Dominique De Backer on Healthy Living

Dominique De Backer is a certified psychologist and the developer of the healing method, synchrotherapy, an emerging branch of health and healing that is recognized by mental-health professionals as a powerful way to target modified states of consciousness, root causes of disease and imbalances in the body. In addition to lecturing worldwide and authoring of hundreds of articles, she is also trained in psycho-immunology, Jungian analysis, neurolingustic programming, Ericksonian hypnotherapy and the use of altered states of consciousness. In this interview, De Backer explains how one’s memories can greatly impact overall health.

What is synchrotherapy?

Synchrotherapy is a way of putting the brain into more optimal function by using sound vibrations and other techniques. The vibrations put the two hemispheres of the brain into synchronicity, creating a balance in electrical impulses between them. It helps a person think through and analyze a situation at the same time as feeling the emotions associated with it, thus engaging both parts of the brain. The technique helps people to connect to the part of the brain that can heal itself both emotionally and physically. Overall, a person is left with a more optimal way of looking at past events and memories and how they have affected their life.

How do you define health?

Health isn’t one thing; it’s a combination of things. Health is being and feeling happy, having a lightness and a joy for life. It’s a state and it’s not dependent on things happening. Health is being able to get through a crisis with enough tools to face things and get through them. Every person faces challenges and crises. Even the Dalai Lama has challenges; he just has more tools to help him. Health is not a fashion, an addiction, a replacement for something else or perfection according to outside standards.

Why is changing our health so difficult?

Change sends you back to old memories of things from the past. You need to realize that they are a product of older, difficult experiences you’ve had before. These destabilizing emotions come from a younger time when you weren’t able to make sense of things properly. This is also at the root of all the emotional reasons people eat.

A difficult emotion is there to make you realize and become conscious of something. There was a direct connection between the emotions of a memory and the ability to access a new level of consciousness. Emotions that accompany change are some of the most difficult; these can be externally triggered but are more often the result of something internal, such as a memory. The brain remembers difficult memories more easily than positive ones, so people who have tried changing their health before and haven’t succeeded are hitting this memory, which makes it even harder.

People will do anything to avoid feeling uncomfortable emotions, so they resist change and drug themselves with medication or food. Facing change means removing old beliefs that used to give you your identity, your structure and your comfort zone. That’s why it’s tough.

How should we deal with a health crisis?

Transform suffering into experience. No one is spared from crises: The more you go into them and through them, the more you will strengthen yourself. A crisis is a call for some type of change. If you’re not in a state of health, look at what crisis you’re in, have gone through or have not addressed. Many times this is what holds people back in their quest for better health.

How does stress impact someone’s health?

Stress decreases the immune system. Anything you can do to lower stress will help your health. Real stress includes things like wrong relationships, wrong jobs, bad family situations and situations where you’re not in control or feel powerless. It’s incredibly important to get back to feeling your own inner power, by which I mean your ability to choose and decide. Be immune to peoples’ opinions of you, and don’t compare yourself to other people; both of these have a huge negative impact on your health. People are confused about having something and being something. Striving for attention, significance, rewards, money and fame can create very high stress that can lead to terrible effects on health. People need to understand that you should be successful according to your own standards first.

How does someone live a healthy life?

You need a convergence between physical, emotional, mental and spiritual health. They all need to be looked at and you can’t open one and ignore the others. Your body will let you know: You’re programmed to be happy and in good health. You have unlimited power and potential on the inside. It’s like having a bank account that’s full and you don’t know about it. Give yourself ways to succeed. Health is daily work and attitude. What takes time is learning a new way of discerning what’s good for you.

How can someone be “healed?”

People will heal and live healthier if you help them find ways to increase their desire to live. It’s not only in the mind or in the diet; it’s about being and feeling alive. To someone who’s sick, I ask, “What are you willing to do to get healthy?” Most people say, “Anything,” so I ask, “Are you willing to change jobs, move to a new city, leave your husband?” If they start kicking and screaming, I have the answer to what has really made them sick and is holding them back from living healthier. Heal the part of yourself that doesn’t want to be here. You’re in control. You can choose to change. Then see how dramatically your health changes.

What are the obstacles to living a healthier life?

There’s a lot of social pressure. Changing your habits often bothers others, because your change makes them have to face their own stuff. Another challenge is that when you’re stressed and tired, your old habits come back. You’re being asked to look at other areas of your life and to make changes, which can require some adjustments.

It’s about taking back your own power. There are things you can contribute that will make you feel better: How you think, what stresses you out, how you eat and how much you exercise. It’s about being responsible for how being unhealthy happened and how you can actively change and heal.

What advice do you have for getting started in the first 30 days?

Health is a new way of thinking and a new relationship with yourself, first and foremost.
You need to figure out how you can find pleasure in this change. Find some gratification so it doesn’t feel like homework. Set realistic goals that are compatible with your own reality and life. A good measure of success is how present you feel—and by that I mean your quality of life, being calm and grounded. You will start to realize that you’re respecting yourself more and become conscious that you’re not hurting yourself anymore. Your body will send you a thank-you note!

Another piece of advice is to encourage people to get help and guidance from friends and experts until your own inner guide gets strong enough. We all need help and direction on the path of healing and living healthier. The person who coaches you has to understand what you’re going through, so find people who have been there before you.

For more information about Dominique De Backer, visit www.synchrotherapie.org.