The essence of how I teach…
NOTE: this applies to both group offerings and one-on-one work with private clients.
Will my teaching style work for you?
The word “education” is very intentionally part of my business name. In my decades of experience, the clients/students who truly want to understand their moving bodies make the most progress toward their aim, be it pain resolution, preventive maintenance, or performance improvement.
My ideal client/student is curious. My ideal client/student wants to understand what is going on under the covers. When I pull out a skeletal model and relate a moving joint on the skeleton to their own moving joint, they engage: “Oh, so that’s what’s happening in my shoulder joint and spine when I reach for a glass on the top shelf…I can picture that now!” Many people simply want someone to tell the “what” to do, and “how” to do it. My ideal client/student wants to understand the “why.”
If this is you…
This skill-set/knowledge empowers you to troubleshoot and problem solve. In the spirit of “give a person a fish and they eat fish for a day, teach a person to fish and they eat fish for a lifetime,” I want to teach you how to fish — i.e. take care of your own body. In short, the focus of my practice is self-care via conceptual understanding and mindful exercises — or as I like to call them: “movement solutions.” In essence, we will build an owner’s manual for your moving body. NOTE: this in no way precludes working with a professional for guidance; if you choose to do so, you will be an informed consumer of healthcare.
Self-care is a skill! Like all skill acquisition (e.g. playing an instrument, learning a new language, etc.), it requires knowledge and practice. It does not happen magically just by being in a room with a teacher/practitioner.
“The single most effective pain reliever is self-efficacy (the sense that one can manage and that everything will be alright)” Factors Associated with Greater Pain Intensity Menendez, Mariano E; Ring, DavidPMID: 26611386 DOI:10.1016/j.hcl.2015.08.004
So, how does this knowledge and skill acquisition occur?
“Let the experience be the learning” Gary Ward (my primary teacher).
You start by conceptualizing a movement via learning the actual biomechanics of the involved joints: build the movement in your mind. Then you practice/experience the movement with a clear conceptual picture: build the movement in your body. The experience of the movement enhances the conceptual understanding. The better the conceptual understanding, the better the troubleshooting/exploration, which in turn leads to a better ability to experience the movement. I call this a “round trip learning process.”
