Overly sensitive nervous system

I know how she feels. I had a big problem with whiplash and it took many treatments from a range of practitioners to sort it - that whole hypervigilance thing is very real and hard to describe.

I found cranial osteopathy worked well with acupuncture and herbs - good old xiao yao wan was excellent. However, what became clear was that my reaction was connected to an earlier traumatic episode in my life and the whiplash was triggering a response related to that. It might be worth you reading around Somatic Release Therapy - Peter Levine, and Babette Rothschild are the two best known names in the field.

Don&#39t stop doing what you are doing, it is very beneficial. But it may be you need to work alongside other therapists to help this woman heal.

Good luck to both of you! It took a couple of years before I was free of problems but, i&#39m fine now.

I would start by treating her only face down (on the massage table) with her head in a face cradle. This helps just so she can relax, not see the needles. I would start the treatment with tuina, light at first and then progressively deeper as she gets used to touch. Start tuina on the lower part of the body and then try to move up around the neck/shoulders and upper back. Then start with a few needles at the lower part of her body first - so UB 60, then HT 7 - be sure to use an insertion tube and possibly use seirin or some other light gauge japanese needle. Then do GV 19 which is our system modulates the sensory cortex of the brain. Light cupping would also be helpful. Do a treatment where she is comfortable and most should go well after that. Afterwards you will hopefully be able to do an increasingly wide range of points.

In the Kiiko Matsumoto style of acupuncture practice, a &#39busy hara&#39 is discussed, whereby touching the abdomen anywhere leads to a jumpy response, much like you have described. It is associated with an overly active nervous system, and the suggested way to help calm the nervous system to allow you to continue with your work (which I have tried and found to be effective), is to use a moxibustion device call a tiger warmer and massage the surface of the ear. This is a metal tube in which is contained a piece of incence made of moxa, the combination of the warmth massage the points in the ear along with the nature of the moxa helps to calm the nervous system down and help the patient to relax. This device releases a lot less smoke than the standard moxa stick, if that is of an issue in your clinic.