When "I've Got My Medical Team Handled" Isn't the Same as "I'm Okay"
Have you ever had a plan in place — the right doctors, the right decisions made — and still felt like your body wouldn't stop bracing for impact?
That's exactly where Joan* found herself. She'd just been diagnosed with cancer. She had an excellent oncology team. She'd already made clear, confident decisions about her treatment path. On paper, everything that could be "handled" was handled. But her nervous system hadn't gotten the memo — she was still living in a state of fight-or-flight, and no amount of good planning was calming it down.
If that goes unaddressed, it doesn't just stay uncomfortable — it can make healing harder, coloring everything from sleep to focus to being present with family, friends, and care team.
Over six months of care with us, something shifted for Joan. This is the story of how she found her way out of survival mode — and how Neuro Emotional Technique (NET) got her there.
The Before: A Body Stuck in Defense Mode
Joan came to us shortly after her diagnosis. She wasn't looking for a second opinion on her treatment, and she wasn't questioning her medical team — she trusted them completely. What she needed help with was everything happening underneath the treatment plan: the fear, the racing thoughts, the sense that her body simply would not settle.
This tracks with what researchers have found: a cancer diagnosis alone — separate from treatment itself — is often enough to send the body into a sustained state of traumatic stress. In the weeks after her diagnosis, Joan was dealing with:
- Racing thoughts that made it hard to be present with her family
- Difficulty sleeping, even on nights when nothing "new" had happened
- A constant low hum of anxiety that made ordinary decisions feel harder than they should
- The frustrating sense that she'd done everything "right" — and her body still wasn't cooperating
What made this especially hard was the mismatch: she had done all the things you're supposed to do when facing a health crisis — assembled a great team, made clear decisions — and still felt like she was white-knuckling her way through each day.
The Solution: Working With Her Nervous System, Not Just Her Diagnosis
Step 1: Finding the Right Support for the Emotional Side of Care
Joan wasn't looking for another treatment for her cancer — she was looking for support for the stress of having cancer. That's a distinction that matters. Neuro Emotional Technique (NET) is a type of chiropractic care built specifically for this: it works at the intersection of the nervous system and emotion, based on the idea that the two influence each other in both directions. When the body has been through something overwhelming, it can get stuck in patterns of fight, flight, freeze, or fawn long after the initial event — and NET is a hands-on technique designed to help release those stuck patterns so the body's natural reflexes can reset.
Step 2: Weekly Sessions, Built Around Her Treatment Schedule
We worked with her once a week throughout her treatment, whenever it was safe to do so, over the course of six months. Sessions were built around her, not the other way around — pausing or adjusting around treatment days as needed. Consistency mattered here: this wasn't a one-time reset; it was ongoing support for a nervous system that needed time and repetition to feel safe and focus on healing.
Step 3: Backed by Research, Not Just Belief
This approach isn't just something we believe works — it's been studied. A trial out of the Marcus Institute of Integrative Health at Thomas Jefferson University used fMRI brain imaging to evaluate NET's effects in cancer patients with traumatic stress symptoms tied to their diagnosis. Researchers found that in just four to five sessions, patients reported significantly less distress, and brain scans showed their stress-response regions reacting less intensely to reminders of their trauma — meaning the nervous system itself was recalibrating, not just their mood.
Source: Monti, D.A., Tobia, A., Stoner, M. et al. "Neuro emotional technique effects on brain physiology in cancer patients with traumatic stress symptoms: preliminary findings." J Cancer Surviv 11, 438–446 (2017). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11764-017-0601-8
The After: Real Emotional Relief, Alongside Her Medical Care
By the end of those six months, Joan experienced:
- A significant drop in day-to-day distress — the racing thoughts and constant low-grade anxiety eased.
- Better sleep and more capacity to be present — for her family, and for herself, even in the middle of treatment.
- A felt sense that her body was finally on her side — instead of working against her healing.
What's now possible for her that wasn't before: showing up for her treatment decisions and her family without her nervous system running the show. She's described it as feeling like she can finally exhale — not because the diagnosis is behind her, but because her body stopped treating every day like an emergency.
Here's How You Can Experience This, Too
Her story isn't about cancer specifically — it's about what happens when your body gets stuck bracing for something, long after the initial shock. That "stuck" feeling shows up after all kinds of hard seasons: a diagnosis, a loss, an accident, or simply the accumulated weight of pushing through life instead of living it.
If any part of her story sounds familiar, we'd love to help you find your way back to a regulated, supported nervous system — the same way we helped her.
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*Name changed to protect patient privacy.
