How Network Spinal Helped Them Reclaim Peace?

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What happens when someone has done years of therapy, personal growth, and spiritual work — but still feels stuck?

In this episode of Healing Beyond the Symptoms, Dr. Leah Hahn DC., sits down with Dr. Scott Hahn DC, to share the powerful healing journeys of two former clients — Chris and Katie — who both struggled with chronic stress, trauma history, anxiety, and nervous system dysregulation.

Both women had already been “doing the work.”
Both had insight.
Both were self-aware.

But something was still missing.

Through Network Spinal care, they began addressing the physical imprint of trauma stored in the spine and nervous system — the structural and neurological patterns that kept them locked in fight-or-flight.

Chris presented with:

• High anxiety and chronic stress
• A history of emotional and physical trauma
• Multiple head injuries and a reverse cervical curve
• Alcohol use as a stress coping mechanism

As her nervous system began to regulate, she:

• Reduced alcohol dependence
• Changed careers
• Deepened her relationships
• Discovered new passions
• Returned to school
• Developed greater emotional awareness and adaptability
   

Timestamps:
00:00 Introduction: Overcoming the Funk

00:38 Meet Chris: A Journey from Trauma to Transformation

02:31 Chris's Healing Process: From Stress to Peace

05:02 Chris's Lifestyle Changes and New Passions

06:20 The Role of Network Care in Chris's Recovery

09:10 Sponsor Break: Body and Balance Wellness Center

09:49 Meet Katie: Another Inspiring Story of Healing

11:42 Katie's Emotional Releases and Breakthroughs

14:00 Katie's Continued Growth and Community Impact

14:48 The Bigger Mission: Mind-Body Connection and Community Health

17:04 Conclusion: Embrace Your Healing Journey

Katie’s story was equally profound. With a history of severe trauma and family mental health challenges, she felt trapped in fear, anger, and self-doubt. Even with spiritual mentorship, progress would surge — then backslide.

Within weeks of beginning care, she experienced significant emotional releases and, about a month into care, reported feeling love for the first time in her life.

As her nervous system became more adaptable, she:

• Developed grounding skills
• Improved emotional regulation
• Reduced negative thought spirals
• Created community support for other women
• Shifted from survival to purpose

If you’ve ever felt like something is still missing in your healing journey, this episode offers hope — and a reminder:

You are not broken. You are patterned. And patterns can change.

Transcript

0:00

Have you ever been doing the work? Maybe working with a psychologist, but you just feel like you're in a funk. You can't put the pieces together and you're just looking for something that could be life changing or shift the momentum. Then you're going to love today's episode. Welcome to Healing Beyond the Symptoms, the podcast that helps people discover the root causes of their health struggles, and take back control with science strategy and self-awareness. I'm Dr. Leah Hahn, a chiropractor and functional wellness doctor who believes that true healing starts beneath the surface. So let's dive in. So today's story we're talking about Chris, and Chris is a really exciting story for me to talk about because I remember when she first came in, I remember it was a dark and cold winter night and we, her really working with her to try to figure out what the missing pieces were to her wellness journey. So do you, what do you remember about Chris when she first started with our care? I think the biggest thing I remember with Chris was she had really high, high, high stress levels, high anxiety, high anxiety. On top of that. Life was really stressful. Making bad life decisions from that kinda led up to that. She had tried to change the life decisions, but it just hadn't, um, shouldn't have been able to kind of make the shift to be able to sustain that. And life was still stressful, even though some of the bad habits had been. Out already. I remember as well that there was a deep history of trauma. So she had experienced trauma as a child. She had experienced trauma into her teens. Um, she had moved away from her family to try to get a fresh start and had been working with a psychologist for years. And I remember the piece of it that was so exciting for me to hear was. Even after I saw her and I adjusted her for the first time, she got up from the table and it took her a while. I remember she, she kind of rested on the table for a while after that first, like, NSA is so gentle, so she was very relaxed, but she took a while and sitting up and. Even before she could speak, it was probably about five or 10 minutes of just sitting on the table trying to process what her experience was, and she said to me, this is the missing link. I've been doing all of this work and I feel like this is the thing that's really going to help things come together. So do you remember what her healing process was like, what that journey was like for her? I think the thing that I remember the most was some of the physical trauma on top of the emotional trauma that she had. Mm-hmm.'cause she had multiple head injuries, um, from falls that she had sustained. And when we looked at her X-ray, she had a reverse curve. And what that reverse curve then what that does is it attractions on the spinal cord. It decreases the functionality of the system because the information that needs to travel from the brain to the body and the body up to the brain needs to travel through that spinal cord and with hers with the reverse curve, we knew that there was traction on there, and then what that did was keep her system stuck in the fight or flight response because no matter what she did, the body was always trying to protect and guard around that because. It was just structurally something that was off. And the way that the spine was distorted was a pattern that is very commonly associated with fear and pre past emotional trauma. So it wasn't too surprising to me when we looked at her images and we saw what the, the x-rays look like, that that was what she, previously experienced, Chris is such a good example of that mind-body connection. So because of the traumas that she had experienced, I mean locked in fight or flight, she had physical things happening within her spine that weren't allowing her to find peace or to find that sense of wellbeing. And so. No matter how much work she had done on that mental level and even some spiritual work as well, she wasn't able to get to that next place of actually being able to integrate that mind body level of peace. And so that was what started to happen then. So you talked about like kind of how she started out the process, but do you remember like say a couple weeks into the process, a couple months into the process, what that looked like for her? What I remember most was her, you know, aside from her just starting to feel relaxed, feeling more centered, feeling more grounded. Was her awareness of how much stress was with her job. Mm-hmm. She worked in the court systems and just the highest stress and high intensity there. Uh, what goes along with that. And so because of that, she recognized to say like, this is not working for me. This is too much stress. This is too much on me. So she found a job that was more congruent. With kind of one, what her passion was, which, but also gave her the flexibility to not hold that same level of stress, but still be able to support her. Financially as well. Sure. I think as that journey unfolded then, so we saw those kinds of changes where she made, she adapted or kind of shifted how she was handling the stress and then made life changes in addition to that. But then we also saw her start to do things that she found as new passions. So she started to ski, she started to incorporate different forms of exercise that she just really loved. I think her relationship went through some big changes and it has really improved. And shifted as well. Um, and it's been really exciting to see that she actually decided to go back to school and pursue just a whole new level of passion for herself as well. What do you know about some of the other lifestyle changes that she made through this process? With the history of the stress, it's real common that you see someone utilize an outside source to try to help them. Process or shut down that stress response. So alcohol is a very common one in that scenario, and she unfortunately was, you know, in that cycle where utilizing the alcohol to decrease the stress response, shut it down. But when we almost always see is it doesn't help someone process the stress that they're dealing with. It just stuffs it deeper and deeper and deeper. So through care is, the stress was being released. Then she no longer had that need for the, the alcohol. Because one, one thing that we see with network care is that when the body's in fight or flight, the more primitive parts of your brain are in primary control of your body. So your, your frontal cortex gets shut down, which is the, the more complex thinking part of the brain. So the part of the brain that thinks about, um. You know, what's the meaning of life? You know, what do I need to kind of accomplish today? What are like, what are bigger, deeper picture goals? Like what's my purpose? That gets shut down and you end up, and the higher the fight or flight response, the more you end up in survival mode. Mm-hmm. And survival mode. Then you frequently just end up. Choosing things to help you get by, or frequently you'll, you'll choose things because you feel like crap. You don't feel good, so you're wanting to feel better. You see frequently people like take sugar addiction, so it's like they'll do sugar, you'll commonly see alcohol. Mm-hmm. In those scenarios. It's not uncommon to other, you know, hard drugs as well. In her scenario it was alcohol was,, was kind of the big. Challenge that she was breaking down. Um, but as she improved and she, it was just no longer part of her consciousness and she just wanted to be better. So she was able to recognize like, this isn't who I want to be. This isn't a habit that I want to have. And as she was able to let go of the stress and trauma and emotion that was driving that, then she was able to. Continue to make those better decisions. And I remember that's when she started exercising. That's when she started meditating. Mm-hmm. And picking up those other passions. So it was, it was really, really great to see how her life improved and changed through care, which then allowed her to make the better decisions for herself. The other piece of that that you're talking about as well, is that as the nervous system gets healthier, it creates almost like this ability to create a pause. So instead of, like you talked about living out of those lower fight or flight centers or the lower centers of the brain where you're on automatic unconscious behavior, when your nervous system starts to function at a higher level or become more adaptable, even when you're confronted with a more stressful situation, there's the ability to like, okay, pause and. Think about what kind of choice do I actually wanna make? What would be a healthier choice for me right now? And then be able to actually create that choice. So that's another piece of the healing process that I think really shifted for her instead of being stuck in those automatic unconscious behaviors as well. So Chris's story is one that shifted dramatically over her time in care and she continues to receive care and that's what what I love about her is that she's so committed to the growth process. So as her nervous system becomes more adaptable, she's continuing to make. Big shifts within her life and um, just kind of embodying that sense of peace that she was working towards. And we're gonna take a quick break. This episode of Healing Beyond the Symptoms is sponsored by Body and Balance Wellness Center in Golden, Colorado. They know that real healing isn't about chasing symptoms. It's about uncovering the root cause of stress, tension, and imbalance. Their gentle nervous system based care helps people release stored stress, reconnect to their bodies, and build resilience that lasts. If you've tried everything and still feel like something's missing, they may be the missing link. Learn more and book your consultation at body and balance chiropractic.com. All right, and let's get back to the show. I wanna switch over to another patient story who I'm gonna call Katie. So Katie started seeing us when she was, gosh, in her probably mid twenties, and she also came from a history of. Severe trauma, um, was the situation. And so she also, I guess, had moved away from her family. So she was kind of on her own and actually living in the mountains at that time. And when she started seeing us, one of her goals was, again, nervous system regulation. I remember she felt like she lived pretty much out of fear and anger and self-doubt most of the time. Can you expand on that? I think what I remember most about Katie was she, I think the history of some mental health issues that ran in the family. Mm-hmm. And because of that, then that really led to a lot of abuse, from her mom. And, and that just kind of. Got her locked into the fight or flight response, got her locked into the trauma response. And even though she, I mean she was doing a lot of positive things for herself. Things just weren't shifting. And that's when one of her mentors had mentioned to her and referred her to our office, uh, to, to see, you know, what we could do from the physical side of things to help kind of the mental emotional side of things. Just as that trauma gets locked into Can integrate everything. Yeah. Integrate everything. So I, I just to kind of expand a little bit more on what you're saying, I know she had worked with these spiritual mentors for quite a while, and she would feel like she would make so much progress and then kind of backslide and make so much progress and backslide. And so when she had worked with them, she said that was the biggest thing that they recommended, is that if your nervous system isn't regulated, it'll be hard for you to make the kind of changes that you're looking for in your life. And so that became a really deep goal for her. So as she started the process, I remember lots of emotional releases in the first couple weeks. So even though, um. And I, I should say this, we should maybe preface it. When people have trauma, it is very common for them to, uh, respond to network care fairly quickly. So for a lot of the clients we see, it's like this gentle unwinding of their nervous system where you see more peace and, um, just kind of this like, relaxing part of the, the first part of care that that starts to happen. But for Katie, I would say within the first. Couple weeks it, it was more like her nervous system had so much to release. Every time I adjusted her it'd be like major tears, even some laughter at times. But she would feel so much more peaceful once that had cleared her system. But do you remember her talking about like what happened about a month into care? You know, as she was processing the stress, processing, all of that, letting go of that, it was about one month into care is when she said she felt love for the first time in her life. Yeah. And that really, the ability to feel connected to that, the ability to feel that feeling for the first time is really you. You could just see the lights turn on within her and see that there's just so much more in life and that it's, you know, there's something to work towards versus just something working away from. Mm-hmm. So that seemed to be a really, and obviously it was a really life changing experience for her, but as she went forward with that, we started to just see that sense of wellbeing develop. So she was noticing more and more that she could notice when she got into negative thought patterns instead of letting a negative thought pattern just. Take over her entire day. She was able to do a lot of grounding work, so she became much more aware of what she was thinking about. She became much more aware of how that was connected to her emotional state, and then she started to take action. So I know she started to spend more time in nature. She started to just, even if it was, I'm gonna step outside and take a few deep breaths, she found herself being able to ground much, much more easily. So she started to notice again that adaptability. Are there other changes that you've noticed in her then since that timeframe? Um, I, I don't know if she's communicated with this you or not with this to you or not, but one of the things that I know she's been working on is trying to, she was looking for a group of like-minded people and since she wasn't able to find that, she's actually in the process of trying to create her own support group up there, that she can head up and she can lead. Awesome. To basically be able to help support other women who are. You know, like-minded, and being able to create that shift for them, because I think that is one of the, you know, she found so much value in it for what the change and shift it did for her. Mm-hmm. To be able to create, you know, a more of a small group collective consciousness that can be able to create and support that and support other individuals who are in need. That's awesome. So she's definitely affecting her community as well. When we look at these women's stories, I think what it has in common is they both are people who became aware for one reason or another. One working with a psychologist. One, um, with her history of, you know, family trauma and some abuse of what she had had dealt with, that both of these people had realized that nervous system regulation was a big piece of maybe where their wellness path was getting stuck. And then we're ready to make some big changes in terms of that mind-body connection and being able to find that sense of peace and wellbeing, but also growth and how their lives shifted, how they changed, how they're able to impact other people and their relationships. That's kind of, has so much to do with the bigger mission of what we're all about. Exactly. And what I, I just saw how much that they embodied the change that they wanted to see, and they became the change that, we wanna see within the world. They're taking better choices for themselves. Mm-hmm. They are in, you know, positively influencing their community. Mm-hmm. Just by, you know. Supporting others. And I think that's one of the things that, you know, always brings joy to me, knowing that maybe I might be helping this single individual, but it's actually helping multiple individuals, you know, in that community. And then as that community gets healthier, the city gets healthier, the city gets healthier, well then yeah, the steak gets healthier and so on. And so. I think that's really important. And I think the other piece that we want to, or why I guess we wanted to be a part of this podcast is that when you look at all of these situations, so much of the public's perception about the spine is that it's all about pain. It's all about headaches or neck tension or low back pain, sciatica, things like that. And it, we. Can definitely help those things, and NSA is great at helping those things, but what we really see is that when the nervous system functions in a healthier way, how much better people can live, how much, you know, like we talked about, healthier choices, but that mind body connection really is so powerful in terms of people living a more embodied life and living their purpose. So. Pretty exciting stuff. Thank you for joining us today on Healing Beyond the symptoms. If you feel like something is missing in your wellness journey or your healing path, I hope this episode gives you hope and reassurance that there's so many changes that can take place with network spinal and reorganizing the nervous system. If you're ready to start your journey toward deeper healing, I'd love to invite you to book a wellness consultation at body and balance chiropractic.com. This is your chance to be heard, to be seen, and to begin a path that goes beyond the symptoms. Until next time, remember, you are not broken. You are brilliant, and healing begins the moment you feel safe. Thanks again for joining me today on Healing Beyond the symptoms. If you've been curious about network spinal or if you've tried everything else and still feel stuck, I want you to know this. Your body is not broken. It's patterned, and those patterns can change. If you're ready to experience how gentle care can lead to profound transformation. I'd love to invite you to book a wellness consultation at body and balance chiropractic.com. Together we'll look at what your body needs to finally release, reset, and thrive. Until next time, breathe deep. Trust your body and remember. Gentle can be powerful.