At least once a day I get some crazy looks. Part of it is that I’m so ME in session. So, yes, I may have a Darth Vader shirt on, because I forgot to change before work. Or perhaps I’m running around in my crazy socks or barefoot, seasonally dependent.
At times, more often than not, the Mad Hatter mimic may start mumbling while I sort through the thought process. And, yes, I’m going to reference Pop Culture and drip sarcasm while punning badly. Yes, it’s weird, but don’t worry; it’s not voodoo… it’s neuroscience!
“At first people find out you’re crazy. Then they come back to you despite the crazy. By the third session, they’re coming BECAUSE you’re crazy.”
“We call you the Witch Doctor.”
“It’s like voodoo. Brush, swipe, tap, slap and poof! Movement restored.”
“Back in the day you’d be the Medicine Woman.”
All those lovely client quotes above are snarkily and LOVINGLY referencing the work we do in session. It’s only so weird, because the vast majority of humans have no knowledge of neurology.
It’s not Voodoo, It’s Neuroscience.
Two years I ago I responded the same way. What is this sorcery, this magic from beyond?!?! Then a six foot alien from Mars masquerading in a Mexican suit said the magic words, “It’s neurology. So so simple”.
“Any sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from magic.”
Arthur C Clarke
That. That right there became the motto to live and practice by. Anything we do not understand becomes alien, weird, eccentric, witchy, otherworldly. I’ve been tapping into how the nervous system works for over 8 years and I still don’t understand it all. I’m a foundling. A newling. A total Noob. But I’m willing to try to understand and accept that there is plenty out there that I don’t know. There is so much more that we haven’t even begun to grasp. The possibilities are breathtaking.
Nutshell Neurology.
There is no way that I can make you understand Neurology. Especially when I just plainly called out my vastly underknowledgeable self. I will, however, give you a few nuggets as pertains to my work.
The Nervous System communicates.
With itself, obviously, and with others. It wants to communicate. It wants to be heard. When we ask questions of the Nervous System, using manual muscle testing, we are given answers. These answers allow us to help correct the problem, if there is a problem.
This is usually when I get one of those weird looks. Our nervous systems communicate, whaaaaat?? Well, we could also get into how we are all energetic beings, so on and so forth, but I’m not willing to start that battle right now. Short answer though is SCIENCE.
The best example I can give that most people have experienced in the grocery store check out line. Have you ever had someone get up too close to you in your little bubble of personal space, even with a cart between you, and you just kind of cringe while stepping up further away? Yeah that. It doesn’t happen with everyone. That person though, is broadcasting something that your system is not willing to mesh with.
Communication. We also once thought that portable talking devices were unreal. Sure. One day we’ll be able to see each other on a screen and talk. Cars will drive themselves.
Neuro Stim; the body’s sign language.
Communicating on another wavelength is one thing, but we can also communicate using proper neurological stimulus. Through proprioceptive feedback, the body can relay messages and communicate stability or report a tripped wire. We sense vibration under our feet as a car rolls by, we feel the brush of someone’s touch on our arm, the pressure of too tight jeans after that Thanksgiving meal, the niggle of warning when there’s danger near and we have to fight or commence evasive maneuvers.
These messages are constantly being sent to the nervous system and sometimes it gets overloaded. It doesn’t process well and it needs to be straightened out.
The reset.
Using the above two nuggets, we then are able to provide a better option for the nervous system to operate. There’s an ongoing argument about this. The nervous system adapts as needed in order to keep going, so why should it be corrected? Isn’t it doing the job intended by this adaptation? No easy answer and plenty of room for mud slinging.
Yes, the job is getting done as intended. However, at what cost?
Here’s another of my favorite examples. When we twist our ankle, we don’t fall to the ground a drag our butts around that way, do we? No. We hobble around, limping our way to our destinations. Gradually it heals, we stop limping, and we go on our way, likely not remembering this small incident.
Years may go by and the hip you’ve been having a niggling pain in is starting to travel into your low back. It may seem like nothing, an annoyance. Completely unrelated. Until we correct a ligament issue in that previously twisted ankle (that you completely forgot about) and said ligament work restores muscle function, correcting ankle instability, that restores hip and upper leg stability, which in turn makes your back pain suddenly disappear.
Magic! Sparkles and Unicorn rides.
You can lead a Unicorn to water…
Here’s the amazing thing. It may not work for you. Truth. There are a number of reasons that I have stated over and over again. This work is actually not Voodoo, there is no magical outcome.
We use the tools, you do the work, and we hope for the best.
The other part is, you may not invest in it. When there is block in place that this won’t work, it’s likely that it won’t. Some people have lived with painful movement and disadvantages for so long that they think this is how they are supposed to, no HAVE to be. Communicated loud and clear. Mindset matters.
I’ll never forget one of my one session clients. Not a one and done, all better. More of a one and done, ‘I aint havin it’. After a traumatic brain injury, this client was brought to me by a family member as a last ditch effort.
Side note: I get a lot of last ditch effort clients and those will go either way.
Anyway, we had our session and I utilized every tool that I could think of to try to help this person. I can only do my best and the outcome remains to be seen. Not having it. Not engaged. Got it. I wished them good luck and hoped for the best for that person.
The family member sent me a message a few days after the session. The client slept all night long which was a vast improvement. Then after waking, the client made coffee and cleaned the house. Two things that they had not done since before the injury.
But that, of course, had nothing to do with the work we did.
“You know what the issue is with this world? Everyone wants a magic solution to their problem, and everyone refuses to believe in magic.”
Alice in Wonderland
Bottom Line: It’s not the type of work for everyone.
Society is programmed to think a certain way. Massage Therapists are supposed to rub your aches away. Chiropractors are supposed to adjust your spine. Physical Therapists are supposed to assign you exercises for rehabilitation.
When this is what is expected, it’s hard to adjust to this revolutionary approach to pain and movement. Amusingly, it does not matter one iota what profession you are. If you’re a Neurosurgeon and you tell your patient to think about their pain, make a quick correction, and the pain vanishes? Still voodoo that you do weird looks.
It’s neuroscience. It’s amazing. It’s uncharted territory just beginning to be explored. Just imagine where we’ll be in another 20 years. Flying cars, so passe. Beam me up, Scotty! Bones and I have some work to do.
