Read an excerpt of an interview with the founder of The BodyTalk System and the International BodyTalk Association Dr. JohnVeltheim D.C, B.Ac.
Dr. Veltheim has a vast educational background in chiropractic, traditional acupuncture, philosophy, Reiki, applied kinesiology, bioenergetic psychology, osteopathy, and sports medicine.
John Veltheim developed the BodyTalk system out of personal necessity. After battling a potentially deadly virus for years, he stumbled across Tracy Livingston – an osteopath from New Zealand (currently based in Tauranga). Tracy was able to treat the virus successfully using a method that John then researched and developed further. This method gave the foundations for the BodyTalk system.
Read the interview below and find out more about what Tracy did to finally manage to treat John’s debilitating condition, and how John took things to the next level and developed the BodyTalk System.
What is BodyTalk?
Interview with the founder of the BodyTalk System Dr John Veltheim
How did you come up with the BodyTalk System? How did you create it and why?
“BodyTalk originated mainly out of personal necessity. After many years in a high-volume clinic in Brisbane, Australia, practicing acupuncture, Chinese medicine, chiropractics and naturopathy, my own health caught up with me. As a result of the long hours I kept in practice, as well as my duties running a college and serving as one of its senior lecturers, my health declined. Ultimately, I was diagnosed as having a very serious illness, a very bad strain of the Epstein-Barr virus, and even was told that I might not live as it had done extensive damage to my liver.
I originally treated the virus with acupuncture and Chinese herbs, and the illness went from an acute to a chronic stage, manifesting primarily in severe chronic fatigue that nothing seemed to change. I subsequently spent many years with a body temperature over 100 degrees and with constant pain, cramping, and extreme fatigue.
I tried everything and contacted everyone I knew. I used acupuncture and herbs, fasting and diets. I travelled around the world seeking the best practitioners I could find, but nothing seemed to help.
At this stage, I had actually sold my clinic and was living a much quieter life on the lecture circuit teaching philosophy, Reiki, and various aspects of stress management. Eventually I found myself in New Zealand where I encountered an osteopath who had taken some training sessions with me and knew of my illness. She told me that she and some colleagues were investigating the idea of stimulating the body’s immune response to chronic viruses and asked if she could treat me using this method.
It was quite a “way-out” idea she proposed, loosely based on applied kinesiology (AK) principles with which I was familiar as a former AK teacher. I agreed and allowed her to do the work.
To start the treatment, she took a small drop of my blood and put it on a tissue in my navel, which I knew was a very high-energy centre from which the body could register vibrations. Then she started a tapping process on my head.
That was it. Three days later I was clear of the virus, and it was a completely new beginning for me. I was very excited about the result and went back and asked for more details. She told me that this was totally new work that seemed to have startling effects and asked me to look into it.
I researched and examined the technique and found that what they had happened upon utilized a very important principle from a clinical point of view; that is, working through the energy circuits in the body and being able to access the underlying energy blueprint.
Using blood (or, as I later found out, saliva) as a signal carrier and activating the brain causes the immune system to launch an assault on any chronic virus, bacterial infection or parasite.
Thus, I decided that I would spend time investigating and developing this principle further. Eventually I found many applications for it, using my background in various alternative therapies. I then developed a list of techniques that, when applied, seemed to get tremendous results in a variety of diseases. These techniques became the first BodyTalk seminar.
At this stage, the major emphasis of BodyTalk was the treatment of chronic disorders. By further utilization of the techniques, however, I was able to address quite a large spectrum of diseases, particularly digestive, endocrine, emotional and stress-related conditions.
I started teaching BodyTalk in 1995. I first taught the system in Malta and England, and then in Australia and New Zealand. It caught on quite quickly as people found they were getting very good results with this simple approach.
Though it was probably more correctly categorized as a sophisticated form of energy medicine, we were describing the system as “acupuncture without needles.” At the same time, we were aware it was getting results that actually could not be achieved with acupuncture, much less other alternative or drug therapies.
BodyTalk is now taught in 50 countries worldwide by over 200 Instructors. There are thousands of practitioners using BodyTalkin clinics across the globe.”
What can one address with BodyTalk? Physically, emotionally, mentally and spiritually?
“With BodyTalk, we don’t focus on what issues can be addressed – because that would be too limiting. We have found thatBodyTalk has addressed a multitude of problems and diseases too numerous to list.
Symptoms arise in a client because their system or state of balance is compromised in varying areas of their life. BodyTalklooks at a person as a whole – body, mind, and spirit – and the focus is to bring that person into a better state of balance so that they can heal on many levels.
The key is to be able to see the bigger picture of a health problem, and then all of its causative factors become apparent. It is also important to note that any given disease can have a plethora of causative factors, many of which are very different, even for the same disease. So the customized treatment within aBodyTalk session allows for all causative factors to be addressed no matter what the health problem has been labelled.
There are no set recipes for addressing various symptoms unlike most other methods of healing. Each person is treated as an individual with a unique history that has created the set of symptoms they are experiencing.”
How is it different from other techniques, such as Kinesiology?
First, BodyTalk differs from Kinesiology as well as other methods of healing in that their philosophy is “fix what you find.” In BodyTalk, we are aware that each of us has a long list of things that could be out of balance or problematic, but we are not focusing on problems or symptoms. Problems and symptoms are often secondary to other issues that are primary, or what we call priorities. We don’t want to spend time on symptoms or secondary issues when it is much more effective to be able to focus on the areas of that person’s life that are primary or causative factors that are compromising their state of balance.
To keep it simple, I will highlight only two of the key differences between BodyTalk and other modalities; firstly, BodyTalkfollows the laws of quantum physics and secondly, it focuses on addressing ALL the causative factors.
Let’s start with the laws of quantum physics: The Cartesian model, which is understanding something by breaking it down into its component parts and which is the model used by most health modalities, ignores the quantum scientific fact that the body is a dynamic ecology of trillions of cells and microbes. This ecology is best understood when using the sciences of dynamic systems theory and quantum theory. These theories incorporate the knowledge that a system or any collection of elements that can interact with each other, such as the body, will change according to the interactions of those elements on an energetic and physical level.
They also emphasize that every part of the system does have an effect on every other part. All the basic BodyTalk techniques are designed to restore effective dynamic systems principles based on the knowledge that, if you restore those factors, the body can, and will, heal itself in most cases.
Secondly, which flows out of the first principle I just mentioned, is the idea that we address all causative factors. You see, there are always many facets to any disease and the key to lasting results is to address all the complicit, underlying factors. When a medication or treatment is designed merely to alleviate symptoms, it is like using a bandage to hide a festering wound.
The problem for the classical practitioner is that it is virtually impossible to establish all the factors influencing a disease. The body and its relationships to the world are far too complex for most practitioners to fully comprehend. It is still very evident that the physiology of the body is nowhere near fully understood. There is an even poorer understanding of all the environmental elements, entanglements, and personal history involved in the disease process.
In The BodyTalk System, it is acknowledged that the only “one” who truly understands what is going on is the innate wisdom of the bodymind, or sometimes referred to as Consciousness: the intelligence behind all things and the ground substance of all being. This then gives the BodyTalk practitioner access to the bigger picture and, therefore, “inside” information about the situation. The beauty of having “inside” information about the client’s health problem is that the practitioner’s agendas do not come into play. Instead, this inside information allows theBodyTalk practitioner to address the health problem in a way that is tailor-made, not just for the specific ailment, but also in accordance with the patient’s unique circumstances.
To sum it up, BodyTalk is a holistic healthcare system that supports and promotes the wellbeing of any person, animal, or plant. BodyTalk incorporates scientific principles, philosophy, and techniques to achieve effective quantum healthcare. These techniques have their roots in both new physics and ancient philosophy. This marriage of cutting-edge and ancient paradigms has given birth to a revolutionary and highly effective way of addressing disease.”