Issue link: https://www.massageandbodyworkdigital.com/i/969285
CLASSROOM TO CLIENT education A B M P m e m b e r s e a r n F R E E C E a t w w w. a b m p . c o m / c e b y r e a d i n g M a s s a g e & B o d y w o r k m a g a z i n e 35 Why do we spend so much time in massage and bodywork trainings learning anatomy and physiology? While it might seem like a silly question, "So we know which muscles we are working on and why" is only one piece of the answer. What about our clients? Shouldn't they understand their bodies just as well as we do? Is our educated work alone enough to cause lasting results? Perhaps in a few cases, yes. But, in most cases, each individual who finds their way to our tables carries more power to heal themselves than we do. This extends our role from practitioner to educator. HOW DID YOU LEARN? Ask yourself, by which method(s) did you most effectively learn anatomy and physiology? Could you have learned the structure and function of the body by verbal description alone? Likely not. It's probable that your instructor used pictures, skeletons, and charts combined with palpation and movement so you could feel and experience what you were learning. With your clients, the same methods can be profoundly effective in helping them address their pain. YOU, THE EDUCATOR Weaving an educational component into your sessions can be highly effective. Small teachings can make a big difference. Below are three steps for using imagery to support the unwinding of dysfunctional patterns in clients and achieve, as a result, less pain and more happiness. Step 1: Introduce Big-Picture Anatomy Clients can easily tell you where it hurts. They don't necessarily understand the domino effect to both nearby and distant structures. When they see an image of the muscles that are present at their reported point of pain and are offered context for how they function with nearby muscles, they can tune in and support healthy function. Let's take the scapula, for example. Many complaints arise from reduced mobility in the scapulothoracic joint, such as the common "spot-inside-my-shoulder-blade" problem. You could show a client with this The Power of Imagery Enhancing Healing with Vision By Cindy Williams