Sequential Therapy
If you have fibromyalgia you can probably trace the origins of your illness back to a specific event that was traumatic for you. It might have been an injury, an illness, or something emotional like an insult. Or it might not have been a single event but rather a stressful period of time in your life such as an unfulfilling job.
In the 1970s the Swiss medical doctor Dr. Jean Elmiger discovered that the shocks and traumas were the underlying cause of several untreatable diseases. He found that he could successfully cure these diseases with homeopathic medicines if he treated each shock in the reverse order in which it occurred. He called his method Sequential Therapy.
How it’s done
Basically, you write down all the significant traumas in your life on a timeline, both physical and emotional. Start from the most recent and go all the way back to birth, and beyond. Each shock is then treated, one at a time at intervals of about 3 to 4 weeks.
It is a highly effective form of therapy that produces results, but it can be challenging for two reasons:
It takes time. If for example, you suffered from 20 significant traumas throughout your life, and we dealt with one every three week, then it would take just over a year to get through them all. On average treatment takes one to two years.
Relive the past. As you go through the events on the timeline long forgotten memories, buried emotions, and past symptoms will temporarily resurface. Reliving the past can be hard to deal with but it’s absolutely vital if you want rid yourself of the past traumas held in your body.
A Brief History
The idea of sequencing began with the founder of homeopathy, Dr. Samuel Hahnemann (1755-1843). He observed that ill health often began with an initial shock or trauma, such as fall, concussion, emotional shock, or drug. This initial shock would then eventually give rise to a variety of secondary diseases. Hahnemann found that if he treated the initial shock the secondary diseases would usually disappear by themselves soon after.
“Particularly some shock to the health caused by a severe external injury, or a very sad event that bowed down the soul … repeated fright, great grief, sorrow and continuous vexation, often caused in a weakened body the re-appearance of one or more of the ailments which seemed to have been already overcome.” ~ Samuel Hahnemann, The Chronic Diseases
For over 150 years little was done with this profound insight. This was because the initial shock didn’t produce any visible symptoms – instead, it negatively altered the general state or tone of the patient. This altered tone was extremely difficult to detect and diagnose and was thus rarely treated. Secondary diseases, on the other hand, produced numerous symptoms and suffering so they were much easier to identify and treat.
In the 1970s the Swiss medical doctor Dr. Jean Elmiger discovered that the shocks of drugs and vaccinations were the underlying cause of several untreatable diseases. He found that he could successfully cure these diseases with homeopathic medicines if he treated each shock in the reverse order in which it occurred. In his book Rediscovering Real Medicine, Elmiger laid out his method of treatment, which he called La therapie sequentielle or Sequential Therapy.
In the early 1990s Patty Smith and Rudi Verspoor of the Hahnemann College and Clinic for Heilkunst developed and refined Dr. Elmiger’s discoveries, especially in terms of emotional shock. In their book Autism: The Journey Back, Recovering the Self Through Heilkunst they clearly explain the effectiveness of sequential treatment, and its role in Hahnemann’s broader system of medicine called Heilkunst.
I’d like to add in my own minor contribution. Medicine always works better when it’s combined with regimen (healthy lifestyle). Sequential therapy is the medical part and you’ll be very surprised to hear that the regimental part is tidying. Yes, you heard that right.
Tidying Up
When I first read The Life Changing Magic of Tidying by Marie Kondo I was struck at how similar her method of decluttering was to sequential therapy.
In The Life Changing Magic of Tidying, Kondo says, "Once the process of tidying is under way, many of my clients remark that they have lost weight or that they have firmed up their tummies. It’s a very strange phenomenon, but when we reduce what we own and essentially “detox” our house, it has a detox effect on our bodies as well.”
What really surprised me was that tidying can produce a healing reaction, just like homeopathic medicines do. She writes, “When we discard everything in one go … our bodies may respond in a way that resembles a short fast. We may get a bout of diarrhea or break out in pimples. There is nothing wrong with this. Our bodies are just getting rid of toxins that have built up over the years, and they will be back to normal, or in fact in even better shape, within a day or two.”
She continues, “Unfortunately, I can’t show you before-and-after pictures of my clients, but I have witnessed with my own eyes how their appearance changes when their rooms are tidied. Their figures are more streamlined, their skin is more radiant, and their eyes shine brighter.”
And here’s the part I’ve noticed in practice: when people clear away layers of stuff they no longer need - old clothes, half-used bottles, stacks of papers - something shifts in their heads, too. The mental chatter quiets down. Decisions feel simpler. They sleep better because there’s less visual noise pulling at them. It’s as if the space you create on the shelf shows your brain how to create space in your thoughts. So while Sequential Therapy lifts off the medical “weight,” a good, honest tidy-up lifts off the mental weight. Put the two together and the healing runs deeper and sticks around longer.
Tone
What she is referring to is the overall tone of the client. Think of medicine as being split into two parts. A pathic part which treats the pathology or visible suffering of the patient, and a tonic part which treats the overall tone of the patient. The best way to describe it is using music as a metaphor.
When you watch a movie you may not always be conscious of the background music but that’s what sets the tone for each scene.
Some characters such as James Bond and Darth Vader have their very own background music, called a leitmotif.
In reality we all have our own leitmotif. Unlike in the movies though, it not an actual song but rather a resonance or vibration that expresses the essence of who we are.
For a moment, imagine that your leitmotif is an actual song played by an invisible orchestra. The members of the orchestra love and understand you completely. When you are happy your song has joyful note and when you are sad your song takes on a melancholic tone.
Your song is perfectly melodic but as you go through life you encounter various shocks and hurts.
Every time a shock impacts you, it also impacts a member of your inner orchestra. One by one the orchestra members become discordant:
You break your hand in a fall and the cellist breaks his hand. He can still play the cello but only the high notes.
Your heart is broken and the violinist too has her heart broken. She loses her passion for music.
You are insulted by your boss and feel humiliated. The conductor tells the pianist she needs to practice more. She feels angered and insulted so she begins to play with a little too much force.
Eventually your inner song has deteriorated into discord. You feel constantly sick but the symptoms just don’t go away, even with the best medical help.
Sequential therapy is putting the orchestra back together step by step. First the pianist, then the violinist, and then the cellist. So that they can play your leitmotif perfectly and harmoniously again.
Like Marie Kondo’s before-and-after pictures of her clients.
Alfred Adler
Medicine and tidy living will take you a long way, but there’s a third leg on the stool: training the mind. This is where Alfred Adler and what we call “therapeutic education” step in. Think of it as mental housekeeping. We learn to spot the old stories we keep telling ourselves—“I’m weak,” “I don’t belong,” “Nothing ever works out”—and then replace them with ideas that actually help us move forward. It sounds simple, but clearing out stale beliefs can free up just as much energy as tossing a closet full of junk. Pair this mindset work with Sequential Therapy and good regimen, and the whole healing process clicks into place.
Two Ways to Tackle the Same Problem
Sequential Therapy (ST) starts with the body. You and your practitioner list every shock you can remember—shots, falls, surgeries, big emotional hits—and then treat them in the reverse order they happened. A remedy brings up each layer, the body reacts for a bit, and then it settles down. Bit by bit the old charge drains away.
Alfred Adler’s approach starts with the mind. His ideas are laid out in the book The Courage to Be Disliked by Ichiro Kishimi and Fumitake Koga. The book is written as a friendly talk between a philosopher and a frustrated young man. Over five nights they go back and forth. The student argues, the teacher explains, and by the end the student sees life in a new way. The key point: your past event is not the real problem; the meaning you gave it is. Change the meaning and the emotion loses power.
Pathic and Tonic—What’s the Difference?
Hahnemann, the founder of homeopathy, said illness shows up in two ways. The pathic side is what hurts right now—pain, fatigue, brain fog. The tonic side is the deeper “tone,” the hidden twist in the vital force that keeps producing new symptoms. ST aims at the tonic twist with remedies. Adler aims at it with new ways of thinking. One works from the outside-in, the other from the inside-out.
Running Two Timelines
It helps to keep two running notes. In the ST note you write: “Age 40—car crash, Age 30—flu shot, Age 25—bad breakup.” In the Adler note you write the old rule you formed each time: “I’m unsafe,” “Medicine hurts me,” “I’m not lovable.” After each remedy you ask, “What rule can I swap in here that is kinder and more useful?” Then you test it in daily life—take a slow drive without panic, book a simple check-up, reach out to a friend without fear of rejection. Every time the test goes well, the nervous system loosens another notch.
Fibromyalgia and the Feedback Loop
With fibromyalgia the nerves stay on high alert. ST lowers the base line by clearing stored shocks. Adler stops the brain from flipping the alarm switch every time you think about the past. Less alarm means less muscle tension, better sleep, and often less pain.
From Just Coping to Feeling Connected
Adler says the real goal of therapy is community feeling: the sense that you belong and can help others. ST often gives you the physical energy for that. Adler gives you the mindset. When both line up, you worry less about symptoms and start looking outward again—family, friends, work, hobbies.
Putting It Together
Think of ST as tuning the instrument and Adler as choosing new music. A tuned guitar still sounds bad if you play the same sad song, and a bright new song still sounds off on a warped guitar. Do both. Clear the shocks, change the story, and your life can get back in rhythm—simple as that.
I’m Dr. Rodger Douglas, DMH, a South African-born homeopath now based in Osaka, Japan. With a psychology degree from Nelson Mandela University and a diploma from the Hahnemann College of Heilkunst, I specialize in holistic care for fibromyalgia. I serve clients by phone or video across the US, Canada, the UK, and beyond.