Health Kinesiology: Energy Medicine by Jane Thurnell-Read
First published in Caduceus Spring 1998

Health Kinesiology is one of the growing number of therapies taking a more holistic and sensitive view of illness. These energy-based therapies use a model of the human being which embraces more than the physical and emotional. In this model, human beings are located in an energy pool or matrix and perceived as bodies of inter-related energy. Each body has its own vibrational rate and interacts with the vibrational qualities of things seen and unseen. Bringing about healthy and lasting change involves re-balancing the person's energy system, re-locating them in a balanced way within their physical, emotional and energy environment. This means that the person is not divorced from their symptoms: the symptoms are seen as imbalances embroidered onto the tapestry of the person's physical, emotional, intellectual and spiritual lives. Each individual has a past which influences the present and a physical and social environment which modifies how the symptoms are presented.

The energetic model behind Health Kinesiology is based on the acupuncture model with additional insights from its creator Dr Jimmy Scott. The fundamental tool is muscle testing or Kinesiology. Muscle testing is used to analyse the imbalances and select the appropriate treatment from the range of possibilities which make up Health Kinesiology. It is not a form of medical diagnosis, but looks for the lack of order and harmony within the body. HK muscle testing involves applying gentle pressure on a muscle, and assessing the response. If the muscle locks it indicates a strong and positive response; if the muscle is spongy it indicates a weak and negative response. This remarkably simple system allows verbal questions to be asked and a dialogue with the person's energy system to take place. When a verbal question is asked the strong response indicates "yes" and the spongy response indicates "no".

When a new client consults a Health Kinesiologist a medical history is taken and questions are also asked about emotional trauma, etc. Once the person is lying on the couch a suitable muscle is found for the testing. Commonly the Health Kinesiologist will use either the anterior deltoid or the brachioradialis: muscles in the arm which are relatively easy to test. Gentle pressure is applied to check that the muscle is strong. Then various points on the body are tested to establish if the acupuncture energy system is balanced. Frequently it is not and it is brought back into balance by touching specific reflex points on the body.

Once this has been achieved the therapist asks for energy permission to begin work: the person's conscious mind has given permission but occasionally there are good reasons why energy work would not be appropriate. The most common reason is that the client has already had enough work done by other practitioners and needs time to process the work rather than introducing yet more energy changes. In general though the client's energy system gives permission for the work to take place. To establish energy permission the therapist says 'Do we have energy permission to work together now' and presses gently on the arm muscle. If the response is a strong muscle then this indicates 'yes'. Once energy permission has been granted the same system of asking a verbal question, applying pressure to the arm and assessing the response is used throughout the session. This procedure is the fundamental tool of HK. It is often referred to as 'asking the body's own innate wisdom'.

This raises the intriguing question of who or what is responding to the questioning. We do not have a complete answer to this and some Kinesiologists would not agree with my views. I believe that part of the answer lies in the homeostatic mechanism of the body, which monitors body processes and adjusts hormone levels, etc, in an attempt to maintain an optimum environment. The body may not process information in terms of medical parameters, such as blood pressure being 180/110, for example, but it does have a sense that it is too high and attempts through various physiological mechanisms to rectify this. Muscle testing, in part, accesses this homeostatic knowledge of the body.

But as used in Health Kinesiology it clearly goes beyond this knowledge of physiological processes. Some hypnotherapists believe muscle testing accesses the subconscious. Many kinesiologists also say that we are accessing the Higher Self which has a much broader view and understanding of the situation than the Lower Self. Others say that in muscle testing we are connecting with God or universal energy. I do not have a definitive answer to this question, but I do know that if we use muscle testing wisely and rigorously we can achieve some outstanding results.

Health Kinesiology is a holistic system: we address the different energy bodies in order to achieve the best result for the client. In the HK system we begin by asking the body's own innate wisdom about what is appropriate, and to identify the priority method of working. In this context priority does not mean most important, but it does mean which is the most appropriate thing to do at that time. For example, if the client wants to work on his asthma, the Health Kinesiologist first checks, through muscle testing, that the body is willing to allow this to be done. In practice the body will usually agree to this, but occasionally it will insist that other problems are tackled first.

Recently a client with very serious health problems consulted me: she was suffering from hot flushes as a side effect of some of her medication. When I asked her energy system to give me permission to work on this, it was refused. Her energy system insisted that first we had to focus on her very real and justified fear of dying. When I explained this to her she was happy for us to work in this area first.

Sometimes the body might choose to work on a relatively minor symptom which has just started rather than on a more serious and chronic problem. In this case the body seems to be taking a pragmatic view: the client has had the chronic problem for many years so an extra few weeks is neither here nor there, whereas the new symptom will escalate rapidly in the next few weeks so it makes sense to deal with this first.

Sometimes the energy system asks for much more than the conscious mind is prepared to do. I am constantly struck by how little improvement in health people request, particularly as they get older, presumably because they have been led to believe that deteriorating health is inevitable in old age. The innate wisdom of the body recognises this through the muscle testing and will ask to achieve more. So a client in their 60s may come for help with an allergic rash and be surprised that we also work on their arthritis.

Sometimes the energy system wants to collect an apparently disparate array of symptoms and deal with them altogether. From the point of view of the client, and even of the therapist, the symptoms seem distinct and separate, but the body itself understands that they are all linked together. Within Health Kinesiology we have simple protocols which allow us to establish quickly how the energy system wants to work. Respecting this allows us to achieve much more than the client has dreamt possible. A common comment is 'I feel much more at peace with myself'. The client does not present with the symptom 'not feeling at peace with myself', but, as well as removing the physical symptom, the inner disease is often alleviated.

A client recently consulted me about sinus problems and headaches. Through muscle testing I established that we could deal with these problems, but we had to collect the work we would do together under the heading of 'Expressing longings'. It transpired that she had never got over the death of her mother and the work we did together was designed to help her to come to terms with her mother's death as well as help the physical problems. It may be that with time we will also be able to address the main health problems.

Sometimes the energy system does not want to focus on a particular named area but wants to look at the body as a whole. In this case, with the aid of muscle testing, the therapist picks a way through the energy imbalances without knowing in advance the exact outcome that will be achieved, but trusting that innate wisdom of the body to produce the most beneficial result.

Having established how to work, muscle testing is then used to establish what to do. This is the real essence of HK. There is an extensive menu of techniques made up of simple building blocks put together in many different ways. The Health Kinesiologist completes the various procedures or advises the client on what they can do to help themselves.

The possibilities are divided into 4 distinct categories or factors: energy corrections, energy toning, adjunctives and energy redirection. Energy corrections are procedures which are done by the practitioner to the client. They involve holding acupuncture points while the client thinks something, places their hands on their body in a particular manner, or has something placed on them [magnets, homeopathic remedies and crystals are just some of the possibilities]. This is by far the most important category in terms of treatment. Each time the practitioner identifies the stress through muscle testing, triggers it in a controlled manner and then removes the stress permanently by holding acupuncture points.

This is an extremely gentle process and, surprisingly, people often fall asleep while this is happening. Often the client will be amazed and say, for example, 'Sometimes I get a pain in the exact place where you placed the magnet, but I didn't tell you because I thought it wasn't important'. The acupuncture points to hold and the exact manner in which to stress the body are once again established by muscle testing. Once a client came to see me with arthritis and through muscle testing I established that she had to think about each of her daughters in turn while we held acupuncture points. Then she had to think the word 'rejection'. At this point she burst into tears and said 'I know that's my problem, but I didn't expect you to find it so quickly'.

Working like this did not immediately change her daughters' attitude to her, but it removed some of the stress from the situation and allowed her to think about the problem more clearly and initiate changes in her relationship with them. In order to qualify as an energy correction procedure the technique must be so powerful that it would only need to be done once to the person in that precise format. Gradually more and more stresses are removed from the energy field allowing the body the energy and space to heal itself.

Energy toning factors are things which the person goes away and does to tone their energy system. Aerobic exercise tones the physical body; energy toning tones the other subtle bodies. As with physical exercise they may need to be done repeatedly to strengthen the energy of these bodies. Affirmations have been shown by muscle testing to strengthen the mental body. Affirmations, like other procedures in HK, are tailor-made for the client. One client had to say 'God protects me' out loud several times each day. Sometimes the affirmation is very precise and clear, e.g. 'I am independent and free', but sometimes it is more ambiguous, e.g. 'Life begins'. Whatever the affirmation chosen by the body it always seems perfect for the person and their needs.

Like energy toning exercises, adjunctive factors are things which the clients do for themselves. Whereas energy toning exercises can affect the physical body through an indirect route, adjunctive factors affect the physical body directly. Physical exercise, nutrition, herbal supplements all primarily affect the physical body and so are classified as adjunctives. The practitioner can use muscle testing to determine which supplements the person needs. Clients often find that they can make a great saving by stopping taking supplements which are of no benefit to them.

Energy redirection procedures are used where the energy of the body is directed to some specific goal which may not be of the highest priority for the body. Of course this is only undertaken after the body has given specific permission to do so. I was once given some earrings by some students. As I put them on, I caught my ear with one of the wires. It started to swell and become hot and red. I quickly performed an energy redirection procedure and the ear returned to normal much to everyone's relief. It was a simple technique carried out in a matter of minutes: I had to hold the damaged part of the ear between two fingers while acupuncture points were held.

This focussed the attention of the energy system on the problem allowing rapid healing to take place. Within each category there is a menu of techniques which are offered to the body for it to select through muscle testing. This means that there are no specific procedures for a symptom or illness: for two people with identical symptoms the treatment is likely to be totally different, determined by the body's own inner wisdom. For example , for one person with ME I will mainly work to improve their ability to resist electro-magnetic pollution; with another I will work on allergies and psychological issues around being perfect; for another I will use powerful detoxification procedures for viruses and heavy metals.

Sometimes the choices that the body makes show the practitioner clearly how the body sees the aetiology of the illness, but sometimes it does not make any sense in rational terms. At this point the practitioner and client have to trust that the inner wisdom knows what is needed even if we cannot understand the rationale.

In working out what to do the Health Kinesiologist is not simply looking for the cause of the illness but is also looking for factors that may contribute to keeping the problem going. For example, an asthmatic may have a cat allergy, although the asthma started before they owned the cat. In this case the cat allergy is not part of the original problem which triggered the asthma, but the condition will not clear unless the allergy is addressed. Sometimes people have found benefit from having the illness.

This does not mean that they developed the illness in the first place for the benefit, but having acquired an illness they found that it had unexpected advantages. For example, the migraine sufferer who found that having a migraine allowed her to be the centre of attention rather than the "slave" of her family needed help to find healthier ways of getting the attention and support she needed. Health Kinesiology protocols allow these factors to be found and handled in a gentle, supportive and professional manner.

One of the great strengths of HK is that within the analysis there is the category of "other". This is located at various levels within the HK system of verbal questioning. It allows the body to ask for and design specific procedures which follow the HK model but are not already known. It also allows the Health Kinesiologist to use other skills [such as Reiki,chiropractic, reflexology, massage] that he/she may possess or to recommend the client to another therapist who practices these skills. This category of 'other' denotes a recognition by Health Kinesiologists that we do not know everything and that, at times, another therapy may be more appropriate.

HK has been successful in helping people suffering from physical problems such as eczema, psoriasis, acne, dermatitis, asthma, sinusitis, hay fever, allergies, stress, tinnitus, vertigo, oste- and rheumatoid-arthritis, headaches and migraines, back ache and old painful injuries, periodontal disease, IBS, hyperactivity, ME, tiredness, depression, epilepsy, PMS and problems associated with the menopause, etc. It also helps people in psychological ways by increasing self confidence and motivation, reducing anxiety, fears and obsessive behaviour and lightening depression. It can also help people function better intellectually, reduce clumsiness, improve memory and help dyslexia. HK has been used to help people find their path in life, to establish new and more relevant goals and to improve their potential in sport, the arts and education.

Health Kinesiology does not help everyone but success rates are high. It is a system which is part of the energy medicine of the future: non-invasive, low technology, gentle, respectfully working with the energy system, creating balance, peace, integrity and harmony. This is no 'airy fairy' concept: the results are there in the growing number of people who are turning to Health Kinesiology and finding that physical symptoms are ameliorated, psychological distress is removed and their lives transformed.

Jane Thurnell-Read is an author and researcher on health, allergies and stress. She has written two books for the general public: Allergy A to Z and Health Kinesiology. She also maintains a web site www.healthandgoodness.com with tips, inspiration and information for everyone who wants to live a happier, healthier life.