Massage & Bodywork

MARCH | APRIL 2019

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Yo u r M & B i s w o r t h 2 C E s ! G o t o w w w. a b m p . c o m / c e t o l e a r n m o r e . 69 • Their routine is habituated and it's hard to create space for other ways of working • They lack confidence in communicating with clients about how the body actually works and the benefit of an integrated approach • They hold a belief that a client comes to them for a specific technique they do, as opposed to the client wanting to get results and trusting the therapist to apply whatever is needed to do so How about you? What challenges you in evolving your perspective and approach? We always say that we teach therapists how to think, not just what to do. It's easy to learn a new technique, but how you think about the body in assessment and treatment determines how you apply your tools. A session is an inquiry, a dialogue between the client's body and the therapist. It isn't something that is done to the client out of our own "great" skill. The client's body has an innate ability to heal; as practitioners, we simply facilitate greater healing by helping to restore communication, integration, and function in the body on all levels to the best of our current ability. As your understanding of the body continues to evolve, consider expanding your education and thinking to include more functional and energetic levels, in addition to the structural. It's like putting on a new pair of glasses and seeing things you didn't even know you were missing—you may be amazed by what the body will reveal. Lynn Teachworth has been in the bodywork, human performance, and energy medicine field since 1993 and Ann since 2008. They both integrate multiple modalities and approaches to help their clients not only get out of pain but also live more fully. Together they've developed dynamic continuing education training for therapists that integrates structural, functional, and energetic perspectives to help therapists expand their treatment approach and results. Find videos and course details at www.trunamics.com. you come to conclusions based on your particular point of view. Now you can determine where you may benefit from adding some aspects of the other layers we discussed. Look at relationships in the body. Consider function as you're observing tension patterns. How does the body move through space? How do the muscles interact to help the body relate well to gravity and absorb and generate force efficiently? As you learn energetic modalities, you can consider underlying patterns that may be contributing to the stubborn pain conditions and chronic illness we see so frequently. Common challenges for therapists in expanding their treatment perspectives are: • They get comfortable in one way of seeing and knowing • Learning new ways of seeing takes time and a beginner's mind Resources Franklin, Eric. Dynamic Alignment Through Imagery, 2nd ed. Champaign, Illinois: Human Kinetics, 2012. Myers, Thomas. Anatomy Trains. Edinburgh: Churchill Livingstone, 2001. Oschman, J. L. Energy Medicine in Therapeutics and Human Performance. Edinburgh: Butterworth Heinemann, 2003. Oschman, J. L. Energy Medicine, The Scientific Basis. Edinburgh: Elsevier, 2016.Smith, J. Structural Bodywork. Edinburgh: Elsevier, 2005. Veltheim, J. and S. Muiznieks. BodyTalk Fundamentals, 8th ed. Sarasota, Florida: PaRama LLC, 2011. subconscious belief systems. In treatment, the integrative anatomy lens allows us to apply various tools with an intention of affecting the appropriate level(s) to address root causes and restore function. A critical aspect of treatment then goes beyond mere release to include reeducation of the nervous system and client. So how can you adopt a more integrative lens to enhance your client assessment and treatment? Step one is to question your current point of view. Our point of view is like the air we breathe—it's so close and pervasive that we rarely get enough distance to really see it for what it is. When you approach a body, what are you noticing? What are you looking for? What school of thought is that based on? Is it primarily a structural perspective? Notice how quickly

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