Thing said that very often, changes in diet, activity, and some form of energy balancing treatment such as acupuncture, brings about a measure of relief in just a couple of weeks. She said that if someone she is treating sees no change in the way they feel after a couple of sessions and adhering to the lifestyle recommendations she may have advised, then they try something else.
For people with back pain, or who are recovering from other musculoskeletal issues including some forms of arthritis, therapeutic massage often brings quick relief and boosts the overall sense of well-being. In the right hands, therapeutic massage can also facilitate profound and lasting change, as movement becomes more fluid and integrated. Andrea Ellison, a licensed massage therapist with over 23 years’ experience, is known for her intuitive and extremely specific approach, recommends Thing.
“People with serious pain issues want safe, lasting treatment and they don’t really have a lot of choice,” says Ellison. “I’ve only been upstate for five years, but yes, people do come looking for me,” she said. Ellison charges $80 an hour, or $120 for 90 minutes, for the kind of targeted massage she offers which is a more profound healing experience than simply a pleasant interlude of assisted relaxation.
Woodstock resident Dorothea Marcus, a real-estate broker, says that she decided to consult well-known local hypnotherapist Peter Blum, who has an office on Glasco Turnpike in Saugerties, after she spent quite a bit of time and money on conventional talk therapy. Marcus says that she wanted to make some changes in her mental outlook and development.
“I’ve found that hypnotherapy is really helpful in inducing change in unexpected ways,” says Marcus, who adds that she is working on putting unhelpful habits behind her and growing spiritually. She said she has a recording Blum made of an office session for use at home, and that’s been especially beneficial, since she finds it too challenging right now to induce self-hypnosis without Blum’s guidance. The recording also allows her to experience the healing modality frequently at no additional cost.
“I help people to help themselves,” says Blum, a certified instructor for the National Guild of Hypnotists, or NGH, since 1993. In 2004, Blum was named instructor of the year by the NGH, the largest professional organization of its type in the world. An ordained interfaith minister, Blum considers the practice of hypnotherapy to be a spiritual art form.
“My goal is to teach everyone self-hypnosis. There’s nothing mysterious about the hypnotic state. It’s not all that different from meditation, and it can help them get unstuck in their lives,” says Blum. “When someone has a serious and persistent mental illness, I would refer them out to a medical doctor or a psychologist, but I can sometimes help with pain management, and yet it still depends on what the person is complaining about.
Another situation that often comes up is when a client will say they are weaning themselves off of an antidepressant or anxiety meds. “I have to say to them, Well, I can be a facilitator to that process, but you really need to go over that with your prescribing doctor,” says Blum.
Dr. Donn Wiedershine is a medical practitioner and psychiatrist who uses a wide range of natural modalities to treat life-threatening drug-resistant infections, suicidal depression, autism, arthritis, diabetes and Lyme disease. He had a practice in Woodstock for six years, but relocated to Manhattan a year ago for business and social reasons. He’s available to anyone anywhere for a phone consultation.
Wiedershine says it’s all about having the right tool for the job. “If you start off using antibiotics for a severe Lyme infection, in my clinical experience the infection often comes back,” says Wiedershine, a medical doctor. “I’ve found that to uproot the Lyme, you have to get rid of the Lyme bacteria and several other micro-organisms as well, and it’s more receptive to use natural approaches, quite probably in a three or four stage process.”
Wiedershine says that his approach to treating depression may mix herbal supplements with allopathic, i.e., pharmaceutical, medicines. Sometimes he may begin a patient on prescription medicine and then wean them off it, replacing the drug with an herb and recommending lifestyle changes.
“You can’t be too passionate about any one approach, but I obviously I like to try things which are very, very non-toxic,” he says. “And I do think I’ve seen a rise in depression, anxiety and insomnia complaints, but since I haven’t conducted a double-blind study I don’t want to venture too much into why.”
