In this powerful conversation, Lilian sits down with one of her clients 58 year old, to share a deeply inspiring story of transformation. Through her work, she is illuminating for the world how stress manifests not just mentally but physically—here, in the form of shock following a serious accident, which contributed to debilitating symptoms years later.
Together, they delved into therapy to uncover the root causes of these symptoms, rooted in stressful traumas. By processing and releasing these traumas, he has experienced significant relief from the physical effects of accumulated stress, as well as the associated embarrassment.
Remarkably, he has not yet completed the full 12 sessions he originally purchased, because now more important tasks has taken center stage in his life. This shift in priorities is itself a profoundly positive sign of the progress he has made.
Join us as Lilian and her client explore this journey, highlighting the profound mind-body connection and the hope that knowledge about stress reduction and tailored trauma therapy can bring to those living with the physical echoes of chronic stress .
You can listen to the video/audio interview, or you can read a shorter version of the interview below.
It is people from Lilians HOPEshortcut Community who have requested most of the questions.
Lilian: People are really interested in your timeline, and since we’re exploring this connection between stress, trauma, and Parkinson’s, I’d love to hear the bigger picture too. How would you describe your childhood?
Interviewee: I’d say it was happy, loved, and secure. My mom and dad split up when I was about seven, but looking back now, 50 years later, I don’t feel like I had a difficult childhood at all.
Lilian: And school? How was that time for you?
Interviewee: Relatively happy. I still keep in touch with some friends from my primary school, the under-11s one. Then I went to a school in central London for bright boys. It was fairly strict, but again, looking back, I felt happy. By 16, I’d kind of outgrown it a bit and became a slight rebel, so I went off to sixth-form college, which was unusual back then.
Lilian: It sounds like you were a pretty confident teenager.
Interviewee: Teenagers always have their insecurities, but yeah, relatively confident.
Lilian: What about further education and your early career? Any major stress there?
Interviewee: I did a degree and a master’s. Exam time always brings some stress, but compared to others, I took it in my stride. People used to call me quite relaxed when everyone else was panicking.
Lilian: And your jobs afterward? You’ve had a few roles. any high-pressure ones?
Interviewee: Right after university, I worked as a biomedical engineer designing medical equipment until I was about 30. Then I left to start my own business supplying equipment to hospitals. There were stresses, running a business, building it up, managing staff, but I wouldn’t say I was significantly adversely affected by stress. As the person in charge, there’s always a certain level of ongoing stress, though.
Lilian: Then there was a switch – an accident. How old were you, and what happened?
Interviewee: I’d just turned 50. I was married, father of three school-aged kids. We were having a family barbecue in the garden. I went back to the barbecue after heating it up, but the gas had gone out. I reignited it without realizing a big cloud of gas had built up. There was an explosion, and I got quite badly burnt.
Lilian: Did you feel the shock in the moment?
Interviewee: It was like in the movies – everything went into slow motion. Then the physical bang of the explosion, and afterward this huge sense of shock. At the hospital, my body went into a kind of shock state, whole-body trembling. They gave me something like morphine to settle me down.
Lilian: How bad did the doctors say it was?
Interviewee: They didn’t really spell it out at first, but you could see on their faces it was serious. I was taken to a specialist burns unit, but compared to what they usually see, they said, “This isn’t too bad.” My legs were the worst—skin burnt off from the knees down, all bandaged up. There were lesser burns elsewhere, mainly from the waist down because gas is heavier than air and sits lower. It took a month or two for full physical recovery.
I came home bandaged up like the Michelin Man, legs wrapped, lying in bed on the top floor, kind of in isolation, waiting for the skin to regrow. They used ointments and mesh to help. I was amazed how the body heals itself. Within four or five weeks, I had fresh skin on my legs.
Lilian: Did the accident force you to close the company, or did you just take a break?
Interviewee: No, by then the company had a good management team. I was minimally involved during recovery, and things ran nicely.
Lilian: Let’s talk about the timeline after the accident. When did you notice your first symptoms?
Interviewee: Looking back, on a family holiday in France the summer after the explosion, I noticed I couldn’t smell anything. I didn’t think much of it then. About two to three years later, during the COVID lockdown, my left foot started dragging and catching on the floor sometimes. Everything felt weird back then, so I kind of ignored it, didn’t want to go to a doctor or hospital and risk picking up something worse. I was officially diagnosed in 2022, but the symptoms probably started 12–18 months before that.
Lilian: What made you finally seek help?
Interviewee: Symptoms built up. I had what was diagnosed as frozen shoulder—stiffness and restricted movement in my left shoulder, plus the earlier foot issues on the left side. Eventually I saw a neurologist, and within minutes he said it was Parkinson’s disease.
Lilian: How did that diagnosis hit you?
Interviewee: Complete shock. I thought it was some nerve entrapment. The shock affected me for about six months. I imagined a much worse future, incurable, degenerative, progressively getting worse. I felt like I had only a handful of years left moving normally, hoping for a cure around the corner.
Lilian: What changed your perspective?
Interviewee: I started researching things that could help symptoms. Exercise made a huge difference, my mood and outlook shifted to optimism and hope. There was a real turning point: we had building work done, and the builders put metal girders in the garden for foundations. I thought, “I can’t walk along that beam—my balance is gone.” But each day I tried, and suddenly I felt almost all my symptoms ease from the balance work. I’d run back to the house feeling things weren’t only going to get worse—there was something I could do.
Lilian: And medication—when did that start?
Interviewee: At diagnosis four years ago, the neurologist started me on low-dose Rasagiline (1 mg). He said we’d probably review it in six to seven months and that in seven to ten years I’d likely be on a cocktail of three or four drugs. But with exercise, sleep, and later stress work, my medication hasn’t increased. I’m still basically on that starter level after three years. I haven’t been on L-Dopa, but I’ve been on low-dose ropinirole (a dopamine agonist) for about a year—just one tablet a day. We decided not to increase it after starting our work together.
Lilian: When were your symptoms at their worst?
Interviewee: Usually tied to stress or anxiety, tremor in my left hand, curling up of the hand, anxiety, trouble multitasking, feeling overwhelmed. Never extreme, but dragging my leg, facial rigidity, reduced smell, reduced arm movement.
I felt embarrassed going out because of the gait issues. I’d worry beforehand about social events, and that anxiety made symptoms worse—almost self-fulfilling.
Lilian: You mentioned a trip to Spain with old friends—how did that change?
Interviewee: The year before working with you, I spent half the weekend in the hotel, anxious about my walking, stressed, and I left early.
This year, after we talked through the fears and resolved some underlying stuff, it was completely different. A bit of anxiety at the airport, but then I was fully engaged for three days—fantastic time. My brother even said, “Are you on some new medication? You look so much better.” Huge difference.
Lilian: And trips into central city—did that anxiety ease too?
Interviewee: Yes. I’d get anxious the day before about department stores or traveling in.
Now, after working through the stress triggers, I have a more positive mindset, if I’m not walking great, who cares? Lots of people aren’t. I notice it when I look around, and then I walk with more ease. Very quickly after one session, I tested it and had a much better experience.
Lilian: So now symptoms don’t restrict your activities as much?
Interviewee: Not at all. I don’t let them hold me back, and life is more enjoyable. It’s a virtuous spiral.
Lilian: Most people believe nothing can be done about Parkinson’s. What made you look in another direction?
Interviewee: Seeing positive effects from exercise, noticing symptom-free mornings after good sleep, and knowing stress intensified everything for me. I considered general counseling, but then I found you, and it fit perfectly—what I was looking for.
Lilian: If we make the bold claim that the barbecue accident—the shock, the freeze response—tipped you into Parkinson’s, what do you think now?
Interviewee: I agree. I fleetingly wondered if the accident caused it right after diagnosis but dismissed it because it didn’t fit conventional theories. Now, after our work, I’m fairly confident it was the most significant trigger. Lying on the hospital table, whole body vibrating in shock—that was worse than any Parkinson’s tremor I’ve had, but similar in concept.
Lilian: Do you have fears about the future now?
Interviewee: No more than the average person. I’m generally positive—more so now—and feel symptoms are much more under my control with exercise, meditation, yoga, stress reduction. Some even say getting the diagnosis was lucky, it forced lifestyle changes that help prevent other issues. What I thought was the end of normal life might have been the start of something better.
Lilian: How has this changed you beyond the symptoms?
Interviewee: I’ve become more accepting, if walking isn’t great one day, I don’t worry. I have lost some of that need to be “perfect.” It’s helped the family too, I’m more outgoing again, less withdrawn. My wife notices; she laughs at me doing my dancing exercises. Life feels lighter.
Lilian: Any diet changes that helped?
Interviewee: About a year after diagnosis, we shifted—with my wife’s help—to a more Mediterranean-style diet. Healthy anyway, but hard to pinpoint its exact effect compared to exercise, sleep, and stress reduction, which I notice immediately.
Lilian: You didn’t go heavy on supplements or experimental stuff?
Interviewee: As a biomedical engineer, I tried things like red LED light therapy, but nothing helped dramatic. I avoided the supplement rabbit hole you see in patient groups—people stacking dopamine boosters in untested combinations. For me, stress reduction, exercise, yoga, and meditation have had the biggest, most noticeable impact.
Lilian: Anything else you’d like to say to the world?
Interviewee: Just that I’d encourage people to try stress reduction work with you, Lillian—because it works.
