Technique practice with mr Gregory
Our clinic tutor Mr Gregory is doing bi-weekly technique tutorials for us - about three hours of intense work on a Tuesday evening, after which you feel both worked on and exhausted.
15/10
This second evening tutorial was even longer than the first one and we spent well over two hours in the 4th floor technique room. Not only did we run through the entire regimen from last week again, we also added new techniques, also focussing on lumbar and lower extremity techniques. In addition, we were shown a few manipulations, most of which I already knew from Mr Gregory's teaching in the clinic. Here, notably, I thought a thoracic thrust with the patient under the practitioners axilla to be particularly useful with very rigid and chronically restricted spines. This approach warrants great care, though, since it is very strong and I did experience unpleasant reactions to it both with colleagues and on myself. On consultation, Mr Gregory suggested we steered clear off the most chronic lesion at first and 'picked our battles', as he put it. Essentially, he is talking about carefully approaching the key lesion rather than going straight for it. I will have to try that in clinic. Another feature of the techniques suggested to us during these tutorials was the use of massage oil. I, personally, was never a great fan of that, simply because I could palpate less and be less specific in my approach to the tissues. These tutorials haven't changed my views on that. However, I do acknowledge that for the purpose of warming up tissues and breaking mainly muscular restrictions, it can allow for an even stronger technique. 01/10 In a small group, 20 people at most, we organised ourselves in pairs and were talked and shown through a soft tissue / articulatory regimen addressing structures from the occiput to the thoracolumbar junction. I felt the approach was rather strong in similarly tiresome for the practitioners. Many of the techniques seemed to be borrowed from the field of massage therapy, but good articulatory techniques were complementing them. The result was an upper-body therapy regimen that would certainly break up adhesions. As such, I guess, it can be useful to prepare the body for manipulative techniques. It took about 40 minutes to run through the entire regimen on both sides. This approach of teaching I thought was very beneficial since it allowed us to gain practice as we encountered the techniques and the tutor to make his rounds and correct our handling. After that, we swapped over and experienced what it's like to be at the receiving end of the techniques. This again, helped to improve my own approach. |