How the Lightning Process can help you
Chronic Fatigue Syndrome (CFS) is a very real, physical and debilitating illness. It is not “all in the mind.” The common medical approach to treating CFS (and Post Viral Syndrome/Post Covid) is to “manage” your symptoms. But, avoiding triggers, pushing through and ignoring symptoms creates a very restricted and painful life. But there is another way.
Instead of putting a bandage over symptoms, I teach people HOW the brain and body interact to CHANGE their physiology. Together, we retrain the brain to not run on fight or flight and properly interpret situations as safe. We address any issues that may be impacting on the stress response. Read more about neuroplasticity and how it works here.
Listen to my client, Gemma, talk about her recovery from CFS through the LP:
“The following Monday they were back at school. Back at school! Everyday! Like normal children – phew!” - Mother to Hector and Beckett.
Hector and Beckett’s
Lightning Process Story
“The change seemed miraculous. The grandparents kept ringing up to see if it was “still working”. It was hard to believe. But it makes sense that when you’ve been very sick with a virus, your brain becomes accustomed to travelling the tired and sore pathways of illness. Sometimes, some brains just don’t click back into ease and energy. The Lightning Process helps you find the healthy and energetic pathways in your brain again. The boys were happy to learn that the chronic fatigue wasn’t their fault. Their subconscious brain just needed a good talking to and a reminder about how they wanted to live.
There have been speed bumps since the Lightning Process – it wouldn’t be normal life without those. But now the boys know what to do to get into a better place and they still feel empowered by what they learnt. As parents, we are eternally grateful to Jenny because she showed us how to get out of the dead end we were in, and into the big beautiful world again.” - Hector and Beckett’s Mother
Eryl’s Lightning Process Story
“I cried on the way back with... with pure joy! The last time I did that was non awesome and I never did it again... until today! And it was truly so wonderful. I'm still happy crying all over the place. I've been with people over these last two days and I've used the LP as and when and took myself away a couple of times when I wanted extra coaching. It's so incredible. I feel so good... doing so well! And people said how great I looked... how happy... like the old Eryl. I said well this Eryl is even better!”
A Mother’s Story
…for mothers going through this too.
“My son, Hoani, is 25, and he was diagnosed with PVS 1 year ago.
Today he is the brightest, most loving and fun he has been since he was a little boy - all because Jenny with her passion, confidence and training, using TLP, showed him the way back to health, which then became a springboard for him to go even further.
Hoani didn’t seem to have had anything wrong with him, no accident or illness, but he was getting colds back to back. He had graduated from Uni the year before that, and was a high achiever, running his own business and being proactive about creating a life he loves - although taking the stresses of business, and Lockdown crashes on the business, with some wear and tear on his self. After the 3rd cold, his symptoms just didn’t go away. A couple months followed of him being increasingly fatigued, achy all over, sore throats, thirsty all the time, jangly, sleepless, headachy, brain fog, loss of appetite, poor vision, dizziness and increasing alarm - I became aware that he really wasn’t recovering. He went to our GP 3 times to do blood tests and try to figure out what was going on. Each time he was told his bloods were healthy, he had no viruses or bacterial illnesses, but he did have PVS, and that he was to go home, and ride it out, taking care of himself, as best he could.
For about 3 months leading up to being diagnosed he was fully active, but always feeling unwell. He then had maybe 2 months (before he did the course) where he was mostly house bound and always close to his bed. He was working online a little each day, and making himself walk to the end of his street and back, and I had started delivering food to his flat. He was losing weight, scared and suffering. My world closed in to working with him daily to keep him afloat as I frantically did my research to find out what was wrong and what he needed. It was scary watching him, and finding myself suffering with his suffering. I too was losing weight, and my nervous system was always on alert, as i never knew what state I would find him in each day.
I found a variety of ‘healing’ options we could choose from - a natural clinic who specialised in chronic fatigue, an acupuncturist, and an allopathic chronic fatigue specialist who managed pain through medication, breathing techniques, and a CBD clinic to manage pain and help with sleep, as well as intravenous Vit C 30,000mg. I definitely didn’t want to go down the medication/allopathic route, so we took the natural route and spent a lot of money, and oddly Hoani got worse! much to my dismay - but seeing that both routes were possibly not right, lead me straight to finding the TLP. I realised at this point that Hoani was needing some sort of neurological realignment. For some reason his brain was telling his body to create all these symptoms, because he had no illness, but was suffering none the less.
It didn’t take me long to find information online around neurological training, and how pain in the body was felt physically, but the brain actually sends the signal to the nerves, etc. The more I read, the more I was convinced that this was what Hoani was going through. I started to search for trainers - I would have taken Hoani across the world and back to find help - but to my absolute joy we have amazing coaches both here in NZ and in Australia - TLP kept coming up in my research although there are other wonderful practitioners healing and helping out there. I rang half a dozen TLP coaches, to talk to them - and they ALL have incredible personal stories of healing. I would ask heaps of questions and cry with relief. At last I wasn’t alone - and there was light at the end of this tunnel.
Hoani had realised pretty early on, that online searching for answers was scary so he was leaving it to me. When I spoke to him about neurological reasons for his physical symptoms, it didn’t take long for him to connect all the dots and agree.
Hoani rang Jenny and after a good talk with her, he booked himself in. I was able to attend also, to support him and learn.
I sat on the edge of my seat for the whole three/day sessions, loving every word, understanding all the info, and appreciating Jenny’s vitally vivacious energy. I could tell within the first 10mins of the course that we were in safe hands. Such relief.
Hoani also took all the info onboard and the change in him during the course was incredible. He had been so under the weight and threat of his bodily illness that that is who he had become. The course showed him how to see how he was neurologically stitched into the experience and how to work with his body, brain, thinking, speaking and feeling to reverse the experience, by educating the brain to create new messages for the body. It was brilliant!
On day 2 Hoani went for two walks! On day 3 Hoani took himself to the barber for a haircut and went for a run! he was challenged and uncomfortable but very willing to do whatever it took to create change. On day five he was back at work full time. After a week his brain fog began to lift, after 3 weeks almost no pain or fatigue, and starting to sleep well again, after a month he started to feel joy again. His symptoms turned off, one by one with application and persistence over the 10 months since doing the course with Jenny. He didn’t come right straight away, but he did come right. The more relaxed he became, the faster his body responded. Every time Hoani got stuck with a symptom and seemed to plateau - he would work with it, and it inevitably became a growth spurt for him. At those times he would work with Jenny one on one until he resolved the issue.
Each week bought new healing and new insights. As he stopped being afraid, he became more loving, and appreciative. As the insights taught him how his brain/body connection works, he became more curious. His curiosity has caused him to become more mature and deeper. He has become empathetic, caring and so alive. Who knew that a scary experience would trigger him grow so fast, so much. As Jenny said to me at the beginning. “Not only will Hoani come right, but you just watch him blossom too” - and she was right.
Thank you Jenny, I am in awe of your of gift to help so many people get through these tough experiences - with your wisdom and experience, we both leaned on you for support.”
Kind Words about Jenny
“This is a shout out to Jenny as a coach of TLP. The information the course delivers is invaluable but the vitality of Jenny brings it alive. With her enthusiasm, confidence, encouragement and care my son was able to heal himself from PVS. Jenny delivers the course from a scientific standpoint, explaining repeatedly how the neurology/symptom relationship was forged and how to un do it. Jenny holds a torch for those in the dark experiencing a chronic illness. Her post course care was tremendously helpful, and we found the fee to be worth every penny. Jenny’s years of experience, guiding people through these rapids of their lives was constantly reassuring. For anyone doubting this method, and reading through Jenny’s website, I would say, we had to trust too, and take a leap of faith, but it just made so much sense. It would have been immeasurably helpful to have had our GP refer us – and with Long Covid on the world stage currently, it spotlights courses like this as the way to reverse chronic illness, where medication cannot.
Thank you Jenny – we have our lives fully back - and so much more….1 year on.” - Yolande L (Post Viral Syndrome)
Scientific Research
‘Understanding the Lightning Process Approach to CFS/ME; a Review of the Disease Process and the Approach,’ (2018).
Abstract
Introduction: The Lightning Process (LP) is a neuro-physiological training programme based on self-coaching, concepts from Positive Psychology, Osteopathy and Neuro Linguistic Programming (NLP). It has a developing evidence base for its efficacy with a range of issues, including Chronic Fatigue Syndrome/ Myalgic Encephalomyelitis (CFS/ME), but little has been published about its hypothesis on the disease processes, and its approach to this disabling disease.
Objectives: This paper aims to resolve these gaps in the research and contextualise the approach within current theories and research into the disease.
Methods: A literature review was undertaken of the published evidence supporting the main current models of aetiology and disease process for CFS/ME. An evaluation of the LP’s conceptualisation of the aetiology of the disease and the hypothesis behind its approach was undertaken, through a review of the literature and semi-structured interviews with the programme’s original researcher (this paper’s lead author). These models were then compared to identify similarities and differences.
Results: The review identified that the LP adopts a multifactorial, multisystem disease process for the disease, which is well aligned with current research and established conceptual frameworks for CFS/ME pathology. It identified that the LP shared the established perspective that the illness is a physiological, and not a psychological, one. It found the LP applies a self-regulation approach to neuro-physiology processes to influence the physical disease process.
Conclusions: This paper resolves the identified gaps in the research and clarifies the hypotheses behind this approach, which has been identified by the evidence base as providing successful outcomes for some. It is hoped this clearer understanding of the approach will assist researchers, clinicians and those with this disabling disease to identify some additional options for potential recovery.
Keywords: neurology, physiology, intervention, hypothesis, fatigue
Most Recent Research: ‘Does the Lightning Process Training Programme Reduce Chronic Fatigue in Adolescent and Young Adult Cancer Survivors?’ (2021).
This is a mixed methods study of the effects of the Lightning Process on cancer survivors with chronic fatigue and has shown promising results.
Chronic fatigue is a severe side-effect commonly experienced by many who have recovered from cancer. It is often debilitating and unresponsive to treatment. The Lightning Process was evaluated as a potential solution for this issue due to previous promising evidence concerning its effects on fatigue.
Results
This study found statistically significant improvements for all the patient-reported outcome measure (PROM) questionnaires comparing the pre- and post-intervention periods, with a significant reduction (p < .001) in the total fatigue score from baseline to 3 months and six month follow-up. This was reflected in the qualitative findings of the interviews where ‘participants emphasised that they now experienced both less fatigue and explicit improvement in their energy level’.
All 11 participants confirmed that the intervention had not worsened their health or caused them any negative side effects and that they were satisfied or very satisfied with intervention. They also expressed that during the LP they felt they were ‘finally being taken seriously’ and the researchers noted how the LP course explicitly validated the participants’ symptoms as being real rather than ‘imagined’.
The researchers noted that ‘The reductions in the participants’ total fatigue scores were remarkable, since no changes in their overall level of fatigue, as subjectively expressed by the participants themselves, were reported over the preceding years.’
Chronic Pain