Waiheke Market Place August 2001

Zero Balancing My Personal Experience
By Lee Roche

Life was going great for me and my family. I was successful and working hard with two part time jobs and helping my husband with his business. However on December 9th 2000 I was involved in a serious car accident. My daughter and two of her friends were in the the car with me. I suffered massive bruising to my sternum and my daughter had a lacerated spleen, broken ribs and suffered from severe swelling to her head.

I know it could have been worse. For me nothing was broken except my spirit. I was struggling trying to get back to “normal”. My confidence was gone, and I’m normally a very confident person. I was experiencing fear, guilt and anger.

Driving past the crash site was always a fearful trauma for me. It felt like part of me was not here, I lost the “Lee” spirit, and was fearful about stepping forwards.I visited many counsellors, attended victim support sessions, but these only gave me a short term relief. A good friend of mine suggested that I try Zero Balancing. I have never heard of this bodywork technique before, however I trusted my friends judgement.

I first visited Paul Cohen at his Waiheke Island practice on 10th June. It was a deeply relaxing session. I felt something had shifted. Within days I started to feel more like my old self. I even felt more at ease driving home from the session. One of the major noticeable improvements was that I could feel my confidence coming back. I had a huge increase in my positive outlook, towards my whole being and as a mother and wife. Basically I was feeling much more comfortable with my lot.

From that first session I knew I was going to get better. There was light. This was a huge step. I continued to have a series of weekly sessions, driving from Tauranga to his practice in Newmarket, Auckland.

The next few sessions built on the previous ones. Deep inside I still felt a bit shaky, having doubts about believing in myself, and whether I was really going to make it. However I was getting better and better. I was feeling more motivated and was starting to feel generally really good about myself.

The best part though is my memories about the car accident, they no longer haunt me. I regained my confidence with driving and can now drive past the accident site with no anxiety or stress.

After the third session I had no doubt that I was going to make it. My optimism was back and I was feeling great. As one of my friends said, “You’re like you’re old self”. In fact I was feeling better than I had done for years.

My daughter also had a couple of sessions with Paul. The pain she had from her cracked ribs disappeared after the first session. Her back pain felt better generally she was feeling more relaxed and less frustrated. Again for her driving past the accident site lost it emotional charge.

he best way that I can explain Zero Balancing is it’s like having counselling without having to re-live the trauma. It’s a very gentle yet powerful body work technique. I recommend Zero Balancing to anyone who has had trauma of any kind in their lives.

Thank you Paul for helping me recover and get on with my life positively.