Over the next few weeks, my blog(s) will take you on the making through the 25 years in the making of MRTh®. Hopefully you will gain insight into the theory and how it was developed. I hope you enjoy the journey, as much as I did!
This picture represents the model of Tensegrity of the Pelvic Girdle. When I began my practice 25 years ago I had embraced all of the techniques of Massage Therapy I could find. They all had great qualities and I found them all to be somewhat effective and with practice I felt that I could combine them all to help me become a good therapist. My background as a Pipefitter for 18 years suggested though that I need to incorporate some of the mechanical engineering aspects that I learned during my five year apprenticeship. What does this have to do with the tensegrity model that is pictured here? I hope to answer that today...
When I studied Ida Rolf's theory and Paul St. John's Neuro-Muscular Therapy they both had incorporated the importance of the Pelvic Girdle and Posture. Jones' Strain/Counterstrain was my first introduction to Tensegriy, although I did not recognize it at that time. It was my first introduction to the Positional Release Techniques that seemed to sprout up in the late 80's and early 90's. The next two areas I studied where Travell's Trigger Points and Bonnie Prudden's Myotherapy and these two techniques reinforced my understanding of the Neuromuscular connection of pain and the brain. Combining this information with the mechanical aspects of the body it would make sense that these become the foundation that I work from. The Pelvic Girdle provides support for the upper body and also creates a lentil or hanging (suspension) system for the lower extremities. Combining the different theories I was able to extrapolate enough information to start Postural Balancing Techniques, aka Postural Balancing, The Gibbons Method(C). This was the initial class work that I taught in many different locals.
As the business started changing from an athlete based practice to a chronic pain practice I learned that although the type of client was different pain was still pain. It became clearer to me that I needed to approach the symptoms completely different. This is when Rudolph Nureyev's statement about dancing to the energy of the audience became clearer to me; I needed to tap into the client's energy to truly understand the issues that were allowing the pain to develop. It became more evident also what my mentor Dr. Tom Maday, D.C. would tell me, "Where it is, it ain't!" The words were different but the meaning was still the same, the symptom is just trying to tell you there is something wrong.
The Pelvis was a great place to start and as a newbie to the profession it gave me a base point in which to work from. I studied the many different movement patterns of the Pelvic Girdle; rotation around the Sacrum, obliquity (one side higher than the other), one side of the pelvis' rotation around it's own center, and anterior or posterior rotation. I analyzed and looked at all of the movement and release points and as in construction I attempted to create the proper foundation.
As I developed more release points off of the Pelvis, I was able to reconstruct many of the patterns of movement on specific muscles. The issue I had with this was many of the patterns did not follow what was written in the books. There were some slight alterations, so my next hurdle became the development of protocol to correct these patterns of trama.
In my next blog I will revisit more of the early years and how the movement process became a bigger factor in the development of the process of MRTh®.
Until next week, we all have "a Reason to HOPE".
Thank you,
Dennis
When I studied Ida Rolf's theory and Paul St. John's Neuro-Muscular Therapy they both had incorporated the importance of the Pelvic Girdle and Posture. Jones' Strain/Counterstrain was my first introduction to Tensegriy, although I did not recognize it at that time. It was my first introduction to the Positional Release Techniques that seemed to sprout up in the late 80's and early 90's. The next two areas I studied where Travell's Trigger Points and Bonnie Prudden's Myotherapy and these two techniques reinforced my understanding of the Neuromuscular connection of pain and the brain. Combining this information with the mechanical aspects of the body it would make sense that these become the foundation that I work from. The Pelvic Girdle provides support for the upper body and also creates a lentil or hanging (suspension) system for the lower extremities. Combining the different theories I was able to extrapolate enough information to start Postural Balancing Techniques, aka Postural Balancing, The Gibbons Method(C). This was the initial class work that I taught in many different locals.
As the business started changing from an athlete based practice to a chronic pain practice I learned that although the type of client was different pain was still pain. It became clearer to me that I needed to approach the symptoms completely different. This is when Rudolph Nureyev's statement about dancing to the energy of the audience became clearer to me; I needed to tap into the client's energy to truly understand the issues that were allowing the pain to develop. It became more evident also what my mentor Dr. Tom Maday, D.C. would tell me, "Where it is, it ain't!" The words were different but the meaning was still the same, the symptom is just trying to tell you there is something wrong.
The Pelvis was a great place to start and as a newbie to the profession it gave me a base point in which to work from. I studied the many different movement patterns of the Pelvic Girdle; rotation around the Sacrum, obliquity (one side higher than the other), one side of the pelvis' rotation around it's own center, and anterior or posterior rotation. I analyzed and looked at all of the movement and release points and as in construction I attempted to create the proper foundation.
As I developed more release points off of the Pelvis, I was able to reconstruct many of the patterns of movement on specific muscles. The issue I had with this was many of the patterns did not follow what was written in the books. There were some slight alterations, so my next hurdle became the development of protocol to correct these patterns of trama.
In my next blog I will revisit more of the early years and how the movement process became a bigger factor in the development of the process of MRTh®.
Until next week, we all have "a Reason to HOPE".
Thank you,
Dennis
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