Healing My Toe with Discharge

I have read about "counseling first aid" for new physical injuries both in the Fundamentals of Co-Counseling Manual and in an article by Lyndon Piddington in the April 1997 Present Time.

Just a few days ago I was able to successfully apply this knowledge when the leg of a couch which was one foot off the ground slipped out of my hands and fell on my right toe. I experienced intense pain instantly. Upon examining my toe, my husband and I found that there was an indentation on the toe nail, some skin was scraped away, and it was bleeding.

I realized I did not want to be limping around with a hurt toe since I wanted to go on a four-mile hike with my daughter two days later. Therefore I decided to ask my partner:

  • to give me aware, loving attention to discharge my emotional hurts from the injury, and

  • to apply pressure around my toe to allow me to really feel the pain and discharge the stored physical tension and shock.

    My husband held me gently while I talked, cried, and trembled. I discharged a lot of grief about the news I had received the day before of an acquaintance's death. Then he applied pressure around my toe, manipulated the sore toe's joints, massaged all the other toes, and rotated my ankles while I screamed, squirmed, and yawned. (He also applied hydrogen peroxide and goldenseal.)

    After a forty-minute session we were able to reduce the pain to a mild throbbing, and one hour after the injury occurred I was able to walk around the house with no pain.

    Several hours later my husband applied pressure to my toe again, this time gleefully grabbing it and pretending to smash it. I screamed and sweated, and we had a fun time. I could feel tension leaving my toe and foot. A third session was more relaxed, with some rough handling that let me alternate between laughing and yawning.

    My toe never swelled up, and I was able to go on the four-mile hike with my daughter.

    The conditions that worked well for me were:

  • that I, the injured person, wanted to discharge,

  • that my partner willingly listened to and executed my instructions, and

  • that my toe was not further injured by any of the pain-inducing pressure applied to it.

    My partner was amazed not only at my willingness to subject myself to this method but also at how quickly my toe healed from the injury.

    I healed my toe with discharge.

    Petra Schulte Hinsch
    Mendocino, California,USA

    (Present Time No. 110, January 1998)


    Last modified: 2022-12-25 10:17:04+00