History and development of the Hale technique

During my time as a student and continuing after graduation from the Canadian Memorial Chiropractic College in Toronto, I have always been interested in how the body works and what influences affect our total being as a whole person.

In my last two years at college I became fascinated and excited with Applied Kinesiology (a technique developed by a Chiropractor in the 1960s by the name of Dr George Goodhart). It allowed the Doctor to communicate with the body, with or without the influence of the patient's symptoms and bias of the patient themselves.

Upon graduation I returned to NZ where I practiced as a structural Chiropractor for 4 years in Raumati, just north of Wellington. This was a valuable learning experience, however, I needed to know more and have a deeper understanding as to why people had spinal problems and why they did not heal up in a straightforward manner as the other joints in the body did.

This desire lead to moving my family to North America again, this time to Vancouver for 6 years, where I could travel across America attending seminars and pursuing my post-graduated studies. During this time, in the space of six months, I was in three motor vehicle accidents, which impaired me physically to the extent I could only work part-time. These traumas also had a major effect on me emotionally and mentally. My asthma (which had been a problem since childhood) worsened and I developed major allergy problems to environmental triggers and foods.

My food intake was restricted to fish, rice, 3 to 4 fruits and 5 to 6 vegetables. Over a two-year period I tried every therapy I could find in order to help myself ranging from Orthodox Medicine, Alterative Medicine and very unorthodox therapies. I certainly learned a great deal by exposing myself to all kinds of practitioners and their techniques. I even had bands on my teeth to alter the shape of my bite mechanism; and all of my amalgam relaced with composite fillings!

In my last year in Vancouver I purchased an electro acupuncture device, called a Vega machine, which was used to diagnose and treat patients with Homeopathic Nosodes (a Homeopathic remedy made from disease tissue or toxic substances). Using Applied Kinesiology I was able to combine the two therapies together and test what would work best for both my patients and myself. With my health being somewhat better but still quite fragile and vulnerable to relapsing, we took a six-month holiday en route to New Zealand to settle in Christchurch.

Many patients I treated showed sensitivities to toxins contained in farm sprays, allergens from food and the environment; and various forms of electromagnetic radiation like that from overhead powerlines and electrical appliances. Working this way, like structural Chiropractic, brought about many good results but was not consistent, reliable nor predictable enough. There were many examples of two people from the same family of four who were sick and showed chemical toxicity from exposure yet the others didn't. In several cases the husband had been an agricultural contract sprayer for 20 years, subject to major exposure to many chemical toxins, yet showed no sign of illness, nor evidence that exposure to these chemicals was a problem, but two members of the same family, with little or no exposure had symptoms of apparent toxicity and illness. What was the difference?

Following my accidents in Vancouver I had continued on with various forms of counselling to try and deal with my emotional and mental state. Naturally, issues from my interesting and troubled childhood revealed themselves. I soon found a very close and intriguing relationship between the mind and how the body adapts to the mind (it was emerging that our mind was the most powerful influence on us as human beings). I tried to ignore this finding but it just kept on coming up in as an issue in difficult and chronic health conditions

This mind/body harmony appeared directly proportional to how the immune system functioned (how the body fights off disease, toxins and chronic illness).

The body can develop serious disease/pathology; cancer, heart disease, strokes and permanent disability, however most people I saw were just 'not well' with no energy, digestive distortions, headaches, back/neck aches, chronic infections etc. These are just classified as functional diseases, that is they have not developed into pathology yet. Some of these people had experienced these 'not well' symptoms from anywhere between 3 months to 30 years.

Naturally I did not want to experiment on my patients so I experimented on myself, having learned how to self muscle test. These experiments have now gone on for 20 plus years with various successes and failures, and although the failures have been experienced to my detriment, they have shown me how powerful this mind/body relationship is.

There appeared to be a distinct difference between how we think (mind consciousness) and how we feel (emotions subconscious). Knowing the various emotions and thoughts we can have I have been able to locate the points or positions on the body and how they relate to specific thoughts and emotions with magnets. Therefore knowing that a magnet placed anywhere on the body/head will change a muscle test (Applied Kinesiology), I can predictably find mind/emotional imbalances if the magnet on positions does not change a muscle test. Finding this imbalance can then be neutralised by complex homeopathic remedies, which have been formulated over these years. This can then allow the body/mind to balance and through its own inner healing mechanisms adapt towards better health.

In conjunction with mind (mental)/emotional health techniques to balance the physical system I have developed treatments for chronic viral, bacterial, and parasitic infection, hormonal imbalances and structural (spinal, skull and peripheral joint) imbalances.

The spiritual system (not religious) is also taken into consideration. This system confirms your individuality and character as a person. For example; four children who have the same parents and brought up in the same household are uniquely different people. These four all have to be balanced in order for the body and mind to heal and move on.

Anything we treat physically has to be rewarded and balanced emotionally, mentally, spiritually.

These techniques are still evolving and improving. This is the basis of the Hale technique.