Rick Wilkes - Back Pain Relief!

How You Can Finally Find the Relief You've

Been Looking For
Welcome to the Tapping World Summit 2011. This is your host, Jessica Ortner. By
listening to this interview, you agree to the terms located at
http://www.thetappingworldsummit.com/disclaimer. We hope this interview helps you
become a healthier and a happier you.

Back pain has been described as an epidemic. It is one of the most common ailments
in the United States. According to the American Chiropractic Association, more than 31
million Americans experience low back pain at any given time. Americans spend at
least 50 billion each year on back pain and that is not considering money lost as back
pain, after colds, is the most common reason why people miss work.

If you are suffering from back pain then you have found yourself in the right place. We‟ll
be speaking to Rick Wilkes from http://thrivingnow.com/. Rick is an EFT expert and
pain relief specialist who has worked with over 1500 clients. It is a real pleasure to have
him. Welcome, Rick.

Rick Wilkes: It‟s great to be here, Jessica.

Jessica Ortner: Well, Rick, what results have you seen when people begin to use
tapping to relieve back pain?

Rick Wilkes: Well, my background before tapping was in massage therapy. And I was
looking for a way to help my clients address all the different aspects of back pain.
Our backs bear the brunt of our physical, emotional, and all the discord in our life.
And what I‟ve seen is that when people use tapping, it addresses the pain on all
of those different levels. It takes away the stress so the physical back is not
always under that anxious tension that stress creates in their life. And I‟ve seen
people who started using tapping in the morning on the stresses as they came
up. At the end of the day, instead of feeling like they had been beaten all day
long, they feel surprisingly flexible, relaxed, balanced, even stronger than when
they started the day.

Jessica Ortner: Wow, that‟s incredible. And Rick, I know that you look at the back
in a different way. You look at it physically, emotionally, and energetically. So
can you explain this?

Rick Wilkes: So many times – you mentioned chiropractic, and I go to a chiropractor,

and chiropractic looks at the physical structure of the back. They look for ways
that it is twisted, imbalanced, and they treat those aspects of it. And when you
go to an orthopedic specialist they will x-ray or give you an MRI and they look at
the back and they look at where there might be damage – where there might be
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Rick Wilkes – Back Pain Continued

a nerve that‟s been pinched. Where there are stresses, strains, inflammation.
When you go to a physical therapist, again, they‟re looking at the back physically,
and that is an extremely useful way of looking at the back and you can treat and
help strengthen the back physically in all of those different ways. Massage
therapy as well.

When you look at the emotional component, that‟s where people‟s eyes are often
opened. If there was an emotion in your back, what might it be: anger, stress,
strain? If there was a trauma in your life, when you remember that trauma, does
your back pain get worse? Huh, never thought of that before, never even thought
of asking the question. Like if there‟s a car accident - most professionals that
people turn to to look at the back pain will look at the physical structure. They
won‟t look at the freeze response that might have triggered their body into
constantly clenching, ready for the next fall, the next time that the car gets hit.
And it‟s those emotional aspects of it that often are the biggest contributors to the
suffering that‟s in back pain. If you separate out physical signals of pain and
distress from the emotional suffering aspect – if you can clear the suffering, then
it‟s pain. It doesn‟t create the same kind of turmoil inside of us. In fact I would
say that when people talk about their back pain, it‟s often their emotional aspects
to it that are causing them to feel distress.

Now sure, the physical pain – it can be extremely intense. I had an L5 S1

discectomy in 1999, I have become an expert on my own back, and as people
listen I encourage them to learn about your back, learn about the ways that it is
speaking to you because energetically most people can – if they start tuning into
their back – feel the flow of energy up and down the back. Feel whether there is
a nice alignment energetically. It‟s a more subtle signal than the stiffness that
most people talk about. So if you address the physical side of it and the
emotional side of it, what‟s going to happen is you‟re going to feel more power -
the energetic power flowing from your core and strengthening your arms, your
shoulders, your neck, your brain, all of those things are tied into our nervous
system. By tapping on the issues around your back and the emotions and the
like that come up when you think about it and touch it, you can see dramatic
changes in your core experience of life – and not just relieve your back pain,
which is really helpful in and of itself.

Jessica Ortner: Have you found that it‟s hard for some people to believe? Because
I can just imagine someone thinking, I have a herniated disc. This is a very
physical problem. Me working on the emotional aspects won’t change the fact
that I have a herniated disc or some problem in the back.

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Rick Wilkes – Back Pain Continued

Rick Wilkes: Well sure. There‟s a concrete physical thing that‟s wrong with your back.
Now, I had such a disc herniation in my low back. It was going to require
surgery, no question. However, when I think about all of the different emotions
that came up, the sense of helplessness, it‟s one thing to have a herniation in
your back, and my – it was the cause of a skiing accident – and, I had certain
things come up, like, I’m never going to get well again. I’ll never be able to run
again. I’ll never be able to have sex again. I’ll never be able to… Can you feel
the suffering that comes from those emotions? Now, using tapping on those
emotions - I‟ve found with clients, well then they have clarity. They have clarity
about, Which is the right doctor for me? What is the right time to get surgery - if
surgery is called for? If you relieve the emotional stress on a disc, especially if
it‟s not blown out like mine is, most herniations heal on their own. Well you can
help that dramatically by taking the emotional stress out of that area.

I have seen how, if someone has a weak point in their back, usually it‟s reflected
in a weak point in their emotional flexibility, or their vulnerability. So for example,
if you touch that area and you say, Well what does this area remind you of? Ah, I
feel vulnerable. Well when did you feel vulnerable? And they may turn to one of
the many different ways that we have trauma related to vulnerabilities; sexual
abuse and emotionally unhealthy environments. All of those things start coming
up in the back, and it seems that the body somatizes. It takes those emotional
states and will plop them somewhere. For some people it‟s a knee, for many
people it‟s their spine or their neck.

Jessica Ortner: Rick, you‟ve worked with so many people who have back pain; do
you find that there are certain blocks that can come up that are associated with
back pain?

Rick Wilkes: Yes there are and I‟d like to talk about them, but before we get started I
like to tap while we learn. And so if you do have any back discomfort at all - first
of all remember that I don‟t know you and you need to be responsible for how
you move and test your back. But I encourage all of my clients to tune in at
those three different levels. First, physically, how intense is the physical back
pain? Where is it? Is it in your middle back, your low back, your neck? And give
it a rating 0-10. If you need to guess on it, just guess. It‟s a number for you to
just gauge on. How do you move? One of the funniest things that I ever saw in
my EFT career was when I was working with someone with back pain and he
could not bend forward more than a couple of inches and we started tapping and
tapping, and about fifteen minutes later I asked him just to be careful, but test it.
He bends all the way over at the waist and just before he gets to touch his toes
he says, Oh, yeah. It still hurts there., before he couldn‟t move at all and in his
mind it hadn‟t been helped. And if you‟re doing this on your own or you‟re
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Rick Wilkes – Back Pain Continued

working with clients, it‟s important that you be specific. Like if you can move to
the left side but it feels stiff and stretchy when you move to the right, forward,
back, again, stay within the boundaries of comfort where you start getting that
first signal that, Uh, something’s not quite right there.

Emotionally what‟s the level of stress? If there was an emotion in your back,
what might it be? And take the first thing that comes up. Again, someone may
start with anger and after they‟ve done tapping on the anger it may come back to
a feeling of being unsupported or betrayed. And that‟s a different aspect. And if
you‟re writing it down and monitoring yourself, it allows you to track your
progress.

And the other thing is energetically. How does it feel, flow, top to bottom, bottom
to top? Does it feel like there‟s a flow of energy or does it feel stuck somewhere?
And then we can just start doing some tapping. I‟d like to do a round of tapping
before we get into the blocks.

Jessica Ortner: I would love that. So the listener and I will repeat after you.

Rick Wilkes: That‟s great.

Even though I have this pain in my back

And some of it‟s physical,
Some of it may be emotional,
And I don‟t feel a positive energy in my spine at all,
I deeply and completely accept my back anyway.

TH: This pain in my back

EB: This physical pain right there,
SE: This emotional pain in my back.
UE: My back is suffering,
UN: I‟m suffering,
CP: I‟m so tired of suffering.
CB: This physical pain in my back
UA: I‟m in the process of letting it go.

TH: And honoring and respecting all the feelings in my back.

Take a deep breath. (Breathe in and out)

Now as soon as I do that, my back wants to wiggle. (Jessica laughs) I‟m starting
to sway a little bit, and listen to your body. Tune into it, check in again. For
some people, they can notice a very quick change. For other people it will be
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Rick Wilkes – Back Pain Continued

more subtle. And I believe that the back is one of the greatest teachers I‟ve ever
had. It will show me and expose to me imbalances in the rest of my being
because these blocks that we were talking about, they can come from an
accident –, car accident, falling down the stairs, things like that. It can come from
surgery. I had someone who had a gall bladder surgery and after the gall
bladder surgery healed and the doctor said that everything was fine, she still had
pain in her back along the ribs in the back. Now there wasn‟t anything obvious,
but we tapped on the surgery and all the – the kind of emotions and the physical
sensations, and after we did that (hmm) the back pain was gone.

Jessica Ortner: Wow.

Rick Wilkes: So surgery is also - and remember from the movie The Tapping Solution,
if you have a surgery that had to implant like bars or pins or rods in your body, it
could be in your hip, it could be in your back, it could be effusing in your neck, by
tapping and letting the body know that this is the new normal and all is well you
can often see over a session or a week or a month that your body‟s saying,
Yeah, okay. I can relax. Yeah, I can unwind this tension that I’m holding onto.
Of course disease, there are many diseases that affect the nervous system, too
many to mention, but if you have one where the doctor has said, Well it’s
affecting your spine, affecting the flow of nerves – nervous energy in your spine,
well that‟s something that you can tap on. That blocks the energy. And I know
and I‟ve seen that even though you may have a disease that the doctors say is
progressive, chronic, not going to change, I believe that within that there is a
huge range of quality of life. If you take care of the emotions, if you soothe the
physical side, if you develop clarity listening to your body, wow. That can really
change everything. And I‟d like to do some tapping right there if we could.

Jessica Ortner: Okay, yes please.

Rick Wilkes: Karate Chop Point:

Even though something did happen to my back,

And I feel it still,
I‟m open to the possibility of feeling surprisingly good anyway.

Even though I had an accident or surgery,

Or my back just doesn‟t feel good,
And I don‟t see that changing
I‟m open to the possibility of it changing anyway.

TH: This remaining accident in my back

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Rick Wilkes – Back Pain Continued

EB: This injury in my back

SE: This pain in my back
UE: All of the emotions in my back
UN: I‟m so tired of it and I wish it would just be quiet.
CB: But I‟m listening right now.
UA: And I‟m open to anything that I can do

TH: That will bring me relief.

Deep breath. (Breathe in and out.) Ahh.

Jessica Ortner: Thank you. Rick, before you move on, I have to ask you a quick
question which I ask everyone that I interview because the listeners tend to
struggle with this, especially those who are new. They hear someone like you
tap, and you are so incredible and artful at it, and they begin to get nervous that
they won‟t be able to get results themselves and know the right wording. So
there are two parts to this question. What would you say to someone who‟s
nervous about not saying the right thing? And the second thing is your setup
statement is a little bit different so why is that?

Rick Wilkes: Well first of all, there are no wrong words. You don‟t even have to use
words. I encourage people if they move a certain way and their back bites them
to just start tapping, this bite in my back, this ouch in my back, this profanity (that
I‟m not going to repeat right now screamed at the top of my lungs) in my back.
Just tap the points and the key with tapping is to tune into the energy of it,
whether it‟s emotional or physical or both. And so whatever you say is fine.

You‟re right that I use an artful approach to tapping. One, I feel free to say just
about anything and I don‟t worry about it too much. The other thing is that we‟re
talking to a group of tens of thousands of people and when I do the tapping I
want to touch on the energies that are appropriate for a lot of different people.
And so as soon as I say something, This accident in my back, well maybe you‟re
not thinking that you had an accident, but if you ever did your subconscious will
probably bring that up and connect the dots. And if you didn‟t have an accident
and I talk about a surgery, it might bring that up. So that‟s why I flow all over the
place.

And I also, when it comes to physical stuff, I like to love, honor and respect
what‟s going on and send some acceptance to the back itself because there‟s an
aspect of disconnection. The more pain and suffering we have in any body part,
the more we want to push it away. The healing process is about integration and
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Rick Wilkes – Back Pain Continued

that means saying, I hate you but I love you. I hate you but I couldn’t – who
would I be without my back? That type of thing is very helpful in this process.

Jessica Ortner: You often use the wording, I’m open to the possibility. Why is that
effective?

Rick Wilkes: Well when someone says, I deeply and completely accept my back,
well, that works, and if they don‟t there‟s a yes, but that crops up, Oh yeah, sure.
No I don’t. I like the term, I’m open to the possibility because it says to our whole
being, You know, I don’t think I can get better, but I’m open to the possibility.
They told me that I’m going to be suffering with this for the rest of my life, but I’m
open to the possibility that they might be wrong.

I‟ve seen, having worked with so many clients, that sometimes the experts are
wrong. I know that the body‟s ability to self-heal is beyond our ability to
comprehend and we don‟t always have direct access to it. That still falls into the
realm of the miraculous, to me. At the same time, I know that tapping tunes us
more into the energy of the miraculous and of divine clarity than anything else
that I‟ve seen. Because we‟re honoring where we are, we‟re saying how we
feel, and we‟re moving in the direction toward relief, asking for guidance. And in
that last round I said, I’m open to clarity, I believe, and if – or ideas that my back
can tell me what it needs, does it need ice or does it need heat? Does it need to
stretch or does it need to lie on the ground with my feet up? If you tune into your
body – and tapping helps, just a few rounds of tapping - we‟re talking a minute,
two minutes, and then ask your back, What would you like right now? That can
give you insights that in the noise of emotional suffering you would never have
heard before.

Jessica Ortner: Right. Well, Rick, thank you for that clarity. And I‟d love to continue on
with some of the other blocks that people face when they‟re suffering from back
pain.

Rick Wilkes: Yeah, we‟ll just hit them quickly. Repetitive use and misuse, I mean if
you don‟t know how to lift… If you go out chopping wood and you don‟t know the
mechanics of how to do that, you can really hurt your body. If you sit at a desk
all day and you don‟t get up for three of four hours, that can really create some
suffering; especially if you feel trapped to your desk as many people are, just
imagining doing some tapping.

Even though I‟m trapped at my desk,

And it‟s really hurting my back,
I send healing, soothing energy to my back.

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Rick Wilkes – Back Pain Continued

Anything like that. Emotional traumas: divorce, breakups, lost love, grief, sexual
traumas, very common in low back pain. And I encourage people that are
practitioners, just because someone has low back pain doesn‟t mean that they‟ve
been sexually traumatized, but just be aware that sexual trauma affects the
whole lower body. It affects our connection to our energy centers at our root and
in our sexual centers. That affects the entire flow of energy. It can create a
sense of being stuck there. With those cases, addressing the specific sexual
traumas can bring tremendous relief as the tension of those experiences
unwinds, the spine literally unwinds. You can see many cases where they‟ve
been going to doctor – a chiropractor for years, and all of a sudden now the back
is holding its adjustments where it never did before. That, to me, is evidence, in
my world, that addressing the traumas that affected that area of the body can
bring a lot of relief.

Chronic emotional stress, fears, pressures, people that have been living with
alcoholic, constantly under the threat of being laid off, or debt pressures,
unhealthy boundaries… Again, unhealthy boundaries say, Oh sure, anyone can
come in and sit in my living room and poop on my floor, and make them dinner
and all of that other stuff. It‟s kind of a ridiculous example, but if people look at
their lives and say, Well how might people be running over me? The back often
reflects that. Any time someone‟s running over you, yeah, well your back‟s going
to be feeling that.

Situations that make us feel unsafe, if you think about protecting yourself by
hunching over, pulling your arms in, all of those types of emotions. They also
affect the back, and in the same light, if you have a goal to do something but it
doesn‟t feel safe for you to go there, a lot of people who want to lose weight,
unless they‟ve addressed the safety issue like who will I be if I lose this weight?
Well I’ll be thin and sexy and desirable. Oops, being desirable makes your whole
body start quivering with unsafety. Address that first because otherwise you‟ll
find that your spine will cause you pain or you‟ll self-sabotage the weight loss
process.

Jessica Ortner: Mmhmm, so interesting. And Rick, before we move on, how can we
begin to gain clarity on what our challenges, what‟s really causing our back pain?

Rick Wilkes: You can start with the physical and emotional stuff that‟s right here,
right now.

Jessica Ortner: So how do we figure out the emotional aspect if we find that we‟ve been
very disconnected to that part of ourselves?

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Rick Wilkes – Back Pain Continued

Rick Wilkes: Well, there are different reasons for … I‟ve always looked for the
intelligence in people disconnecting and usually because they feel unsafe. And
this is where a professional can be very helpful in creating a safe space. If you
don‟t really want to look at it alone, then your body‟s just not going to tell you. It
doesn‟t mean it‟s not there, that it can‟t be discovered, or that you‟re clueless and
incompetent at listening to your body. It‟s just not something that you‟re ready to
hear until you feel safer. And you can tell usually by taking a place that‟s in your
back and either putting your hand there or imagining a supportive friend‟s hand
on that area and just saying, What emotion might be there?

Jessica Ortner: Do you find that when people begin to tap just focusing on their back
that they naturally begin to gain more clarity on what‟s going on?

Rick Wilkes: Absolutely, because you‟re asking, you‟re asking your back, What are
you feeling? You‟re noting what is going on in your body. Most people, I have
found, who say… Well I just can’t. I just can’t feel my body, not true. They may
have been told that or they may (in certain contexts) need to disconnect from
their body, but in a safe context they can usually tell whether their lower belly
feels hot or cold or warm, or whether their breathing is shallow or tense or
relaxed, if their throat feels rigid or soft. Most of us were never taught to listen to
our bodies at that level. So there‟s a certain amount of training that we all need,
but once you get that you‟ll start getting clarity. And if you start getting that clarity
you‟ll know what to tap on and you‟ll know what to give your body so that it feels
better.

Jessica Ortner: Right. Can you quickly tell us about physical posture and emotional
posture, because I find this really interesting?

Rick Wilkes: If you think about somebody that is depressed, how do they walk
around?

Jessica Ortner: Slumped over, slow.

Rick Wilkes: In fact, if you go to someone like Tony Robbins, if he takes a depressed
person, the first thing he tells them to do is, Well walk as if you’re confident.
Okay? And that depressed person, when they set their shoulders back and they
set their head up and they walk as if they‟re confident, they start feeling more
confident. And so an emotional posture is where your emotions are reflected in
the body. Depressed, you start closing down. Angry, fist tight. A lot of people
who have issues with their hands, for example, when you work with them and do
tapping, they‟ll be angry about something but it„s anger they can‟t express,
where it‟s overflowing across the top. And that tightens up all the joints, creates
discord in the hand, the wrist, the elbow, the shoulders, the neck. And so
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Rick Wilkes – Back Pain Continued

emotional postures, we think of posture as being physical, but emotions have a

huge impact on how we stand, move, and sit. The good news is is if you address
the emotional stuff your physical posture will improve.

Now you may have to work through different layers of that, and also, if you‟re
going out there and you‟re seeing a chiropractor or you‟re doing physical therapy
or you‟re going to Pilates and yoga and the like, a lot of the reason that people
stop is because emotional stuff starts coming up. And this is where tapping can
help you continue to do something that is really good for you that you really enjoy
and address the emotional stuff that comes up.

Jessica Ortner: Can you talk to us about beliefs and how what we believe can also
contribute to back pain?

Rick Wilkes: Well you think about the back and it‟s at our core, right? At your core
who are you? And that‟s one of those metaphysical questions, but if you play
around with it and you say, Well, okay. If you really knew me and my secrets,
you’d know that I am _______. When I ask a client that question and they fill in
that blank, even if they don‟t tell me the answer, that‟s one of the neat things
about tapping is I don‟t have to get the answer. If they say they are disgusting – I
started with a client at that point… Even though if you knew me and all of my
secrets, you’d know that I am disgusting. And that was a ten out of ten.
Unmovable, been in therapy for a long time, but if we just start tapping, Where do
you feel it in your body? Right down at the low part of the back.

Even though I‟m disgusting,

Right there in my back,
And it‟s just who I am,
I‟m open to the possibility of that changing.

(Tap, tap, tap…)

disgusting, disgusting, disgusting.

What if I‟m not?
Oh yes I am.
What if I‟m not?
Oh yes I‟m disgusting.

That kind of core belief is not something that changes immediately, in my

experience though, if you can shift a 10 to a 9.9, now there‟s room for love,
healing, to start flowing in. And as the person feels more safe and comfortable,
things like I am unsupported. I don’t deserve support, emotionally, financially,
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Rick Wilkes – Back Pain Continued

physically. I am responsible. One of my favorite clients was responsible Robert.

And responsible Robert was responsible for everything. And over the course of
six months as we tapped on everything responsible that came up, and he did a
lot of self-work on this, he realized that responsible was affecting his spine,
affecting his breathing, affecting his entire life view, and the spine was something
that responded to that. And so these core beliefs, I’m undeserving and
unworthy, I’m guilty and I deserve to be punished – we‟re mentioning these and
we could do tapping rounds on each and every one of these, but if people are
listening and any of those resonate for you, they say, Oh yeah, that’s me. Make
note of it. And if you can tap…we‟ll just take one that I’m guilty and deserve to
be punished?

Jessica Ortner: Okay.

Rick Wilkes: Okay.

Even though I‟m guilty

And I deserve to be punished,
And I feel that in my back,
I‟m open to the possibility of letting that go.

TH: Be serious.
EB: I‟m guilty.
SE: You don‟t know how guilty I am.
UE: I deserve to be punished.
UN: I‟m pretty sure I deserve to be punished.
And good thing my back pain punishes me every day.
CB: Thank you back for punishing me.
UA: I really do deserve to be punished.
TH: What if I don‟t?

EB: I‟m convinced I need to be punished.

SE: What if I don‟t?
UE: I‟m open to not being punished anymore.
UN: My back has suffered enough.
CP: I‟m sorry back.
CB: I‟m letting you off the hook.
UA: Maybe I don‟t deserve to be punished anymore.
TH: That would be great.

Deep breath. (Breathe in and out)

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Rick Wilkes – Back Pain Continued

And again, if you‟re looking at this yourself, you can make a list of what the
indictment is against you. Why do you deserve to be punished?

Jessica Ortner: Rick, if someone begins to do this work and they gain clarity that there
is this big emotional block, something say that happened to them years ago.
When they do the tapping can they only focus on that block without bringing in
their back and still find relief in their back pain?

Rick Wilkes: Sure. A lot of times when we‟re working on physical stuff we use that
as kind of a check-in point. So let‟s say that, you asked earlier about how do you
get to what one of the root causes are? Well the back is a doorway into
everything that‟s happened to us. Everything that‟s still unresolved, which is
good news, but it‟s not just going to whip something out that‟s not useful to you.
I‟ve found that there‟s an intelligence in the spine that if you tune into it and you
say, Well who might be in this headache that I’ve got in my neck? And
someone‟s name comes to mind, say, Well what about that person is a
headache? And just go with that. And you can tap on the specific event or

Even though that person is a headache,

I deeply and completely accept myself anyway.
Even though that person is a headache,
I deeply and completely accept my neck.

(Tap, tap, tap, tap, tap. )

And now, guess what? Check in with your neck. Does it still feel like that person
being a headache in your life, or was a headache in your past life, is still causing
you to stress now? If you go from a 7 to a 5 you still have some work to do. You
can ask, Well, what else about this person is a headache?

Jessica Ortner: Right. And I do like to mention that even going from a 7 to a 5 makes
such a huge difference in someone‟s life. Sometimes we don‟t take time to really
acknowledge the progress that we‟re making.

Rick Wilkes: Well it‟s like with medication, I‟ll just speak for myself personally, I‟m not
advising anyone else, but I know that when my back really hurts, my inclination is
to overdose. I want relief. I want twelve Aleve, not one. And one of the things
I‟ve found with tapping was

Even though I really want twelve Aleve right now,

I deeply and completely accept myself.

(Tap, tap, tap.)

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Rick Wilkes – Back Pain Continued

And often times then just the right dose is the right dose. And I encourage
people, if you‟re on even more dramatic pain medication; your doctor‟s
prescribed a certain amount. Address your emotions around that so that you can
take what is prescribed and get the best from it.

It‟s astounding to me, Jessica, when someone taps on:

Even though this not enough and I really need more,

I ask my body to use what it‟s being given

(Tap, tap, tap.)

It‟s not enough,

It‟s not enough,
It‟s not enough.
It‟s not enough.

All of a sudden they take that one tablet which is exactly the right dosage for
them and -Voila!, their body‟s able to use it because the energy blocks are not
there.

Jessica Ortner: That‟s fantastic. Rick, if someone wants to begin to get results in
relieving back pain, how often do they need to tap and for how long?

Rick Wilkes: Well even if you tap for thirty seconds and you give yourself a little bit of
relief, you‟re teaching your brain and your nervous system that now there‟s a new
game in town and there‟s something that you can turn to to bring yourself relief.
I‟m someone who, when he finds something that‟s useful, and tapping has been
useful to me and my spine from the first fifteen minutes I was using it, I will set
aside some time in the morning as part of my ritual if I am about to do physical
work, right? I‟ll do a little tapping and say

Even though my back‟s feeling uncomfortable,

I bring power into my back.
Even though my back is a little stiff right now from all that work yesterday,
I deeply and completely love and accept my back.

A couple of rounds like that changes your energy. It takes you out of primitive
brain. It sends a signal of relaxation and soothing to your spine. Three times a
day, five times a day, for a few minutes. Drink lots of water and tap every time
you need to use the restroom. And if you have some serious accidents and
traumas and the like, whether you‟re working on your own or working with a
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practitioner, set aside a couple of hours a week to write out what happened, read
it aloud, tap while you read aloud, and just notice if that‟s making a change in
your spine.

Jessica Ortner: Mmhmm. If someone begins to tap and they find that they‟re actually
feeling worse or the number‟s not shifting, what advice do you have for them?

Rick Wilkes: Well worse with physical pain, I have to acknowledge that if I sat on my
ankle for three hours straight, as soon as I stop sitting on my ankle it‟s going to
be very unhappy with me because it went to sleep, and in the process of coming
back from being asleep, we all know those pins and needles do not feel so good.
Well the spine, if it‟s been holding tensions, and it‟s a remarkable piece of
anatomy, if you have back problems, look at the anatomy of the spine, how the
nervous system flows in and out of the spine, how those little tiny muscles are all
holding your spine together, and the ligament structure, and it‟s just – it‟s
gorgeous. It‟s amazing what it can do. And if you‟ve been holding a pattern,
emotionally or physically, in your spine and you start relaxing that, sometimes,
well, it‟ll be like the pins and needles. It won‟t feel so good. If the emotions are
what‟s getting really intense, keep tapping and get some help if it‟s not moving for
you. If you tap and it‟s not shifting at all, get more specific. Most people say,
This pain in my back, and they tap a couple of rounds and it‟s not changing,
check again. Your physical motion, your emotional feeling about it, and look for
changes from an 8 to a 6, that‟s progress. This is energy exercise at its best.

Jessica Ortner: Right. Something that‟s very common, and for many people, confusing,
is when they begin to tap on the pain and they find that the pain begins to move
from – well, maybe it‟s from their upper back to their lower back, or from their
back to their knee, can you describe this and just share with us why this happens
and what we do about it?

Rick Wilkes: Well in body work we know that if I unwind the sacrum which is that
heart-shaped bone at the base of the spine that sits in the hip bones, if I unwind
that sometimes people will get a headache. Their neck will start to tighten up.
As above, so below. As below, so above. And just from a physical and energetic
perspective, if you affect one area of the spine, the other part balances in the
same way that if I‟m leaning forward, there‟s a whole slew of things that are
happening in my back to maintain my balance. If I start arching a little bit back, a
whole different set of muscles kick in. So when you‟re tapping, the emotion may
change and the location may change. It‟s either a physical unwinding or an
energetic flow. If you use the energetic flow model, if the energy starts flowing
up the spine and then hits another blockage around the middle of your back, well,
that‟s your next step.
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Rick Wilkes – Back Pain Continued

In energy work, intensity is not a bad thing. It can be scary if you‟re doing it
alone, but that‟s why we‟re saying right now and answering that question. Hey, if
you‟re going to do this work, listen to your body. If it says, “Stop,” stop. If it says,
“Go for a walk,” go for a walk. If it says, “Get some help,” get some help.

Jessica Ortner: Rick, we have five minutes left. Do you have some tapping that we can
do that you think would really benefit the listeners?

Rick Wilkes: Yeah, let‟s take a look at just some of those limiting beliefs that we have
about our back.

Jessica Ortner: Okay.

Rick Wilkes: And we‟ll start with I’m taking too long to heal. That‟s a very common
one for people.

Even though my back is taking too long to heal,

And I feel like it‟s letting me down,
I deeply and completely accept myself anyway.

TH: I‟m taking too long to heal.

EB: It feels like I‟m taking too long to heal.

SE: And that puts so much pressure on my back.
UE: My back is complex,
UN: But I want it to heal right now.
CP: I‟m so tired of having this pain in my back.
CB: I feel like my back is letting me down.
UA: And I accept all of my feelings.
TH: This pain in the back,
And how long it‟s taking to heal,

Deep breath. (Breathe in and out.)

Jessica Ortner: That was great and I can imagine a lot of people face that challenge.
Rick, many times we…, I know that I listen to these interviews and different
things come up and we sometimes get to the point where we don‟t quite know
where to start because we have a lot of emotions come up, and a lot of different
aspects coming up. So if someone‟s beginning the tapping process, how do they
know where the best place to begin is?

Rick Wilkes: Well there isn‟t a “best place” and that‟s good news. There‟s no place
that is more right or wrong than another. I believe that if you are feeling
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Rick Wilkes – Back Pain Continued

discomfort in your back and it‟s all over, or it‟s overwhelming, you can pick a
spot, doesn‟t really matter. I usually will tell people to take their hand and just
place it on their low back, what does that feel like? Maybe that‟s not the place
that hurts the most, but just start there. It‟s foundational. The rest of us rests on
our back, right? And if it‟s feeling tired and stressed, just start there.

Karate chop:

Even though my low back feels tired and stressed,

I deeply and completely accept all of my feelings.

TH: My tired low back,

EB: My tired and stressed low back,
SE: It has a lot riding on it,
UE: And times have not been easy.
UN: I send love and acceptance to my low back.
CP: Except for when I don‟t.
CB: I don‟t always accept my low back.
UA: No wonder it feels tired and strained.
TH: But I‟m changing my relationship with my back.
Right here, right now.

Deep breath. (Breathe in and out.)

Jessica Ortner: Thank you for that Rick. Rick, as people are moving forward and
beginning to tap to relieve their back pain, what is one thing that you really hope
the listeners remember about this talk?

Rick Wilkes: I learned the hard way that my spine wants to support me. When you
think about a part of our body that supports us in a thousand ways, every single
moment, and I – when it started hurting me I turned against it. I started looking
for ways to block the pain, ignore the pain, pretend that the imbalance wasn‟t
there. As I started listening to my back and paying attention to it I learned about
myself and I learned about how to care for my energy, how to become more
emotionally flexible, not just physically flexible. The physical flexibility came too.
I learned how to stand and be in the world more upright, authentic. And my spine
reflected that and supported me through that process. The relationship we have
with our spine is there for you to tune into, for you to build and grow, and every
moment that you invest in it will pay off, and it may feel very uncomfortable at
first, it may be like being reunited with somebody – like the Hatfields and
McCoys. You feel like your back has been your enemy. If you really look at it,
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Rick Wilkes – Back Pain Continued

who would you be without your back? I kind of started it there. (Both laugh) And
going from there, every time you tap and listen, you‟ll notice that your back starts
giving you better and better clarity about what‟s right for you, in your
relationships, in your boundaries, in your physical activity and your sexual
expression, in every aspect of your creative life. That is available to you by tuning
into that part of you that is the most supportive and beautifully dynamic part of us.

Jessica Ortner: Wonderful. Well, Rick, thank you for all your support and wisdom. It
really was a pleasure.

Rick Wilkes: Thank you Jessica.

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