How did your own experience with chronic pain shape your approach to healing and the services you offer at Quantum Body Optimization?
Great question. When I initially got injured, there was not much that was offered to me besides multiple pain medications and exploratory surgery, Neither of which offered me actual healing and the risk of exploratory surgery was much too high. Fortunately I was working for a chiropractor at the time and was introduced to many “alternative” healing modalities by many people who came through the office. I was desperate for relief so I was willing to try anything, even though I did not know much about them. This really propelled me into natural medicine and healing. While it took me years to heal, as I was always in search of the next thing that would help me, I knew at the end of the day that my body was truly healing.
The list of things I tried is way too long to list but eventually it took me from wanting to be an orthopedic surgeon to stumbling into naturopathic medicine. I was 2 years into my healing journey when I started naturopathic medical school and still in quite a bit of pain. At orientation I was introduced to a modality called Applied Kinesiology (AK). My undergraduate degree was in Kinesiology so it seemed like a good fit, even though I again didn’t know much about it. Along this journey of learning AK I was introduced to a doctor who had practiced it for over 20 years, he treated me once and all of my residual pain I had been suffering with for another year now, was gone. I could not believe it. I was already learning so many amazing modalities and seeing phenomenal things happen with other people but to experience such a dramatic shift, changed my life. I knew I was on the right track with what I was already studying but needed to know more.
As I moved forward, I was introduced to more modalities that continued to help me heal. If it helped me personally, I went out and learned it so I could help people heal in the same way. I spent most of my weekends during medical school at different seminars, learning new modalities that were not taught in school. I knew these were the things that were going to make the biggest change for people in the future and I could not get enough. So now, everything that is offered at Quantum Body Optimization is very personal, as every technique and modality used here is something I have personally had great success with on my own healing journey. By offering a wide array of modalities all in one place, it collapses time for people and allows them to heal much faster than I did. I spent years finding what I needed to heal, traveling across states to do so but here, getting the most valuable modalities in one place allows for more efficient and effective healing in much less time. This has also shaped my approach to healing pain by addressing the body as a whole and knowing that every part is connected.
Medicine has done a huge disservice by separating the human body into different systems and creating specialities out of them. With each specialist only looking at a very small part of the body, when they need to take into account that every piece of the body is connected, physically, biochemically and emotionally. WIth this approach, the healing that happens is phenomenal and exceeds my expectations every time. The body knows what to do, when we do the right thing for it. Less is more.
Can you explain how Applied Kinesiology and muscle testing play a role in identifying and addressing the physical, emotional, and chemical components of pain?
Applied Kinesiology has a system that focuses on the Triad of Health. Within the Triad are the physical, chemical and emotional components that are required to be addressed for health to be maintained. The health/medicine world in general loves to focus on just the physical body, especially when it comes to pain. They poke and prod and foam roll and cut and inject every inch of the body, often without success. But none of that is asking the questions as to why there is pain? AK always asks why?
The triad allows us to address the physical body by asking what it needs to shift back into balance and reduce pain. Yes, there are physical components like muscles, nerves, tendons and bones. Those at their core basics that need to be corrected with pain, but what also has to be considered is the biochemical aspect that may be affecting the muscles and the emotional aspect. If you are not addressing emotional and chemical components of health, you are missing a huge part of healing.
Dr. George Goodheart, the creator of Applied Kinesiology found that every muscle in the body is related to an organ and then he used traditional chinese medicine to connect that every organ is related to an emotion. Therefore those together create the triad of health. Any time any part of the Triad is imbalanced, you must consider all the possibilities that will restore it. This shows time and time again that we cannot forget that every cell, piece, part, organ and system of the body is connected.
One does not get imbalanced without influencing another and one does not heal without healing another. This becomes really significant with healing pain because again we spend so much time hammering away at the physical body but I often find that to restore pain, we have to address both the chemical and emotional aspects, to restore function and therefore reduce pain. Healing shouldn’t have to be painful. When it is done correctly, in the order of which the body needs, healing happens quickly and efficiently. Muscle testing allows for us to get in-real time feedback from the body to determine exactly what it needs when it needs it.
How do you empower your patients to take an active role in their healing process, and why is this important to you?
I want to empower people to trust their body’s again. I want to empower people to know that their body’s can heal and that they do not have to outsource their health. I provide them with the tools and education to take back control of their health and require them to get back in the driver’s seat. There is only so much time we have together in a session and the goal is to peel back as many layers as possible, remove obstacles standing in the way of their health and stimulate the body’s natural healing mechanisms to do what it was designed to do and heal itself.
Education is huge. When people understand why they are doing something or why their habit might be contributing to their pain or ill health, they can do something different. And when they understand why they are doing something you recommend, they are way more likely to do it. Applied Kinesiology also helps with this, as we can visually see and feel the changes that happen in the body immediately, so it requires them to be an active participant in their sessions, therefore allowing them the information to make the changes necessary for them to reach their goals.
For too long now, we have been trained to ignore what our body is telling us (symptoms) and to outsource our health to others, but when we can clear the fog and start to listen to our bodies, you know exactly what you need to do. I am just here to simply remind people, they have the ability to heal, they just need to trust their body to do so.
What sets Quantum Body Optimization apart from other pain management or performance optimization approaches?
Oh I love this question. Literally everything! Typical pain management is aimed at stopping the pain and does very little to actually address healing. Pain is your body’s way of communicating and letting you know something is not right or something needs to be addressed. By masking the pain with pain pills, you simply ignore what the body needs.
You may or may not get a reduction in pain but you leave the body in a position where it will forever have to compensate around whatever is imbalanced, leading to more significant and chronic issues down the road. When I address pain, my first question is always WHY? Why is this person having pain? Where is it coming from? and how do we correct it? My goal is to get you out of pain as quickly as possible, while restoring function and strength to your body at the same time.
When it comes to optimization, I think other approaches are missing the mark. You want to run faster, jump higher and recover quicker, just to do it all again the next day? You better be addressing your nervous system. No one is looking here until they have to, but the nervous system is KING. It controls everything and it is simply responding and reacting to the environment in which it is put in. If you are not sleeping well, if you are eating inflammatory foods, if your stress is high, if you are not recovering properly, you will never be able to optimize, you will simply be trying to catch up, until you fall behind.
You must first build a strong foundation of the basics to even have a place to optimize from. You wouldn’t build a house on a crumbling foundation and your health is no different. There are no quick fixes here and biohacking only works if your foundation is already solid, but you cannot bio-hack your way to health if your foundations are in the tank. Here at Quantum Body Optimization, we look to build a strong foundation, restore nervous system function and optimize your body’s ability to move in the world fully connected and alive. Everything matters, especially the small things that add up over time. Optimization is about restoring vitality and resilience.
As someone who continues to learn new techniques, what new methods or modalities are you most excited about in helping people become pain-free?
The one thing AK has taught me is to remain curious and always be surprised by what you find. I am constantly asking why and seeking new ways to go deeper and healing faster. I am really excited to continue learning more modalities that use the tool of muscle testing. What muscle testing provides is unmatched to any other modality and testing we can use. The body knows exactly what it needs and when it needs it, we just need the tools to listen. At this point, I am really excited about the emotional and spiritual components to healing as they keep people stuck in pain patterns for far too long.
When we can address the emotional body with the physical body, the healing has been incredible and the healing time shortened significantly. The body keeps the score down to the cellular level, every tissue plays a role in the pain pattern someone is experiencing and even more so in their ability to heal it. I have found that addressing the emotional component of the triad has provided the most significant healing I’ve ever seen and I look forward to bringing the importance of this forward in a bigger way. I also look forward to bringing this work to more practitioners and teaching them these tools, so they too can help others heal quicker and more efficiently.
To learn more about Dr. Whitney and her work, please visit:
Instagram: @drwhitneydonohuend
Website: www.drwhitneydonohue.com
