Gil Hedley’s 2024 Nerve Tour: A review
On Wednesday, July 31, 2024, I participated in an afternoon workshop presented by anatomist Gil Hedley. This Buffalo, NY, area class was a part of Gil’s 111-city tour.
“Gil is embarking on a one of a kind, 111-city tour of the United States and Canada to share his uniquely uplifting and informative presentation: “The Nerve Project: Exploring the Nerve Tree in Relationship.”
This interactive presentation visually reveals Gil’s current findings from the anatomy lab, after spending the first five months of 2023 at the Institute for Anatomical Research in Colorado Springs, CO, meticulously dissecting a beloved donor form to reveal the integral and extraordinary nature of the nervous tissues.
Simply put, nothing has been done quite like this before, and Gil is very excited to share this with you.
Gil has worked for the past 30 years in the dissection lab, and this is the first dissection of its kind to be documented in images and video from the characteristically integral perspective for which Gil is best known.” (https://www.gilhedley.com/thenervetour)
Admittedly, I signed up for the Nerve Tour with hesitancy, driven by past mention of Gil’s previous works across social media. To provide context, Gil’s previous fascial “Fuzz” videos got a ton of buzz from fascial communities across social media, often to a degree that turned me off on his work. Having evolved from a decidedly fascial background in manual therapy and moved into more multifactorial explanations for explaining problems and intervention, the fandom that followed these Fuzz talks matched the single-minded fandom that accompanied the fascial culture I had left in 2006. Close-minded on my part? Yes, but fascial fandom wears thin, especially when leaders speak from a poor evidence basis. But as I evolved from a fascia-first model of explanation and into exploring the diversity of explanations for how manual therapy impacts the human condition, including a strong dose of nerve-based models, I was curious about this Nerve Tour. Before taking the course, I had heard a good amount of negative talk from many of my social media colleagues and friends, mainly based on what I assume to be their aversion to the fascia-forward Fuzz talk. The cost wasn’t prohibitive (USD 150), so I took the chance.
The Nerve Tour is a 5-hour video presentation consisting of slides, videos, and conversation. Gil relates his deeply personal journey with the cadavers used in his dissection series, which was evident throughout the talk. This was something missing from my experiences in the gross anatomy lab. To us, it was all cutting and memorizing. To Gil, it was more. For me, gross anatomy was in 1982, and while I remember the experience, challenges, and pressure to remember EVERYTHING. It was refreshing to watch without worry of a test and to witness relationships without fear of failing (which meant failing PT school).
I had some reservations about how the talk might lean. Looking at the list of sponsors for the tour, which includes several very niche educational models, I feared the dissection demonstrations would lead one down a rabbit hole, much as those who felt the Fuzz talk was too fascia-forward. But I was pleasantly surprised. Gil led us through the anatomy of the nervous system (brain, cranial nerves, cutaneous nerves, autonomic nerves, and peripheral extremity nerves, without leading to conclusions based on any one model, modality, or perspective. This was refreshing. The audience was allowed to make their conclusions. This was drastically unlike many (most?) manual therapy trainings I’ve attended over the nearly 40 years of my career. The two most egregious examples were myofascial release and craniosacral training. Both models taught anatomy, though it was a narrow slice of anatomy deemed “relevant” to the perspectives they were trying to convey. The Nerve Tour presented non-denominational anatomy, just as it should have been. There were some lovely contrasts with my past MFR and CST training. For example, in MFR, we were told that anatomists stripped away all the fascia to show what they thought was important, but maybe they stripped away what was important. (point taken). When demonstrating the network of the cutaneous nerves, Gil spoke of how anatomists often stripped away the superficial adipose tissue, which was richly embedded with cutaneous nerves, just to see what was underneath, missing what might have been important: same message, different perspective.
Over the last decade, as I explored beyond the narrow slice of perspectives that fascial and craniosacral models, I’ve allowed my pendulum to slow and stop in the center, though markedly influenced by how the nervous system seems centrally important. I found that Gil’s talk scratched my biases quite nicely, all without stirring up tissue-based warning signs. He mixed a bit of spiritualism into the talk, but nothing that was beyond my acceptance. His connection to those who donated their bodies to his project deserves respect, and it was evident that this respect was given.
It was evident Gil knew he walked a fine line with presenting information that every tissue-based camp could claim as justification for their beliefs. At one point, he said, “Hold your good practices dearly and the stories you tell about them lightly.” I took this to mean, “Don’t take anything you’ve learned too seriously, as everything is in constant change.”
Another bias scratcher for me was Gil’s repeated emphasis on everyone’s uniqueness. In the case of the talk, he repeatedly demonstrated how variations are expected, such as asymmetry. Despite many in the therapy world’s attempts to “restore symmetry, “I teach my learners about accepting asymmetry.”. Such concepts are impossibilities. Points to Gil for that.
Were there any low points? There were some sound issues on the 2-3 occasions when videos were played. This could have been the quality of the recording, the PA system, or my crappy hearing that hearing aids don’t compensate for. The few “inner journeys” Gil led were not my cup of tea (too reminiscent of the experiences in MFR classes!), but they were short-lived. A fair amount of time was spent on today’s rock star of the social media world, the vagus nerve. However, this presentation was done with depth and neutrality that deserved commendation and was placed in the proper perspective amid the balance of the nervous system.
Will the course change my physical therapy practice or continuing education presentations? My thoughts are nervous system-aligned in my practice, so little transition is expected there. However, being reminded of the fragility of the cutaneous nerves, whose functions include sensory feedback to the brain and autonomic functions, will continue to guide me toward lighter work. I frequently wonder how such thin structures survive the brutality of various forms of soft tissue manipulation. As an educator who leads speech-language pathologists and others into therapeutic uses of touch and manual therapy in the laryngeal region, the variable and anastomosing quality of the regional nerves, with nerves accompanying blood vessels, all in turn feeding and draining vital structures of voice, swallowing, and breathing, a similar reminder was cemented. We need not worry about “breaking things up.” Just a touch-based reminder should allow the receiver to make their own decisions about change.
Overall, I highly recommend Gil’s Nerve Tour to anyone curious about anatomy, the nervous system, and how all this fits within the human. Now, I’, going check out more of Gil Hedley’s videos.
Thanks for reading,
Walt Fritz, PT
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