The SHIP^® facilitator defines presenting chronic systemic stress reactions as activated healing and precursors to growth.

Information throughout the person's life that is too threatening may become disconnected, with this information migrating from the emotional to the physical, and lodging itself in the bodily system. In response to current everyday stressors, this information may be reactivated and represented in the form of chronic systemic stress reactions/bodily dis-eases.

Human beings have been endowed with spontaneous healing processes in the bodily system, but have been mistakenly taught to deny the spontaneous rebalancing mechanism the opportunity to unfold. In the same way as sutures keep the lips of a wound together, the SHIP^® facilitator creates an environment within which the internal spontaneous healing process of the client may follow its natural self-normalizing sequence and in this manner allow the wound to heal itself. SHIP^® focuses on the activation of, and spontaneous release of the repressed information.

Ultimately it is the connection of the client with his or her repressed material (the two sides of the wound) that brings about healing. The facilitator continually guides (facilitates) the client to remain in this healing space of self-normalising activity of the system and to reclaim these past filed trauma experiences. The spontaneous healing process within the client is therefore allowed the opportunity to express (release) repressed information, to release trauma experiences and to move towards rebalance.

The philosophy and methodology of SHIP® thus incorporates the following: In the face of external trauma, a person is activated into the release of involuntary spontaneous healing reactions ("SHRs"), the fight/flight responses of the psychobiochemical make-up. If all the SHRs are allowed to release, the system reverts to balance. However, should the activated SHRs not be allowed to release due to a sense of helplessness and the need to cope with the threat of the traumatic incident, the SHRs freeze, become disconnected and are stored in the cellular bodily tissue. The internal disconnected trauma experience is thus the SHRs that have not been allowed to complete their natural release pattern. Clients have a personal critical limit as to the amount of trauma experience that can be stored, and depending on this limit and the triggering of the these SHRs through external activators or stress, the client can either be reactivated into the natural release of these stored SHRs, or the suppressed energy (kept encapsulated through distracter techniques) can overflow and result in chronic systemic stress reactions (CSSRs). These CSSRs constitute the rupturing of the client's boundary (e.g. stomach ulcer, spastic colon, projected ideation, etc.). The SHIP® facilitator should create the most favourable healing space in which the client's suppressed and stored involuntary SHRs are facilitated and allowed to follow their natural pattern of release. This release implies that the disconnected psychobiochemical information moves into connectedness and results in an integration of the previously repressed material, bringing about a release of the pent-up trauma experience/SHRs. Once this integration has taken place, the CSSR loses its value as an attempted release of repressed material and as an indicator of a life lived at the expense of the complete self. The outcome of SHIP® is that the CSSRs eventually disappear and a new-found psychobiochemical balance, the way the system is suppose to function, results.

Currently several doctorates on SHIP^® have been completed, trainers in the Foundation have been invited as speakers at international conferences (Manchester, 2003; Stellenbosch, 2005; Cape Town, 2005; Cambridge, 2005), an academic textbook with the title "SHIP^® (2001)" has been sold quite extensively, 41 presentations have been delivered at the Annual National SHIP^® Conferences, and various talks and workshops on SHIP^® are held annually for academics and professionals, and for other groups, such as:

The Pain Management Society (Wilgers Hospital, Pretoria, 2003), the Rhumatologist Study Group (Jakaranda Hospital, Pretoria, 2004), the UNISA Psychologist CPD Study Group (UNISA, Pretoria, 2005), the Child & Adult Guidance & Development Centre (University of Pretoria, Pretoria, 2004), the Psychologist Study Group (Staanvas, Pretoria, 2003), the Psychologist Study Group (Sunnyside, Pretoria, 2003), the Psychologist Study Group (Vista Clinic, Pretoria, 2004), the Psychologist Private Practice Group (Potchefstroom, 2003), the Psychology Department at 1 Military Hospital (Pretoria, 2004), Inala Business Chambers (Midrand, 2002), Alef Business Consulting (Pretoria, 2004), Sportron Director’s Conference (Drakensberg, 2005), Sportron Marketing Associates (Pretoria, 2004 & 2006), Psychologist Supervisors and Interns (Weskoppies Hospital, Pretoria, 2005 & 2006), the Society for Student Counselling in Southern Africa (UNISA, Pretoria, 2005), Montessori Conference (Pretoria, 2006), Short Course in Spontaneous Healing Awareness (UNISA, 2006), psychology interns and supervisors (Rhodes University, Grahamstown, 2006), Radio Interviews ("RSG" 2006), and 22 SHIP^® workshops have been held for members of THE SHIP^® FOUNDATION (2001 > ), The 90th Child Welfare Function (August 2008, Pretoria), The Society for Care of Young Children (August 2008, Pretoria), The Oncology and Urology Cancer Interest Group (May 2008, Pretoria), TV African View Channel 408 (2008), Durbanville Healing Centre (August 2008, Cape Town), International Changing Faces of Psychotherapy Congress (February 2010, Sun City/ Stellenbosch), The Annual National Congress of the South African Society for Clinical Hypnosis (May 2010, Johannesburg).