Retracing and Pain

A healing phenomenon known as retracing occurs when old physical and/or emotional problems “come to the surface” during healing.

As we adjust you there can be times when you will feel pain in places you have not felt in years. Then the pain will mysteriously disappear the next day.

After cranial adjusting, feelings of lightness, happiness, depression, or sadness may occur. You may experience weird dreams that night, experiencing a negative event that may have happened years ago. Other people may sleep a lot better as this is a sign of deep rest.

These examples are considered cleansing to the body by many holistic doctors.

Retracing is a healthy response

As your body is retracing you may be concerned because we are all taught that symptoms are bad.

Some events in your body are not considered “bad.” As your body goes through a flashback of an old injury it’s best to let it ride its course rather than stop the symptom from happening. In our society it seems that there is a pill to stop every symptom, but sometimes it’s best to let the symptom run the course.

Physical Retracing

A good example of this is a patient that damages his ankle years ago and develops a slight limp. This limp leads to stress in the ligaments of his lower back and he then develops lower back pain.

So he goes to a chiropractor and the chiropractor corrects the back, but then the ankle begins to ache for a day. This is an example of retracing. It’s almost like the body has to reverse the history of the original injury.

Emotional Retracing

Another example of retracing would be where a person has tension in the shoulders and neck. They may have felt this ever since a spouse past away and the resulting stress they felt. Over time this can become extremely painful, causing headaches, neck pain and shoulder pain.

So they go to a chiropractor. The chiropractor releases the tension in the upper neck and cranial bones and as soon as there is the release, the patient begins to cry. Later that night they have the most vivid dream about their spouse. This is an example of the emotional release and retracing that occurs in “letting go” to help the pain.

Retracing is uncommon in medical practice

The reason it rarely occurs in a medical practice is because holistic chiropractic practices use methods that will permit the body to express and rebalance itself. This allows the body to increase physiological and emotional functions.

In a medical practice the goal is to suppress the physical expression of physiology…that is to stop the pain of the condition. If retracing did occur and you were sad or depressed…there’s drug for that. If you can’t sleep…there’s a drug for that. If your joints ache…there’s a drug for that. Get the idea?