| THE DANCE OF LOVE: *Note: I met Dr. Ed Stiles when I was facilitating a trauma assessment seminar for therapists at a hospital. He and I were delighted at the similarities in our vision of healthcare. Together we welcome a new paradigm that encourages human potential, is guided by and attuned to the body, and treats original precursors sequentially. The sequential process is central to our theories, and we call it unraveling, unwinding or Sequencing ™. We are dedicated to encouraging the use of non-cathartic and empowering skills. Our outreach is to all students of healing, including clients, healthcare providers and manual therapists. The purpose of this article is to speak precisely about a caregiving paradigm that elevates bodywork to a new level of service, eliminating the artificial separation between mind, body and spirit. I intend to share selected concepts and interventions that massage therapists and bodyworkers can immediately employ. I also want to invite all interested readers to pursue this integrative paradigm. Skill building resources for this purpose are provided. "We are made in the image of God and we need to put Spirit back into the equation if we want to improve our physical and mental health." Bruce Lipton, Ph.D. The complexity of influences on our wellbeing, from environmental toxins to fast paced lifestyles and media overload, is mind-boggling. The multitude of traumas that inundate our daily lives is relentless, particularly in urban settings divorced from the soothing rhythms of nature. Given this, when we seek remedies for our suffering, whether mental, emotional or physical, where do we start? Who do we turn to? How do we find the source of our problems and our healing? The principle of unraveling, or following the body's directive, is fundamental to all health, but like many foundation principles, it has gotten lost in the shuffle of quick-fix and jazzy new techniques. Nevertheless, it is maintained, fostered and disseminated by Dr. Ed Stiles, an osteopathic physician and educator, and his students. Stiles has fine-tuned himself to be an instrument for body truth. He calls his approach to this attunement "Sequencing™." Sequencing ™ is an amazing process of appropriate unraveling and unwinding that unpeels layers of hindrances, one at a time. The origin of the word healing is "haelen" which means "to make whole." It is sequencing or unraveling that does this, leading inevitably, to the source of both suffering and its resolution. Unraveling is therefore a guiding principle for enduring recovery and beyond, to ever greater health and wellbeing. Dr. Stiles believes that when hindrances are removed, the body finds its own balance. The key is to find the appropriate order in which the hindrances are to be unraveled. In this regard he is honoring the intention of the brilliant father of osteopathy, A. T. Still. Dr. Stiles has developed palpation skills that allow the practitioner to accurately hear the body's messages, reported through connective tissue, and delivered simply and quickly into the hands of the thoroughly present practitioner. He is our mentor in this exploration of unraveling, the dance of love. Because Dr. Stiles, who is now seventy years old, continues to evolve and contribute to healing theory, and because his eyes sparkle like a school boy's with each new discovery he makes, he is a living model of his own vital concepts. Dr. Stiles has evoked the principles and techniques that I present here in this article, and while our ideas blend fluidly, I want to credit the overall concept of the dance of love, and certainly its structural ramifications, to him. In my work with trauma and energy medicine, I have emphasized the importance of seeing the earliest precursors to PTSD, depression and anxiety and treating them appropriately, in sequence. The merger of Dr Stiles' designs with my approach represents a marriage of bodywork and trauma therapy that is a stunning paradigm for fostering wholeness in healthcare. The Philosophy of Unraveling This article is organized around two major themes. The first is the philosophy and underlying principles of unraveling or unwinding. Once these are clear, it will be easy to translate these principles to any human service. Techniques for bodyworkers and other care providers comprise the second theme, with added attention to the use of language. 1. The Dance of Love is Host/Client Centered "In illness there are many layers of imbalance, concealing the depths where healing exists." Deepak Chopra, M.D. Unraveling puts the emphasis on the health of the host/client, not the external disease process. Each person's body holds unique compensatory mechanisms devised when surviving life's most relentless stumbling blocks. These mechanisms are like chapters in a novel, and each chapter reveals another dimension of the story. The practitioner is hired to shed light on root causes and key compensations, in their requested order, so that health shines through human tissue. 2. The Body Designs the Protocol Because each person is unique, no two individuals will respond to physical, emotional or spiritual traumas in exactly the same way. If the therapist sees each client in this light, every session is a mysterious journey that unfolds moment by moment. There are many ways to read the body so that it directs the unraveling process. For Dr. Stiles there are clear palpation steps to titrate treatment. I teach my students to read pulse, observe skin tone, voice quality, gesture and structure, and note the telltale evidence of precursors. All tolled, these assessments tell the therapist what to do to enable wholeness, in the order ordained by each body's report. 3. Honoring the Nervous System Incomplete or unresolved responses to threat are layered into human tissue as somatic memory. These memories are attached to one another in an arrangement based on conditioning (or the similarities of the events) rather than chronology. This storage system originates in the brain. Breaking the brain's neurochemical code is the treasure hunt that the host/client and the therapist engage in together. The benefits of unraveling/unwinding include greater functionality, pain relief, enhanced movement, presence, an experience of internal lightness or space, and, perhaps most importantly, integration. Integration is a natural phenomenon of the nervous system. However, it is only when hindrances are relieved that integration can occur. Unraveling frees the nervous system to do what it is designed to do. When integration happens neurohormones come into balance, a process known as allostasis. Allostasis, Inflammation and Neuroendocrinology "Distorting the allostatic process to the point where it causes harm (allostatic load) is a comparatively recent development in the history of life on this planet." -- Bruce McEwen, Ph.D., The End of Stress As We Know It I am grateful to Dr. Stiles for pointing to allostatic load as the culprit for a broad spectrum of structural problems. Identifying how allostasis is functioning (or not functioning) can handily solve the puzzle and simplify the unraveling process. Allostasis is the natural symmetry of the neuroendocrine system, or our innate capacity to handle stress without losing center or ground. When our allostatic capacities are overburdened we experience allostatic load, or the asymmetry of the neuroendocrine system. Allostatic load makes the body desperate for function under the strain of compressive forces driven by overactive or underactive stress hormones like adrenaline and cortisol. I call allostatic load "shock" and describe it in detail in my book We Are All in Shock. I see shock as the contemporary plague. It differs from earlier plagues by shape shifting into countless manifestations, some of which are intensified by being discounted, like fibromyalgia. The new plague includes chronic back, neck and shoulder pain, rheumatoid arthritis and other joint problems, and the assortment of structural conditions that no one can resolve, as well as the depression and addictions that frequently accompany prolonged restriction and discomfort. Frank Lowry's story clearly illustrates the consequences of allostatic load. Tall, dark and handsome, Frank hardly seemed like someone in chronic pain. Somehow he managed to be soft spoken and respectful while running a sizeable company, traveling frequently, multi-tasking, and doing nonstop financial planning. In his mid-forties, he worked out, ate well, and had a loving marriage and family life. He believed in God and prayed fervently. Why then was he plagued with tendonitis, bursitis and arthritic symptoms? A stranger to limitation, Frank tried to minimize his suffering but he was losing the battle. The mystery was held suspended in his neuroendocrine response to stress. Yet he appeared to handle stress so well that even Frank was deceived. His exterior actually hid an aspect of his life that his illness challenged him to remember. Frank had set the stage for his inflammatory condition at least forty years earlier via his learned responses to threat. The way he discovered this and the how he reoriented himself provides a template for unraveling. It also depicts the integrated healthcare paradigm that this article advocates. The multiple therapies Frank had employed had given him interludes of relief. Frank received regular physical therapy and massage and he credited these with his ability to work without being on pain medications. But he did not want to continue functioning under duress. He wanted real freedom. He began treatment with a physical therapist who had studied with Dr. Stiles. The P.T. determined that Frank's key area of dysfunction within the total musculoskeletal system was in the cranium. When the P.T. was called away by a family emergency, he sent Frank to a skilled manual therapist who understood cranial therapy. During these treatments Frank had recurring images of himself as a young boy at the dinner table seated between his father and his mother, looking from one to the other as if he were at a tennis match. He couldn't understand why this image kept returning. Normally Frank would have kept an experience like this to himself but the image haunted him and one day just as the manual therapist was about to release his thoracic diaphragm he blurted it all out. His therapist did not seem at all surprised. In fact, he smiled and said, "Each time I come to this place in the session your body tenses. Maybe this is a conflict you are having. I am relieved to hear you have an internal reference point because I could not figure out what was happening." And that was it. The core stress had been exposed. In his quiet, introverted way Frank thought about this for a long time. He discussed it with his wife who pointed out to him that he always placed himself between his parents, preventing any chance of conflict between them. And it was true that despite its inevitable occurrence, Frank abhorred conflict and did his best to avoid it, sometimes even sacrificing business profits. In all family matters, Frank longed for peaceful, comfortable moments but he rarely had them because he always felt responsible for creating them. Frank had served as a buffer between his alcoholic father and controlling mother all his life. He would literally elbow himself between his parents, keeping the peace at all costs. His elbow, in fact, was one of his most painful body parts. Thus, the history of Frank's allostatic loading had consumed his cortisol (the stress hormone he needed to quell his fear and longing for love), leaving him with a deficit in midlife. Frank asked his therapist about the possible link between this protective, refereeing behavior and his symptoms. His therapist responded with information about the thoracic diaphragm, the site he had identified as restricted and how it is an avenue of expression. Repressing expression, he said, could suppress immune potential, making inflammation more likely. Frank Lowry was a good problem solver. He determined he had to get out of his own way and mediate less. That little boy at the dining room table should be outside, playing! He took himself off the hook and realized the difference between the past, when he had to mediate to survive, and the present, when he had a vast array of options and resources. He began to employ these, varying his behavior, smiling more, fearing less, and enjoying the fruits of his wonderful life. He took his mother's manipulative gestures less seriously and gave his father the opportunity to stand up for himself, which he could do now that he was sober. Frank even chuckled as his parents locked horns, realizing this was no longer a threat to his survival. The truth was that there was actually no conflict, either at home or at work, that could truly threaten his wellbeing. He was no longer the peace vigilante, trying to make everyone happy to compensate for what he had missed out on as a child. In less than two weeks Frank's inflammatory tendencies subsided. The more he let himself live rather than supervise, the more normal his cortisol levels. The battle for peace was over. Now Frank could really relax, not just go through the motions. Thus he unhindered his neuroendocrinology and enabled allostasis. He took off the allostatic yoke of over-responsibility. He still cared for his parents dearly, but he could also put himself first without guilt or fear. Frank did most of his own unraveling/unwinding, with help from his friends. The manual therapy sessions created the space. The more subtle treatment interventions tend to give neurohormones the greatest opportunity to regroup. "Reduce the violence of the treatment," says osteopath Harry Clements, "and the patient's chance of recovery is increased." I heard about Frank's process when he opted for more subtle energy medicine since he now knew that it lowered his stress levels. This receptivity allowed me to facilitate further unraveling by just asking an occasional question or responding to Frank's comments. Because of Frank's increased awareness of his own internal process, I was invited to point out areas of restriction that I noticed. Frank was now thoroughly engaged in the secrets his body was revealing. He not only was recovering from chronic pain, he was evolving into the magnificent human being that lived in the spirit of that little boy at the dining room table. He greeted each new discovery about himself with the enthusiasm of a five year-old boy on Christmas morning, just before he plunges into his pile of presents. Tensegrity "Tensegrity refers to a system that stabilizes itself mechanically because of the way tensional and compressive forces are distributed and balanced within the structure. As soon as pressure is redistributed in the structure, the energy stored in the tensed filaments causes the structure to spring back to its original shape. " --- Donald Ingber, MD, Ph.D. An effect of balanced allostasis is the reestablishment of the tensegrity potential within the human body. A tensegrity structure is composed of parts that are "tensed" to stabilize the entire structure. In the body, bones are compression struts that oppose the tension created by muscles, fascia, tendons and ligaments. As a result, the potential for stability and protection is exponentially increased. Simultaneously the potential of the whole becomes greater than the sum of the parts. The body's tensegrity is threatened by the compensations that life demands. By treating consecutive areas of musculo-skeletal restriction in sequence, each individual's tensegrity adaptations are exposed. The practitioner is the eye witness to the revelation of unique survival strategies, despite the fact that most are implicit. As these designs become explicit, the client/host is empowered, as evidenced by Frank Lowry. Once again, I am indebted to Dr. Stiles for introducing me to the concept of tensegrity. His application of Donald Ingber's research into cell tensegrity to connective tissue and physical structure under stress adds another dimension to the unraveling approach. When tensegrity has been reestablished in the body, individual cells change shape, allowing for new structural, biochemical, cellular and genetic relationships. The body now has the opportunity for new expression. This is what creates the felt sense of internal space, presence, lightness and alertness that is characteristic of true healing. This potential is available to everyone through the unraveling process. When stressors are unlayered in the order requested by the body, the structure always finds new functionality. As this occurs the client goes beyond better. She realizes optimum capacity. This is balanced allostasis and it restores us to how we are wondrously and gloriously made! It is for this reason that I call unraveling the dance of love. It removes the roadblocks to personal and spiritual truth. It allows us to embody all we are meant to be. This is not only a celebration of health; it is also a celebration of Spirit. Four Unraveling Techniques "When we focus on clarifying what is being observed, felt, and needed rather than diagnosing and judging, we discover the depths of our own compassion." Marshall B. Rosenberg 1. Assessment Unraveling requires that the practitioner see how allostatic load burdens tensegrity for each individual. Palpation, pulse listening, observation, hearing what the host/client says, attunement, and reading the body with sensitivity and wisdom are aspects of assessment. The resource section at the end of this article, and the next article in this series on Dr. Stiles' work, point you to where you can acquire and practice these skills. 2. Layer by Layer Repeated strain results in multiple layers of connective tissue adaptations. Each layer portrays a survival mechanism. Many practitioners treat the top layer. Unraveling or sequencing, on the other hand, moves through each layer of resistance. Appropriate tools are employed for each survival mechanism. The therapist needs a diverse toolbox and good referrals to address these layers. Manual treatment may be required, or energy medicine, and/or both simultaneously. 3. Interruption of Allostatic Load In order to shift the chronic nature of afflictions, the practitioner must facilitate a genuine and consistent interruption of allostatic load. Relief has to be provided for each layer of compensation, followed by integration. Knowing when to pause is as important as knowing when to intervene. And, in all cases, the client must do her part. 4. Patience Having total confidence in the outcome of unwinding is the practitioner's responsibility. This usually comes organically from co-participation in the unraveling/unwinding process. Practitioners increase their own capacity to serve through their personal unraveling and unwinding. Using Language "It wasn't the treatment techniques that helped me to transform. It was the way Dr. Stiles changed my thinking by giving me new options. His comments, stories, questions and analogies replaced old tapes. By attuning to where I was he actually changed the genetic and biochemical expression of my cells and being." --- Micha Sale, PT Language, when attuned to the client, is a catalyst for unraveling. Some practitioners, however, are afraid to use language. After Dr. Stiles closed his private practice to focus on teaching, his patients told him, one after the other, that it was his questions that changed their lives. As his hands decoded the mysteries of their bodies, questions like, "Is it possible that you are in a situation that makes you feel as if you are shouldering burdens?" or "Are you in a relationship that makes you feel like you need to take a load off your chest?" allowed the recipients to continue healing on their own. By accurately mirroring his patients Dr. Stiles provided opportunities to lessen held tension through the expression of personal truth. This is not psychotherapy. Bodyworkers are not violating their contract with their clients when they speak to them. As we saw with Frank Lowry's experience, just responding honestly and simply can be therapeutic. By taking the time to explain the neurochemistry of the stress response, Frank's manual therapist empowered him. His physical therapist was part of the unraveling process when he identified the biomechanical restrictions as the area of greatest hindrance. This was not the area where the symptoms presented but in the unraveling dynamic, it was the layer demanding attention. Thus, while not obvious, this is actually the most dysfunctional area in the total body. This is what Dr. Stiles calls the AGR or Area of Greatest Restriction ™. Language plants seeds of awareness and these seeds sprout in their own time, as the unsolicited testimonies that Dr. Stiles received illustrate. Learning to trust sufficiently to articulate the simple, beneficial truths that the body reveals is the care provider's responsibility. The body never lies though it speaks in its own dialects. It is the keeper of secrets. Symptoms, particularly chronic symptoms, articulate insistent responses to life. As layers of tension are peeled off of tissue, the truth is revealed. But if that truth is not perceived, it will go underground once again, into the depths of the body. The master healer can uproot elusive truth, biopsy it, and reveal its contents in the right way at the right time, using just the right words. In fact, symptoms and illnesses are actually the body's attempt to self-correct or heal itself, but how to convey this? Not all clients are, like Frank Lowry, ready to see themselves. What language can facilitate this kind of awakening? What to Say and When to Say It "What I have seen that is so compelling about Dr. Stiles' use of language is that he discerns what is stored in tissue. He attunes to his patient and to God and this gives him perfect timing and the language that cannot be refused." Kay Davis, PT What can care providers, and particularly massage therapists, bodyworkers and manual therapists say to their clients easily, honestly, concisely, and appropriately? They can: 1. Share the treatment process; 2. Share observations; 3. Ask questions about history, patterns, perspectives, or to use a question manual therapist Micha Sale poses: "If your tissue could talk, what would it say?" 4. Answer the clients' questions honestly, thoroughly, and in attunement to who they are; 5. Identify the Area of Greatest Resistance (or AGR)™ and name it; 6. Provide positive, uplifting commentary; 7. Be a resource for accurate guidance about how the body works best; 8. Give pertinent information about the mind-body-spirit connection; 9. Make stress relieving suggestions to interrupt allostatic load; and 10. Offer empowerment through awareness and self-care. Other ways therapists can inspire the unraveling/unwinding process include: 1. If a client is chattering, refer them to what they are feeling in their body; 2. When tissue is particularly dense or tense, draw the client's awareness to it, inviting deeper exploration; 3. As you feel tissue release encourage full participation in the letting go process; 4. If you recognize allostatic load, volunteer specific suggestions for stress relief; 5. When conditions are chronic, inquire more deeply into the history of stress patterns; 6. Recommend ongoing treatment so that unraveling is like to recur; 7. Encourage the healing response through full breath, expression, sound and movement; 8. Make referrals whenever appropriate and explain the background to these offerings; 9. When areas of the body are repeatedly restricted, do not hesitate to tell relevant stories or use relevant phrases like the ones Dr. Stiles employs (such as, for hand issues, "Is there something you can't handle?" or for the knees, "Are you feeling afraid or week-kneed about something?"); 10. Explain principles like tensegrity, allostatic load, the connection between trauma and the nervous system, the connection between stress, hormones and inflammation, the role of precursors, and the mind-body connection. It is important that both client/host and therapist fully grasp the intimate relationships between patterns of stress, neurochemistry, structural tensegrity and maximizing human potential. The challenges we face, structural or spiritual, are designed to make us grow. Each of us copes with stress in ways that are inscribed in our structural tensegrity, but we are not doomed to patterns of hindrances. By unraveling layers of stress in the order they request, somatic therapists are servants of human potential. Education and exploration into this new paradigm of healthcare is a path of continuous inspiration. The following resources will lead you beyond this article into the world of integrative transformation that is the potential of all bodywork. The next article in this series will explore the concept of client as host and how to truly "get the virus out of the software" by treating precursors or root causes. COURSES, TRAINING PROGRAMS AND WORKSHOPS: Drs. Stiles and Mines will co-facilitate a seminar on "Healing Principles: Integrating Physical and Energy Medicine Paradigms," at Mercy Hospital, in Oklahoma City, Oklahoma, March 16-18, 2007. For further information and to register contact Steve Maly, PT at 405-752-3700 or SMaly@ok.mercy.net. Steve Maly can also be contacted for ongoing courses that Dr. Stiles and Dr. Mines offer at Mercy Hospital. Dr. Mines teaches throughout the world. For course listings go to www.Tara-Approach.org. BOOKS: McEwen, Bruce, The End of Stress As We Know It, Washington D.C., Joseph Henry Press, 2002. Mines, Stephanie, We Are All in Shock, New Jersey, New Pages, 2003. Dr. Stiles' students at Pikeville College of Osteopathic Medicine in Pikeville, Kentucky, have compiled a guide to his approach to manual therapy. We anticipate that this important book will be available by the publication of the second article in this series. ARTICLES: Ingber, Donald, MD, Ph.D., "The Architecture of Life," Scientific American, 1998. Ingber, Donald, MD, Ph.D., "Mechanical Basis of Cell and Tissue Regulation," National Academy of Engineering, Fall 2004. MEDIA: DVD: Intergenerational Trauma from a Neurological Perspective, available from www.Tara-Approach.org or by calling 1-800-493-6117. LINKS: For more information about Donald Ingber's cell tensegrity research: www.childrenshospital.org For information about trauma: www.trauma-pages.com For information about shock and allostatic load: www.Tara-Approach.org www.rockefeller.edu www.naturalhealthweb.com/articles/McEwen.html Glossary Adrenaline (epinephrine). The first of the major stress hormones poured out by the adrenal glands when threat occurs.Adrenaline steps up heart rate and sends extra blood to the muscles and organs to create the classic fight-or-flight response. Area of Greatest Resistance (AGR). A term created by Ed Stiles as part of his sequencing process,AGR refers to the area of greatest resistance or the most dysfunctional area within the total musculoskeletal system that surfaces in the order the body requests as revealed in a palpatory screening examination. Allostasis. Stability through change.The ability of the nervous system to be resilient and to recover from stress. Allostatic Load. Unremitting stress.The impacts of chronic stress include lowered resistance to illness, increased blood pressure, and an imbalance in stress hormones, like adrenaline and cortisol. Elevated adrenaline levels predispose the client/host to high blood pressure and cardiovascular disease. Elevated cortisol levels predispose the client/host to depression and immune suppression. Body Language Significance (BLS). Holistic translations of somatic language. Cortisol. The stress hormone that works as a brake on the immune system and solidifies the relationship between stress and memory. Cranial Therapy. Hands-on therapy aimed at balancing the flow of craniosacral fluid and treating mechanical dysfunctions that compromise the dynamic, highly plastic, and mobile responses of the cranial structures, including bones, sutures, and dural membranes. Cranial treatment is a component of manual therapy, osteopathy, energy medicine, and a variety of approaches under the general rubric of craniosacral therapy. Energy Medicine. Subtle methods of treating the body's bioelectrical system. Host/Client. The unified mind-body-spirit of the recipient of treatment. Manual Therapy. Therapeutic techniques for removing mechanical restrictions from the musculoskeletal system which will improve range of motion, joint function, strength, flexibility, and movement, and result in the overall integrity of the biomechanical system. Neuroendocrinology. The study of the interactions between the nervous and endocrine systems. Osteopathy. The name osteopathy comes from the Greek osteon (bone) and pathos (suffering). Dr.A.T. Still, the father of osteopathy, chose this name to illustrate the role of the musculoskeletal system in health. In osteopathy, a possible predisposition to disease is traced to the relationships within and between biomechanical structures.The physical integration of the whole body is the goal of osteopathic medicine. Physical Therapy. Therapy aimed at alleviating functional limitation through therapeutic interventions. Pulse Listening. As assessment process that "hears" pulse qualities in the fingertips when they are placed at specified locations on the body. Sequencing. The ordering of treatment to ensure that it is uniquely designed to enable the client/host to realize their highest potential. Shock.The highest magnitude of trauma that results in allostatic load, or the complete "dysregulation" of the nervous system and its hormonal secretions. Somatic Therapy. Any therapy that attunes to, reads, and uses the body's sensation and responses to guide the healing process. Stressors. Biomechanical, emotional, energetic, or spiritual restrictions. Tensegrity. A tensegrity structure is composed of non-touching compression struts suspended within a complex, but dynamic tension system.The system resists change of shape and defies gravity. Trauma. An experience that shakes the foundation of beliefs about safety, and shatters assumptions about trust. Unraveling/Unwinding. Bodywork, or any therapy, that addresses individual layers of experience in the order that they are presented by the body. Unraveling requires a way to identify these layers, such as sequencing or pulse listening, observing, witnessing, or listening. BODY LANGUAGE SIGNIFICANCE (BLS) ™: STILES-ISTIC LANGUAGE CUES TO EVOKE THE MIND-BODY CONNECTION (Note: Dr. Stiles encourages therapists to trust that the client/host has within themselves the language and the truth behind their somatic condition. The therapist's role is to evoke this awareness and confidence, not be a substitute for finding it. The questions posed here may not necessarily produce a response; they may simply awaken awareness.) Arms: Would you like to reach out to anyone or anything and does that appear to be difficult? Are you holding your expression too close rather than extending? How can you extend yourself to others? Back Problems: Could there be anything going on in your life that makes you feel that you are carrying a heavy load? Can you share this load so that you do not have to carry it alone? Bones: Is there some instability in your life or are you feeling unstable right now? Who or what can steady you, support you or nourish you? Fingers: Are you struggling with putting your finger on something? How can you find help to do this? Hands: Is something just too much to handle right now? Was there something in the past that you had to handle when you were not ready to? How can you let go of this in the present? Head: Is anything making your head spin right now? Intestinal Problems or Stomach Issues: Is anything eating at you? Knees: Do you feel like you are going to buckle under in response to something in your life? Is anything holding you back from moving forward? Lower Back Problems: Are you in a situation that requires you to carry a heavy mental or emotional burden? Is there a way to lighten that burden? Lower Extremities ~ Legs and Feet: Is there an experience you are having that makes you feel like you can't put your foot down? Is there anything or anyone you just cannot stand? Is it difficult to stand on your own two feet? Muscles: Do you feel you have to guard yourself? Is anything in your life putting you into a spasm? Neck: Is anything happening to you that is a pain in the neck? Are you being stoic or stubborn? What are your other options? Nerve Pain: Is there a relationship, situation or an event that has you all wound up, wired or at loose ends? Osteoporosis: Is anything weighing you down so much that you want to give up? Ribcage: Do you feel trapped, as if you are in a cage, in any area of your life? Shoulders: Are you shouldering a burden? Skin: Are you experiencing anything that makes your skin crawl? Tendons: Do you feel like you are about to snap? What is straining you? How can you relieve the strain? TMJ or Jaw Problems: Do you feel you need to keep quiet or hold back secrets? How can they be released safely? Throat or Avenue of Expression: Is there something you need to say or something that has been left unsaid that you are afraid to utter? End Note of Acknowledgement: In addition to my profuse thanks to Dr. Ed Stiles for developing the Sequencing ™, Body Language Significance (BLS) ™ and AGR ™ concepts, I also want to acknowledge the unique Physical Therapy community that embodies his wisdom. The following Physical Therapists have served as a generous feedback group for this article and for the evolution of a paradigm that integrates manual therapy with energy medicine: Kay Davis, Margo Hayes, Holly Jones, Steve Maly, Amy Reid, Brenda Richardson, Micha Sale, Regina Tanner, Audra Thompson, and Kristi Weldon. They are all in Oklahoma City, Oklahoma. Stephanie Mines, Ph.D. is the founder and Program Director of the TARA Approach for the Resolution of Shock and Trauma. She is the author of We Are All in Shock, Sexual Abuse/Sacred Wound, The Dreaming Child and numerous other books and articles that support an empowerment based healing paradigm. For information about Dr. Mines and the TARA Approach go to www.Tara-Approach.org or call 1-800-493-6117. |