A client I’d been working with told me that she had experienced excruciating shoulder pain for several days. Her doctor did some imaging and diagnosed her with tendonitis. Strange, since she didn’t do any activity that could possibly cause tendonitis.
I had a strong hunch the cause was her mind. She fit the profile perfectly of people who often have mind-induced pain: people pleaser, perfectionist (especially the insistence on completing mile-long to-do lists), and self-deprecating.
To honor her experience, I brought her to a friend who I had watched many times help people who had significant injuries get out of pain in 20 minutes using a novel neurological technique. But after 3 hours of working with her, her pain had not shifted at all.
A few days later, I checked in with her. The pain in her right shoulder was gone. But it had completely shifted to her left shoulder.
I gently asked her, “Do you think that tendonitis can shift between shoulders?”
She admitted that wasn’t logical.
I asked, “So, if it’s not physical, what else could it be?”
“Stress?”
“It’s possible,” I said.
And within a few more days, without any further intervention—by physical or mental means—it had resolved itself.