Being a manual therapy patient

October 21st, 2009 by Matvey Kipershtein

I strongly believe that as a health-care practitioner it essential to receive the treatments to enhance your own skills.
Just two days ago I did a morning run and probably had pushed myself a bit too hard.
I felt that something was wrong with my arm for the whole day and the next morning I woke up with intensely stiff and painful neck. The pain also traveled down my right arm and shoulder blade. I knew which neck segment needed to be treated. But I couldn’t do it myself.
I contacted a very good friend. He is a physiotherapist and successfully applies a variety of manual therapy techniques in his practice. He performed very detailed assessment of my body and executed perfect treatment plan. So one day later my necks moves freely and the pain is almost gone.
But what I’ve learned is not the techniques that he used, but how to understand my own patients better. Strangely, during the assessment I felt that I don’t really need the treatment. I am perfect. “I am a massage therapist myself; I am not supposed to get aches and pains.” There was some sort of inner resistance.
This made me realize that when I am treating patients in my clinic, I have to listen more deeply to the whole story that their body is telling me. There are so many layers to reality. And the key is to take my ego out of the picture.
I put myself in my friend’s place. If I were to pay attention to that “inner resistance” I would probably give up and say to myself: “You feel perfect? No need for the treatment even though you came for my help? So be it. You’re fine, go home and suffer in silence”.
To be a good therapist is to learn the humility that allows you to be truly helpful to the people. Sometimes it’s not the technique, but the practitioner’s presence, just listening, simply being there.
One more lesson learned. So next time when my patient tells me that they are fine, but that nagging pain just won’t go away, I will know what to do. There’s no me, there’s no pain. Just the person in front of me doing the best he or she can to get better.

Tags: massage, Physical exercise, wellness
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