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Analogies for life and all
Jun. 28th, 2007 03:38 pmI went to a fascinating seminar by Tom Myers, the author of Anatomy Trains (he talks essentially about how our bodies are all connected by this one network of fascia, or a kind of connective tissue, and how it all ties together. End digression).
One of the women at the seminar asked about treating a patient with muscular dystrophy (a neuromuscular disease, genetically linked, where the muscles just waste away). She talked about how very afraid she was of doing something terrible to the muscle tissue; years ago, as a personal trainer, she would have tried "doing more" with the muscle and doing more serious stretching, but now, with more knowledge behind her, she was too scared to try.
Here's what Tom said: "Ah, the courage of the innocent; once you know the risks of what you do with bodywork, it's a lot harder to do them, isn't it? Anyway, it's a mistake to think that you're going to cure him, because muscular dystrophy affects your peripheral nervous system along with your muscles, but... I'd try working with the fascia and doing light stretching all along the posterior fascial line."
"You would do that?"
"Well, the thing is, you can either work conservatively, and never hurt your clients, but also never make them any better. Or you can work with courage, risk hurting your clients, but also sometimes help them get better."
And I guess that is the thing, isn't it? It's always a balance; sometimes you take risks and they fail, but if you don't keep hoping, and trying, and working with people on the things you undertake, things don't get better.
One of the women at the seminar asked about treating a patient with muscular dystrophy (a neuromuscular disease, genetically linked, where the muscles just waste away). She talked about how very afraid she was of doing something terrible to the muscle tissue; years ago, as a personal trainer, she would have tried "doing more" with the muscle and doing more serious stretching, but now, with more knowledge behind her, she was too scared to try.
Here's what Tom said: "Ah, the courage of the innocent; once you know the risks of what you do with bodywork, it's a lot harder to do them, isn't it? Anyway, it's a mistake to think that you're going to cure him, because muscular dystrophy affects your peripheral nervous system along with your muscles, but... I'd try working with the fascia and doing light stretching all along the posterior fascial line."
"You would do that?"
"Well, the thing is, you can either work conservatively, and never hurt your clients, but also never make them any better. Or you can work with courage, risk hurting your clients, but also sometimes help them get better."
And I guess that is the thing, isn't it? It's always a balance; sometimes you take risks and they fail, but if you don't keep hoping, and trying, and working with people on the things you undertake, things don't get better.
