Cross Country 88 - More Like Sherlock

[Barrett Dorko]

It’s been a quiet week in Cuyahoga Falls…

Everything that man has handled has a tendency to secrete meaning.

Marcel Duchamp ( http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Marcel_Duchamp)

On Friday I drove across South Carolina to the M Grande Resort and Spa in Myrtle Beach. It’s one of those high-rise hotels directly on the ocean and for a while after arriving I stood on my personal, ninth floor balcony looking across the Atlantic as a full moon rose before me. “Not a parking lot,” I thought. And even I, a man who commonly ignores natural beauty, was impressed with where I had landed this time.

Though Sherlock Holmes was famous for saying that he reasoned by deduction, he was wrong about that – his reasoning was inductive. He noticed small things and then extrapolated, and this conjecture was always brilliant and absolutely correct. Malcolm Gladwell makes it clear in Blink ( http://www.amazon.com/Blink-Power-Thinking-Without/dp/0316010669/ref=pd_bbs_sr_1/102-0396080-9857715?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1191156056&sr=1-1) that we all do this all the time, but we’re unlikely to be as observant and ultimately correct as Sherlock.

Stepping out of the shower early Friday morning I noticed immediately that the towel in my hand was thin nearly to the point of transparency. Now, I know I’ve been spoiled over the years because Cross Country usually puts me in great hotels and I don’t normally give the towels a second thought, but every once in a while I find this, and I know that this small thing is a harbinger of potential trouble. “The management here is cutting corners,” I think. And I begin to watch carefully for other things that might affect the classes’ comfort. After all, I’m about to make a few of them very uncomfortable with what I say. They don’t need anything more.

I was right. There were a few issues with the room I needed to address so I did what I could and most in the class never noticed the “thin towels” provided.

One more thing. In the hotel lobby there was a sign describing the cost of services provided in the spa that occupied the second floor. It was a cheap display covered with barely legible handwriting. No surprise. Under “Massage” it said, Swedish - $80/1 hr. and Deep Tissue $110/1 hr.

The disparity in price didn’t surprise me, but, being a manual therapist, I began to think about the implications of this small thing. After all, it was happening directly above the room I spoke in the rest of the day.

This draws my interest more than the moonlight shining above the Atlantic. That is just the way I am, and I make no apologies for that.

I strive to become like Sherlock, and these small things fascinate me more than the big picture. I try to get my colleagues to do the same.

What do you think it implies?

[Diane]

If you want to crack codes you have to pay attention to small differences, the moments they change from one state to another, and the whole context as it exists during those crucial moments.

[nari]

Thin towels don't go mouldy....;)

Small changes in the environment can make a huge difference. I took down all the PR for PT laminated signs in my rooms at the health centre. Huge things advertising all the wonderful mesodermal things we do. They were replaced with sea and shore pictures.
I put photos on the floor so the patients could look at something while prone on the plinths.
I tried to get rid of the black steel grid encompassing one large cubicle on the ceiling and two walls. Failed that. It had to be kept for pulley exercises. :thumbs_do
But what I did succeed in doing was eliciting responses like: That is sooo much better - makes me feel relaxed.....

Other PTs didn't like my changes much. We have to inform patients, they said.
But I ignored them.

Small changes like not talking while treating, or keeping it to a minimum.
This way the patient isn't distracted from feeling changes in themselves.

Nari

[Barrett Dorko]

The increased price for “deep tissue” massage clearly implies that the therapist doing it is both working harder and more effectively. The first can hardly be argued with but the second is unlikely, at best. I have yet to see any justification for heavy pressure beyond the old saw: “It works better” or “That’s what the client wanted.”

There’s a whole thread there, but what I’m wondering is this: What does a greater fee for certain, specialized manual services imply?

[EricM]

What does a greater fee for certain, specialized manual services imply?

Specialized knowledge.

[Barrett Dorko]

Yes. And massage therapists have somehow convinced the general public that this is true. Not so the physical therapy community - not in Ohio anyway.

I emphasize non-action on the part of the therapist - the Do Nothing (http://www.barrettdorko.com/articles/do_nothing.htm) idea of mine (and various other insightful, wise and vaguely irritating types as well, of course).

Ironically, massage therapists end up getting paid for what they know and for what they do, though, theoretically, PTs are more highly educated in a formal sense.

[EricM]

Massage therapists get paid for what the patient thinks they know and for what they do. I think most people are willing to pay a massage therapist these rates simply because they spend lots of time one on one, and they touch them, something generally lacking in other disciplines.

[clarett]

Personally I like massage for the niceness that's in it - that's what I perceive as the therapeutic benefit. It feels good to be touched and given attention for an hour - that simple. Things may be a little different coming from the UK - physio is free but only provided if referred by another health profession i.e. there's something wrong. So I guess massage is viewed very differently.

I don't have a massage for therapy but as a luxury and maybe the pricing reflects it as a luxury rather than a necessity?

Clare

[christophb]

Personally I like massage for the niceness that's in it

I have someone I can refer you to that might change your mind. :D

Funny enough I think this person thinks they are operating similar to a PT...