Issue link: https://www.massageandbodyworkdigital.com/i/72098
ENERGY AND THE INTEGRATIVE VISION organism. Other energetic phenomena, particularly associations we may have with given sensations, may be described in terms of activities within the limbic system (amygdala, hypothalamus, etc.) in the diencephalon of the brain and then affecting the whole person through the neuro-endocrine response. THE LANGUAGES OF ENERGY Certainly languages other than physiology have been used, often fruitfully, to describe energy3 : bioenergy, chakras, chi, fields, kundalini, meridians, nadis, poetry, prana, the language of beauty and esthetic philosophy, the language of psychology. Each of these are lenses we may choose to use or not, in order to see our clients more clearly. In that sense, each way of describing energy uses metaphors—like language itself—to try to capture the facts and feel of reality. ENERGETIC AND INTEGRATIVE MODALITIES Some of the many bodywork modalities that explicitly use energetic lenses as part of their theory include: acupressure, acupuncture, chakra balancing, chi nei tsang, craniosacral therapy, hakomi bodywork, lomilomi, polarity therapy, Reichian bodywork, reiki, shiatsu, Thai massage, therapeutic touch, and Zero Balancing. Some of these are more pure energy works. Others—such as Zero Balancing—are more explicitly integrative bodyworks that fundamentally link structure and energy in their practice. Of course, this is not an exhaustive list of all the bodywork forms claiming an energetic component; that list would be very long indeed. Many primarily structural modalities also acquire an energetic dimension when a practitioner aims at helping the client in ways more than just physically. If we weren't meant to combine the logical and the imaginative sides of ourselves, nature wouldn't have given us the two cerebral hemispheres. THE LIMITS OF PROVABILITY AND EVIDENCE Many of these body-mind works have been questioned as to how much of their success is due to the placebo effect and how much to actual therapeutic efficacy. Certainly the offhand dismissal of the placebo effect, the power of belief, and the power of suggestion are too extreme. Many studies have shown that belief plays a powerful role in health and healing.4 Some subscribers to evidence- based therapy claim that many energetic practices have been disproven because their good results may not be objectively demonstrable, consistent, or reproducible. When we are looking at the art of massage (not just its science), we are looking at a more subjective realm. Just as a piece of music or painting may have a life-changing impact on one person and not on the next, so a given massage session may have similarly unpredictable and irreproducible results. This doesn't disprove its premise. It just goes to show that actual therapeutic results are not always predictable. Saying that a therapeutic result should be reproducible or the method is false wrongly applies objective standards to a situation that is both objective and subjective—the way the client integrates the therapist's input. To paraphrase the philosopher Martin Buber, it is not the therapeutic intention that is fruitful, but it is the meeting that is therapeutically fruitful. Every session is an improvisation in the moment, naturally guided by forethought, prior study, intuition, taking a good history, and session design. However, the proof is in the pudding, and the art is in the fascinating moment- to-moment improvisation that constitutes the therapy session. Research and logic are valuable for guidance—so is imagination! If we weren't meant to combine the logical and the imaginative sides of ourselves, nature wouldn't have given us the two cerebral hemispheres. THE THERAPEUTIC MODEL In most US states, laws explicitly state that massage is not the practice of medicine and does not involve diagnosis or treatment. Rather than defining this as a limitation, we can see this as an enormous opportunity. In the United States, and in many countries around the world, massage therapists practice as health-care professionals, not disease- care professionals (unless, of course, you have dual licensure as a medical professional and massage therapist). We are required to look at health and what promotes it especially through the physical and energetic effects of touch. There are very few therapies whose mission is explicitly health promotion. Years ago, Jeff Maitland, former faculty chairman of the Rolf Institute, proposed a model of the levels of health care in our field.5 I think it's tune in to your practice at ABMPtv 67