No single key
unlocks every door
Do you treat complex patients?
Definitely-simply because there are no simple patients, no simple conditions. “Complex” means “the combination of factors, symptoms, or signs” in health care. Generally it means “consisting of interconnected or interwoven parts.” More important is that we are not connected parts, such as the parts of a machine.
We are dynamically interwoven organisms. Yes, we do have specialized systems, but no discreet system (if there is such a thing in a living organism) operates independently. For purposes of study our finite minds benefit in observing discreet systems but that does not mean that the body chooses to accommodate its funtioning to our limited paradigms. The body simply is unable to restrict its dysfunction to one system.
Is the work you do intuitive?
I do not consider it to be any more intuitive than reading Braille and I have never met anyone who would suggest that reading Braille is intuitive. People can read Braille because they are willing to commit time to develop the connection between their sense of touch and their brain. Both manual therapy and reading Braille are highly developed skills, not fumbling so-called “intuitive” guess work!
Do you blend your energy with your clients and vice versa?
We try as best as possible to minimize this transference. To be sure, our practice does blend, but not energy. Rather our therapy blends science and art, research and clinical observation, technique and technology with manual skills and style. Our craft involves both “touch” and “feel” but is never “touchy-feely.”
Are you a healer?
I work with healers every day, but as a therapist I am not one of them. I tell my patients there are two people in the room and the one lying down on the table receiving treatment is the only healer in the room. I assist people to reduce or eliminate their compensations. I am not a “healer.” I do not have “healing hands.” I practice manual therapy, not magic. As someone once said, “Only time, God and nature heal.”
Do you treat medical conditions?
We work with many patients who have medical diagnoses. We practice manual therapy; we do not practice medicine and strongly encourage all patients to have a primary care provider with whom we can communicate. We do treat compensations which may or may not result in medical conditions. That is to say, we treat tissues that have issues (such as, but not limited to) swelling, scars from surgery and tattoos, pain, broken bones, torn tissues, residual congestion from colds or flu, pre and post dental issues, recurrent athletic injuries, etc. Patients range in age from early infancy to age 84. Some are world class athletes. The less famous are normal, ordinary folks like most of us, moms and dads and their children as well as extended families and their friends.
See the TESTIMONIALS LINK for examples. These patients had tried many different therapies, all had medical diagnoses and all had experienced minimal to moderate results or were stuck and unable to improve their condition with other health care practitioners.
Why don’t you specialize in one body system such as
_________________ or _______________?
My personal preference was to work on the whole body, not just body parts. I became aware that any manual therapist could take a class, get a certificate of attendance and slap words on a business card saying they work with a particular system or emphasize working with a particular system. The more I practiced and learned it just seemed that the human body specialized in having no independent specialization. Now there may be a place for specialization, but why specialize without first assessing all other systems to determine how they interact? Having done that, we may then, for a time, perhaps focus our work with one system, but we are aware that it is probably not possible to only effect one system at a time. Perhaps this is one reason why we generally improve the anticipated functional out come of almost all patients who have received specialized manual therapy elsewhere.