Why Sabotage Isn’t the Problem — It’s the Pattern That Makes Sense
As a health practitioner or coach, there’s probably one word that makes your stomach drop when it comes to client results…
Sabotage.
It shows up in all kinds of ways:
Clients who cancel or reschedule repeatedly
People doing “all the right things”... until they don’t
Treatment plans that never fully get off the ground
Emotional eating, skipping meals, sleeping poorly, quitting too soon
Protocols followed to a T… with no visible change in symptoms
And no matter how many plans you rewrite or how carefully you explain things, it still happens.
But what if I told you sabotage isn’t the problem?
What if sabotage is actually a predictable part of the change process?
What if it’s the key to understanding what’s really going on?
Let me explain.
Sabotage Is a Subconscious Safety Response
Sabotage isn’t about laziness.
It’s not about clients not caring.
It’s not about not wanting it badly enough.
It’s about the nervous system doing its job, protecting the client from perceived threat.
Here’s what most people don’t realise:
Change even positive, healing change registers as danger to the subconscious mind.
➡️ The body is wired for predictability, not transformation.
➡️ Anything unfamiliar (even if it’s healthy) is perceived as unsafe.
➡️ This sets off a stress response before conscious thought can even register what’s happening.
So when your client suddenly goes off-track?
Their body is doing exactly what it’s been programmed to do.
Return to the known.
The Real Cost of Misunderstanding Sabotage
Here’s where this becomes a big problem not just for your clients, but for your business too.
When sabotage isn’t addressed:
Clients lose confidence in the process.
They blame themselves… or they blame you.
They don’t refer others.
You begin to doubt your skills, your effectiveness, and your value.
Your energy gets drained trying to “carry” unmotivated clients.
You lose capacity to take on more.
Most practitioners try to solve sabotage with better communication, more reminders, or mindset coaching. And while these have value, they don’t address the root cause.
Because sabotage isn’t happening in the mind.
It’s happening in the nervous system.
A New Lens: Sabotage as the Access Point
What if we stopped trying to avoid sabotage... and started using it?
What if sabotage became the flag in the ground showing us where the deeper issue lies?
When a client starts to sabotage whether through behaviour or through symptoms like flare-ups, fatigue, or plateaus, it's an invitation to look closer.
We get to ask:
What part of this change feels unsafe to their system?
What identity or belief is being challenged?
Where did this pattern originate?
What is the body trying to protect them from?
When we work on this level, the results are next level.
Let me share an example.
Client Case: When Hunger Feels Unsafe
One client came to me desperate to lose weight. She was eating constantly, unable to go even a few hours without snacking especially between meals.
After using Emotion Release Technique (ERT) to explore the subconscious drivers behind this behaviour, a memory surfaced.
As a child, her mother struggled with mental illness. She often went to school without breakfast or lunch. She and her brother would search through bins for food.
Her body had stored that experience as trauma.
Being hungry had once been a life-threatening situation. So even decades later, her nervous system reacted to hunger as if she were in danger.
No amount of planning, tracking, or meal prep would have solved that.
She needed to feel safe in her body again.
Once we processed that subconscious association, her eating behaviours shifted easily without force or restriction.
The Body Sabotages Too
Sabotage doesn’t always show up as “bad habits.”
Sometimes the body itself resists change:
Weight plateaus even with perfect compliance
Symptoms that return after brief improvements
Crashes in energy or immune flares after progress
The body gaining weight instead of losing it
This is sabotage at the physiological level. And it’s just as much about safety as behavioural sabotage is.
If the body doesn’t feel safe, it will not let go of weight.
It will not sustain new habits.
It will not prioritise healing.
This is where Emotion Release Technique becomes a game-changer.
What Changes When You Address Sabotage at the Root
When you understand sabotage as a stress response, not a character flaw…
Everything changes.
You can:
✅ Normalise sabotage in your client conversations
✅ Prepare them for it ahead of time
✅ Recognise when it’s happening and why
✅ Access the subconscious drivers beneath it
✅ Support the nervous system to feel safe with change
✅ Empower your clients to stay the course without shame
This means:
→ Faster results
→ More word-of-mouth referrals
→ Deeper trust and retention
→ More confidence in your skills
→ More capacity and income in your practice
And most importantly?
Clients who finally experience sustainable transformation.
The Technique That Helps You Do This Work
This is why I teach Emotion Release Technique (ERT).
It’s the process I use to assess and address what’s happening in the nervous system and subconscious before it derails client progress.
You don’t have to just manage behaviour.
You can address the emotional, energetic, and identity-based reasons behind it.
If you’re ready to add this to your toolkit, come learn with me.
We cover all of this in depth inside the ERT Certification.
Because sabotage isn’t a problem to fix.
It’s the pattern that makes sense and the map to the healing that’s ready to happen.