I met Pam in the spring of 1999. She was visiting the area and had heard of me and my practice of Neuromuscular Therapy. Pam wanted to meet with me and learn what made my work special. From the moment we met we knew that there was a unique connection between us. When she walked in the door it was as if we were the best of friends, but for some reason we had been separated for a long time. I wanted to ask her, "Where have you been for all this time?" But we just looked at each other and smiled a knowing smile. During our visit she told me a little about Bio-Graphic Therapy and I was intrigued by what she told me. Needles to say, we enjoyed our meeting tremendously and decided we should spend a little time together to learn more about what each of us was practicing.

I experienced her work for the first time a few weeks later when we spent a day together in Ventura. As it was a long drive for me, coming from San Diego, I was tired when I arrived, and asked if she would mind if I took a nap before we got started? She told me, "John, go right ahead, I'll work on you while you're asleep." Well, that was something new for me, but I was very tired so I just said, "Ok" and passed out. When I woke up about thirty minutes later, she asked me if I knew that I had a congenital heart defect? I said, "Of course I do, but who have you been talking to, and how did you know?" She told me that she had no previous knowledge of my condition, but discovered it when she began to use her method of Bio-Graphic Therapy while I was sleeping.

She told me when she accessed my body:

a physical cause came up first,

and under physical cause,

organs came up, under organs,

heart and when she went to the heart, she was directed to the mitral valve. Well, my mouth was open, if not literally, it was figurative. I told her that I had a mitral valve prolapse since birth (heart murmur) with a slightly elevated heart rate, and about every 18 months I would have some kind of cardiac arrhythmia with severe and sharp pains radiating across and through my chest for a period of three to seven seconds.

She said that while I was asleep she had worked on clearing those problems and I would have no further symptoms. So I was sitting there stunned, I had this condition since birth, I knew it well. My doctors had monitored it over the years and when I was in high school, I had to get a letter from two separate doctors permitting me to play high school sports. Frankly, as much as I liked and believed in her, I found it hard to understand how she could first of all discover my heart murmur, and even more astounding make the claim that this condition had gone away in the thirty minutes that I had been asleep.

She saw what I was going through mentally and said to me, "John, didn't you tell me that you have a few physicians who are regular patients?" When I nodded in the affirmative, she said to me, "Next week, if one comes in, tell them about me and my work and ask them to listen for the murmur." So, I did. And the following Wednesday, a friend of mine, a local pediatrician, came in to see me. I told her about Pam and Bio-Graphic Therapy. With a look of disbelief, she ran out to her car, got her stethoscope, came back in and proceeded to listen to my heart for about five minutes. She must have put that scope in about 15 places. Finally, when finished with her examination of my heart, she stood up, shaking her finger at me as if I were a naughty child, she said in a stern voice, "Well John, if you ever did have a heart murmur, you certainly don't have one now!"

So, that was my introduction to Bio-Graphic therapy. I was stunned, surprised, but happy, very happy to discover Pam and her amazing form of therapy. And guess what? I don't have a heart murmur anymore. And when she did this work on me, it was the spring of 1999 over four years ago, and still, I haven't had one episode of the arrhythmia. It has been great to be free of that condition.

Before I get started on how and what Bio-Graphic Therapy is, I would like to preface it with a few words. My own practice is called Neuromuscular Therapy, and NMT is a precise science, its basic principles are as follows: Anatomy, Physiology, Postural Distortions, Dysfunctional Bio-Mechanics, Trigger Points, Gait Patterns, etc. . . It is not an iffy or airy-fairy healing art, it takes years of hard study and practice to become certified in our method. Most of my doctor friends call me Dr. John, or Dr. Hornbacher, when I protest, they ignore me and reply, "John, anyone who knows anatomy and physiology like you is a doctor, I only wish you were in my medical school teaching anatomy, you make it come to life." Quite often when explaining a patients condition to a referring physician I ask, "Should I send a report?" Most of the time, they reply, "John, I've been taking notes." I would like to pass the credit to my teacher Paul St. John, he once told me, "The definition of a doctor, is one who knows anatomy."

So, I have worked hard, very hard to get what I have, and it takes something real to win me over. I don't believe in the "Emperor's new clothes." So in the beginning it was difficult for me, and even now when friends and patients ask me to explain Bio-Graphic Therapy to them, sometimes I throw up my hands in frustration, because no matter how hard I try, it is difficult to explain, because for most of us, it is out of our paradigm, and if you haven't experienced the work yourself it is almost impossible to believe it can work.

I can tell you that Pam has worked incredibly hard to create and develop her own work of Bio-Graphic Therapy, she has created a large manual for her therapy that gets added to virtually every day. The work is incredibly complicated and yet beautifully simple at the same time.

Here is where I would like to give you my explanation of her work. Bio-Graphic therapy can be divided into two parts. The first is diagnostic. She uses applied kinesiology, to follow the condition that your body would like to have removed. Pam likes to say, "Your body, your story!" Hence the name Bio-Graphic Therapy. It is literally a way of following your body's story.

Sometimes I explain it in this way. Let's say that you had a friend. Your friend was incredibly strong, intelligent, clever, knowledgeable, knew languages, math, science, art, philosophy, gardening, basically could answer any question put to him. So, there you are, you have this amazing friend, but you don't know how to communicate with him. You shout, you wave your arms, you try all kinds of communications, but for some reason you are unable to get any but the most basic of replies from him. One day a person walks up to you and says . . . Hi, did you know you have this friend here, he is so anxious to talk to you, but he tells me that you don't listen to him at all. I could translate for you if that's a problem.

Your friend is your body, and Pam is the translator. So she begins to give you all this information about your body and what's ailing it. Then by communicating to the body, she is able to activate hidden or dormant healing qualities from within. She always maintains that she is not the healer, but her job it to follow the body's instructions to locate the problem, then activate the body's own miraculous healing powers to begin the healing process.

This is Bio-Graphic Therapy in a nutshell.

First, the ability to find what is wrong in the body.

Second, to awaken healing properties from within the body to begin the healing process.

Third, to give you homework that you must do to take control of your own heath.

This homework may involve any and all of the following:

Change of diet, cleansing and rebuilding programs with herbs for the organ systems, exercise, change in thinking or paradigm, avoidance of coffee, drugs, alcohol, tobacco, etc. . . . a yoga or stretching program or chiropractic visits. Sometimes when a client comes to her a physicians visit is indicated. In other words she will help you to understand what your body needs to regain its health. Your body knows.

After a couple of years of working with Bio-Graphic Therapy in our practice, Kim & I renamed the work in our clinic Conscious Listening, for us, it seems to be more appropriate and easier to understand for most of our patients.

A person who learns to listen to their own body, has achieved the highest state of healing. The Bio-Graphic therapist gives you the start, and shows you what it possible, but now, your real work begins. Now it is time for you to begin listening to your own body. Does it mean that you will never need the therapist again? For most, the answer would be "Of course not." Because most of us need help with our healing a good part of the time, and the more help we can get the better off we are. But we should learn to have some responsibility for our own bodies, I have included a few examples that we can use every day:

1. You are out on a run, but your body tells you, that it would be better to walk today, this run is not healing for you. And you listen, and walk instead, because you know that the real purpose of the run is for your health, not go fast.

2. You are sitting down to a meal, and you realize that there is too much food on your plate, so you eat about half of it and stop. Believe me. It is ok to stop. Leaving that food on your plate, will not affect the lives of starving children in Somalia, just stop and eat only that much food which your body needs to be healthy.

3. You get in your car, heading for a destination. All of a sudden you get the urge to take a different road, take it, for if you go that way instead, generally you will find that your body knew the other road was crowded or there would be an accident or some other incident that might cause problems for you.

4. You are out in public, you see someone, and you know you must talk to them, so you do it. You just walk over to them and say hi, my name is John and I felt that I should come over and meet you. You will find that there was a reason, there is always a reason, just listen to your body, it knows. I could go on and on, but the point is and remains, just listen. LISTEN to your body IT KNOWS.

Here, I would like to describe the diagnostic process and where it came from. The science of Applied kinesiology was discovered by Dr. Charles Goodheart in 1964. He made the correlation between finding a weak muscle and making it stronger. Since then he has looked beyond the chiropractic profession to the fields of medicine, osteopathy, acupuncture, dentistry, nutrition, biochemistry, etc. His search was for methods to increase the health and well being of the patient based upon using the patient's body as the chief diagnostic tool.

For the first several years it consisted of something like this; The patient would hold an arm out in front or to the side of their body. The doctor would push the arm downwards while directing the patient to hold it up with strength. Then the doctor would have the patient hold a bottle of pills and see if the body still had the same strength as before. If the arm went down easily, he knew he was on the wrong track as these pills weakened the patient. If the arm retained its original strength or became stronger the doctor knew that the pills in the patient's hand would be beneficial for his/her health.

This was a crude but effective method of diagnosis, if the doctor touched weakened musculature or vertebral bodies that were out of adjustment, it would give him an accurate picture of the patient's health. But there was a problem, eventually the patient or doctor would tire and the work would lose its clarity and effectiveness. Also, based upon my own experience with this method I came to disbelieve in it because I would notice that if the doctor wanted my arm to be strong, he just wouldn't push hard, and contrarily if the doctor wanted my arm to go down, believe you me, he would make it go down. I began to realize that while the method had doctors who practiced it correctly, there were many who could make the results come up any way they desired. It was also limiting in the amount of questions that could be asked and answered in any particular session.

In later years practitioners of this art began to experiment with other methods of testing. The one that Pam uses today, seems to be the most prevalent:

The therapist takes either hand and holds the thumb and forefinger together with a little bit of strength. Taking the index and second fingers of the other hand, you try to push those fingers down and through in a sweeping motion toward the circle created by the thumb and forefinger of the first hand. Using the same amount of strength in the circle hand as the sweeping hand, you will find that the sweeping fingers are unable to break the circle. Now, you have a balance of strength in both hands.

At this point you are ready to learn "Yes and No", as you begin to sweep you say, show me ‘yes.' If the fingers of the sweeping hand pass easily through the circle, you have now seen and felt ‘yes'. Then you ask, show me ‘no'. This time, if the fingers are unable to pass through the circle, you have now seen ‘no'.

This is the heart and soul of the beginning of the work. You are developing your ability to trust in what you see in your own hands, until you're able to successfully complete this part of the work you will be unable to proceed further.

This is the foundation where you will work from, it is the tool which you use to ask your patient where to go. For example when a patient presents themselves to you, the first thing you ask is. Am I able to access___________. This is not a question asked verbally to the patient, but asked with the method of testing described above. If the answer is yes, then the work begins. Then you might ask. Is there a physical cause? Once again, Yes or No. If no, is there an emotional cause?
Etc. You continue in this vein until you begin to follow the information coming from the patient.

I like to use analogy to describe this part of the work:

It's as if The Bio-Graphic therapist literally has a network cable and laptop computer, they come to your home, plug the cable and it's corresponding software into your computer, and suddenly all of your computers information begins to appear on the therapists monitor. It's that simple. A good therapist can download all of the pertinent information necessary for this session. And your body knows what are the largest blocks to healing, these blocks will come up first on the screen and must be cleared before the body will allow the therapist to go further.

So, the therapist uses the kinesiology to ask yes and no questions to the body, where to go, where the problem lies, in what structure, or emotion etc. This is the diagnostic part of the therapy. Intuition plays a key part here, intuition combined with what your hands are telling you. For example, as the sweeping hand moves through the circled hand the therapist will easily note whether the sweeping hand passes through easily, or does it seem to go through, but maybe it's as if one is trying to go through a rusted or stuck door, you may pass through, but with difficulty. In time the therapist could tell you on a scale of ( one to 1000 ) with what ease or difficulty the sweeping hand could pass through. Sometimes it seems as if the circled hands open by themselves as the sweep passes through. This is the combination of physical energy with intuitive skills. As you begin to intuitively ask the questions the body wants answered, the answers come more and more easily. This is why I used the computer monitor analogy. Because as you sit with a skilled therapist, it seems that the answers are appearing right there in front of them.

Once I asked Pam, "It seems to me that many times you don't really have to test?" She paused for a moment and said, "Sometimes their information comes so clearly I really don't have to, but I always do any ways . . . It keeps me clear, it keeps my own opinions out of the work and allows their bodies information to flow freely to me."

This is the test of a true therapist, even when they know that their skills are beyond the ordinary, they keep their humility and continue in their role as an interpreter. Your body knows what it needs to heal itself perfectly, their job is to pass the information to you in the way your own body intended.

The first part of Bio-Graphic Therapy is diagnostic, the second is clearing and activating the body's own innate healing responses, the third is homework, what a patient must do on their own regarding, diet, herbs, therapy, exercise, etc.. to become well again.

After our meeting together we decided that it was very important for us to develop a new way of using our mutual skills. I invited Pam down to visit Kim and me in San Diego. We spent months working together combining Neuromuscular Therapy with Bio-Graphic Therapy. We both found the effectiveness and power of our treatments to be many times greater than using either therapy separately.

Before, I would have to use my analytical skills, experience, and intuition to find the most important structures to treat for effective healing to take place. With Pam sitting in the room testing, she could direct me to these areas immediately. As we worked together, I would find quite often that the patients body would literally begin to melt under my hands as the trauma evaporated. Especially when Pam would be clearing simultaneously while I was practicing the manual therapy.

Pam would find that I could go to an area she was working on and with the benefit of my touch, areas which had previously taken whole sessions could be cleared in minutes. This was mutual, as we worked together, our work and understanding, would often progress by leaps and bounds. During a session, we would see more clearly what had to be done and which direction to move in.

We both noted that our work grew daily, and with each patient we saw, we would discover more and more effective ways of treatment, doors were opening wide into areas of health and healing we had never thought possible. Ours was truly a symbiotic relationship and we both treasure the time we spent together.

Once I asked Pam, "Should I learn Bio-Graphic Therapy?" She replied, "No, not at this time, I have been testing when we've been working together and you already are doing my work, but you do it spontaneously. Every time you go to an area of the body, I test to see if you are in the correct spot, and you always are. Not only that, you're applying the correct amount of pressure for the appropriate time. So no, what you are doing is the physical release of the trauma, this cannot be underrated, when we work together we get miraculous results."

Kim was fascinated by Pam's work, as she had already been studying kinesiology, and when she saw the incredible results that Pam achieved with Bio-Graphic therapy she wanted to become a Bio-Graphic therapist herself. Kim told me that when she saw Pam testing for the first time, she said to herself, "Of course I can do that." That was all that was necessary, and she took to the work like the proverbial "fish to water" and became very proficient almost immediately. Within a year of study and practice, Pam called Kim and told her it was no longer necessary for her to refer any patients to her. She affirmed Kim's skills and told her that she was totally competent to practice on her own.

Kim & I now practice together combining NMT and Bio-Graphic Therapy as Pam and I did in the beginning of this work. We are both grateful to Pam for what she taught us and the time we spent together. Pam has a successful practice in Morro Bay, if you're ever up in the central coast, you might want to look her up and give her our best regards. She is really a very special person!

Recently I was asked this question by a patient, "John, how do you convince someone like me who believes in logic that this method works?" I said, "Easy!" She then asked, "Really, how?"
I replied, "I don't bother, those people who are ready for this work ask for it themselves, no convincing necessary."

For our local population, Kim is not only practicing, but teaching interested students this wonderful and fascinating work, for more information, feel free to call or email us. 760.941.2481, or email j.hornbacher@cox.net

Our best to all.

John & Kim