4 years ago today my partners and I released a film, "All The Rage", that we had made about Dr John Sarno. It was also a very personal film. Unbeknownst to us he had passed away the previous day. We also had not realized that the day it opened would have been his 94th birthday.
The film took nearly 15 years to make because we couldn't find any support for the production, and we also couldn't figure out how to tell the story. Early in his career Dr Sarno became frustrated by the practices he had been taught for treating structural issues and pain.
When he looked for data and studies that supported these practices he found nothing compelling. He then examined his patients charts and found that 80% had a history of other ailments that were thought to have a mind body component (gut issues, skin issues, ulcers, and migraines)
He then spent a long time learning more about his patient's lives and struggles. A great deal of his patients had a tendency to put other people's needs first, and many were driven to excel, to be perfectionists. He recognized that this was due to trauma from childhood.
He postulated that the reason many of his patients had so much trouble recognizing their own needs was that their early needs were not met. For some this might be having primal needs like food, love, and attention withheld. For others it might be more severe deprivation or abuse.
When he helped patients recognize that their pain might be due to the repression of their emotions he found a great deal of success. He came to theorize that the pain was a distraction from uncomfortable emotions. He was practicing in a trauma informed way before the term existed
Over the course of many years he developed a practice of first examining patients for any abnormalities like a broken bone or a tumor. Finding none he would questions patients about their other health issues, their relationships, and their lives. He helped them see patterns.
His prescription was knowledge. He developed a series of lectures that explained both the psychological and physical processes that were causing the pain. He also held small group meetings where patients could discuss their issues and progress. He kept the focus on emotions.
If patients struggled to heal he might refer them to one of the psychologists that he worked with who were trained in helping people connect to their emotions. I am writing this not only because I made a film about Dr Sarno, but also as a patient who went to one of his therapists
When I went to see her she asked me about my mother. I replied that she was good but also difficult. She asked me why I was smiling and wondered why I had to either protect her feelings or was trying to protect my mother who wasn't even there.
She had a good point. I only went to see her a few times, but she gave me a great deal of insight into how I might unpack some of my impulses and behaviors to find clues that would help me to be more honest and present with myself. I have been doing that work for a decade now.
Dr Sarno's work was dismissed by his colleagues as "woo", or unscientific nonsense. However, most of the practices in use then had little or no scientific basis. Dr Sarno believed that steroid shots were no better than a placebo- he was proven correct. the-rheumatologist.org/article/effect…
Dr Sarno saw many patients who brought in MRI's that didn't indicate they would have pain where they did. He called the findings on them "normal abnormalities". People thought he was unscientific, but science has proven him correct. Gina Kolata has written about this many times.
In 2017 @ginakolata wrote, "Scans, like an M.R.I., for diagnosis are worse than useless for back pain patients, members of the group said... The results can be misleading, showing what look like abnormalities that actually are not related to the pain" nytimes.com/2017/02/13/hea…
Unfortunately, despite this data and guidelines that suggest MRI's be avoided, practice has not changed significantly. Cortisone shots, while no better than a placebo, can cause problems and have become increasingly expensive. webmd.com/back-pain/news…
While Dr Sarno worked with physical therapists earlier in his career, he later found that the focus on physical healing disrupted patients progress because he saw the deeper problem as the emotional aspects of the pain, and that the physical work was a limiting distraction.
Dr Sarno was practicing in a trauma informed way, recognizing that his patients pains was rooted in the repression of their emotions due to trauma. At the time no colleagues understood his work so in 1984 he wrote a book called "Mind Over Back Pain". penguinrandomhouse.com/books/339020/m…
That book was successful and he put out several more. They were rarely written about, but the word of mouth was astounding. My father was given the book shortly after it was released and had a rapid cure from years of pain. He bought a box and gave them out all the time.
My brother was saved from crippling hand pain that almost forced him to drop out of grad school. My father made him go see Dr Sarno and he had a rapid recovery. I read the book then and banished my own re-current back pain for a decade. When it came back I went to see him.
In 2004 we started our film. When we started it I did not find anyone talking about trauma informed care. We could find support for the work and we put the film on hold. Then my pain came back with a vengeance in 2011 and we restarted the film. I realized I needed to be in it
At that point I found out about @DrGaborMate and his book "When the Body Says No" connecting unresolved trauma to auto immune issues. I found Dr David Clarke's, "They Can't find Anything Wrong" about the connection between gut issues and unresolved trauma. vimeo.com/566331385
I also found @DrBurkeHarris Ted talk about the ACE Study. Unfortunately, we could not get her in the film. However, her awareness that she was mostly treating the symptoms of stress created to trauma was deeply connected to all of these other doctor's work ted.com/talks/nadine_b…
I am not trying to make the argument that the trauma informed care revolution is due to Dr Sarno's work. That's not the case because his work was so misunderstood that it was dismissed as being not rooted in science.
The argument that I am making is that his work should be re-examined by those who dismissed him, because if that work is looked at through the lens of trauma informed care, it makes a lot more sense. His work is connected to a growing body of evidence that supports his ideas. 
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