Julissa explains in this podcast: What is Nuero Energetic Kinesiology, how it can be used as a powerful stress management tool, how she addresses some of the “weird” perceptions that are associated with “energy work.” Julissa also provides a number of case studies she has integrated and some of their unique successes. Finally, she talks about how to implement some brain integration practices in our families and with our children.
Ryan Mahle with “Dive Into Discussion” interviews Julissa Byington about what it means to be a Nuero Energetic Kinesiologist and how she integrates her client’s brain (the interview begins at min 4:10).
In sessions with her clients Julissa looks at different portions of the brain that have stress and helps them to perform at higher functions. She sees adults and children that have ADD, learning disabilities, depression, anxiety and so on.
During the appointment she tests to see where the stress is in their body and once she finds out she lets them know where the stress is located and uses her research and resources to de-stress those parts to help those hemispheres talk to one another.
She uses the illustration that stress is like one rock you drop in a river the water goes around it but when there is a lot of rocks then there is a dam and water can’t get around it. During her appointments she helps people by removing those blocks.
The “blocks” in the brain are found when Julissa uses muscle testing to ask their body where the issue are – as muscles can’t lie. She uses muscle testing by putting light pressure on a muscle and if it holds and there is no stress- but then if there is stress it will be rigid or weak. Once she knows if there is an area she needs to focus on. Use muscle testing is the best way to find out where the stress is in the brain.
Some People see Muscle Testing as “Weird”
Julissa says it is hard to explain her work – she says energy is a lot of intention and a lot of direction. She admits that many people see this as “crazy.” Before she got into it she thought it was crazy. However, when a friend approached with this method as a way to help her children with their school work she decided to try it out. But once she took her kids to see a friend who was a Kinesiologist the program worked wonders for her children. When her son was integrated he went from really struggling and angry but then became really delightful to be around.
When you first go to these appointments it looks weird –I thought how could she be doing anything she was just waving her hand but somehow something happened. I couldn’t believe how much it changed my kids and I thought, “I’ve got to do this.”
Julissa was integrated after her children were integrated and she said, “it changed my life. I was able to focus better at school and really got through school because didn’t have to read the same passage twelve times- It saved my marriage and career and everything – so I started studying and researching different modalities”
Kinesiology is a stress management tool
It’s a stress management tool- our minds are plastic and we can heal ourselves. There were so many things I didn’t even know about myself. For example, I knew I didn’t have great reading comprehension, but I didn’t know how hard I had to work at it. Now, however, Julissa doesn’t have to work hard at all to comprehend the literature she studies.
She says a lot of us are in flight or fight all of the time, especially little kids. For some kids, their body is acting like a bear is chasing them all of the time and they are wiggly. When this happens nothing goes in at that point and learning for them becomes really difficult.
The work Julissa does takes the stress out of the way so they can calm down. “I make connections for them and its long lasting and it stays.”
Julissa stresses how awesome the change can come when the integration happens in a matter of weeks- for her son because of financial reasons they stretched his integration over a year, but she did hers in a couple weeks and people hardly recognized her after it was all over.
One case study she mentions was a girl she was getting ready for school. “She was one of those kids that you talk to, but she wasn’t really there. We started working on her it was like she came into her body and she was almost there. And we got her ready to start school. She was later diagnosed with autism. I don’t claim to fix autism – she came but we were able to get her to a higher level and was interacting and making facial expression and communicating more.”
With a lot of these kids there is a stress between their left and right hemispheres- heavily logic or gestalt side of their brain, but you need both sides. When there is an imbalance executive decision-making is not happening, because there is stress between the right and the left brain. When we de-stress the flight or fight and rational brain- they can go into their emotional side and figure out how to get out of that emotional state.
Some kids are like going down a river bouncing back and forth, but we help them to go right down the middle of the river so they don’t have as much stress.
Childhood Trauma, Genetics or Primitive Reflex Issues
We don’t always know why their brains are not integrated. Sometimes it is trauma that causes a lot of issues, for others of us it is that they are not developing their primitive reflexes – reflexes like crawling when not developed correctly for example is a sign there is a problem and this causes flight or fight or a lot of stress in the child’s brain.
Parents do their best, they help kids eat right, take their vitamins – but more and more kids are born with problems with primitive reflexes. Other times I have found it is just genetics- things we didn’t develop and we pass onto our kids.
Julissa has worked with newborns all the way up to a man who was over 80 years old. This man came out of surgery without a memory – people said well this is just old age and I said, “no it is a lot of toxicity from the drugs in the surgeries.” Once I cleared the toxicity he could start driving again and remembering where he was going.
Another women who had been on anti-anxiety and depression medicine and went off of the drugs, which really messed with her system – she had blurry vision and was not feeling well. “I worked to distress the toxicity and the last time I talked to her she was doing yoga and feeling balanced and she never went back on the drugs because she felt really good.
Ryan agreed, so much of the problems that happen in our brain comes from childhood and can have a snowball effect if it doesn’t get looked at or addressed – this is a method that everybody could benefit from.
Energy Work is not About Reading Minds
Julissa says, “people who get referred to me that look at me weird waiting for me to pull out my magic wand and some will say this is against my religion and I say that it fine if it isn’t for you – I’m fine with those people.”
Most the time her clients are there out of their free will. There are a couple of teenagers who their parents bring them in kicking and screaming, but they have ended up loving it. Once people begin working some people wonder how I work.
“I don’t read minds. I don’t know what is going on in your head. I am very particular about what I ask – or how I ask it. I really respect their privacy- they can talk about what happens at different stages but they are looking into their own lives and really finding their own path as they look into those things. When you own something for yourself is when change really happens and you can work through it.”
Julissa becomes a facilitator on their journey and they go where they want to go, but she doesn’t take them where they don’t want to go. “I’ve had some people say – here I am tell mw what’s wrong.” Julissa likes people to be involved in their own journey. The magic really happens when they can really process issues they had maybe suppressed before and then letting them go.
In talk therapy sometimes you bring something alive and then go over it over and over again- so sometimes you just bring it up and it doesn’t resolve. When I work with them I focus on just taking that stress out of that part of the brain. And help them to choose to take themselves out of the loop. This way they become aware of their own problems and know what is going on and can do something about it.
Teaching Kids to Think for Themselves
A lot of this is teaching kids to think for themselves they have a chance to look at the world. For example when you think about the Simpsons – The whole town hears something and gets enraged and show up with their pitchforks and torches.
“I would love for more people to think for themselves and what their own mind I,” said Julissa. “I’m always encouraging parents to teach their kids to think for themselves.”
Julissa advises parents to give their kids choices, creating a dialogue of conversation with the kids then have them think about situations and processes things for themselves. It is really important to teach the kids mindfulness. Some don’t know how to do it for themselves or they haven’t done it for their kids if they haven’t learned to do it.
So much of what is done at Optimize Brain is for everyone in the famil. “We are supporting whole families – that is what we do.”
Making a change is always hard and families will be resistant, but after a few weeks your family and body stops fighting against you. Parenting takes work, “There is a lot of discomfort, but its ok to be uncomfortable,” said Julissa.
Dealing with Stress During the Coronavirus Pandemic
Letting go of the fear and focusing on the gratitude has helped her to overcome some of the challenges having to do with the Covid-19. Julissa says she has not had a lot of fear during this time. She has a lot of tools and she knows fear puts blocks in the body. It is important to be still and mindful and be an example to the kids of not focusing on the fear.
She says gratitude goes a long way. Focusing on love and gratitude giving that to the world is the best place to focus right now. She tells people to start small – look at the little things they have to be grateful for, then going bigger and bigger from there and then sharing that. It’s easy to not be in a state of fear, but once you get into a better place and feel more grateful than you become less fearful.
Julissa felt like she could feel the fell the fear vibration in the world and the community – “but I decided not to feed on that.” Instead she did her own research and tried to use her logic brain and take a look at what was real.
She could feel the panic in the area when Covid-19 did come into her area, and she had to set boundaries so that fear didn’t get in. She says, before her integration, if this would have happened she said she would be losing her marbles right now. She had been anxious but since then she learned to be still.
She knows many people not handling this well and spends part of her time everyday focusing on sending them love and prayers “because I know it is a really hard thing for them.”
Finding Out Who You Are: Do the Work
Julissa said, “there was a time I didn’t like myself and it was hard to be still, but then I started to do the work to see who I wanted to be how I needed to get there.” This process opened the door for the healing process – this path is different for everyone.
“Take a look at what you don’t like about your life, but it is ok to be uncomfortable because when you break through your life is totally better.”
“I talk about my baby goals and vocalize everything I am doing on my journey with my kids. And as I talk about it I talk about my mistakes to them and they listen and when it comes time for them to make goals they can come up with their own lists. “
“I teach them it’s ok to fail. To fail forward is part of learning.”
Julissa tells people to when you do your work – bring others in with you. Start little, even if its getting out of bed and writing one thing you are grateful for or turn off the TV for an hour, whatever people want.
Everyone messes up and this is human. Let people see the messy and dirty- people can call you on it, but they need to do that respectfully. Take a minute then come back and say, “I need to take a minute and then start working on it.”
It relieving to know perfection does not exist. You don’t have to have it, you don’t need to be it. It also causes a lot of stress—you don’t need to be there when you think you need to be there. Julissa says: “You are enough.”