In This Episode

• Eriko speaks about her experience of mindbody healing for hypothyroidism using a 12-week advanced neural retraining program.
• How getting to the roots of chronic stress can improve overall health, including chronic hypothyroidism and A1C levels .
• Why Eriko feels that the stress-reduction program would be helpful for anyone with chronic health issues who's stuck in a stress response.

Show Notes

Explore a different path to natural healing for hypothyroidism and chronic stress in Episode 80 of Flourish with Neural Retraining. Host Madeleine Lowry speaks with client, Eriko, about her journey using a 12-week thyroid healing program based on neural retraining . Eriko had managed hypothyroidism with medication for 20 years but still suffered from symptoms like anxiety and insomnia. Conventional treatments often fall short for individuals with hypothyroidism or Hashimoto's.

This episode highlights a mindbody approach utilizing neural retraining and stress reduction to achieve symptom improvement by working with the mind. The structured, self-paced program guides users through modules addressing emotional memories, complex patterns like fear, control, and stress-related behaviors, and core beliefs. 

Eriko achieved significant results, reducing her thyroid medication dose by a third. Even on the lower dose, she reported a 30 to 50% improvement in core thyroid symptoms including fatigue, brain fog, and anxiety. A welcome side benefit was her A1C improving from pre-diabetic to normal range.

Beyond physical symptoms, she experienced profound reduction in anxiety, improved sleep and digestion, felt more comfortable in her own skin, and fundamentally changed her response to stress.

Stress underlies many chronic conditions. By clearing subconscious and accumulated stress, the program optimizes the body's natural healing capacities. Eriko found it beneficial for other chronic conditions and recommends it for anyone struggling with chronic stress or any chronic condition, offering an easier, gentler way to achieve lasting change.

Listen now to learn how the mind can support healing the body—naturally. Learn more at TCNeuralRetraining.com

Full Transcript

Note: generated by AI, accuracy not guaranteed.

(Intro Music)

Host: Welcome to the Flourish with Neural Retraining podcast. I'm your host, Madeleine Lowry, founder of Twin Cities Neural Retraining and a certified MAP method practitioner specializing in anxiety sensitivities and chronic symptoms and conditions.

Join me for episode 80 where we will hear from my client Eriko who describes her experience with the 12 week thyroid healing program. Eriko had been my client for a while before she decided to focus on her thyroid health. She'd been hypothyroid for 20 years and was on thyroid hormone replacement. After 12 weeks of neural retraining following the program, she was able to reduce her thyroid meds and even on the lower dose saw a 30 to 50% improvement in most of her thyroid symptoms.

In our conversation, we discuss how the program has potential benefits for all chronic health conditions, not just hypothyroidism or Hashimoto's. Eriko wondered if her A1C levels would improve as a result as well. And after we recorded this session, She had some blood work done and reported to me that her A1C test results, which had been in the pre-diabetic range, had improved and were now in the normal range. Another nice side benefit of the neural retraining process.

As always, we must disclaim that the information we share in the podcast is for educational purposes only. As MAP method practitioners, we do not diagnose or treat disease. Instead, we work with the mind to optimize health. Now, let's hear from Eriko.

Host: Yes. So, welcome, Eriko. This is so nice to have you join me on my podcast to speak about your experience with the thyroid healing program.

Eriko: Thank you very much. Yes. I'm really excited to be doing this. It's I uh this is actually my podcast debut. So, let's see how it goes.

Host: Yeah. Well, it was wonderful to be able to have this conversation with you. You know, when I put this program together, I I really thought it would address a need for people who had, you know, long-standing thyroid issues for whom the usual ways of going about addressing the issue just weren't really hitting the mark. There are a lot of people out there that are frustrated with their body's response to thyroid medications. Some people aren't offered thyroid medication because they don't have lab levels that would indicate a diagnosis, but still they have the symptoms and others have these diagnoses like hypothyroidism and Hashimoto's but the usual treatments aren't working for them and sometimes even increased levels of thyroid hormone can cause hyperthyroid symptoms as well as hypothyroid symptoms at the same time and that can be frustrating as well. So I was really thinking you know wouldn't this be great to explore how we can work with the mind to achieve symptom improvement, you know, without having to do all the other things that are often suggested or doing that in concert with the other things that are often suggested by other kinds of practitioners like functional medicine practitioners. Maybe this is um just a a little a few opening thoughts from me and maybe you can just talk about where you were at with your thyroid health and what you were hoping to address by using a program like this which is a mindbody approach, right?

Eriko: So in my case, the thyroid medication um that I was on was actually working and so I I was diagnosed with hypothyroid um about 20 years ago and ever since then I have always stuck with um um porcelain derived uh thyroid medications. So you know armor thyroid, naturid and now currently MP thyroid and Even though they were working in the last couple of years, I was beginning to feel that if I could get a handle on in my case, anxiety and insomnia were the the two biggest symptoms that really plagued me. And I felt like um if I could just get handle on those two, I could probably get off of the medication. The other reason I really wanted to get off of the medication was the cost of the medication just kept going up year after year. Those, you know, that they were the the reasons I I was really interested in trying to get off of medication. And at at the same time, um even though the medications were working, I really was still struggling with, you know, some symptoms like like I said, anxiety, insomnia, I I still had those. And it, you know, thyroid medication um It's something you really don't want to overdose because it can really tax your heart and you can you know you can have heart condition on top of thyroid issues. So um a lot of doctors u endocrinologists are really you know they they want to titrate very very slowly and and that's understandable but for patients what it means is months and months and months of waiting for symptom improvement. It is just incredibly frustrating. So, so I thought that um if there was another way for me to just resolve my um thyroid issues altogether so that I wouldn't be dependent on medication that really would be the you know the best thing um for me.

Host: Yeah. You know and over the years you know I've worked with many clients that have hypothyroidism or the symptoms of hypothyroidism even if they don't have the diagnosis you know adrenal fatigue chronic fatigue and you know I've seen many clients do really well with a mindbody technique like this which is essentially a stress reduction process. Right? So they they would come and do sessions with me but it would be at least six sessions and often many more than that you know to kind of get to the point where they felt like they had significant symptom improvement and or able to reduce their thyroid meds. And some even got to the point where their labs were no longer consistent with their diagnosis. Anyway, I was heartened, you know, by those results. You know, I I work with people with all kinds of chronic health issues. So, these were just people who were referred to me over time from functional medicine practitioners and other people that knew my work. And I also had... Oh, I had my work written up in a book, which I think is how you found out about me. Is that right?

Eriko: Actually, no. I was already your patient previous to that. I think the book came out after I started working with you. Certainly, the book was how I found out um how MAP can be used effectively for thyroid conditions. And initially when I came to you, um I I I didn't come to you specifically for thyroid issues. I have um couple of other um chronic conditions. and I I was more interested in working with them. Um but but you know the the book was really helpful in that it gave me um an insight that I didn't I don't think I really had before that all the other chronic conditions that I had which I always thought were just independent of my thyroid conditions were in fact related to thyroid conditions. So you know when you came up with this program I thought oh perfect effect. You know, this is um this is this is exactly what I need because like every other chronic condition patients, I've tried a lot of things and you know, a lot of them have fallen short and uh and because I already worked with you and I knew how MAP worked, I feel really comfortable with this program.

Host: So, I should probably just back up and say the book we were talking about is called The Thyroid Debacle and it was written during the pandemic by Dr. Eric Balcavage and Dr. Kelly Halderman.

Eriko: Mhm.

Host: So, it's co-authored by both. Dr. Kelly Halderman was a client of mine and during the time that she was writing her chapters. So, she decided to include the MAP method in her uh chapter on emotional fitness because she found that it was that working with the subconscious mind through this neural retraining method was highly beneficial for her. Um and for the people that she referred to me. So, uh, so that was probably the first book that the MAP method was included in. Um, and it happened to be a book about hypothyroidism. So, you know, that was another I I I think just like another point at which I thought, yeah, maybe I should invest some time in creating a program um that would address the needs of someone with low thyroid function. Yeah. So at this point you have completed the 12week program or 12 modules.

Eriko: Yes.

Host: Maybe you can talk a little bit about your experience with that and the benefits that you have seen from going through a process like this, right? Because it's different than doing live sessions. So we had done some live sessions prior to you embarking on this program and I do think that the pro a structured program like this is quite different than just coming to do one- on-one sessions.

Eriko: Yes. And and in fact um when I signed on uh with the program that that really was one of the um unknowns to me, you know, how a program like this uh that I could work on um by myself without a live session with you would work out. Um but once I got started, I really felt very comfortable. Um and I actually I felt that in a way it was It gave me um a lot of freedom because because of the way that it's structured, I actually had um the ability to go back again and again on the same topic and and even within the same module if I wanted to. So, so I I thought that once I got started, I felt really comfortable with with the module. One of the things that I did struggle with, yeah, I think there were maybe two struggles um that that I had and one was you know, just making sure that I could carve out the time every single week to work on on the modules. Um, and in my case, um, what I did was to made a commitment that I would start a new module every Sunday. So, you know, this being a 12-week program with an extra four weeks at the end, um, I knew I had some extra time, but I was afraid that, um, you know, if I decide to spend an extra week on a on on this module and then actually work on another module. You know, at the end I may just run out of time and never never get to module 12. So I made a decision very early on that I was going to just um start a new module every Sunday. And so that meant to at least for me um that I would carve out a two hours every Sunday to make sure that I would have enough time to uh listen to the the lesson, do the journaling and then you know based on um my journaling um pick a topic and do my first session for the module on that Sunday. and and I it worked out for me because by committing to the schedule, you know, I would have at least one session out of the way that made it easier for me to carve out um maybe um uh an hour here and there uh two more days over that week. I just felt that um you know, just sticking to that one module per week and starting on every Sunday was was a commitment that I needed to stick to. And uh and and I'm I'm glad that I did because it got me to module 12, by week 12. And at the end of it, um I had time to look over um my journaling. And um the other thing that I did um for each session was to Right. I I took I wrote down a lot of notes for after every session because in a lot of the sessions I I I gained some sort of insight insight or understanding um oral resolution that I just really was not expecting at all. I thought I I think I should write this down because um I had I had a feeling that it would help me to just know read over them. So the the probably not the time was the first difficulty the the or the one not a difficulty but a struggle. The second one was that um a lot of the modules um work with memories with emotional intensity but because I have worked with you previously in live sessions I was finding that um I was actually running out of memories with a lot of emotional intensities. So that was that was a struggle. So I started working with memory ies um with uh you know lower emotional intensity where I have previously worked with emotional uh you know memories with emotional intensity of eight or nine or even 10 you know now I was working with uh emotional intensity of you know four five and at first I was I was thinking oh gosh I'm not sure how this is going to work you know I'm not sure how um meaningful this session is going to be because uh the the memory that I'm working with has uh you know such um lower emotional intensity um than I had worked with previously but I I was really pleasantly surprised that in in a lot of cases I did get a lot out of it. You know I had a really like great sessions um and I came away with some insights some resolutions that um that really surprised me. and and that really helped me. Yeah. So, those were the um the main the two main struggles that I felt.

Host: Mhm. So, again, I should probably just back up and explain that the structure of the program is uh 12 modules over 12 weeks. That's the the pace. And um if you do the program at pace, you're doing three brain retraining sessions each week. These are recorded sessions. There's one for each module. So, each module introduces a new topic. IC uh you listen to a lesson on the topic. You have a journal prompt so that uh you apply apply what you learn to you know you kind of look at your own life and make some notes about your own experience and these the product of the journal exercise is basically a list of possible topics for the session for that week. So again when we talk about a structured program modules are designed so that we move from simpler topics in the beginning more about u single emotional memories to more complex topics like patterns. As you're moving through the program, you're tackling more complex, more involved, more entrenched uh patterns and behaviors as opposed to just memories. So each each module is an opportunity to explore and a different part I guess you could say of your experience. So we have modules on things like uh fear and a need for control. You know a very common pattern that we see um as you as you talked about one of the later modules is about blocks to self-acceptance and self-love. One of the advantages of working through a structured program like this is that when we work one-on-one in live sessions, you come to the session and you have to have some ideas about what you might want to work on. So you're using your own your own awareness, your own usually earned experience to try to identify, you know, what would be useful for for us to work on today. When you're put through a program like this, it forces you to examine some things that you might not have brought up on your own. And you know, you and I had done a number of sessions prior to you entering the program, but some some of the people in the program are much more experienced uh with MAP and some are even MAP practitioners themselves. So, with unlimited access to MAP. This program, you know, because of my experience in working with people with all kinds of chronic conditions and seeing where the stress lies, I came up with this sequence of topics to explore that I think takes people who are willing to engage with it through a much more thorough exploration of their personal experience, of their personality, of how they relate to the world and In doing so, I I think it's a it's a much more thorough process for reducing stress. It's a stress reduction program at its heart. It can be used for thyroid health, of course, but I believe it has benefits for whole body health because stress has effects on the whole body, not just um not just this condition or that condition.

Eriko: Yes. In fact, in some of the modules um I used to I I work on um conditions other than thyroid, you know, I have um a lot of um joint issues. So, I use the modules to for that. You know, there were just situations where the memories with most the the highest um emotional intensity was associated with like my joint issues rather than with my thyroid issues. And I thought, well, why not? So, and and uh you know, I I had really good result. results from that. So even though um I enrolled in this program to specifically work on my thyroid um it's it really you know just almost from the beginning it really proved to be very useful for other chronic conditions as well. And because stress is at the bottom of so many chronic conditions anyway I I really feel like there's just really no need to um limit yourself to just thyroid issues when you're working on this program.

Host: Yes. Yes. Well said. Yeah. Stress is definitely at the root of so many chronic conditions. So, at what point you said almost from the beginning, but you know, at what point did you recognize that, you know, you were seeing benefits from from the program?

Eriko: Oh, I I I think I I had a really um intense first session, you know, the the very first session in in the the first module. I I had a physical reaction. Um This was kind of weird, but um I think that the the the experience of the session was so intense that I came down with a eye infection, which was Yeah. Which was really weird. Um but it cleared up in couple more sessions. So yeah, I really feel like my body was kind of releasing toxins and it just came out in in the form of discharges from my eyes. That's that's what it felt like. And and uh after a couple more sessions they they just kind of resolved by themselves. But I remember that um in module five, I had a really good session where I was able I I I've had a a very long-standing um resentment towards my sisters over some family issues. And so and I that was a topic that I had chosen for one of the sessions under module 5. And I had this great insight and uh it was it was it was amazing. So I once I came to that insight I just I just got over that resentment and it was so freeing. It's you know feelings like resentment, anger, fear. It's you know all these negative emotions they just take up so much energy to to maintain. You know when you harbor negative emotions like that for years and years and years, they take up so much energy. And I think that this is a great program to just kind of liberate yourself, make things just lighter for yourself. So, so and and I felt that um in that particular uh session under module five that's that's exactly what I was able to do. Yeah. So, module five is about current life stress the middle of the program and uh yeah gives you an opportunity to kind of think about your life and you know what what is causing you stress this point in time. So

Host: yeah.

Eriko: Yeah. And and then and physically I had I I can't exactly remember when um but I think it was around module 9 or 10 that um I was able to reduce my thyroid medication by a third. So I was taking 45 milligrams but I was able to reduce it to 30 30 milligrams. So that was you know that was a pretty significant um improvement. So yeah and that and as you were saying um earlier the the later modules are really are more more intense and I I think it was around module 8 when I started to think oh boy this is going this is going to be painful and you know as and then when I moved on to module 9 I thought wow okay this this is going to this is going to hurt but it's I I felt that when I got to those um modules and when I started uh journaling I really felt that it was important to be just know just brutally honest with myself and be because It's in a way you know when you have when you're living with stress in a way uh you are deceiving yourself you know you are telling yourself it's okay things are bad but it's okay you can manage you know you're kind of coming up with excuses to tell yourself that things aren't really that bad or not you can manage this but your body is much more honest and it's you know you start having some really serious health issues. And so when I got to I think it really was module 9 when I really felt like, okay, I have to stop all that selfdeception and just be, you know, just take a really good look at myself on the inside and and journal based on that, not based on what I tell myself to get through the day. So So I thought that that part was um yeah, that part Yeah, I guess that that really should be considered as as one of the struggles that I encountered. But I I felt that if um that really was a crucial step because you know it's what's the point of doing these map sessions if you're going to if your starting point is a is a memory or you know a thought based on selfdeception. It's you're you're not you're not going to get very far. So you know even though that it was hard um I felt like it paid off in the end.

Host: Wow. Yeah. So, let me just thank you for sharing that. So, I think that's a really important point what you said to be brutally honest with yourself. And that's why, you know, that's another great thing about working with a program, right? You don't have to fess up to a practitioner. You don't have to share with anyone. You know, you do your journal exercise yourself. You decide what's important, what the what the priorities are for you, and you take that into the sessions for the week. You can certainly decide, you know, to skip over something you don't want to deal with right now. But of course, the more that you are ready to deal with um the more benefit you can get. And you talked about module 8, which is stress related to fear and control. You talked about module 9, stressful behavior patterns. That's like personality traits like the fixer and the nurturer, the caretaker, the peacemaker, you know, people. pleasing and things like that. You know, these are topics that are very commonly see in my clients and that we work with. But, you know, these are also topics that often require more than one visit to resolve because they are so pervasive. You know, we're not talking about one or 10 or 20 memories here now. We're talking about, you know, years worth of memories here. Reinforcing these patterns over time to the point where they we think that's just our personality and it can't be changed. And you know what I've seen as a practitioner working with many many people is that these are patterns but that doesn't mean that they can't be changed. Even very entrenched patterns can be changed. And this is the wonderful thing about working with the subconscious mind. Right? So this whole program is predicated on how much can you accomplish by working with the power of your subconscious mind. This is an opportunity to work in a different way by harnessing the power of the subconscious mind to really change your mental landscape on an emotional and a mental level and then see the benefits of that. You know, as we resolve layer upon layer of stress, including the subconscious stress that you may not you don't consciously register but is there. And so as we as we remove or we clear these strata of stress that have accumulated over your lifetime that lightning that you talked about, right? Feeling lighter, feeling like, you know, you can shed a burden, feeling like you can let go of something that like has been occupying mental space for a long time. These are all things that benefit you on a physical level in your physical health, not right away, right? It's the cumulative effect of multiple sessions. And in this program, you know, you get 20 plus sessions, you know, if you do three sessions for each module, it's like 27 sessions. So, So it's an opportunity, right, to do that deep work and kind of excavate, right?. All these these roots, all these stress roots that you've built up over, you know, over your life. We all have. We all have and that are weighing on you and that are making it harder than it needs to be for you to heal. You know, your body's natural healing capabilities are not optimized. You know, when you're under the effects of stress and so what do you you know now that you have been through this whole process you've invested your time right you you're very disciplined about it by the end what would you say you feel you've accomplished by you know going through this this process?

Eriko: um the number one thing is that I got to know myself much better than than I did before because it you know a lot of this really every module really has for me to look at past trauma really, right? um and and from from different angles. I mean often I worked on the same topic but in different modules and and each time I thought well this but it's the same topic but this this particular module asks the question you know in a different way and even though it's the same topic I do have different thoughts about that you know based on the way that the the module asked that question. So you know I I think there was maybe like um couple of topics that I that I worked on in maybe like three different sessions and every single time and and they were incidentally both topics that I had worked with you in in live sessions previously and every single time I was really surprised and it gave me um a deeper understanding. I allowed me to interpret that past experience uh in a way that I had never been able to before and I came way feeling that I had gained you know better understanding not of my the situation but of myself because you know these experiences are what forms me as I am today. So I I felt like every session was um an excavation into into who I am. So I I felt like I got to know myself better. And then when I came to the um module 11 which is about self- love and self acceptance. When I saw the title I thought oh yes that makes total sense because no I've done all this hard work in all these modules asking myself to you know look into past experiences um and you know being like I said before being brutally honest about who I am or who I think I am my perception of who I am and uh and at the end of it Um as I came to gain a greater understanding of who I am, of course the last step is for me to accept who I am as I am and also love myself as I am. So in module 11 to me it felt like I stepped to feel more comfortable in my own skin and you know which is just another way to say self-acceptance and self- love. The the whole structure of this program made a lot of sense to me. I thought it was it was really logical but you know um it allowed me to um delve deeper into who I am in tiny steps so that I mean you know I couldn't possibly have jumped from like know module one to module 11 right away that that wouldn't have worked but the program is set up so that I I could take incremental steps to build up to  self acceptance of self- love. Module 11 was a great way to end the program, too.

Host: Yeah. So, yeah, thank you for that description. So, benefits. So, you talked about knowing yourself better and feeling more comfortable in your own skin. Um, you've talked about being able to reduce your thyroid meds, which is great. Can we talk about symptom reduction as well?

Eriko: Yes. So, yeah, I I did actually have some um my my digestion really improved. So I had I had some constipation before but yeah that's I feel like that's just completely resolved. Insomnia I was actually I did see an improvement um over the last couple of weeks. So I had I have a sit a situation going on that's been a little bit more stressful. So I've been struggling a little bit more with sleep. But I think the um number one symptom reduction that I've seen is um anxiety, you know, whereas uh previously I would have well so so um I in late February I injured myself to a point where I just had to just kind of um step away from work and and and not work um for probably for a couple more months, perhaps more. And you know that is a that has a lot of ramifications um not just physically but financially. and you know emotionally. Um but when that happened I was really surprised with myself to realize that I did not feel anxious. I I knew exactly um what the consequences could be and what the ramifications could be. But I thought yeah that's it's okay. So it could be tough for a while but that's okay you know that's um that's what I have emergency funds for. before I I I didn't have this you know anxious reaction whereas before I would have been yeah I would have been very anxious I would have been just um you know asking myself completely useless questions like what am I going to do asking myself what am I going to do repeatedly on loop you know um every single day every single hour and without coming up with uh with any useful answers and this time I just sat back and that okay well I just have to take it easy because pushing myself at this point uh is just going to make the injury worse which is going to prolong the recovery time which is going to have even greater financial consequences. So the best thing to do is just sit back and do what I can to uh speed up the recovery. And I I was really amazed with myself you know that I've I've never had that reaction in a in a in a similar situation before.

Host: Yeah so coming into the program I think you said earlier anxiety was one of the main symptoms that you wanted to to improve to work on. Yes. and so certainly working through a program like this doesn't mean that you'll never feel anxious again right but I think one of the one of the main emotional goals of the program is to help to kind of settle that mind so that the worry loops aren't running so easily anymore. Things are going to happen in your life that that of course are concerning like this injury and you know your inability to work and the lack of income that that you know that means for you and you know the impact on your career and so forth. But when we have a more settled, quieter, calmer mind, we can handle life better. The ups and the downs of life, we can handle it better. So that this upset which you you can't change, right?. Doesn't have to drain you like all all the angst or all the anxiety that you would have had previously doesn't have to drain you of all your you know resources and pull down your your physical health as well. I mean in aside from the injury I hope this is making sense to people because we do use up a lot of mental and emotional energy when repetitive negative thoughts and rumin and worry loops. All these patterns right are running. And so by working through a program like this and and settling all of that, helping us to be more centered, more grounded, more present, able to deal with what is happening in the moment without all of those as you as you describe them, right? These useless questions, right? These projections into the future, a future we don't want or an outcome we don't want, a situation we don't want to be dealing with, right? Can really really take us down, including the rest of our physical health. But working through the a program like this is protective of that. I like to say that working through a process like this that the benefits continue to acrue even after you finish the program because now as you said, you know, I feel more comfortable in my own body. I feel like I know myself better. I feel more settled in myself. Unpredictable things that happen. Don't throw me off as much. That that is all positive means that your response to stress has been changed on a fundamental level. And this is really what we want we want to accomplish because we know that people who have had traumas in their past, we all have, but especially early life trauma, those painful emotional events change the way that we respond to stress. And it changes the way that we respond to stress for the rest of our lives unless we do something about it, right? We make a concerted effort to change that. And that is what I think this 12week program endeavors to do. It helps us to reset all of that so that we can respond differently to stress. And that means that we have more of our inner resources available to us for health and for healing.

Eriko: No. Yeah. I I that's exactly what I felt because um through a lot of the sessions um I I I kept coming back to my childhood and and I felt and I really felt like, you know, just because of the way that um I was raised in my early childhood. I was conditioned um to to react to stress in in the way that I currently do, even though it was so obviously detrimental to my health. you know but but that's how was how I was conditioned and even though I knew that I didn't know how to break that that cycle know how to break through that conditioning on my own and so once I started to you know work with you um previously with in live sessions and then through this program I felt like I was finally you know making this breakthrough just getting myself out of that that really um harmful conditioning and learning to react in a much more productive way, you know, uh in a way that wasn't harming me, that was actually, you know, constructively addressing whatever issue that I was that I was faced with rather than overreacting, which was my, you know, previous standard uh way to deal with uh bad situation. So, yeah. So, I I think you're right.

Host: So, I you know, we talked about symptom reduction. I just want to um go over some of the data that you provided during the course of the program. Is it okay with you if I talk a little bit about how you rated your symptoms at the beginning and at the end because as part of this program uh we have each participant rate their symptoms in week one. Um so symptom severity on a range of symptoms typical for you know hypothyroidism and then we have them rate it again in the middle and then at the end so after they complete the the entire program. And so I just want to point out, you know, I when I compare your initial ratings of symptom severity and the ratings that I don't know if you've even looked at this, right, at by the end of the program, you know, symptoms like uh fatigue and brain fog, bloat, hair loss, anxiety, feeling cold, aches and pains, dry skin, heart palpitations. This is not the entire list. These are the symptoms symptoms that you rated as being improved significantly improved. So for you know fatigue you went from a 7 out of 10 to a three brain fog 6 out of 10 to a three and similar for all these other symptoms they were 30 to 50% better than the original ratings. So similar you know six to a four 6 to a three 7 to a three. You know it was kind of the same level of improvement for many of these symptoms. that are very typical for people with hypothyroidism. So I see that as a positive as well. Yeah, even the heart palpitations, you know, six to a three by the end. So it's not gone, right? Not it didn't disappear. But I think that, you know, especially especially considering that you were able to cut your thyroid meds by a third and still by the end of the program, you had symptoms some improvement on that lower dose, right? That's um I think that's a very positive result.

Eriko: Yeah, I I really was, you know, when I uh um cut cut down my um dose by one/third, I I was initially a little skeptical um if I would be able to maintain the the new level, but it's been I I think it's been over a month now and and I'm still at 30. So, it looks Yeah, it's I'm seem to be I seem to be doing fine at this uh lower mid uh dose.

Host: and stressful things have been happening to you.

Eriko: Yes. Yes. And yes, and then uh briefly I thought about um increasing the dose, but I I think I'm fine. I I I think I'll be able to deal with this.

Host: And so, you know, what are your thoughts about, you know, whether you would recommend the program to others and for whom and for what kinds of situations or issues.

Eriko: Yeah, I I actually would recommend this um program to pretty much anyone really because you know even though this is uh I mean thy the word thyroid does appear in the title of the program it's you know that it really I think has a much wider applicability. So any anyone who is struggling with chronic stress um um and and probably anyone someone who's um dealing with chronic conditions of any kind. Uh you know, like I said before, I I'm struggling with um chronic conditions um related to my joints and I've had that for like 40 years. So that's been really help uh the program has been really helpful uh for that as well as I know thyroid. I know um what chronic condition is it's it is it you know people with chronic condition s we just go through we try so many different things and we are continually disappointed with different things that we try and every time you know we come away feeling okay yeah that was another bus you know that was another I don't know you know $500 another $1,000 that was wasted and after a while we get really jaded um but it's uh this this program has really paid off for me. I think um other people with chronic condition would be helped as well. Um but I was also thinking you know there um a lot of people with chronic stress because of work or family you know maybe they're they're caretaker for a family or whatever um it's if anyone with chronic stress situation I think will be will be um helped but you know this goes back to um being brutally honest with yourself. It's it it is really important to be brutally honest with yourself that number one you are in a chronically stressful situation and you know you've probably tried a lot of different things and if it hasn't worked it's time to move on to something different because it's not helping you and you're not going to get out of it on your own. It's you know it's just gotten to that point. I think people just a lot of people just try to tough it out you know they think that that's you know this is something I can handle. It's just I just need a little more time. And you probably been saying that for two years, 3 years, 10 years. Then yeah, it's time to try something. It's time to get some help.

Host: Yeah, I really don't see any need to limit this program to people with thyroid condition at all.

Eriko: I agree with you. It is a stress reduction program.

Host: As you said, you know, anyone who recognizes that they are stuck in a fightlight freeze or a sympathetic dominant state. People who recognize that they are living under significant amount of chronic stress that that's the thing about working with the subconscious mind that people don't really understand because they think well but you're not going to change my situation at work or the caregiving situation I you know I'm in or my relationship stress right you're not going to change any of these very real issues in my life. So, how is this going to help? You know, and I it can be hard to understand. I mean, it was easier for you to understand because you'd already worked with me in live sessions and you could see how working with the subconscious mind can really change your perspective even on yes, you know, definitely those are those are stressful situations, but this amount of stress that we feel is related to more than just the situation you are facing. right now, right? Because every stressful situation is ringing a bell going back to other stressful situations that have made you feel the same way throughout your entire life, right? Because your to your subconscious mind there is no sense of time. Everything is now. And so by by working with the subconscious mind and finding all those associated events and neutralizing them, so you still have the memory, it's not like we're erasing memories, but we are neutralizing the emotional intensity around this group of memories then the situation that you are facing today can feel more manageable. It's not spiking right the anxiety at an 8 9 10 the way it uh would have if you hadn't done that work and that's what you're finding right now with this injury that's put you out of work for several months that's a stressful situation for anyone but because you've invested the time you've done this work you've kind of reset your mind to a different response pattern or you know response level you can now look at this same situation which would have but you had a very high level of stress before and be much more accepting of it.

Eriko: Yes.

Host: yeah. yeah.

Eriko: that's that's true and you know earlier when you were saying about how um doing map or this program wouldn't necessarily change this the spiritual situation that people are in that's that's true but I think What it does do is to give you it's like you know giving you um more room in your mind to be able to look at your situation in from a much calmer perspective and maybe you can see a way out or you know maybe you can see a way to manage the situation that you weren't able to before because you were in probably in a panic mindset.

Host: Yeah.

Eriko: So I I I think that's that's one of the uh benefit, you know, even if you can't change a situation right away, maybe you can strategize. A lot of people just don't know how to ask for help. They for whatever reason, they just don't know how to ask for help. But there's nothing wrong with it. And I think that that uh working with MAP and you know, getting over whatever hump that you have that makes you think that you shouldn't ask for help. Um you know, maybe you can get over it. Realize that it's okay to ask for help from friends. friends and family, it's okay. You know, they love you. They want you to be happy. They're willing to help. I I'm sure there are situation when when it's there just really is almost impossible to change. But I think that gaining a new perspective could go a long way to possibly um changing the the situation that you're in.

Host: Yes. And I feel like we're talking about module 10, stressful core beliefs and identities, right? People can't ask for help, right? It's like you know, what is it that you believe about yourself, about others, about what it means to ask people for help? That that is something that we definitely work with in the program. Well, thank you so much for joining me today. It's been really lovely to have this conversation with you and just hear more about your experience with the program and how it's helped you. And I'm just so thankful, Ro, that you came to speak with me today.

Eriko: Thank you. I I had a really good time working on this program. And uh I hope that other people can benefit from this as well.

Host: Yes, thank you. Yes, it's a commitment for sure.

Eriko: Absolutely. Totally worth it.

Host: Thanks for joining us for the Flourish with Neural Retraining podcast. Please listen again and remember to follow us and leave a review on iTunes, Spotify, Amazon Music, YouTube Music, or Pandora.

Check out our free courses about the MAP method and all of our MAP programs, including the Thyroid Healing Program at mapforhealth.us or schedule your introductory MAP session at TCNeuralRetraining.com. Until the next time, be well and flourish.

Content of this podcast copyright 2025 by Twin Cities Neural Retraining. Music by Barbara Benn.

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