By David Thompson MA, LMFT

I have been closely following the research on attachment problems and autoimmune disorders. For instance Tony Madrid PhD a psychologist in Santa Rosa CA, has done multiple studies on children with asthma. He's found that when he works with the mothers of children age 9 or under the children's asthma symptoms disappear. Usually within 24 hours. His experience is that this occurs 85% of the time even though he's usually doing just a single session with mom and the child has no idea that mom had a rebonding session. He's just completing data analysis on a two year study (long term results) and the data shows that the asthma has not returned at the end of two years. (Two of my clients participated in that study.)

I have had similar rates of remission when the children are 9 or under. I've expanded the audience to include mothers whose asthmatic children are in their teens and twenties. With the older children the response is often slower and the percentage of success is lower though still better than 50% (sample size for this group is under 20). 

I have also been working with mothers of "sickly" babies and young children. This includes digestive problems such as IBS, difficulty sleeping, ear infections, etc. and so far there has consistantly been at least partial remission of the problems. Mothers also report that children's behaviors change immediately after the work, with oppositional children, particularly, becoming more cooperative.

One mom reported that her oldest son (the one with asthma) walked into the house the afternoon of the rebonding and announced that he was going up to do his homework. Mom's jaw dropped. He had always created a fuss before grudgingly taking out his books. Now, without even knowing anything about what mom had done he voluntarily went to work. His younger brother came in five minutes later and got six time outs in the first hour. The younger one had always been the good child. The next week we bonded her with the younger child and his oppositional behavior ended.

I think of children's immune systems as tiny spinning tops. It's easy for them to get knocked off center. Mothers are like massive slow spinning flywheels which don't get knocked off center as easily so if the child is well attached (mother is bonded to child) then the usual traumas of childhood aren't as likely to leave the child's immune system flopping around. Mothers also benefit from the rebonding because they too feel that there is something missing in their relationships with their children. After the rebonding they report feeling more relaxed with their children and more interested in spending time with them.

I have also offered this work to mothers whose adult children have disconnected which usually includes moving out of state and cutting off all contact. In about 2/3 of the cases the daughter or son will call mom within a month with something like..."Hi mom, I noticed I've been thinking about you and was wondering if there's something (new, different...) going on." This is without any prompting by mom. This conversation marks the beginning of a new, very different relationship.

You can view Tony Madrid's research at www.asthma-busters.org.

David Thompson 541 520 4020.