Issue link: https://www.massageandbodyworkdigital.com/i/1191154
Ta k e 5 a n d t r y A B M P F i v e - M i n u t e M u s c l e s a t w w w. a b m p . c o m / f i v e - m i n u t e - m u s c l e s . 47 To my father, integration meant two different things: the integration and cross-fertilization between bodywork professions, and the integration of therapies and techniques once (or still) considered "fringe," "alternative," and "complementary" into mainstream medical practice. He was instrumental to both processes, and though he was met with resistance at many turns, this did not deter him. 4 He was deeply conscious of the need for robust, solid research to support the therapies and techniques in question if they were to achieve widespread credibility and acceptance. Both objectives led to his cofounding, in 1983, of the Journal of Alternative and Complementary Medicine, 5 which, from its inception, he served as consultant editor, becoming editor-in-chief in 1990, and later (1996), to his establishment and editorship of the Journal of Bodywork and Movement Therapies ( JBMT). 6 The idea was to provide a venue for clinicians to easily access knowledge and research to benefit their practice and simultaneously to encourage research into relevant topics that would serve these aims. I am no clinician, and indeed my father had to work hard to hide his disappointment when at age 16, after being certain for a few years that I had been going to follow him as an osteopath, I declared that I wanted to pursue the study of humanities instead. My father supported me at every step, and he showed a deep interest in everything I did. We enjoyed long discussions during which we compared the issues in our respective fields and actively learned from each other. In the last 10 years, in particular, I drew on my father's experience and undertook secretarial (mostly journal-related) duties for him, and he took and applied many of my own experiences to his handling of students. There is a void now that I cannot fill by teaching as my father would have, but I can do something else. I can teach others how to take that evidence, learn to understand it, and do it for themselves. Following, therefore, both in his footsteps and in those of the incredible Niki Munk, who has shed light on much important research in her authorship of this column, my aim in taking on the Somatic Research column is to integrate my approach to education, my current work with JBMT, and a variety of issues in the world of bodywork and movement therapies. I firmly believe that education should be in the hands of learners. That means giving them the tools to learn for themselves, beginning with the idea that a whole is more than the sum of its parts. Bodywork research and applied practice are not isolated elements. They are dynamically interrelated and need to be seen as such to be understood and applied. Therefore, some pieces will feature distillations of recent research along with practical ways to understand and apply it, and others will explore current issues in these areas, framed in a way that provides readers with the tools to develop their critical appraisal skills, always with the bigger picture in mind. This brings me full circle then; from changing my mind about following my father at 16, to flipping that poetry classroom, to writing and teaching in this context. The poet had it right: this life is a snake eating its own tail. I am coming full circle, and, as there is poetry in words, there is also poetry in the healing arts. And there is even poetry in what looks like dry, dull, and often incomprehensible scientific research. I look forward to discovering it with you! Notes 1. Luka Lesson, "Antidote," 2016, www.lukalesson.com.au/blog/antidote. 2. Scott Thornbury, "A Dogma for EFL," International Association of Teachers of English as a Foreign Language 153 (February–March 2000): 2; Luke Meddings and Scott Thornbury, Teaching Unplugged: Dogme in English Language Teaching (UK: Delta, 2009). 3. Sasha Chaitow, "Whose Research Is It Anyway?," Journal of Bodywork and Movement Therapies 23, no. 3 (July 2019): 435–38. 4. Leon Chaitow, "Evolution from Quackery to Integration to Functional," January 1, 2008, www.leonchaitow.com/2008/01/26/evolution- from-quackery-to-integration-to-functional. 5. This refers to the independent journal so named and produced by Argus Health Publications in the UK, ISSN 0950-5466, not to be confused with the journal of the same name produced by Liebert publications, ISSN 1075-5535. 6. Journal of Bodywork and Movement Therapies (JBMT ), accessed November 2019, www.bodyworkmovementtherapies.com. Sasha Chaitow, PhD, is a professional artist, gallerist, and scholar who exhibits and lectures internationally. With over a decade in journalism and academic publishing, she was appointed managing editor of the Journal of Bodywork and Movement Therapies in March 2018. Based between London and Corfu, Greece, she is studying for an MPH at the University of Nicosia, Cyprus. Watch "Luka Lesson—Antidote"