The METER METHOD

Here is a partial list of the conditions clinically proven to respond to The Meter Method:

• Abdominal pain
• Back pain
• Bulging discs
• Carpal tunnel syndrome
• Degenerative disc disease
• Dizziness
• Facial pain
• Fatigue or chronic fatigue syndrome
• Fibromyalgia
• Heartburn/acid reflux
• Herniated disc
• Insomnia
• Interstitial cystitis/spastic bladder
• Irritable bowel syndrome (IBS)
• Meniscus injuries
• Migraine headaches
• Muscle tenderness
• Neck pain
• Neuropathy
• Numbness, tingling sensations
• Osteoarthritis
• Palpitations
• Pelvic pain
• Plantar fasciitis
• Reflex sympathetic dystrophy
• Repetitive stress injury
• Rotator cuff injuries
• Sciatica
• Shoulder pain
• Spinal Stenosis
• Spondylitis or spondylosis
• Tendonitis
• Tension headaches
• Tinnitus
• TMJ
• Torn rotator cuff
• Unexplained rashes
• Whiplash
• Many more!

Although it is not likely, it is possible that your pain and/or other symptoms could be caused by a serious condition such as a tumor, a fracture, cancer, or infection that may require immediate medical and/or surgical intervention. For this reason it is absolutely essential for you to undergo a thorough examination from a physician or other licensed health care provider before embarking upon The Meter Method journey. Read more about this important first step here.

If, on the other hand, your doctor has told you (any of the below):

• They can’t figure out what’s wrong…
• You have fibromyalgia or chronic fatigue syndrome…
• You need to manage your stress better…
• You have a “functional” problem…
• You need to exercise more (or start physical therapy)…
• Managing your symptoms with medications is the best you can hope for…
• You’re not a surgical candidate or you don’t need surgery right now but you might at some point in the future…
• You just need to learn to “live with it”…

…then The Meter Method is perfect for you!

 Certain personality traits make it more likely that pain will persist, even after tissue healing takes place. If any of these characteristics are part of your personality, you are likely to benefit from The Meter Method. 

• Compulsive
• Conscientious
• Controlling
• Dependable
• Dilligent
• Do-gooder
• Driven
• Fearful of making mistakes
• Goal oriented
• Hard on yourself
• Highly empathic
• Highly responsible
• Intent on doing the right thing
• Mild mannered
• Need to be liked
• Non-confrontational
• People-pleaser
• Perfectionistic
• Prone to sweating the small stuff
• Prone to worry
• Religious
• Sensitive
• Vigilant

I’m having a hard time buying into this whole mind-body thing. My pain is severe and it is REAL.

Yep, I understand that your pain is severe and I agree that it is 100% real. But here’s the thing: ALL pain (and all sensation, for that matter) is created by the brain. All pain, including yours, is an output FROM the brain, not an input TO the brain.

At any given moment, there are literally millions of bits of raw data streaming into your brain from your body. Your brain takes that data and makes sense of it in light of information that comes from your environment, thoughts, emotions, beliefs, and a vast storehouse of memories. Only then does your brain make a determination about whether or not pain is an appropriate response. In acute pain, when there is clear damage to the body, danger signals coming from tissues typically (but not always) provoke the brain to produce pain until the damage heals.

When pain has persisted for more than a few months, however, things become much more complicated. Factors other than the condition of tissue start weighing more heavily as the neural networks involved in the pain experience shift and expand to areas in in the brain involved in emotional processing, memory, and beliefs. Persistent pain literally rewires the brain — just like tasks that once required deliberate, focused effort (like reading, writing with a pen or pencil, driving a car, riding a bike, or typing on a keyboard) become effortless and automatic if they are repeated enough, the brain also learns pain.

What I am saying is that ALL pain (and all sensation, for that matter) takes place in the brain. If you are experiencing pain, it is because your brain is receiving raw data from your body, weighing it in light of a vast amount of other information (regarding your emotional state, your beliefs, your expectations, your memories, etc.) and determining that pain is a necessary or appropriate response. Pain is an output FROM the brain as opposed to an input TO the brain.

There are two causes of chronic pain:

• Structural paindue to ongoing tissue injury, tumor, fracture, or nerve damage. When imaging reveals a fracture, a tumor, an inflammatory condition, or severely herniated discs with evidence of nerve damage, a structural disorder is likely to be the cause of pain. These conditions are the cause of persistent pain in only a small minority of patients.
• Neural pathway pain (also called brain-induced pain or centralized pain). Studies show that approximately 85% of patients with chronic neck or back pain do not have a clearly identifiable, structural cause for their pain. Of the millions of individuals experiencing tension and migraine headaches, only about 5% have an identifiable structural cause. Other studies show that very few people with irritable bowel syndrome, fibromyalgia, and many chronic pelvic pain syndromes have tissue damage to account for their pain. These data suggest that the majority of patients presenting with chronic pain do not have a structural cause. In these cases, pain is caused by the activation of neural circuits that create real pain in the absence of tissue damage.

TMS is an acronym coined by Dr. John Sarno and originally stood for Tension Myositis Syndrome. This acronym was later revised to Tension Myoneural Syndrome or The Mindbody Syndrome when Dr. Sarno realized that there was no “itis” (inflammation) involved in the condition and tissues other than muscles (myo) were involved.

Pain is a hiding place for nervous tension

This phenomenon is described in great detail in Dr. Sarno’s books, but the gist of it is this: pain is a ploy on the part of the psyche to keep a person distracted from unconscious emotions that are so shameful or overwhelming or socially unacceptable that they would threaten a person’s whole sense of self and ability to function in the world if they were to bubble into consciousness. According to Dr. Sarno, when unconscious emotions threaten to emerge into consciousness, the autonomic nervous system causes blood vessels to constrict (a phenomenon that can happen as quickly as a person blushes when they are embarrassed). This constriction deprives muscles and nerves of oxygen and causes pain, pain serves as a very effective distraction, and difficult emotions remain safely locked away in the unconscious mind.

No, I am saying that you are human. There is a primitive, childish part of the brain (which Freud called the id) that exists in each of us, without exception. TMS is an effort on the part of the conscious mind to keep the primitive brain in check.

At one point in time, everyone suffers from TMS. It is part of being human. It is just that certain personality characteristics (more on this below) make some people more likely to suffer from TMS.

Although Dr. Sarno’s theory is very insightful, it is actually not new. An ancient Chinese medical text (written around 200 BCE) says “bu tong ze tong, tong ze bu tong” which translates roughly to “if there is no free [blood] flow, there is pain; if there is free [blood] flow there is no pain”. There has long been an awareness among the sages of Chinese medicine that “unresolved” emotions are a primary cause of this lack of free flow. According to Chinese medicine, chronic pain is often caused not by a physical problem but by “crystalized emotion”, which results from familial issues that have been swept under the rug, early childhood abuse forgotten by the conscious mind but remembered by the body, and/or refusal to face one’s own shadow side and trying to be “all goodness and light” while denying deeper layers of emotion. In these cases, the treatment is to “dare to shine the light of awareness into the dark death sleep of a denied truth” (Lorie Eve Dechar, in her book Five Spirits: Alchemical Acupuncture for Psychological and Spiritual Healing).

Definitely not.

Please understand, I am not saying that pain should not be taken seriously and should not be thoroughly investigated when it occurs. Women in particular already have a hard time getting taken seriously when they seek medical care for pain, which can have life-altering or even life-threatening consequences.

Before proceeding with the recommendations on this site, you must get a thorough medical exam. If your neck or back pain is new; if it is getting worse, not better; and/or you have any of the red flags listed below, do not pass go, do not collect $200, go to your doctor.

Neck and back pain red flags (these signs do not necessarily mean something horrible is wrong, but it’s important to make sure):

• Weight loss without dieting.
• Unexplained fevers or chills.
• Light tapping on the spine is painful.
• Incontinence and/or true numbness around the groin and buttocks in a “saddle” pattern.
• Any accident with forces that may have been sufficient to fracture your spine.
• A fierce headache, and/or an inability to bend the head forward, and/or fever, and/or altered mental state.
• Severe headache that comes on suddenly and/or “the worst headache you’ve ever had”.
• Pain that grows steadily worse and is mostly unaffected by position and activity, is worse with weight bearing and at night, and comes with other signs of being unwell.
• Poor hand coordination; weakness, “heavy” feelings, and atrophy; diffuse numbness; shooting pains in the limbs (especially when bending the head forward); an awkward gait.
• Symptoms that spread equally into both legs, especially numbness and/or tingling and/or weakness, and especially if it is aggravated by lifting. The same symptoms limited to one side are also a concern, but less so.
• Difficulty urinating, incontinence, numbness around the groin, foot drop (a toe that drags), and significant weakness in the legs are all potentially serious signs of a neurological problem.
• Back pain that throbs in sync with pulse.
• Unexplained episodes of dizziness and/or nausea and vomiting may indicate a problem with stability of the upper cervical spine.
• Steroid use, other drug abuse, and HIV are all risk factors for a serious cause of neck pain.
• If you are feeling quite unwell in any other way, that could be an indication that neck pain isn’t the only thing going on.
• The main signs that neck pain might caused by autoimmune disease specifically include: a family history of autoimmune disease, gradual but progressive increase in symptoms before the age of 40, marked morning stiffness, pain in other joints as well as the low back, rashes, difficult digestion, irritated eyes, and discharge from the urethra.

It is also important to understand that acute injuries cause pain. It is when pain does not resolve within a reasonable period of time that it starts to become appropriate to seek a psychological as opposed to physical explanation. A good example is the pain that I experienced after a major car accident. There were three people in the car that day and we all had significant pain afterward. The other two people experienced resolution of their pain within a few weeks (normal). I, on the other hand, got worse in the months following the accident and went on to develop chronic pain that lasted nearly a decade (not normal).

According to guidelines published in February of 2017 by American Academy of Physicians and the American Pain Society, only a small percentage of patients require MRI or CT evaluation of neck or back pain.

This excellent article explains why are you actually probably better off avoiding imaging procedures if you have neck or back pain.

Also see Scans for Back Pain are Ineffective.

Lastly, as it turns out, a large percentage of people with NO PAIN have abnormal MRIs, meaning that there’s not a clear relationship between what shows up on a scan and whether or not you have pain.

A large body of scientific evidence shows that the vast majority of adults, even people who are completely free of pain, have abnormal MRIs, suggesting that these “abnormalities” do not necessarily cause pain. Because this is such an important topic, I have devoted an entire blog post to it.

Here is a brief video of Dr. Sarno addressing this question.

Spinal Surgery

If you are considering spinal surgery, particularly fusion surgery, it is very important for you to be aware that the scientific evidence that surgery will fix your problem is tenuous at best. In a recent study, back pain patients were followed for 11 years after either fusion surgery, exercise therapy, or cognitive behavioral therapy. The study authors found no difference among the three groups, meaning that patients who subjected themselves to the risky surgery and lengthy recovery process were no better off than patients who exercised or underwent psychological counseling.

If you are seriously considering spinal surgery, I would strongly recommend that you read Back In Control: a Surgeon’s Roadmap Out of Chronic Pain (which is written by a spinal surgeon who suffered from TMS himself) and Crooked: Outwitting the Back Pain Industry and Getting on the Road to Recovery first.

See also:

• When Evidence Says “No” But Doctors Say “Yes”
• Study Questions Need to Operate on Disc Injuries
• A Knife In the Back: is Surgery the Best Approach to Chronic Back Pain
• Why Useless Surgery is Still Popular
• With Costs Rising, Treating Back Pain Seems Futile

Surgery for Other Painful Conditions

Check out this recent meta analysis of 25 scientific studies of 2,000 patients with conditions including lower back pain, arthritis, angina, abdominal pain, and endometriosis which found that “surgery is a prime example of over utilization of healthcare services” and that it’s benefits clearly do not outweigh its risks.

Yep, so did I.

According to fibromyalgia expert Dr. Nancy Selfridge, fibromyalgia/central sensitization syndrome is “the quintessential mind body disorder” and is very responsive to the approach taken in The Meter Method. Dr. Sarno says that fibromyalgia is “TMS plus”.

This is what Dr. Sarno referred to as the Symptom Imperative and is a pathognomonic sign that you have TMS.

I see this very commonly among the patients in my practice who refuse to consider the emotional underpinnings of their suffering and insist instead on a treatment approach that is strictly focused on physical or structural causes (an approach that I am becoming less and less willing to participate in, given its dismal chances of long-term success). If the consequences were not so devastating it would almost be humorous — we fix a person’s migraines and then they develop frozen shoulder. We fix the frozen shoulder and then their IBS flares up. We get the IBS to settle down and then they develop debilitating low back pain. It is a cycle that can go on indefinitely. This happens because the root cause of the problem is going unaddressed.

There is a primitive, childish part of the brain (which Freud called the id) that exists in each of us, without exception. The sole goal of this part of the psyche is immediate gratification of every impulse. The id does not take kindly loss, hardship, sacrifice, or any internal or external pressure to delay gratification, behave responsibly, take care of other people, and/or resist sexual, violent, and selfish impulses. In fact, it reacts to all of these things with seething, volcanic rage.

The conscious brain, also called the ego, makes the determination that the feelings and impulses of the unconscious mind are unacceptable and that it must to do whatever is necessary to keep these feelings from exploding into the consciousness. The threat posed by these emotions seems mortal to the psyche, which is why it stimulates the production of physical symptoms to keep the attention of the conscious mind on the body.

People who are perfectionists, do-gooders, and/or have a strong need to be liked have a particularly urgent need to confine the feelings of the id to the unconscious mind. You need to understand that the more you think of yourself as a nice person, the more internal tension is necessary to confine the workings of your id to your unconscious mind and hence the higher the risk that you will develop TMS.

After you have had a thorough medical exam to exclude the possibility of a serious condition that requires immediate treatment, take this quiz, which will help you to determine whether you have neural pathway pain (aka TMS) and whether The Meter Method is likely to be helpful to you.

The Thank You Dr. Sarno website and the TMS Wiki Success Story Forum are also an excellent resources. There you will find hundreds of stories from people who had neural pathway pain/TMS and became pain-free using a process similar to The Meter Method. If you type the diagnosis you have been giving into the search fields on those sites, you are likely to find many stories from people with a similar situation who were able to overcome their pain.

According to Dr. Sarno, perfectionism and “goodism” are the two most common personality characteristics among individuals with TMS. Dr. Sarno later acknowledged that individuals with Highly Sensitive Personalities are also apt to develop TMS and are at particularly high risk for developing fibromyalgia, a concept that was further developed by fibromyalgia expert Dr. Nancy Selfridge.

The highly sensitive temperament has four defining characteristics, according to Elaine Aron, Ph.D. Those with highly sensitive personalities are:

• Deep thinkers
• Easily overstimulated/overwhelmed
• Empathic
• Sensitive to subtleties

Dr. Elaine Aron developed a brief questionnaire to help people to determine whether or not they have a highly sensitive personality (HSP).

Experts believe that the HSP trait exists in over 100 species of animals and that approximately 20% of humans (regardless of culture or race) are HSP. These individuals process everything more thoroughly than others do before acting and brain research indicates that they respond more strongly to their experiences and perceive more subtleties. They have stronger emotional reactions are more sensitive to caffeine, pain, beautiful music, and others’ moods.

It is important to recognize that the HSP trait is not pathological. It is normal variation, sort of like blond hair or fair skin. If you are a HSP it does not mean that you are broken or fragile, it just means that you need to take steps that others don’t have to take in order protect yourself from becoming overwhelmed or from developing TMS, just like a blond-haired, fair-skinned person has to wear sunscreen in order to avoid getting sunburned.

The reality is that the clinical practice of medicine has always lagged significantly behind leading-edge science. This is definitely true when it comes to the field of pain management, where most health care providers — well-intentioned as they may be — are locked in a struggle to identify a structural cause for pain and to manage symptoms with a set of tools that have recently become very limited (as the risks associated with opioid medications have become more clear and so these medications have become very tightly regulated). This approach leaves millions of patients with chronic pain in a pretty hopeless situation. 

Fortunately, however, pain scientists have recently discovered that there is cause for hope. According to pain expert Dr. Howard Schubiner, the vast majority of persistent pain is brain-induced (as opposed to caused by structural problems) and that brain-induced pain is reversible because of the brain’s ability to adapt and change. Mainstream media coverage of this information has become more common and there is even a popular app now available based on these insights. 

The other thing to take into consideration is that pain management is big business and there are a lot of powerful interests that stand to lose a great deal of money if patients are empowered with the knowledge needed to resolve their own pain without medications, surgery, or other procedures like injections or chiropractic care.

“It is extremely difficult to alter the potentially disabling belief among the lay public that low back pain has a structural mechanical cause. An important reason for this is that this belief continues to be regularly reinforced by the conditions of care of a range of ‘hands-on’ providers, for whom idiosyncratic variations of that view are fundamental to their professional existence.”

– Max Zusman

Cathryn Jacokson Ramin has written an excellent book on this topic called Crooked: Outwitting the Back Pain Industry and Getting on the Road to Recovery, which I highly recommend.

Who are you to talk to me about my pain?

Well, I’ve got two master’s degrees (one in Human Physiology, the other in Traditional Chinese Medicine). I’ve been in private practice as a licensed acupuncturist for over 16 years and have helped thousands of patients find relief from a wide variety of chronic and stubborn medical problems. I’ve dedicated my entire adult life to studying health from every possible point of view — all the way from the laboratories at Monsanto headquarters to the energy vortices in Sedona, Arizona  — nothing has been off-limits in my quest to understand the human body in health and disease.

But, at least in this context, my most important qualification is the fact that I’ve struggled with (and overcome) chronic pain using exactly the strategies and techniques described on this site. In order for you to get better, you are going to need to be willing to believe me when I confront you with some truths that may seem pretty challenging. When you’re tempted to write me off as full of crap, please remember that I’ve walked down (and am still walking down) the road I am suggesting that you tread. I’ve wrestled with all of this myself. I know how you feel.

The Meter Method has been extremely successful in resolving the following conditions (among others):

• Abdominal pain
• Back pain
• Bulging discs
• Carpal tunnel syndrome
• Degenerative disc disease
• Dizziness
• Facial pain
• Fatigue or chronic fatigue syndrome
• Fibromyalgia
• Heartburn/acid reflux
• Herniated disc
• Insomnia
• Interstitial cystitis/spastic bladder
• Irritable bowel syndrome (IBS)
• Meniscus injuries
• Migraine headaches
• Muscle tenderness
• Neck pain
• Neuropathy
• Numbness, tingling sensations
• Osteoarthritis
• Palpitations
• Pelvic pain
• Plantar fasciitis
• Reflex sympathetic dystrophy
• Repetitive stress injury
• Rotator cuff injuries
• Sciatica
• Shoulder pain
• Spinal Stenosis
• Spondylitis or spondylosis
• Tendonitis
• Tension headaches
• Tinnitus
• TMJ
• Torn rotator cuff
• Unexplained rashes
• Whiplash
• Many more!

Nope. It definitely isn’t.

1. If you haven’t already had a medical exam to thoroughly investigate the cause of your pain, you absolutely must do that first. Read more about this important first step here.
2. Take this quiz to find out if your history, the nature of your condition, and your personality suggests that you are likely to benefit from the Meter Method.

Even after you’ve done those two things, I’ve got to be honest: in my experience only about half of people are ready to hear what I have to teach and even fewer are willing to put forth the persistent effort that is required to get results.

The Meter Method is NOT for you if:

• You are looking for instantaneous results.
• You want someone else to fix you.
• You are convinced that you cannot be cured.
• You are stuck in a victim mentality.
• You are hoping for someone to wave a magic wand and make it possible for you to keep doing things the way you’ve been doing them and get different results.

The Meter Method might be for you if:

• You are so sick of being sick and tired of being tired that you are willing to do just about anything to get better.
• You understand that real transformation takes time.
• You embrace the fact that nothing worthwhile comes without persistence and you’re willing to put in some real effort.
• You are willing to consider the possibility that the cause (and cure) of your pain lies in unexpected places.
• You are open to the possibility that a lot of what passes for conventional wisdom (both traditional and alternative) is actually making you worse and are therefore willing to try something completely new.
• You are ok with a “tough love” approach (remember, I won’t ask anything of you that I don’t ask of myself each and every day).

This course isn’t designed for dabblers — it’s intended for people who are serious about prioritizing the effort that is required to rewire their brains (literally) and reclaim their lives from pain. In order to get results, you are going to need to consistently devote at five to seven hours a week to the material over the course of eight weeks. Past student have commented that The Meter Method videos and worksheets are fascinating and engaging and make complicated concepts easy to understand, but the kind of transformation we are aiming for in this course cannot be conveyed in 90-second sound-bites.

This question is sort of like “how long is a piece of string?” — the answer is based on factors that vary a great deal from one situation to the next.

In my experience, some students experience a dramatic improvement — sometimes to the point of complete resolution of their symptoms — within a matter of weeks, while others improve very, very gradually over the course of six months or more. Some people have to patiently persist, despite a discouraging lack of clear initial results, for a couple of months, only to experience dramatic improvement practically overnight.

Two things I can say with confidence, however:

• The Meter Method will cause you to feel much more hopeful and much less fearful, usually within the first 2-3 weeks. This change in and of itself will have a dramatic positive impact on your quality of life, simply because much of the suffering that goes along with persistent pain is related to the very bleak outlook most chronic pain patients have been given by their doctors or have adopted themselves.
• The personality characteristics that caused you to develop persistent pain are part of the way you are wired (and are probably exactly the characteristics that make you the accomplished, loving person that you are). Although The Meter Method will teach you how to thrive within the context of your inborn temperament, you may find that you have to grapple with pain a few times over the course of your lifetime. I wrote about this lesson when my pain came roaring back when I was grieving the death of my dog, a few years after I had naively claimed “final victory” over fibromyalgia. The really good news, however, is that once you master your Meter Method tools, you will always have them at your disposal, so any future episodes of pain can be resolved very quickly.

Some factors that may impact the speed with which you improve include:

• How long you have been in pain? Just like walking the same route across a field every day eventually wears a path in the grass, the neural networks involved in the pain experience become more and more firmly established the longer they are active. I have seen people who have been in pain for 30 years experience complete relief, it’s just that sometimes a little extra patience is required.
• Are you taking pain medication? As described in my story, pain medications tend to obscure the mind body dynamics that cause chronic pain. You should never decrease your medication dose or stop taking medications without the consent and advice of your prescribing physician, but I can tell you with confidence that you are unlikely to experience the results you are hoping for if you are not at least in the process of weaning off prescription pain medications.
• Are you depressed? A great deal of scientific evidence suggests that depression tends to magnify pain. People with a minor case of the blues often find that The Meter Method helps them feel more like themselves without further intervention. On the other hand, if you are suffering severe or clinical depression (or think you might be) then seeking treatment from a mental health professional will make your efforts with The Meter Method more likely to bear fruit.
• Are you in some way benefitting from remaining in pain? This is a sensitive topic, but the honest truth is that sometimes factors like being in the midst of a malpractice or personal injury lawsuit, having pain that is the result of a worker’s compensation injury, or collecting disability creates an unconscious motivation to remain in enough pain to assure a favorable outcome to your case or make is possible for you to maintain the status quo in your circumstances and relationships. This is not to say that you are malingering or making anything up, but I encourage people in these situations to be on the  lookout for evidence that your subconscious mind (which loves it when you play the victim role) is at odds with your rational and conscious desire to be free of pain.

Yep, me too. I had tried pretty much EVERYTHING. Here is just a partial list:

• Exercise, including physical therapy, yoga, walking, Pilates, and weight-lifting. I also tried extended periods of time with no exercise at all.
• Going to a functional medicine clinic out of state where I spent $5000 on lab tests and over $600 per month on supplements and compounded medications.
• Dozens of therapeutic pillows, mattress toppers, hot packs, cold packs, linaments, orthopedic shoes, support garments, and massagers.
• Medications, including Vicodin, Flexeril, Lyrica, and Ambien (I took these medications for many years, as described in my story). I also tried Cymbalta, Neurontin, and Savella for shorter periods of time.
• A total hysterectomy (I suffered from severe endometriosis, which my physicians thought might be causing inflammation and triggering fibromyalgia pain).
• Conventional psychotherapy.
• Affirmations, positive thinking, prayer, and faith healing.

None of these things worked. Medications enabled me to put one foot in front of the other, but I never came anywhere close to anything I would describe as real relief. Gradually my pain was getting worse and slowly I was becoming more and more despondent as I looked toward the future. It wasn’t until desperation forced me to become open-minded and to consider the possibility that my pain had a psychological as opposed to physical cause that I finally started getting traction. You can read more about my experience here.

The Meter Method is designed to stand alone or to work as a complement to other therapies. The experience of many of my students suggests that the insights they gain and tools they master by taking The Meter Method “power up” other therapies, making them more effective.

With all due respect to Dr. Sarno (and, as a courageous pioneer in the field of mind-body medicine, he is entitled to A LOT of respect), a big part of the reason that I developed The Meter Method is that I found that the program described in Dr. Sarno’s books was not effective for a significant percentage of my patients. Either Dr. Sarno’s explanation for the mind body pain phenomenon wasn’t convincing for them (i.e. persistent skepticism was a roadblock to their progress) and/or the healing program in his books was not sufficiently detailed and comprehensive to carry them through the intensive work needed to find lasting relief from pain.

The Curable app is a fantastic resource that I highly recommend. It’s a great alternative to The Meter Method for relatively mild pain, when financial constraints are a major consideration, and/or for people who are interested in exploring the mind body aspects of their pain with a minimal investment of time and effort.

The Meter Method is different from the Curable app in the following ways:

• If you’ve made it this far into my website, you have probably perceived that I find mind body medicine fascinating and I love to share what I have learned through my years of study. If you are a “let’s just get to the point!!!” kind of a person, you might find me tiresome. The Curable app, with its quick and portable format, would probably be a better option for you. If, on the other hand, you are the type of person who loves to learn and is always asking “but why?”, then you will find The Meter Method to be a perfect fit for your needs. 
• Having worked one-on-one with thousands of patients with chronic pain and other stubborn health concerns, I have learned that one size most definitely does not fit all when it comes to mind body medicine. An approach that is curative for one person can actually throw fuel on the fire for another. The Meter Method is the only program available that uses insight from the Enneagram to create a personally tailored program that will help, not hurt, YOU. This ensures that the entire Meter Method program is laser-focused for your specific needs and has the added benefit of giving you deep insight into your strengths, weaknesses, and motivations (which will benefit you in every aspect of your life).
• One of the cruel ironies of chronic pain is that it tends to render sufferers incapable of the persistence and clear-headedness that are needed in order to recover. Chinese medicine offers invaluable insight about how you can regain the ability to think clearly, manage time, commit to a course of action and persist long enough to see results, experience pleasure, and overcome resistance. The Meter Method is the only program that includes this critical information. 
• For a number of years I recommended Dr. Sarno’s books to my patients. The feedback I heard from many of them, however, was that Dr. Sarno’s work put them in touch with their repressed rage, but left them feeling stuck and unable to move forward because they found suddenly aware that they were bitterly angry about everything and at everyone. This made me realize that it is very important to equip people with a tool that can be used effectively and efficiently to process the feelings that arise before you send them on a journey of recovery from mind body pain. Fortunately, tapping (also called EFT) fits the bill and is woven through the entire Meter Method program.  
• I believe that too much time time in front of screens is a major contributing factor to explosion of chronic pain we are seeing these days. For this reason, I’ve made a point to make The Meter Method a program that will encourage you to set down your phone and get down to work with old-fashioned pen-and-paper exploration of the personality and emotional dynamics that are contributing to your pain. This makes The Meter Method well-suited for people who aren’t tech-savvy, for highly sensitive persons, and/or for those who share my desire to “escape The Matrix” by limiting screen time.
• I have come to think of chronic pain as being similar to a complicated tangle in a string. If you tug on only one section of a big tangle in an attempt to get it undone, you risk pulling another section of the tangle tighter and ultimately making the knot more stubborn. Chronic pain impacts on every aspect of your life — it is a tangle that affects you physically, emotionally, mentally, spiritually, and relationally. In order for a treatment to result in lasting relief it needs to address all of these aspects in a systematic and comprehensive way. The five-step Meter Method process will guide you step-by-step to unwinding the knots that chronic pain has tied in every aspect of your life so that you can return to living empowered by new insight about yourself.

Really? According to a recent study, the average person spends nearly two hours per day on social media. In my experience, people with persistent pain and/or other chronic health problems tend to spend even more time than average online as they turn to the internet in a desperate search for information, answers, and support or use social media as an escape from the discouragement and depression that goes hand-in-hand with chronic pain.

Give this question some honest consideration: How much time do Facebook, YouTube, Instagram, and other social media platforms take out of your schedule each day? How about Netflix? TV and/or internet news? If you are like the majority of people, simply by taking a break from these forms of technology (or at least putting clear constraints on them) will free up more than enough to allow for an hour a day to devote to The Meter Method.

Then consider — how much time do you spend on keeping a symptom diary? Researching your condition? Participating in online or in-person support groups related to your condition? Going to doctors’ appointments? Managing your medications? Performing chores and other daily tasks slowly or inefficiently because of your pain? Imagine how much time would become available to you for life-giving and enjoyable activities if you were no longer held hostage by pain.

I would argue that you don’t have time NOT to take The Meter Method.

$597.00 is a lot of money. I get that. But consider this — for most people staying stuck in chronic pain costs a lot more.

• Have your symptoms caused you to abandon educational or career aspirations? How would your financial future change if you could reclaim those dreams?
• How often do your symptoms cause you to order carry out or go to a restaurant rather than eating less expensive and healthier home-cooked meals? How much does this add to your budget each month?
• How much money would you save each month if you recovered your ability to mow your own lawn, pull your own weeds, or clean your own house?
• How much money do you spend each year on visits to the doctor’s office and prescription or over the counter medications? Health care is only getting more expensive and reducing your reliance on the medical system is a meaningful investment in your financial future.

Many people find that when they take these factors into consideration (especially projected out over months and years) that The Meter Method starts looking like the bargain that it is.

Results from The Meter Method are in direct proportion to the level of commitment and follow through on the part of the student (factors that fall outside my control). For this reason I do not offer refunds.

An enormous amount of time, effort, and love went into developing The Meter Method and I am committed to focusing my energy and effort on partnering with people who are ready to show up with the courage, open-mindedness, and persistence that are required for transformative results. The Meter Method will require a high level of commitment from you — a level of commitment that will require you to put self-care at the top of your list of priorities for the next eight weeks.

It is my heartfelt desire that you will decide that now is the time to make a commitment to yourself and take the radical steps required to reclaim your life from pain. I understand, however, that not everyone is willing or able to make required commitment, at least right now. If you don’t think that you’re quite ready, then now is not the time to register for The Meter Method. If you are on the fence, then I urge you to wait until you are fully committed.

If, on the other hand, you are ready to make a serious commitment to the effort that is required for transformation and assuming that you’ve had a medical exam to rule out a serious structural cause of your pain (a tumor, an infection, a serious inflammatory process, or the like — basically a condition that causes a physician to tell you that you need urgent medical intervention) and assuming that your quiz results suggest that your history and personality suggest that you’re a good fit for the program, then let me assure you of this: The Meter Method will almost certainly work for you.