I was recently listening to a radio show from a local NPR affiliate. The interview was with the director of a dance company that pioneer an innovative form of dance done while dangling from ropes on the sides of buildings. She described their work as a “cross pollination of various dance forms”. That term resonated with me and where I am attempting to evolve my Foundations in Myofascial Release Seminars.
These of you who have been following my posts for the past few months may see a pattern. Change, growth, and knowledge are all good things to strive for, at least I believe so. But, I think I’ve left myself sitting on a bridge alone. The bridge is between traditional myofascial release and newer models of neuroscience-based therapy. Many in the myofascial release community have branded me a traitor for speaking against the “fascia is king” tribal mentality, while those ensconced in the neuro world feel I’ve not abandoned the concepts of the mesodermal world that they abhor. Oh well, I’m kinda happy sitting right on the bridge, looking at what both worlds have to contribute. I do understand that many of my new acquaintances have paved a path through much of what I still hold on to. They have already determined for themselves that fascia is nothing more than a placeholder in the body and have little patience for those who still heap praise on fascia. I am grateful for what they have taught me thus far and what I hope they continue to teach. But I ask for patience, as their pace is not mine.
The therapy world is such a polarized place at times. My profession of physical therapy has immersed themselves in an evidence-based mindset that confuses me every day. Many of the patients that I see have been to “traditional” physical therapy, where pain was treated as a result of weakness. Strengthening did little and made many of them worse. True, I do not see the people who were helped by this therapy, but since when does weakness hurt? But PT’s continue to strengthen with no real regard for tightness. Is this evidence-based practice? I do appreciate looking at therapy from a science based perspective, though. Does what you are saying and doing make sense? That is where I am trying to go.
I have had some pretty interesting changes in my clients over the past few weeks since incorporating new neuromodulatory techniques, as well as novel uses for kinesiotape. I shared these with the therapists at my last seminar in Rochester last weekend and the feedback was great. How does this fit in with MFR? Pretty well, so far. Gentle work, with well intentioned hands, produces wonderful results. I do believe that at some point I will drop MFR as a name for what I do and teach, but not yet…the pollen is still crossing!
For now,
Walt Fritz, PT
Foundations in Myofascial Release Seminars
“Does what you are saying and doing make sense? That is where I am trying to go.” Walt, that makes perfect sense to me. For the short time I’ve been moving around the world of bodywork (as a second career), I’ve been discouraged by — and wary of — the “protocol empires” and the theory-obsessed (and challenges to theory-obsession which, ironically, become obsessive and self-referential in their own right). I do tend to lean toward the evidence-based and evidence-informed in my own work, but I examine every idea on its own merits, choose my instructors and mentors carefully, and value intelligent, honest discourse and collaboration very highly . . . and I’m glad there are established professionals like yourself out there practicing, teaching, and bravely questioning and re-examining. I think it exemplifies the best of who we are and what we’re doing in the world.
Thanks, Kathleen. Evidence-informed is a much better phrasing, as there is little that any of us do that is entirely evidence based.
[…] with me through the past few months and past few blog posts know that I am in transition. The cross pollination concept struck a chord not just with me but with a number of you as well. But a few of you have let […]
As I see it, both camps have innate faults because they are not considering the whole picture. Both systems are influencing both systems you cannot extract one from the other, both feed into each other and influence each other down to the cellular level.
The inherent problem with evidence based practices is that you cannot study the complexity as a whole nor can you dissect pain out of the system and study it or call it the truth for everyone. Pain is a very unique experience with unique solutions. I like your evidence informed statement because it includes your clinical expertise. When you study something you focus on one thing a treatment lets say, controlled for variation in many ways. If you only focus on one thing, the interpretation you end up with is someone’s opinion, based on what they studied, how they studied and parameters used, with their intentionally narrowed focus. It is a very simplistic model and it does not fit neatly in the real world.
This is a case for the Facial people. The fascia is connected to everything, it influences the rest of the body through it’s connectedness to everything. Change the forces inherent in the fascia, change the body. YES AND you need to train the nervous system through movement, strengthening and flexibility to actualize and utilize these changes. It is really never one without the other. Really we all are in both camps and I believe it is like throwing proverbial baby out with the bathwater. This ends with a case for Aston-Kinetics, a brilliant body of work created by Judith Aston for all of us to have all the tools we need to do good work and have excellent results for each person individually. So I wish people would quit quibbling and get to work helping people!