From domination to conversation – a physiotherapist’s testimonial to Esoteric Connective Tissue Therapy
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From domination to conversation – a physiotherapist’s testimonial to Esoteric Connective Tissue Therapy
As a Physiotherapist for 20 years I am very familiar with manual therapy and soft tissue techniques having trained extensively in many different approaches to correcting dysfunction in the physical body.
Most of these techniques involve pushing or using a force to re-align or correct something that is detected as being out of alignment. This places considerable strain on the therapist’s own body as well as the client’s and it is a well known fact that many therapists end up with musculoskeletal injuries of their own (e.g. Physiotherapists are notorious for having arthritic thumbs and bad backs), and clients can feel considerable pressure or discomfort during treatment.
The old ‘no pain, no gain’ adage is bandied around a lot with many manual therapists!
There is a strong belief that unless it hurts it is not doing any good!
Certainly this is how I used to treat also as this is how I was initially trained at University. For many years I pushed and pulled and ‘dug’ my way through clients’ injured bodies, which worked to a point, but I began to notice that in many cases the symptoms recurred or would shift to another part of the body.
I also observed that in many cases when I was trying to ‘push’ my way through a tight soft tissue structure or a stuck or stiff joint, there was a lot of resistance from the body I was working on – it was almost like the client’s body knew it was under threat or under attack in some way. It often felt like a battle or clash and I would, of course, put more force into it to overcome this reaction from the body and be the victor in the situation, so keen was I to get the desired result, which ironically was what the client was expecting from me!
All of this resulted in a lot of fatigue and musculoskeletal pain in my own body and a reputation as a therapist who ‘will hurt you a lot but you will feel better afterwards’. Of course you are going to feel better afterwards… anything would feel better after the pain of a physical therapy session!
I first came into contact with Universal Medicine in 2006 and this presented to me a different way of considering how I was working. Serge Benhayon presented to me that the human body is energetic as well as physical and that there may be an energetic dysfunction or imbalance that occurs well before the physical body shows signs of injury or breakdown. He explained that a practitioner has a responsibility to not impose themselves on their clients in any way, which includes how they live their life outside of the clinic and how they approach and touch their clients in the clinic.
This already had begun to initiate changes in the way I was working, but then I was introduced to the Esoteric Connective Tissue Therapy as presented by Universal Medicine in 2012; it was a complete revelation and revolution to my practice of manual therapy.
I had always been fascinated by the connective tissue system and the lymphatic system in the human body as to me they were beautifully intricate systems that connected the whole body together and yet very little seemed to be known about them or what their function was. It made complete sense to me that since the connective tissue is a system that runs throughout the body and covers nerves, organs, muscle tissue and joints to name a few structures, that it should be examined and considered as an important component of treatment and it could be a potential cause of many types of physical dysfunction.
To feel the subtleties of the flow of energy in the connective tissue in the body and where that flow may be blocked or disturbed is a completely different way of working to what I had previously been trained in. It is like having a conversation with the body rather than ordering it to do your bidding. It is dependent on the quality of connection that you have with the client, which in turn is dependent on the quality of connection you have with yourself as a practitioner. It cannot work without these both being there and so, requires a great deal of responsibility on the part of the practitioner to nurture and maintain and commit to this quality of presence and quality of connection in their daily life, not just when they place their hands on the client.
ECTT in my experience works on introducing a certain beautiful quality of stillness that first begins in the practitioner’s body (which comes from a foundational quality of how the practitioner lives) and then is introduced or presented (not imposed on) to the client’s connective tissue.
The client is then free to respond or resist this invitation. The invitation is so open and non-imposing and holding and relaxing for the client that most people do not resist and their connective tissue responds and starts to become more spacious and flowing in harmony with the inner stillness that is presented to it.
And then the dance begins – the practitioner feeling the client’s own connective tissue pulse and complementing it, supporting it, nurturing it with the upmost tenderness and care to grow stronger and deeper, until the client’s body says ‘that’s it, that’s as deep and as open as I am prepared to go at this moment’. And then you stop without any judgment or desired outcome in mind. It is the most exquisite communication you can have with another person’s body… and all without any words being exchanged.
As a result of this approach the technique itself is not painful, but very gentle and very relaxing. Most of my clients fall asleep during treatment!
What is really remarkable about it however (and this has taken me some time to get my head around!), is that the results are truly incredible.
The changes in stiffness, pain levels, sleep quality, anxiousness and even strength that I have witnessed in my clinic in the last four years of using this technique are truly remarkable. It is hard to imagine that something so delicate and gentle could be so powerful, but I now have so many examples and case studies of how it has worked that I am left in no doubt of its effectiveness and quality.
It seems by introducing a harmonious flow into the body it frees any blockages or areas of holding or tension in the connective tissue in the body which allows the body the freedom to return back to the alignment, movement and harmony it intuitively knows. You are completely working with the body as a team and not against it or battling with it in any way, and as a result clients report enjoying the sessions very much. Gone are the days of patients dreading their sessions with me!
ECTT is an amazing physical and energetic modality that is worthy of closer consideration and study in the medical world.
For more information, visit Universal Medicine website
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Therapies, Body awareness, Healing, Practitioner
