Finding Relief From Chronic Pain and Depression With Energy Medicine & Indigenous Methods

Hello! Who are you?

I’m Greg Wieting. I’m queer and I love all things nature – ocean swims, backcountry hiking, and camping. I love to ski and slackline. I’m a healer, activist, and entrepreneur. Social impact and a life of meaning and purpose are important to me.

I love Phish, house music, disco, and moving my body in any way that heals me. I used to do tons of yoga. These days I lift weights. I’m a total foodie. I mostly cook at home these days to keep it clean and nourishing.

While I’ll always be a New Yorker at heart I’ve lived a bit nomadically. I’ve called Seattle, Montana, India, and San Diego home and I’ve been in San Francisco for 10 years. 

Now that my business is online I’m looking forward to some extended travel to Mexico City, Lisbon, Madrid, Berlin, and wherever the wind takes me. 

I’ve worked for myself for 20 years helping my clients heal the trauma beneath their anxiety, depression, chronic pain, and chronic illness. I share the same tools and practices that I used to heal myself

What is your struggle and when did it start?

For the first 20 years of my life, I was in debilitating and insufferable chronic pain, anxiety, and depression. As a young child, I wore corrective metal braces on my legs. I also suffered from the pain associated with scoliosis and kyphosis (severe curves in my spine). This left me feeling like a prisoner inside my own body. 

All of this was only compounded by developmental and early childhood trauma including physical and sexual abuse. Adverse childhood experiences just piled on top of one another keeping me stuck in survival mode.

Chronic pain including migraines was the dominant storyline of my childhood, adolescence, and early adult life. My body was gripped in protection, guarding, and defense and I spiraled into anxiety and depression.

How did this struggle make you feel at your worst moments?

I know what it feels like to be trapped by chronic pain, anxiety, and depression. It screams at you, it beats you down, it steals your joy, it haunts your thoughts, and all you want more than anything in the world is a way out.

I felt out of control. The exhaustion, uncertainty, lack of focus, and energy completely left me feeling helpless and hopeless which only amplified the pain.

And let me tell you, I tried everything. 

As a child, my parents took me to chiropractors but my body could never hold an adjustment. Zero benefits. I’d get tons of massages that were excruciatingly painful and only offered some symptomatic relief. Ineffective.

I tried talk therapy but eventually learned that talking about our pain activates the sympathetic nervous system and makes the pain more chronic. Really not helpful.

And my body didn’t respond to physical therapy or acupuncture. Rolfing and osteopathy offered symptomatic relief at best but never got to the root of my pain. 

I remember the moment I looked in the mirror and felt like a complete failure. I had tried everything possible and nothing worked. I was at a dead end. I thought that something must be so horribly wrong with me that no one had any answers or solutions.

I felt broken. Because of my chronic pain, anxiety, and depression, nothing in my life was working. And I felt ashamed and defeated.

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Was there a moment when you started to turn things around?

All of this sent me on a journey to find answers … I decided that a life of anxiety, depression, and pain was unacceptable and that I had to do whatever it took to heal. 

As a kid I had chronic ear infections and strep throat and wanted nothing more than to take a pill and for my symptoms to magically fade away.

But when it came to anxiety, depression, and chronic pain I didn’t want to mask, chase, or suppress symptoms. I knew I needed to heal the trauma beneath my symptoms if I ever wanted to get better.

I had a good enough sense to not want to treat a chemical imbalance with medication knowing that research actually has not proven that a chemical imbalance causes anxiety or depression.

I was more apt to heal the underlying trauma beneath the chemical imbalance. 

And I was also in full awareness of the opioid epidemic. Why on earth are so many people with chronic pain addicted to opioids when opioids are meant for acute, not chronic pain?

I was aware that the medical system was broken and that I needed to seek out alternatives if I wanted to actually heal the root cause and not just treat symptoms. 

What steps did you take to overcome your struggle?

I first met with a psychotherapist who, upon meeting me, suggested I’d get better results with energy medicine instead of traditional talk therapy.

Boy was she right! After my second session with her my spine began to unravel and a lifetime of pain, anxiety, and tension began to unravel.

I asked her to teach me everything she knew because I knew I was on to something. For the next four years, I dove head first into studying energy medicine and I began to heal. 

My healer had also introduced me to meditation practices which helped me release stress and tension in my body. This launched me on an 8-month adventure to India and Asia to learn how to work with my body and mind to release and heal trauma. 

When I came back to the States I added yoga and Ayurveda to the mix and began working with indigenous healers in Mexico and South America. 

Then through advanced training in energy medicine, I began to learn how to release emotions from the fascia with connective tissue and manual therapy release techniques.

This then led me to study trauma and PTSD and their effects on the body, brain, and nervous system. 

Then I was introduced to anti-racism work to understand the effects of socialized trauma on our health.

Along the way, I came to understand what was really creating, amplifying, and maintaining my pain, anxiety, and depression. 

And, through a lot of trial and error, I eventually figured out a better way to get to the root of my pain and heal. 

Today I can happily say I live pain-free! And I unraveled the severe curve in my spine and stand 3 inches taller today than I did all those years ago! Plus I no longer suffer from anxiety or depression all without medication or invasive procedures. 

Have you shared any of this with people around you in real life?

I don’t have a good poker face. While I always remained high functioning through my chronic pain, anxiety, and depression it was hard for me to hide my pain by just putting a smile on my face. 

When I was struggling with chronic pain, anxiety, and depression it was nothing I tried to hide but I did quickly develop the discernment around who to share my struggles with and who not to. 

Mostly this led me to get professional support from people who had the tools and resources that could help me heal. This helped me forge relationships with others who were committed to healing where there was a shared language and shared values.

Now that I help other people heal, it’s my job to make healing as practical and accessible as possible. It’s my job to help people understand that with the right plan, tools, and support, healing is inevitable. 

If you could give a single piece of advice to someone else that struggles, what would that be?

While managing the symptoms of anxiety, depression and chronic pain is sometimes a necessity, it is possible to heal the trauma beneath chronic illness and mental health challenges. Chronic pain need not be forever pain and it’s possible to overcome anxiety and depression and not just treat or manage it.

Remember that healing happens through connection. Find support.

There is no one way to heal. Explore your options. Lean into what works. Walk away from what doesn’t. 

Remember that healing is non-linear and it’s possible to come back greater than any setback. Don’t give up. It’s possible to turn pain into power, presence, and purpose. You are more resilient than you know. 

What have been the most influential books, podcasts, YouTube channels, or other resources for you?

The resources that have been most helpful to me are what I share with my clients today – trauma and neuroscience, energy medicine, somatic and mindfulness-based practices.

BodyTalk is the healthcare system I practice. I often joke that if I were stranded on an island, and could only take one modality with me, it would be BodyTalk.

BodyTalk has been integral in healing my trauma, anxiety, depression, and chronic pain and has helped me unravel the curve in my spine.

This Evaluation of BodyTalk for Chronic Pain Treatment from the 2014 Pain Management Yearbook can hopefully shine a ray of hope on the healing that is possible for anyone!

Where can we go to learn more about you?

You can read more about me and how I help others heal the trauma beneath their chronic pain, anxiety, and depression at www.gregwieting.com.

Is there anything else you think we should have asked you?

When it comes to healing I like to think of the body as a symphony orchestra… 

When we are experiencing health all of the parts of the body and mind are in communication and making sweet music. There is harmony, balance, and wholeness.

When we experience stress and trauma this communication begins to break down. Instead of making sweet music, we begin to make noise. This noise starts to express itself as pain and symptoms and then illness and disease.

Healing happens when we restore communication between the different parts of the body and mind. This breaks up the noise so we can return to the musicality of being and express optimal health.

The body is talking to us through pain and symptoms and disease and illness. Healing helps us tune in and listen so we can change the brain, body, and nervous system and heal.

The body is designed to heal, it just needs the right tools and support along the way!

💡 By the way: If you want to start feeling better and more productive, I’ve condensed the information of 100’s of our articles into a 10-step mental health cheat sheet here. 👇

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