Sarno and Me

I’ve been recently thinking about Dr. John Sarno, and it occurred to me that I haven’t written about him here in a long time… maybe ever?? For the short-attention-span set who really have just one question for me, here’s the short answer, and you don’t have to read on: yes, I’m very familiar with Sarno’s work, and yes, I can definitely help with TMS! And now, for the longer story. I first heard about Dr. Sarno way back while I was still in chiropractic school. I think it was around 1995 or 1996, not too long before graduating. I was a big fan of Howard Stern and listened to him every morning on the radio! One day, I heard Howard raving about Sarno. It seemed like Howard rarely had anything nice to say about anyone, but he was singing the praises of Dr. John Sarno! I knew that Howard had been struggling with some pretty bad shoulder pain, which he would sometimes mention on the show, and I remember thinking, “Man, he should really see a good chiropractor!” Unbeknownst to me, he had indeed seen a chiropractor - maybe a couple - and with zero results. He’d tried more than he ever cared to reveal to his radio audience, but which he later talked about in his book, and it wasn’t until he saw Dr. Sarno that he was able to finally resolve his mysterious chronic pain and even his chronic OCD! So, of course, I had to read Sarno’s book and see what it was all about. As a young chiropractic student, about to graduate with a massive student loan debt, I was unnerved to read about Sarno’s theory, that most back pain - indeed, most chronic pain in general - was not at all structural in nature, but rather was caused by repressed emotions, almost always some kind of repressed rage! The treatment? Basically nothing other than to figure out the source of the rage. Was I about to enter into a sham profession? How would I be able to help people for real, especially now that I knew about TMS, how would I be able to help TMS patients?? Point them to Sarno’s book and then go back to school again for a real job?? I wrote to Dr. Sarno thanking him for his book and also to ask him for advice. He actually wrote back! He basically said that I seemed like a good kid - I was only 22 or 23 years old at the time - and that he wished me well, but that he abhorred my profession and didn’t really see any way for me to be able to help anyone with TMS from where I was standing. [Insert sad trombone here.] Fortunately for me, very early on in my career, I was exposed to NET (Neuro Emotional Technique) and then I did have a tool in my toolbox for helping people whose pain and other symptoms were mainly coming from emotional sources! I got busy with career and life and didn’t think too much about TMS, as such, for a long time. It’s on my mind again now because I’ve been working with a patient recently who had just discovered Sarno a couple of months ago and is having great success since treating her pain as TMS rather than a structural problem. I forget that just because something has been “out there” for a long time (such as Sarno’s work, for more than 20 years) it doesn’t mean that “everybody knows about it” or that it’s not worth mentioning again! I think it’s worth stating, too, that while Sarno recommends against all forms of structural treatment (such as chiropractic, physical therapy, etc.) when working to recover from TMS, I don’t consider NET to be a structural treatment (even though it can certainly affect the structure). NET is about finding and desensitizing the hidden emotional triggers that are causing the body to react in a negative way. So while it is a treatment, I believe it can be very helpful in assisting the TMS patient to uncover what the brain is trying to hide. Dr. Sarno passed away about 2 and a half years ago, so I can’t circle back to him and ask about what he thinks about NET! But I’m still grateful for him and his legacy, and glad that I can still help people with TMS for real, even as a chiropractor. :-) Happy Holidays!