Barrett's Newsletter

[Barrett Dorko]

I'm just about to send out my sixth Simple Contact Newsletter to an ever growing list of course participants and Soma Simple fans who have asked to receive it.

This list would be a good deal longer if I hadn't forgotten to ask for people to sign up at a couple of classes and if I'd made it clear that I needed legible email addresses from those interested.

So, if someone out there wants this short bit of news about manual care and the way the culture of therapy interacts with the culture at large, email me at bldorko@bright.net and I'll include you. If you've been expecting one and haven't received it, please try again.

Meanwhile, I'll try to do better when inviting others.

[Diane]

Barrett, would you consider pdf'ing them and linking them here?

[Jason Silvernail]

Great idea, Diane.

[Luke Rickards]

I'd like that too. I must have missed something Barrett, you are up to no. six already and I haven't seen any of them!

[Nick]

Yeah, I need on that list too.

Nick

[clarett]

Me too!

( I feel like I'm six again just for the teensiest moment!!)

[Jason Silvernail]

Yeah, I had no idea you were sending these out.
How come I don't get any?
Do you have to go through your certification course first?
:)

[mikesangster]

Okay, so there appears to be a trend here... I didn't know about these either. I need on that list too.

Mike

[Jon Newman]

I'll chime in here to advocate that people sign up for the newsletter for the low low price of emailing Barrett. I suggest this for a number of reasons. One is that Barrett offers plenty of his writing here for free already. The other is that since the newsletter is the Simple Contact Newsletter it has some commercial value that we aren't extending to other folks.

[nari]

I agree with Jon's thoughts.

Nari

[Barrett Dorko]

Okay, this is the one and only time I intend to post the Simple Contact Newsletter here on Soma Simple. Those wishing to obtain these weekly will need to send me an email at bldorko@bright.net so that I might add them to the list safely. Please feel free to forward the text to anyone you might feel is interested.

I want to reach people who have shown both a desire and reluctance to reach back. That's why I chose the link contained below.

Hello,

I’ve emailed out 6 Simple Contact Newsletters at this point and find that this project is, to put it kindly, evolving. Others might say that it’s a complete mess but evolutionary processes often appear so throughout the course of their development. Since most of this mess is the end result of my own ineptness I won’t bore you with the details.

It occurred to me that though most of my students express a distinct interest in the subjects I bring forth in class almost none take the next step toward learning in this way. I hand out access to the Internet but know that another nudge is necessary and thus the Newsletter idea was born.

Here’s my plan: I will each week choose a topic or notion that I’ve written of in the past and expand upon it briefly, offering links to further information. Anyone with a comment may reply and I will include those in a future Newsletter, if given permission.

As I walked with Buckeye this morning it occurred to me that I’ve spent most of my career reaching toward colleagues who seem unwilling to reach back. An essay I wrote some time ago titled “One Hand Clapping: Physical Therapy Practice in the Twenty First Century” came to mind and you’ll find it here: http://www.barrettdorko.com/one_hand_clapping.htm

It says in part: “Think of Whyte’s original contention that individuality begins at the point of engagement, at that moment when we meet another to whom we can relate and create something together. He speaks of his experience as a guide in the Galapagos Islands years ago, of how the animals seemed not to have read any of the books about their behavior that he had, and how it took months of quiet observation on his part before the islands revealed themselves to him “on their own terms.”

I imagine that any clinician would relate to this. At least, I do. As I think back over my long career, it seems obvious now that my patients often behaved in ways that I never anticipated, having only read about what they were supposed to do. And I’ve spent a lot of time quietly waiting for them to reveal ways of understanding their problems. I found that this happens in its own time, and that my attention and presence is all that is required. No less than that, though.

This brings me to my last point-that if our practice does not commonly include our actual presence; it will resemble the “one hand clapping”, in fact, the feeling of exile and frustration that the image evokes.”

There’s a good deal more here but I’ll leave that for you to find. Suffice it to say that our patients aren’t the only ones who need our presence – we need to find it in each other.

My best,
Barrett
http://barrettdorko.com
http://www.somasimple.com/

[gary s]

Barrett,
The more involved I become with SC, especially within the last few months, the more I'm really beginning to understand the concept and the need to be present. When patients say that I have "gifted" hands, I try to explain what this work is really about. Most can't get by the "hands" part--so I wind up smiling and saying thank you. One hand clapping, or does a tree make a sound when it falls if there's no one in the forest to listen? Still embarrassed that it's taken 20 yrs to come to this point.

[clarett]

The value of having someone being truly attentive and caring for you has long been underestimated.

I know that is not a scientific description but MAYBE one day it will be!

[Barrett Dorko]

Gary,

I still promote you as "the greatest home health care therapist in the US." I said this on Long Island (your home) a few weeks ago and got complete silence in response. Guess I have to work on my delivery.

Again, anybody at a recent course who signed up for the newsletter and did not receive one today needs to send me an email at bldorko@bright.net

I've lost some contacts, misread a few and Buckeye ate a few more, so if you really want this, write me.

I just know that some time in the near future someone will say to me, "Hey! Where's that newsletter you promised!?"

Short of coming to your home and reading it aloud to you this is all I can actually do.

[Barrett Dorko]

Wow, 245 views and six whole requests for the Newsletter. I must really be on to something!

Right now I'm working on a way of getting legible email addresses out of my students. This has proven to be a major obstacle in the formation of a list and one I hadn't anticipated. I'm not kidding, half can't be read with certainty.

Asking others to email me doesn't seem all that reliable either given the anemic response.

I'll have another shot at the state of Florida next week with this and let you know how it goes. In the meantime, anybody have any ideas?

[Bas]

I assume that you already emphasize that their e-mail address will not be used for any advertising....and that the letter is not 12 pages. If you do not yet do that - maybe that gets you 1 or 2 more.
Otherwise, I have no constructive suggestions for you.

[clarett]

That they print (I mean by hand) their email addresses rather than write them joined-up?

Or is that just ridiculously simple?

[BB]

Maybe the person doing the registration could ask the attendee to say the address before class. However, if the registration person has awful handwriting then you're really up a creek.

[Diane]

Ask them to print, legibly, their email address on a sheet of paper that circulates, and like Bas said, that there will be no ads or passing of the list to others. Let them know it's for cont-ed of the intellectual sort. Let them know that if you can't read it, they'll miss out on the newsletter.

[Jon Newman]

Hi Barrett,

Do you still make a computer available for students to check out PT oriented websites during lecture breaks? Perhaps they could use it to email you at that time.

Also, putting a link titled something like, "subscribe to my newsletter" on your signature line (and linking it to your email address) might help.

I expect you'll eventually add a "sign up for my newsletter" link to your homepage too.

Lastly, I think you might have blown it when you joked about showing up to people's home to read to them. They might not have realized you were kidding. It happens.

[EricM]

I'll bet if Barrett was asked to go to someone's home to read a newsletter, he probably would!

Barrett, you might consider placing recipients email addresses in the 'bcc' box rather than all in the 'To' box. May seem nitpicky, but lots of people are worried about privacy and I hear this is one way of preventing the spread of unwanted spam email.

[bernard]

Eric,

The board offers such a privacy.

[Barrett Dorko]

All wonderful suggestions and I'll institute them as I'm able.

Bernard, I understand that the board might help me with this mailing but am unsure what that might entail. My primary goal here is to reach out again to those who express interest but will not take the time to register on Soma Simple. Ideally, the Newsletter will draw them in that direction.

If they don't register we don't know who or where they are. My email list solves that problem to some extent.

[Barrett Dorko]

Remember that thing I said about posting my Newsletter here just once? Well, that hasn’t exactly worked out.

Below you’ll find my latest, something I intended to send to about 70 email addresses from people who have expressed an interest. For the most part, these are therapists who for whatever reason will never come here to Soma Simple, so I’m going to them, with their permission, of course.

However, my email program (Eudora) will not allow me to send to so large a list of recipients. I am also sensitive to the fact that most would like their email addresses kept off of any list.

I need help with distribution and assume someone here (Bernard, probably) can do that if I supply the list I’ve compiled so far.

I’ll look for that help, and in the meantime, here’s the latest Newsletter.

Hello,

Who, looking at a hand, would say that it was meant to do easy work? You can see from the look of it that it was meant to do difficult things, that it is the noble, willing servant of the heart and mind.

From Gwilan’s Harp by Ursula K. LeGuin

While teaching I always take a moment to speak of how some of us are drawn to use our hands while doing what we can therapeutically for our patients. And while there’s little evidence that effective therapy can be done in a way that is manually forceful, there’s plenty of evidence that touch changes the context of the situation for both involved. Context is huge and driven by many factors - not all of them are controlled by the therapist. See http://www.somasimple.com/forums/showthread.php?t=3651

Gwilan’s Harp is a short story in a compilation by LeGuin titled The Compass Rose. (find it at Amazon.com). It’s about a young woman with a special gift for musical expression whose treasured harp is one day crushed in an accident. She goes on to judge competitions but plays very little herself. In her old age, her hands no longer physically up to the task, her husband dead, she says, “I have nothing left now but myself. There’s nothing left to do now but sing. I never could sing. But you play the instrument you have.”

As many of you know my own clinical practice ended this year and all I have now is the teaching. I was better at just treating patients, I think, and that’s because my hands convey something my voice cannot. One is a reflection of my personality and the other my understanding.

I’ve found I miss the opportunity to express with my hands what my words cannot, and I know I’m not the only therapist who feels this. Many stand in the midst of many patients and aren’t afforded the time to do this. That must be especially frustrating.

LeGuin’s story ends with this image: the harps hung on the wall beside Gwilan begin to resonate with her voice, answering softly with a tune once drawn from them with her hands alone.

This is the image I’ll take with me to Florida next week.

My best,
Barrett
http://barrettdorko.com
http://www.somasimple.com/

Feel free to forward this to anyone you feel might be interested.

[Diane]

Barrett, if your mail program doesn't let you mai to all 70, break the list into smaller lists. Maybe it will let you send to 20 at a time, or 15... I guess you would have to experiment a little. Or maybe Bernard will have several great ideas. :)

[Barrett Dorko]

Diane,

Not a bad idea, though I had just pushing one button in mind. I have trouble getting started on projects that suddenly grow, but I'll probably overcome that this time.

My goal is to keep the Newsletter under 400 words - no more than will fit on a single page - and always containing at least one link, usually to something here.

[bernard]

Below you’ll find my latest, something I intended to send to about 70 email addresses from people who have expressed an interest. For the most part, these are therapists who for whatever reason will never come here to Soma Simple, so I’m going to them, with their permission, of course.

However, my email program (Eudora) will not allow me to send to so large a list of recipients. I am also sensitive to the fact that most would like their email addresses kept off of any list.

I need help with distribution and assume someone here (Bernard, probably) can do that if I supply the list I’ve compiled so far.
As a referral, there is actually 204 registered members on the site.
It is also possible to add, manually, members if I have an amail adress.
Then the site is able to make mass email in a safe and it is not limited by a number.

[bernard]

I created a new group for these Newsletters.
It is the Simple Contact.
You are free to join directly this one with this link =>
http://www.somasimple.com/forums/profile.php?do=editusergroups
then click on the join group (Simple Contact)

Berrett will take a look, several time a week, to approve the join requests.