“If you have an auto-immune condition, or some collection of symptoms which medical doctors cannot explain, you will want to read this short book. It helped me to understand my symptoms better than anything I have read or heard to date. Reading this book was an exciting journey. Like a great detective story, it reveals the elegant physiological plot beneath the otherwise-mysterious surface. It is a masterful piece of work – thorough and meticulously researched and footnoted – but also clear and concise. This book was of great value to me, both personally and professionally.”
-Deborah Boyer, Ph.D., Somatic Psychologist
Somatic Experiencing Practitioner
“This eBook by Dr. Lori A. Parker is an excellent resource for understanding how the body reacts to stress. She uses simple language, clear graphics, and concise metaphors to enhance her discussions of the biology of stress and trauma.
Although this book can be read by anyone wishing to understand the mechanisms of stress and trauma, Dr. Parker focuses on the roles stress and trauma play in the formation of autoimmune disorders and syndromes, such as Irritable Bowel Syndrome, Fibromyalgia, Chronic Fatigue Syndrome, etc.
While Dr. Parker acknowledges that the etiology of syndromes is complex, at the beginning of the book she ponders two questions: “What causes the body to produce an immune response against itself? What are the circumstances, mechanisms, and triggers?” These questions set her off on her quest to find the “First Domino” in the sequence of syndrome formation.
What then follows is a Sherlock Holmes-like investigation into the role genetics may play, the nature of trauma, the interplay of hormones and body chemistry, the dance of the autonomic nervous system, and the sequence of internal events that occur in stress and trauma that lead to autoimmune illnesses.
This book is simple enough for the lay reader (I plan to suggest it to my clients) and thorough enough for a medical researcher. I can’t recommend it enough.
-Larry Kessler, MFT
Somatic Experiencing Practitioner
“I read Dr. Parker’s paper in 2005 after 20 years of searching for answers to my thyroid condition, my chronic pain (including migraines), and other symptoms that seemed to have no organic cause (e.g., chronic anxiety and bouts of depression). I have re-read the paper several times since then. It was relieving to have the fuller understanding of my seemingly un-related symptoms. The information made so much sense and gave me a feeling that, finally, I had the answers. And, equally importantly, that there was a natural approach to the resolution of my physical and emotional conditions.
The paper did explain my symptoms. But I didn’t just read the paper. I worked with Dr. Parker because I felt that, ultimately, ‘the proof is in the pudding,’ so to speak. I wanted to see if the theory about my symptoms was actually accurate. It was. Today I have no chronic pain and my migraines are non-existent. My sleep is more restful, there is no evidence of my autoimmune condition (thyroid condition), and my energy levels have improved greatly. Everyone experiences anxiety from time to time, but the chronic state of anxiety that I lived with before is non-existent.
We are living at a time when it is estimated that 75%-90% of all doctor’s visits are for stress-related conditions. So if you are suffering from symptoms and medical doctors cannot find any ‘organic cause,’ quite likely your symptoms are due, in large part, if not exclusively, to a mal-functioning autonomic nervous system (the stress control mechanism in your body). If this is the case for you, you would be giving yourself a great gift by reading this paper and seeking out a Somatic Experiencing Practitioner to help you restore balance to your stress control mechanism. As you move toward restoring balance to your autonomic nervous system, you will likely see most, if not all, of your ‘unexplained symptoms’ fall by the wayside.”
-Shelia Kuhn, Business Executive
Somatic Experiencing Practitioner
“I spent 22 years searching for answers and remedies to my autoimmune condition (Reiter’s Syndrome) and the chronic pain that resulted from this condition. Finally, in early 2007, I was introduced to Dr. Parker and her paper on autoimmune conditions. The paper clearly explained, in detail, the underlying causes of my autoimmune condition and my chronic pain. Armed with this new understanding and Dr. Parker’s guidance, I began a treatment protocol. Today, only a year and a half later, my pain has been reduced to about 30% of what it was at its worst. And I continue to improve, so much so that I have recently changed my focus from ‘getting out of pain’ to ‘getting back into shape’.”
-Steve Sedmak, Retired Entrepreneur
“If you are suffering with various seemingly un-related symptoms and doctors can find no explanation or organic cause, you will definitely want to read this paper.
I came to Dr. Parker in 2006 because I was suffering from recurring bouts of sciatic pain. I was rid of the sciatic pain quite quickly. But in the process of working with the sciatic pain, I became curious if the method that she used, Somatic Experiencing,® could help rid me of some of the other symptoms that I experience.
I have suffered from asthma since I was a child. I have had difficulty sleeping since I was a child. I have also suffered from re-occurring gastrointestinal symptoms, for which doctors find no organic cause. Additionally, I lived in what seemed to be permanent state of anxiety and high tension. This collection of seemingly unrelated symptoms is what led me to read her paper.
In reading it, I found the explanation not only for the anxiety and difficulties sleeping, but also for the high level of tension, the GI Tract distress, and the asthma. I had to admit, what she was proposing made sense. So I asked her to do a test of my autonomic nervous system (an HRV analysis). Sure enough — there it was in black and white. The stress control mechanism in my body was mal-functioning.
The dysregulation was quite severe, so I am still working with some of the symptoms. But it was more than a little bit relieving to know the real source of those symptoms and that there are people trained to work with this kind of dysregulation.
-Todd Yarnton, High School Teacher
Somatic Experiencing Practitioner
