Education
A comforting reminder: Lost, by David Wagoner
Lost Stand still. The trees ahead and bushes beside you Are not lost. Wherever you are is called Here, And you must treat it as a powerful stranger, Must ask permission to know it and be known. The forest breathes. Listen. It answers, I have made this place around you, If you leave it you…
Read MoreGetting Lost and Re-orienting in manual therapy
I’ve been thinking about the experience of being lost — and all the ways humans have for being found. We use our senses, sight and sound especially. We palpate; think of finding your way in a new setting at night, with little light. We also use language –verbal and visual– for making maps or signs,…
Read MoreHand bone’s connected to the Wrist bone!
With the current spaciousness in my schedule, I decided to do something I’ve been wanting to do for years: learn more about the carpal bones! For years, knowing the tarsals has helped my work be more precise and effective. I’m excited to see where this takes me with clients. How I learned: Richard has been…
Read MoreThe Two Wolves – a good reminder
Likely you’ve come across this story. These days, it’s been on my mind as I meet the unknowns of the disruption of COVID-19. The Two Wolves An old Cherokee was teaching his grandchildren about life. He said, “A battle is raging inside me…it is a terrible fight between two wolves. One wolf represents fear, anger,…
Read MoreA valuable book and a new cue
Recently, my friend Karen Clay introduced me to a little book of posture and movement cues called Stack Your Bones, by Ruthie Fraser, a Structural Integration practitioner and yoga teacher. It’s a charming book of brief insights, not a narrative. I like it a lot. It’s one of the few books about posture I’ve looked at that…
Read MoreA great year of technique
In the last month or so, I’ve had the opportunity to teach two classes using an updated model of direct technique, and it’s been quite lovely. I’ve changed 2 distinct things: using a spiral/counter-spiral test to refine any given technique (as I mentioned in my earlier post, The magic of precision), and using a new scheme…
Read MoreThe magic of precision
Of the qualities that are part of bodywork methods, the one most impressively mysterious to me is the magic of precision. Although there are many types of precision, I want to focus here on directionality. (Unsurprisingly, I’ve learned the most about precision from Judith Aston). My current version of direct technique (releasing tissue by moving…
Read MoreThree categories of manipulation
As fall rolls around, I’m trying to freshen up my sense of method. And I’ve been feeling that this is the “year of the joint” for me. I recently posted about an improving method of joint decompression, and I’ll soon post more about this. But meanwhile… Myofascial balancing includes three distinct targets: Tracts of soft…
Read MoreTempo of release
It’s been a big year, technically. I wonder what’s going to happen before it’s over? At any rate, the latest development is a deepening of something I first heard from Judith Aston 20 years ago: the notion that change has a “tempo” or appropriate speed. I don’t think that I completely accepted the idea. For…
Read MoreLocal joint decompression
Over the years, I’ve learned many different ways to improve joint alignment…or, as I’ve learned to think, to break joint fixations. (I do believe that joint fixations are categorically different from run-of-the-mill myofascial imbalances.) The most important way that my methods have evolved in this realm is that I orient, more and more, to the…
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