[00:06] Welcome to the Freedom from Headaches podcast. 

[00:10] Introduction to Freedom from Headaches podcast

[00:56] Tom reveals his first encounter with Taichi and the insight this gave him about chronic migraine and tension headaches.

[03:49] Tom discusses his early biofeedback training and how he met his mentor.

[05:21] Phyllis points out that the mentors who inspired both of them did not have formal professional training but were free to develop their own ideas from a wide range of sources.

[06:36] Phyllis tells the story of discovering her 11 year old daughter’s epilepsy and her struggle to find an alternative, non-drug treatment.

[11:00] Phyllis explains how her daughter learned how to abort her seizures without medication through biofeedback and self-regulation training.

[14:52] Phyllis and Tom discuss how most chronic migraine and tension headache sufferers, when seeking help only have narrowly focused solutions that don’t solve their headache problem long-term.

[16:09] There are major benefits to seeing chronic headaches as a phenomenon that involves the whole person instead of through a narrowly focused lens. 

[17:00] Discussing how this approach has been so successful in helping chronic migraine and tension sufferers heal themselves from their chronic headaches.

[18:34] Healing from headaches is a skill that can be learned. Training awareness and creating new ways to manage the autonomic nervous system changes everything.

[21:15] Digging into the alarm reaction and the dangers of long term autonomic nervous system arousal which initiates the creation of illnesses.

[23:31] Headaches become a reinforcer to the already overworked autonomic nervous system and why they become more frequent and more severe over time.

[24:33] Outlining how headache sufferers become accustomed to the changes that have taken place in their bodies and they are unaware of or don’t feel the actual cause of their headaches.

[25:01] Becoming aware of the hidden cycles is the first step in healing.

[25:26] The question to think about before the next episode is: “What does it mean if your massage therapist tells you your muscles are tight, you continue to go back week after week and they are still tight?”