS AND NOT ASK HER IF SHE’S BEEN SEXUALLY ABUSED OR RAPED. WE CANNOT ARREST CHILDREN AT SCHOOL FOR THE TRAUMA THEY ARE ENDURING AT HOME, IGNORE THEIR S.O.S. SIGNALS AND NOT TREAT THEIR BODIES IN PAIN. WE CANNOT TIE A CHILD TO HIS DESK WITH A THERABAND DURING CLASS TO RESTRAIN WHAT HIS BODY IS FEELING- A NEED TO RUN ALSO KNOWN AS FIGHT OR FLIGHT. WE CANNOT DENY THE OBESITY IN OUR NATION BECAUSE OF THE LACK OF NUTRITIOUS ACCESSIBILITY TO FOODS. WE CANNOT DENY THE EMOTIONAL EXPERIENCES CONTAINED IN THE BODY ANYMORE IN HEALTHCARE.

The time is here to pioneer a new direction to solve this Pain-Demic and set forth a paradigm shift for health care. This current health care system is antiquated, siloed and breaking down. The mental health profession is sinking under the weight of this pandemic in all ages but most especially our youth. Old ways of managing both physical and emotional pain through prescriptions to numb signals of alarm inside have failed in a big way. The body can rehabilitate from pain, disease and its root of trauma, but first we must all agree and see that traumatic life experiences leave physiological wounds not only psychological wounds. It’s both. These invisible wounds can be passed from generation to generation. We have to find the courage and humanity to ask people “what happen to you?” not only in mental health offices but in all sectors of health care. I’ve been asking this question for 16 years as a physical therapist and thus forged the path to healing chronic pain, disease, addiction, and puzzling disorders.

The root of pain regardless of the diagnosis, illness, disease, disorder or addiction is a heartbreaking incident that transforms into an invisible wound and never healed. The victim deep down is in pain, feeling a desperate need to feel safe, yearning to be seen, and awaiting freedom from the inner prison of fear, danger, hurt, shame, neglect, betrayal, anger and grief. Here is the silver lining- this victim can be empowered to heal this pain and become the hero in their own life, family and community.

And, so this observation written by Glennon Doyle in her new memoir Untamed resonated with me. “When I started to look upstream, I learned that where there is great suffering, there is often great profit. Now when I encounter someone who is struggling to stay afloat, I know to first ask, “How can I help you right now?” Then, when she is safe and dry, to ask, “What institution or person is benefiting from your suffering?” states Doyle. “Every philanthropist, if she’s paying attention, eventually becomes an activist. If we do not, we risk becoming codependent with power-saving the system’s victims while the system collects the profits, then pats us on the head for our service. We become injustice’s foot soldiers.”

Hindsight is 2020 looking back at my career as a physical and energetic therapist. I started a cash-pay physical therapy business at a time when people didn’t understand why they would pay for physical medicine and rehabilitation when their insurance covered it. In 2004, I didn’t know the journey I was about to embark on, I had no idea I was about to set sail upstream to help people heal inner pain that manifested as physical pain. 

But, overtime on my own hero’s journey, I became a foot soldier of injustice, there was no way I could alone sustain the deep level of understanding required to help my patients heal their bodies without sacrificing my own soul. I had carved a niche as a chronic pain expert because people had exhausted the western medical model. They were tired of steroid injections, opioid pain medication and surgical procedures as their only options to heal their pain. I jokingly nicknamed my business, “Last Stop Shop.” There’s been nothing funny about it though- heavy issues lodged deep inside a person’s soul is not an easy feat. We need a new kind of healthcare that acknowledges a person’s life and validates their soul, not just numbing or silencing the symptoms. 

After nearly two decades, I concluded the bigger the diagnosis such as addiction or cancer versus chronic back pain, the more energy it took from me to investigate where the pain originated from in the body. The heavier diseases involved multiple people and relationships creating archetypal patterns and personas that intertwined over a lifetime of generations. It took time and laser sharp focus to connect the body’s signals and symptoms with the recall of the patient’s life experiences as well as sync with the previous generations’ trauma. It takes hard work to find health in the human soul. Sure, we could give the patient medication to chemically restrain their trauma(s) to passively cruise through life or we can get to the root of the spiritual crisis or generational pain, and thus help people thrive, not just survive.  

My life purpose is to bring a sense of empowerment to healthcare- how to help the patient become their own healer and guide them into the family history of transgenerational trauma and how it’s wounding their body, life and family. I’ve always wanted to find another way to help others heal. I don’t want to be a foot soldier anymore. 

This is why I powered down @cforcestudio to focus on our sister business, Empowered Health Foundation and research an innovative method of physical therapy to heal trauma in children, adults, and families over a lifetime. I’m committed to pulling our brothers and sisters out of the river and also committed to going upstream to identify, confront, and hold accountable those who are pushing them in. 

We need to physically and energetically treat chronic pain, addiction, ADHD, asthma, depression, anxiety, obesity, autoimmune disorders, suicidality, heart disease, diabetes, and cancer IN THE BODY. And we must go upstream and investigate the perpetrators and crimes of nature that invaded and violated childhood bodies. 

I’ve been knocking on the door of a large insurance company for four years. I now see why they didn’t open the door. Hindsight really is 2020. Physical medicine and rehabilitation are not intended to heal suffering in humanity. It’s becoming clearer. Medicine has been used to manage pain, hence why we have “pain management centers.” The United States of America is a nation in great pain, our bodies need help.

I have a solution to pain and I need someone who gives a damn and has to power to open the door to fund our vision. We can pave a new pathway for healthcare – Empowered Healthcare that heals pain in the body.

But here is the roadblock, the institutions with the power and funding to heal this pain for millions are the old guard that have failed our country – exhibit a – the opioid epidemic. And, not to mention most recently, I was denied a PhD position in Biokinesiology and Physical Therapy at a premiere university that holds the resources and power to build an Empowered Health Research Center. This blows my mind as this presented proposal to heal trauma in the body serves their demographic and empowers the people surrounding its community.  

During this pandemic or rather pain-demic, I emailed the California Department of Healthcare Services to ask if they will recognize physical therapy as a primary care provider for the 2020 roll-out to treat Adverse Childhood Experiences in children and families through the health care system. The response was shocking and disappointing as usual, “

But this does make sense if we look at who’s profiting from pain. This is going to require us to rail against the system that enables Big Pharma and corrupt doctors to get richer every time another kid gets hooked. NO. It’s been easy when we don’t teach them how to feel. 

Overtime, trauma fractures human wholeness.

It’s destructive cycle we are stuck in. Trauma and pain are often enablers of people powered to traumatize others. It can anesthetize people with a shield of not being humiliated also known as narcissistic defense strategies. Everyone needs a holy witness and cannot live in this defensive, narcissistic “I”, but so many do for a lifetime. This pervasive victim denial and concern with “everything that’s been done to me, or look what you made me do,” instead of recognizing the people who are hurt and in therapy because of their actions and reenactments of abuse.  

The gaslighting has got to stop

Integrity needs to make a return or be birthed.

“We” together can begin to heal the fractured, isolated hearts at the root of this pain-demic. We can become the engines for human wholeness, connection and healing from the inside out for our families, communities and future generations.

We are in this together,

G.

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Comments

  1. Preeya says:

    Your explanation of Shoulder pain is spot on..how did you know? Thank you Gina! How do I make an appointment.
    Thank you!

    • Gina Calderone says:

      You’re welcome, Preeya! Thanks for reading and commenting, happy you found a connection. I will reach out to you!