Barrett Dorko
20-05-2007, 12:44 AM
It’s been a quiet week in Cuyahoga Falls…
I noticed that my suitcase was a couple pounds lighter than usual when I checked it in Cleveland. I might have thought, “I guess I’m getting better at traveling light,” but I know myself better than that. I knew something was missing and that it was too late to do anything about that. After I arrived in Missouri it was clear: my dress shoes were in the closet in Cuyahoga Falls, and I had only my lightly colored running shoes to wear with my dark suit.
I’d done this once before and wrote about it here ( http://www.somasimple.com/forums/showthread.php?t=1877). This time I felt differently about it and I suppose this has to do with what’s happened to me in the interim. I didn’t sense the panic I had back then nor did I beat myself up as much for doing this. I’ve come to slowly accept my growing mental limitations right along with my deeper understanding of the things I’ve learned in years past.
The person hired by Cross Country to do the registration told me that she simply thought this was the way I always dressed. The banquet manager didn’t say anything but I noticed him staring at my feet as I walked past him. I felt that explaining this would come under the category of “too much information” so I just kept moving. Three people in the class in Springfield told me that they had assumed I was seeking comfort, and some guy in Tulsa said, “You can always tell a therapist,” indicating my oddly matched style. Funny, he thought I looked like a therapist – I thought I looked like an idiot.
As it happens, I read a pretty good book on the plane, Read ‘em and Reap ( http://www.amazon.com/Phil-Hellmuth-Presents-Read-Reap/dp/0061198595/ref=pd_bbs_sr_1/103-9374717-8174203?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1179492821&sr=1-1), written by an FBI agent and a famous poker player. It’s about how we unconsciously reveal our thoughts through a variety of behaviors. It’s about the “tells” in poker. It’s about ideomotion, of course.
This is a pretty good book. There’s a long section in the beginning about the limbic system; what the author calls “The Holy Grail of Tells.” He simply points out that our instinctive response to threat begins here and will be manifest, however briefly, in some bodily inclination. He details how this would appear in the hands and head and neck, progressing further down in the body until he begins a chapter titled “The Most Honest Part of Your Body.” Then he begins to talk about the feet. Now most of us would assume our true inclination to move would show up somewhere higher in the body, but, and I quote: “If we couldn’t control our facial expressions, why would the term poker face have any meaning?”
Good point.
I always tell my classes that the only posture I attend to is the position of the hips, and that this is justified by what we know of the effects of joint motion according to Alf Breig. I say, “Look at the feet while the patient is supine and you’ll see most of what you need to know. Their position reveals a great deal about the patient’s autonomic state while at the same time informing both the patient and the therapist of where they are in the realm of care and recovery.” This test was discussed in detail in the Five Questions (http://www.somasimple.com/forums/showthread.php?t=2404) thread.
I dress as I do in an effort to display some respect for the work and, I think, some respect for my students, but this week while teaching I revealed a variety of things with my feet – the easy acceptance as well as the judgment of others, their assumptions regarding a therapist’s lifestyle - but most of all I revealed how much of my own insecurity remains.
I noticed that my suitcase was a couple pounds lighter than usual when I checked it in Cleveland. I might have thought, “I guess I’m getting better at traveling light,” but I know myself better than that. I knew something was missing and that it was too late to do anything about that. After I arrived in Missouri it was clear: my dress shoes were in the closet in Cuyahoga Falls, and I had only my lightly colored running shoes to wear with my dark suit.
I’d done this once before and wrote about it here ( http://www.somasimple.com/forums/showthread.php?t=1877). This time I felt differently about it and I suppose this has to do with what’s happened to me in the interim. I didn’t sense the panic I had back then nor did I beat myself up as much for doing this. I’ve come to slowly accept my growing mental limitations right along with my deeper understanding of the things I’ve learned in years past.
The person hired by Cross Country to do the registration told me that she simply thought this was the way I always dressed. The banquet manager didn’t say anything but I noticed him staring at my feet as I walked past him. I felt that explaining this would come under the category of “too much information” so I just kept moving. Three people in the class in Springfield told me that they had assumed I was seeking comfort, and some guy in Tulsa said, “You can always tell a therapist,” indicating my oddly matched style. Funny, he thought I looked like a therapist – I thought I looked like an idiot.
As it happens, I read a pretty good book on the plane, Read ‘em and Reap ( http://www.amazon.com/Phil-Hellmuth-Presents-Read-Reap/dp/0061198595/ref=pd_bbs_sr_1/103-9374717-8174203?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1179492821&sr=1-1), written by an FBI agent and a famous poker player. It’s about how we unconsciously reveal our thoughts through a variety of behaviors. It’s about the “tells” in poker. It’s about ideomotion, of course.
This is a pretty good book. There’s a long section in the beginning about the limbic system; what the author calls “The Holy Grail of Tells.” He simply points out that our instinctive response to threat begins here and will be manifest, however briefly, in some bodily inclination. He details how this would appear in the hands and head and neck, progressing further down in the body until he begins a chapter titled “The Most Honest Part of Your Body.” Then he begins to talk about the feet. Now most of us would assume our true inclination to move would show up somewhere higher in the body, but, and I quote: “If we couldn’t control our facial expressions, why would the term poker face have any meaning?”
Good point.
I always tell my classes that the only posture I attend to is the position of the hips, and that this is justified by what we know of the effects of joint motion according to Alf Breig. I say, “Look at the feet while the patient is supine and you’ll see most of what you need to know. Their position reveals a great deal about the patient’s autonomic state while at the same time informing both the patient and the therapist of where they are in the realm of care and recovery.” This test was discussed in detail in the Five Questions (http://www.somasimple.com/forums/showthread.php?t=2404) thread.
I dress as I do in an effort to display some respect for the work and, I think, some respect for my students, but this week while teaching I revealed a variety of things with my feet – the easy acceptance as well as the judgment of others, their assumptions regarding a therapist’s lifestyle - but most of all I revealed how much of my own insecurity remains.