I have been offering Chronic Fatigue Discovery sessions for the last six months or so, and can see very clearly how people are benefiting from them. So I thought I would write a little bit more about the benefits to you of a discovery session. So, first things first: why have I chosen the title "discovery" session? Well, one of the things people with Chronic Fatigue Syndrome often say to me is that, even if they have supportive people around them (and I know a lot of people don't even have that), those people, however well meaning, don't really understand what they're going through.
And how could they? Unless you've experienced the frustrations, difficulties and complexities of this sometimes infuriating illness, it's hard to really understand. So an energy of "it's all in your head" or "just snap out of it!" can come through from even the most well meaning people.
So, just having the chance to talk to someone who has been in your position, as I have, is enormously supportive in itself. People have said to me that just connecting with someone who understands is in some way validating of their experience. And I believe that being really heard and really seen by someone who understands your experience, and just accepts you as you are is enormously healing in itself.
In my experience, that is just the beginning of what can happen in these sessions. I not only have experience of this condition myself: I am seeing and talking to many people with this illness, and so have a lot of knowledge of how it manifests in different people, both energetically and physically. For those reasons, I am often able to share an inspirational story of someone who found a way through a particular issue that you are facing, or a practical tip that can help you to work with an aspect of your condition.
Beyond that, I feel there is also a powerful message to your unconscious mind. When we are ill with a condition like Chronic Fatigue Syndrome, it is hard enough dealing with what I call the primary symptoms - the overwhelming, never-ending fatigue, the joint pains, the head fog, the poor memory and poor concentration. But there's another layer of suffering and difficulty to work through - that feeling of "is this all there is for the rest of my life?" "how am I ever going to get better?" and even "no-one recovers from this illness, so any effort is pointless."
Just spending 45 minutes on the phone with someone like me who has moved through Chronic Fatigue Syndrome, and all its many physical and mental symptoms, gives a powerful message to the unconscious mind: that there is hope. Someone else has found their way through this, and, given the right conditions, I can too.
I often find as well that people have what I call "ha ha" moments about their illness and how it manifests for them. These can be quite diverse - for one woman, it was a realisation that she always tries to do everything herself, and that now may be the time to allow in some help from someone she trusts; and for someone else, it was a realisation that part of what had been keeping them stuck in illness was holding on to some painful issues from the past, and that they now felt ready to release them.
So, all of that is why I call them discovery sessions: you are likely to come out of a session with a clearer understanding of your condition. And beyond that, you will have a feeling of being really heard and really seen by someone who understands (which is very healing in itself) and a sense of the next steps you need to take on your healing journey.
Fiona Cutts is an energy healer who specialises in working with clients suffering from ME. She works both in person in the Northwest of England, and by phone and skype all over the world. You can see more about her work with people struggling with this debilitating condition at http://www.treatmentforme.net/. She has herself recovered from ME using a combination of energy healing, the Emotional Freedom Technique, nutrition, graduated exercise, meditation, chi kung and dance. She is an Integrated Energy Healing, in the tradition of Barbara Brennan, an Advanced Emotional Freedom Technique Practitioner and a reiki practitioner. You can read more about her and the way she works with people suffering from ME at http://www.treatmentforme.net/my-story.