What is The Gibbons Formula© of Soft Tissue Postural Analysis and Assessment?

“Determine that the thing can and shall be done, and then we shall find the way.” A. Lincoln

Individuals who come to Massage Therapists for relief of acute or chronic pain are hoping that this quote will pertain to them. Many traditional modalities treat the symptoms of pain, but few treat the cause. An understanding of the soft tissue system is imperative for the massage therapist; this information determines the road map of treatment. It is often difficult for someone in pain to understand that “pain is not your problem, but is a symptom of your problem”. If the individual that is in pain does not understand the cause, the therapist must be able to search out and correct the improprieties in the body’s soft tissue system to help balance the posture.

The body’s constant struggle is to keep us in balance with the forces of gravity. The curvatures of the body are important for us to be in balance so the compressive forces of gravity are held in check. The complexity of the human body offers many trials for the therapist. This complexity of the human body created the frustration that helped develop the concepts of my philosophy.

Early on in my professional career, I had the enviable task of treating world-renown ballet dancer Rudolph Nureyev. Opportunities of this nature do not come often. So, while taking full advantage of the situation, this question was posed to him. “What makes you such a special ballet dancer?” The answer was simple, “I work to the specific audience, the music must match my dancing, not the dancing to the music.” This struck the nerve that maybe that is what I was attempting to do; match the pain (dance) to the technique (music), not the technique (music) to the pain (dance). Is all pain the same? If not, why would the treatment protocol be the same? By evaluating the pain, matching the technique becomes easier.

Dancers and dancing entered into the picture after that instance along with the understanding of what created their discomfort and how they were able to perform with it. Most dancers I have treated performed beautifully on stage, and once off the stage the tears would come. One dancer stated that “I am putting the pain in a part of the body I am not using.” This brought to light the body’s innate ability to compensate or counter balance itself to adapt to the pain.

Whatever the human species accomplishes it must be done in balance and movement. The formula of function equals movement, movement reveals structure, and structure determines movement is an important concept that the massage therapist must encompass in a proper evaluation. My evaluation procedure determines how treatment will be done. Evaluation is to judge the worth or quality of or appraise. What is to be evaluated when someone arrives with pain? If pain is present, finding active trigger points in the taut muscle bands is the easy part. I then evaluate the reasons that the muscle bands are there. When evaluating pain, just what should be judged or appraised?