Some advice please

[Baecker]

Hello.

Dear Barrett and others.

I totally convinced that ideomotion is the best way for pain treatment. It just makes sense, but I am still facing problems. My patients are not really moving in the way it is often described here.

I know the touch should be light with no coercion what so ever. So I put my hands lightly on either the head, spine or the spina scapulae, knees and ankles, etc...

I feel lots of stuff going on under my hands, and i feel tissue pulsating, some tingling etc.. but hardly ever movement.

Todays example was a patient with frozen shoulder he was supine i had my hand under his spina scapulae the other hand over it. After a minute or so he started to shiver then no more movement. I changed hand positions one on the shoulder one on the elbow. No movement, i felt only the stuff under my hands but no visible moving. After a minute he fell asleep. Patients shoulder still limited after the session.

Whats it that I am doing wrong here? I am really trying. I don't think I have heavy hands and I touch the patients very light, no coercion. I change also the pressure to make sure i am not inhibiting any movement.

Any help is really appreciated.

[Diane]

I have two little suggestions..
1. Try inducing this movement with him sitting up, and ask him to find it himself, with you just touching him;
2. If you are treating him supine, add a bit of skin stretch to stimulate the system a little.

[BB]

Hi Baecker,
Before attending Barrett's workshop I thought that I just layed my hands on the patient as you describe and then waited for something to spontaneously happen. There needs to be an invitation, usually verbal for me.

Now, after the laying of hands, I say, "OK, now let yourself start moving." I find sitting to be the easiest place to start, as Diane said. When you make this statement the person most often feels as though you are moving them, and it is becoming more and more rare for me that the person does not start moving as needed. At this point I demonstrate the difference between me guiding and following so that they can see that it is thier movement. All the useful tips that Barrett demonstrated in his workshop.

[nari]

Hi Baeker

Initially, I too noticed nothing much happened and worked out I had to give them permission to move. It's universally expected in a clinic that patients are told what to do and how; once this is ignored, things get heaps better. I used a variety of verbal permissions: but I found "what would you like to do" worked best.

I invariably use standing, perhaps because they are moving very slightly to begin with. But I know sitting works well for other PTs.

If they ask "what did you do?" after movement occurs, I say "Nothing".


Nari

[christophb]

What they said. I find that where they need to move might not be where you think the problem lies. Try the head, LE's (hips) see how they want to move. I find if they can get something started where it doesn't hurt, you have your invite into the NS and the brain will take it from there and go where it needs to go. 3 second rule is useful... don't be confined to just the "problem" area.

Chris

[Barrett Dorko]

All useful replies and I'm grateful my workshop helped.

I think that the tendency to be "gentle" is a bit misleading because although "gentle" certainly describes the contact, it doesn't describe the attitude sensed by the patient. "Non-threatening" comes closer, and "understanding" is conveyed. What I always understand is that the necessary and helpful movement has already been planned by the patient and it's just waiting for the proper context so that it can be expressed. Your touch and manner provide the context.

Working some distance from the painful part makes sense and playing with the pressure you use is also important.

Finally, remember that the range of ideomotion seen is not nearly as important as the physiologic shift characterized by warming and softening that we hear about.

[Baecker]

thanks for all the comments, I will try tommorrow. I am actually trying quite a while now. This gives me some more insights, I really appreciate it.

[kongen]

This might be irrelevant, but do the contact have to be directly on the skin (patient undressed) or can you apply your touch through clothes?

Anders.

[Diane]

Either way. Through clothes is fine.

[Jason Silvernail]

I never used to think this was important, but I mention it because it helped me.
Barrett has an essay called "Samurai Therapist" I think, in which he points out something like the fact that it's sometimes not what you do, but how you are that makes a difference.
When I changed my approach and my way of being, I found my patients really changed the way they responded to my handling. I think many of us are doing little things like this already, but maybe we aren't thinking about them just yet. Just like Simple Contact seeks to make the patient aware of the physiologic processes already going on in their body, so I had to be aware of things in my own approach as well - and I noticed a difference when I did.
Hope that helps.
Jason

[Baecker]

Hi,

What I understand from reading it, is that we try to hard and we should take it easier....This is very hard for me....

A lot of this stuff reminds me of my classes I took in Ortho-Bionomy. The founder of this Ortho-Bionomy was in love with Winnie Pooh and his approach to therapy. Do little and let a lot happening that was his approach. After reading Winnie the Pooh P.T. it just sounds really similar.

Ideomotion was in OrthoBinomy called Phase 5. I stopped taking courses after a while cause of too much esoteric and magical energy fields etc....

Phase 5 was called already energetic but now I know it was ideomotion. Just that the founder of OrthoBionomy didn't know it and called it Phase 5.

Anyhow don't mean to bore you with OB.

[Diane]

Baeker, thank you for sparing us all the OB perceptual fantasy details. :D

[Barrett Dorko]

Baeker,

You're not the first to struggle with "easing up" with their pressure. I'm convinced that reading more about the skin will solve that problem.

For those interested, here’s (http://www.barrettdorko.com/articles/winnie.htm) the link for Winnie-the-Pooh PT and here’s (http://www.barrettdorko.com/articles/samurai.htm) the one for Samurai Therapist.

Combining of these bits of understanding and attitude is what leads to manual magic (http://www.somasimple.com/forums/showthread.php?t=3407).

[Barrett Dorko]

Our bodies are given life from the midst of nothingness. Existing where there is nothing is the meaning of the phrase, “Form is emptiness.” That all things are provided for by nothingness is the meaning of the phrase, “Emptiness is form.” One should not think that these two are separate things.

This is from a highly underrated film titled Ghost Dog – The Way of the Samurai ( http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ghost_Dog:_The_Way_of_the_Samurai) starring Forrest Whitaker. The title character reads them aloud from a book he carries everywhere, and when I saw the movie again recently I thought of this thread and a few other essays I’ve written – especially Negative Space ( http://www.barrettdorko.com/articles/negative_space.htm), Much Ado About… ( http://www.barrettdorko.com/articles/much_ado_about.htm), and Do Nothing ( http://www.barrettdorko.com/articles/do_nothing.htm).

Hope that helps.

[Diane]

Barrett, maybe you should change the name, "Much Ado About..." to "Much Adonothing About..."