Vicky Vlachonis - The Body Doesnt Lie: A 3-Step Program to End Chronic Pain and Become Positively Radiant

To my mum, Jenny,

for her love and light,

and for showing me the path.

And to my husband, Jerry,

for walking the path with me

Contents

Deep into the third trimester of my first pregnancy, I drove out to my friend Stellas house in the English countryside for a weekend away. I opened the door to find that she had arranged a surprise baby shower, complete with my best friends from high school and college. Everyone had flown in to be there for me, and to celebrate Apples impending birth. Overwhelmed with joy, exhaustion, and hormones, I burst into tears.

As part of the celebration, Stella treated us to manicures and pedicures, and arranged for an osteopath from London to come out and give us treatments. Thats when I first met Vicky, a blonde Greek woman who looked like a modern-day version of Hera.

My friends were all jet-lagged, and I was third-trimester, dear-god-when-will-this-end tired, but we were giggly and teary, and so happy to be together. Maybe it was the emotions of the day, or the fact that the women in the surrounding rooms were so foundational in my life, but when Vicky led me away for my treatment, I felt safe enough to let it all go. After weeks of suffering from unrelenting back pain and anxiety about the birth, her hands lifted it all away, leaving me feeling light and at peace. I felt ready for the baby.

When Apple finally signaled that she was ready to come, I was so determined to give birth naturally that I labored for seventy-two hours before finally submitting to an emergency C-section. Battered and raw, I knew I needed some carebut my first thoughts were for Apple, who had been through the same epic struggle. In England, cranial osteopathy is increasingly administered to newborns immediately after birth, and so I called Vicky, and asked her to come and tend to my defenseless little newborn. Watching Vicky soothe and care for little Apple endeared her to me for life.

In the intervening decade, Vicky has treated my entire family, curing our aches, pains, and physical ailments (a strain here, a sprain there, a lost voice, a chronic cough)all while instilling in us that physical and emotional pain are often one in the same. As I explain a malady, shell always ask: What is your pain trying to teach you? Under Vickys care, my pain has taught me a lot.

When Im in a session with her, Ill tell her about the weeks events. As I recount an upsetting phone call, or a memory of my dad thats making me sad, shell press a point on my neck or my back or my foot, and I can feel both the ache and the sadness start to melt away. As an osteopath, she understands that a pain in the back is rarely just a pain in the backit may also be a dysfunction in the ovary or the gut, the thyroid or the liver. And, perhaps more important, she understands that the pain almost always connects to the heart. Shes taught me that fear can kick into your muscles and body, and that those are the moments when you need musculoskeletal support, the ice, and the strapping mostalong with a cleansing cry on the table, followed by a good belly laugh.

More often than not, I spend my days bouncing from one meeting to the next after the morning school run, calling on all my mental resources to make the right decisions for my family, my businesses, and my career. This is always followed by time with Apple and Moses, where I need to be fully present, ensuring that they get the very best from me. By the end of the week, Im utterly spentand in need of VV love. In those moments, her voice, hands, and healing energy can pull me back from the edge of exhaustion.

Over the years, she has become an integral part of how my family functions: If I am out of town, she comes over to treat the kids and send them off to slumber with her magic hands; she stops by when everyone else is at the beach, just to pull me back into my body and help me quiet my mind. Like any over-tapped mother, my brain can rapidly cycle away from meVicky helps me remember that I have all the answers I need, and that everything is OK. More important, shes taught me to face the pain, feel it, and then let it go.

Because my house often functions as a midway station for those in life transitions, Vicky has treated almost everyone I care about. When friends come to hide from the world, to stay and heal from upset or heartbreak, I try to give them a quiet and soft place to land. I feed them good food, pull the blackout shades, and tuck them into a cozy bed. When theyre ready to pull their head out from under the pillow, Vicky comes to help. We call her the Pain Gangster, Vickser the Fixer, Clicky Vickybut whether shes carefully placing her acupuncture needles or working out a trigger point, she goes beyond the hurt to find the truth. Sure, theres always the superficial relief, but these sessions are really about the deeper work. Vicky will ask: Is this friend happy in her relationship? Does she need to slow down? Does she need to take her life in a different direction? Does she need to spend more time with her kids, giving them hot baths and tickling them to sleep? Over the years, Vicky has taught me that the answers to such questions are in the pain.

Ultimately, the body doesnt lie. When you hurt, you cannot hide: The truth will always push to the surface like a piece of shrapnel. At one point in my life, I had panic attacks, and an ovarian cyst, and issues with my thyroid, which all manifested through pain in other parts of my body. Id been running fast, to put distance between myself and parts of my life I didnt want to face, and Vicky made me slow to a jog until I came to understand that some emotions can never be outrun. I had to stop, turn, and face them, so I could work through the issues, and find some peace.

My career has been full and rewarding, but ultimately, my family means everything to me. Vicky has helped me become a better mother: Shes taught me how to connect with my kids through touch and positive visualization, empowering them to build up their little blossoming self-image in the same way her mom did for her in Greece. In her sessions, Vicky also harnesses the best from Eastern healers, connecting the acupuncture points and meridians Chinese medicine located over two thousand years ago with the latest discoveries about the science behind nutrition, endocrinology, and neuroscience. Youll find all of these worlds in this book, woven together into a simple, easy-to-follow plan for relinquishing the pain.

I love this book because I can hear Vickys voice on every pageher kindness and her compassion, her strength and her wisdom. She speaks to me just like this, ladling out a mixture of love and brutal truth. The program in these pages details the same recommendations and homework Vicky administers in her sessions, and the same crucial steps: Reflect, Release, and Radiate. This book contains the exercises, meditations, and techniques weve done together, which together form everything you need to heal yourself. There are also some great little tricks, too, like a trigger-point massage for the bottom of your big toe, which releases the toxic anger from your liver. It doesnt matter what kind of trauma youve endured, or the amount of heartache, hurt, or toxic energy locked up in your muscles or organsVicky will show you how to face the pain and then let it go, so you can feel free and unencumbered again.

P ain is good.

It might be surprising to hear an osteopath, a healer whose mission it is to relieve pain, say such a thing. But I believe that pain is a messenger and one of our most powerful teachers.

Pain is opportunity. Pain is potential.

Everyone has felt pain. Maybe you feel the lingering pain of old injury, or maybe your pain is the by-product of regular wear and tear on your body, a sign of getting older. Perhaps you feel a burning pain in your lower back, a tightness in your neck, a soreness in your shoulder. Pain can be the aching knees that keep you from running, or the carpal tunnel syndrome that makes typing up those annual reports an absolute nightmare. Pain can keep you popping Advil to stay two steps ahead of chronic headaches or crippling menstrual cramps.