The human body can be compared to a triangle. Each side of the triangle directly influences the other two sides. We are healthy when our structural, biochemical, and emotional aspects are harmoniously balanced. Proper exercise, stretching, posture, movement, etc can address structural issues. The biochemical component is managed with diet, supplements, detoxication, and avoidance. Using a procedure called Neuro Emotional Technique (N.E.T.), the emotional component can be addressed.

Health care professionals often overlook the emotional component, yet it is human nature to have an emotional response to significant events. Too often after an event, we don’t just return to our “normal” state of being. Our bodies hold onto a response and “lock it” in our nervous system as a neuro-emotional complex (N.E.C.). These memories (conscious or unconscious) impact the physiologic responses that we carry forward and may manifest either in a specific dysfunction or a general influence on body function. The end result is often ill health. One might even call it a manifestation of Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder.

What is the difference between a memory and an emotion (N.E.C.)?

Although people consider emotions as being only psychologically based, scientific discoveries have shown emotions are physiologically based.

“A complex reaction pattern of changes in nervous, visceral, and skeletal muscle tissues response to a stimulus... As a strong feeling, emotion is usually directed toward a specific person or event and involves widespread physiological changes, such as increased heart rate and inhibition of peristalsis.”

- THE LONGMAN DICTIONARY OF PSYCHOLOGY AND PSYCHIATRY

Recent advancements in neuroscience demonstrate that emotions are an interaction between chains of amino acids that form neuropeptides and receptors. Emotions are normal physiological (organic) processes in the body, some of which are pleasant and others that are quite unpleasant.

How do emotions affect physical health?

Just as the physiology of muscles can be affected by joint and spinal subluxations, the physiology of emotions can also be affected by structural factors. A muscle contracting, when and how you want it, is normal physiology. When a muscle is in a state of constant contraction (or spasm) at an inappropriate time, it is abnormal physiology. Similarly, when an emotional response is happening at an inappropriate time, it is also abnormal physiology. Our mandate is to relieve the N.E.C. link that is causing it.

Aren’t emotions stored in the mind?

We feel different emotions in different parts of our body in different ways. The ancient acupuncturists correlated the different emotions to different organ meridians in our body. For example: fear relates to the kidney, anger to the liver, grief to the lungs, etc. Although the primary locations for the physiology of emotions are in the brain, spine, autonomic nervous system, and acupuncture circuits, emotions affect any and all parts of the body in a physiological way. Research has demonstrated that biochemicals of emotion travel to almost every cell in the body.

What kinds of emotions can become a N.E.C?

An N.E.C. is not always something that you consciously remember. Sometimes it seems trivial but when identified in the context of subsequent health, it is recognized as profound.

Emotions are good and necessary. Normally, a person has a stressful life event, experiences the emotion, and stores the event as a memory. However, if this same person develops a neuro-physiological link to the event, the same event can lodge in the body as a N.E.C. These are the same conditioned reflexes that are best known as Pavlovian-type reflexes in which dogs learned to associate bell-ringing with being given food. Pavlov showed that if a bell was rung every time food was presented after a while the dogs would start to salivate after ringing the bell even when no food was presented. He proved that we can associate physiologic reflexes to specific stimuli. Using the same analogy, the N.E.C. is the bell that results in changes to your physiology. As a result, N.E.C.s can promote, exacerbate, or even cause recurrences of illness, behaviors, and biochemical imbalances.

What is N.E.T.?

N.E.T. (Neuro Emotional Technique) was developed by Dr. Scott Walker, a chiropractor from San Diego, California after he combined muscle testing, chiropractic science, and Traditional Chinese Medicine. The technique allowed Dr. Walker to access to emotions that were associated with a conditioned reflex. This is a reflex pattern like the conditioned response that Ivan Pavlov documented with dogs.

N.E.T. is a technique of finding and re-programming negative memories (N.E.C.s) that prevent the body from returning to its normal physiology. Muscle testing, body reflex points, and semantic reactions (physiological reactions to memories or words) are used to assist and guide you to recall a specific negative emotion (N.E.C.) and when it first occurred. This engages a specific neuro-emotional pattern, much as a computer operator uses a specific program on a computer screen. While you mentally hold the emotional memory (N.E.C.), the body is reprogrammed to unlink the memory from a physiologic response.

What is N.E.T. supposed to accomplish?

N.E.T. seeks to normalize a neurological imbalance that will promote a change in physiology towards better health. N.E.T. does not deal with the spiritual realm. It does not exorcise demons or entities. It does not predict your future or deal, in any way, with parapsychology. It will not tell you what your plan of action may, must, or should be. It deals only with your physiologic reaction to a past event.

Will I forget the stressful event or negative emotion?

N.E.T. will not make correct or change your recollection of the past event, nor will it confirm what may have actually happened in the past. That deals with perception. All we ask from N.E.T. is to acknowledge an event, imagined or otherwise, that has significantly impacted you. N.E.T. training emphasizes that all memory events in an N.E.C. are simply the patient’s own “EMOTIONAL REALITY,” because they may or may not correspond with actual or historical reality.

Is N.E.T. safe?

Correction of a N.E.C. is safe and gentle. Chiropractors often include a spinal adjustment, but our technique does not find it necessary. Patients often express immediate relief following N.E.T. It is not subtle. With the emotional side of the triangle of health strengthened, you can clarify the needs and integrity of your structural and biochemical health.

How often might I need N.E.T?

An artichoke graphic symbolizes the accumulated layers of structural, biochemical and emotional factors causing ill health. Each of these factors (including N.E.C.s) surface as they become the dominant issue. Thus, returning to vibrant and resilient health is actually a “peeling” process in harmony with the timing of the body’s own healing wisdom. Most people have only a few major N.E.C. that warrant N.E.T.

Does N.E.T. involve psychological counseling?

N.E.T. is not a substitute for psychological or psychiatric therapy. Patients who show a possible need for psychotherapy are referred to psychological or psychiatric professionals for evaluation and/or treatment. The correction of a N.E.C. is a physiological phenomenon that does not involve counseling, guidance, or advice. It is purely a matter of the body’s response to acknowledging an underlying negative emotion and enabling the body to reduce/eliminate the impact the emotion has on your body.

What else can N.E.T. do for me?

The influence of this technique is limitless. Because N.E.T. is not psychotherapy, it is aimed at maximizing the physiology of the body through the removal of conditioned reflexes. By using N.E.T. optimal health and success in all areas of life can be maximized.

N.E.T. developer Scott Walker, D.C. writes,”…Since I am a rower, I have been exposed to many rowing athletes. When doing muscle testing to make sure that the athlete is congruent before a race, I might ask them to visualize themselves in a racing situation. Asking a very strong male athlete to resist me pushing their arm down while holding this thought in their mind, is often a big surprise for them. What should be very easy becomes impossible because their emotions are creating a kind of "short circuit" in their nervous system preventing any hope of resisting my otherwise weaker arms. I had an athlete one day who went weight lifting right after such a treatment and bench pressed 50 more pounds than he had ever been able to lift before.

I have used this technique to help athletes and musicians, children and adults alike, business men and women wanting to find the possible self sabotaging mechanism in the way of fulfilling their full potential in life. .This technique has also been used on Vietnam Veterans who were unable to let go of flash backs whenever a stimulus reminded them of a painful incident during the war. Because of its releasing nature, N.E.T. helps to free the body of conditional reflexes that can create physical ailments. Many chronic diseases have been helped using this breakthrough technique in the approach to mind/body healing. I truly believe that a treatment using N.E.T. is a gift that can help you gain power quickly and efficiently in all areas of your life.”