This article assumes that you are a practitioner exploring the #neurosandbox. You are utilizing FMT or manual muscle testing to identify motor control imbalances. It’s possible you’ve also been led to believe that your sleuthing skills combined with advanced concepts will ultimately lead you to the one correction that will clear them all.
With these many assumptions, I’m going to teach you a fun little way of bulletproofing your work using that amazing skill set you have. It may also shatter your assumption of the one correction theory. Sorry not sorry.
And if you are none of the above, but have read this far you are welcome to continue on to see what you get out of it.
Setting the Stage
You’re working with a client with a cringe-worthy list of past injuries to match the list of current complaints. You’ve tested them out and have found quite a large motor control snafu. It’s balanced out by this one specific priority-primary-facilitator-king-pita problem area. After applying (whatever it is you do here) to decrease the heightened sensitivity, the pattern is resolved. Not really, of course, because we are also smart enough to realize that neuroplasticity is the true genius at play here and that takes time.
You also know that as your client moves through life prior to the next session they will likely encounter other movements that can negatively impact the pattern.
What you are going to try next may seem counterintuitive. You’re going to use TL to blow apart the pattern.
TLs for Bulletproofing
I’m a bit fond of therapy localization aka TL. It’s an amazing tool to help you locate all kinds of interesting things. If it has TL, it has a problem. Read that again and file it in the memory banks #neuronugget. TL can be used passively through touch and actively through movement. We are going to use both.
For each of these bulletproofing scenarios you are going to use the main associated muscle of your previous pattern as an indication of how the nervous system responds to the passive or active TL. Ideally the muscle will remain strong and weaken as required. If the associated muscle becomes weak or locked, you’ve discovered something else that is guilty by association.
Passive TLs
Go back over the client’s health history. Have the client TL areas of past traumas, surgeries, scars, biopsies, broken bones, sprains/strains, gait, etc. Basically, anything that knowingly and sometimes unknowingly created a problem is fair game to TL. Have the client hold a light TL on the area and retest the associated muscle for change as noted above.
Active TLs
These can get a little crazy. Movement and positioning is the name of the game here. Have the client sit, stand, get in sleeping positions or mime something they do frequently. Assess each of the phases of gait. Look in different directions. Talk, sing, and hum… looking at you Roy Sound Action. Reassess the associated muscle with the active TL.
When using active TLs it’s good practice to then find a passive TL to hone in on. Personally, I like to find a passive TL that neutralizes the response, but you do you.
Every time you find a TL that influences the pattern it’s beneficial to address it. Yes, you may spend a lot of time on one ‘problem’ this way, but if it’s the client’s main complaint, they won’t be complaining. They are going to feel very seen and heard.
What’s the Homework?
A good rule of thumb when sending your clients home with self-care is to have them work on the thing that created the biggest change or had the greatest impact.
For most, that’s going to be the original compensation pattern that you assessed that helped create neuroconnectivity in multiple muscles. As an added bonus, you could also have them give a little TLC to the areas that were influencing the pattern as well.
Whatever you decide, don’t make it complicated. Make it easy and make it enjoyable. The client should be able to do it all with little effort while receiving all of the benefits.
