Meet Pete

Peter O’Neill has been a master in the world of healing, coaching and kinesiology for over 15 years. With two diplomas in kinesiology and many other certificates in health, mind and body courses, Peter has gained a broad understanding of, and experience in, multiple schools of thought, healing and ‘results driven’ life coaching techniques and therapies from various disciplines, cultures and philosophies.

Based on the Sunshine Coast and Brisbane, Queensland, Peter has developed and pioneered six different systems of kinesiology and emotional intelligence and has been teaching his systems through small groups, seminars and workshops for more than 12 years. Peter has spent countless hours with his head in books, or meditating in Ashrams, practicing and developing new efficient models of individual and group psychotherapy with many of his friends and work colleges who are Doctors, Psychiatrists, Psychologists, Counsellors, Yoga and Martial Arts instructors, Alternative Therapy Healers and Reiki masters.

An experience of the system Peter has developed is likened to an advanced mix of CBT (Cognitive Behavioural Therapy) and Psychodynamics by Doctors, Psychiatrists and Psychologists, with links to ‘Mindfulness’ by those integrating eastern Philosophies. There is also wisdom from the Indian concept of the 7 Chakras as well as the clearly defined system of Emotional intelligence from the Chinese 5 Element concept of Fire, Earth, Metal, Water and Wood.

While most of this web site is geared toward Kinesiology as a tool to tap into the unconscious mind or to be used as an intuition or ‘body talk’ tool, and to give prospective clients an idea of what to expect from a personal session, the following is a description of the core philosophy behind the work involved.

Unfortunately most of us can only dream of a blissfuly nurturing childhood with each development stage filled with fond memories and positive perceptions to build a future from. How many of us had parents in rapturous love and wealth abounding as we were mentored by the wisest of the wise and given a perfectly healthy environment to thrive in. No, the reality for most of us in our formative cognitive building years was far different, as the buddhists say “we are born into misery and suffering” with many lessons and hardships given along the way.

As our minds grow and develop we form patterns and perceptions of the world from experiences and memories which shape our outlook, attitudes, individual personalities, behaviours and bodies. Many times these cognitions and mind-sets create and ‘set up’ life as we know it to be either in positive harmony and balance or toward life at extremes (Depression, Anxiety etc). We either set our mind on self improvement and goals of success in health, wealth and happiness or we allow our life to become robotic and largely unconscious. Many people quickly feel that we have little or no control over our thoughts, feeling and emotions, nor our environment or the physical health we either enjoy or have to endure with our bodies.

Many of the worlds most respected behavioural therapies like CBT (Cognitive Behavioural Therapy) involve becoming aware of our thoughts and watching out for the negative self fulfilling ones, many of which are deeply rooted from early childhood experiences or memories from the past which are now well forgotten. These form our unconscious or sub-conscious mind. The latest wave in the areas of personal development, mental health and corporate leadership training has been with a buddhist term called mindfulness. The core of mindfulness is in being consciously aware, mindful and purposeful with regard to the thoughts, feelings and attitudes we experience in any present moment. The findings are that when we can firstly be aware of, then secondly change maladaptive behaviours and thoughts to more positive or appropriate ones, we can create positive and lasting change in many other major areas of life also – Health, Wealth & Happiness.

Another area of rapid growth and awareness has been on the Mind-Body medicine, with the understanding that thoughts and emotions effect our body and physical health. For example, if I got you to focus on thinking about eating a whole lemon, slice by slice, skin and all and get you to imagine that this lemon was the most juicy lemon you have even seen, that when you cut into this lemon, you saw sprays of lemon juice coming out everywhere, and if you were going to eat a slice of that lemon, just imagine what would happen in your mouth, would it salivate before you actually ate it? Is your mouth even actually salivating now? How is that possible? Thought of a lemon produced a physical reaction in the body! Now if i continued talking about a lemon for say 3 weeks straight and locked you in a room to listen to my ramble, what do you think would happen to your body? Chances are you would get a stomach ulcer from all the work of the body preparing for a lemon which is never actually coming. So now here is the salient point… should i give you some medication for the stomach ulcer or should i stop talking about a lemon and release you from the mental prison? The answer is a solid both!

Mind-body medicine is about addressing the physical body using tried and proven rational methods while also looking at any underlying thoughts, feelings, emotions, memories or cognitions that may be sabotaging or hampering your best efforts at creating life balance, health and well being. While there is plenty of evidence based results now available as to the positive effects of mind-body medicine in the areas of Disease management; Cancer; complications due to chemo therapy; Fibromyalgia; Coronary Heart disease; Asthma; Irritable bowel; sleeping disorders; Chronic pain; and Chronic Fatigue Syndrome etc, it is fast becoming known that benefits can be had in any area of physical or mental health.

It has been scientifically proven that emotional states of stress can block or stop hormones from doing the work they were designed for. This opens up a whole new world for those with a clean bill of health, struggling to become pregnant (or to lose weight) who may have past memories and perceptions that are anguished, painful or stressful. Many patients ask “what can I do while working with my doctor (or dietician) to help in any way?” well becoming mindful of present thoughts and beliefs as well as unlocking hidden and suppressed ones from the unconscious, and replacing them with positive and stress free ones is a very good start.

Many clients have come into this line of work because of romantic and intimate relationship stress, realising that past patterns and failures are impacting on the attitudes and behaviours in the now with ‘triggering’, defensiveness and over-reacting (cognitive distortions) occurring more and more often. This work helps people to breakthrough and create more harmonious relationships working through issues with compassion, understanding and optimistic feelings and thoughts, intimate and conscious conversations can begin once more, and togetherness-harmony is the end result and goal.

By far, the greatest area of benefit from this work is in areas of physical and mental health such as Chronic pain, Anxiety and Depression issues, where the negative spiral is very understandable with more negative thoughts, feelings and perceptions building layer upon layer as the condition takes hold. This work can certainly help turn the tide, especially when working with health professionals such as doctors and psychiatrists for the more extreme cases.

Many therapists and healers choose a certain career path for personal reasons and this was certainly the case for me, my first exposure was from having chronic neck pain and resulting headaches, migraines and a lack of concentration, where no correction would hold and no lasting relief offered by Doctors despite their best efforts. I stumbled across a Chiropractor who used kinesiology to pin point and release a specific emotion and cognition from my past, he gave me simple mental tools to contemplate, and the neck was stable and pain free from that moment on! I have had many other experiences of the positive and lasting effects of mind-body healing in all areas of life and have witnessed hundreds of healings at my own hands.

In many cases, even at worst case scenario, we may not be able to influence or change anything external to our self but we can change our thoughts, feelings and emotions and live a life of contentment and inner peace regardless. It is my belief that this state of mind is what actually creates healing as well as health, harmony and well being in all areas of life.