Issue link: https://www.massageandbodyworkdigital.com/i/790815
When a client lies down on our table, something curious happens. More often than not, that person— who just minutes before was a walking and talking part of our three-dimensional world—becomes two-dimensional. Why? Because many of us therapists, I believe, fall into a dangerous habit during our sessions: we come to see our clients as "just a back" and "just a front." It's as if the person on the table has become a pancake, and it is our job to flatten that person a bit further. I am exaggerating, of course, but only slightly. Think of how we shape a typical session—we start the client in a prone position, then 35 or 40 minutes later ask them to flip, and finish up in as they lay supine. (I'm guessing that most of you are like me, and rarely, if ever, work with clients in a side-lying position— except perhaps for pregnant clients and other very specific populations.) But with that flattened vision of the body, we miss out on so much. Approach the Body from New Angles