So I get this funny look from people when I try to say “I do Muscle Phasing.”
I get puzzled looks, and some blank ones too. I say “Maybe a better way to say this is that I do ‘Neurological Bodywork’." Needless to say, I have had many opportunities to introduce my work as this ‘other type’ of therapy service. Usually this is much easier to relate if that person is having a bodywork experience, because I can tell them what I’m doing while I do it, and they can see it to believe it. The funniest thing about my little conundrum is that when I ask people coming in, for their first time, “what exactly were you told about this experience before coming?” Time after time I have heard this response: “I don’t know… they just said it was magic and that I had to try it.” Ah yes. Every time I hear this it makes me smile- a little embarrassed because it feels like too high a praise for the work that I see as so simple, and a little on my toes that now I must re-deliver this “magic” experience. I sometimes try to put out some similarities saying “it’s like it shares space with physical therapy, chiropractic, and massage… but it’s not really any of them.” That sometimes falls a little heavy when it’s just a question when meeting new people and suddenly it’s like I’m saying “the sky is probably actually purple because I’ve discovered a new type of gas that makes it so.” Ultimately, whether from curiosity or simple politeness at following up each question for a satisfactory answer, people get sucked into a complex and science-ey explanation they weren’t really asking for, which still leaves many with more questions than can be properly answered in a small talk conversation. With that said, I can easily understand why someone who’s had an experience, and wanting to share, just says to their friend- “hey I think you might like this- it was pretty magical.”
I know that I’ve tried to write down and share the technical workings of Muscle Phasing as I see them, kind of like an on-site reporter telling the world of this thing that is unveiling itself before me, and I am one of the few observers of this soon-to-be world changing event. I must apologize, because I’ve made it out to be so much more complicated by saying that it’s complex- it’s really not.
The advantages to Muscle Phasing are simple, yet profound: It’s a feedback process. You might say everyone has their feedback process- they ask questions. Sure, when you go to a lot of different therapies there are unique questions that point the practitioner in the direction they should be going. Most of these are questions to your conscious brain about subjective experiences (which you may not have been paying any mind to when they happened at all!) The truth is, we tell ourselves stories- usually trying to play off the hurt we feel as just something minor- maybe so minor it’s non-existent even. Truth be told we would go a bit nuts if we felt every iota of hot/cold, sore/itchy, hungry/thirsty, tired/energy full muscle. Thanks to the way our brains work we only have to worry about the top 3-6% of our body priorities. This means that there’s a lot of un-resolved tasks that can sometimes get overwhelming for your body to upkeep, but still stay below the threshold of “needing work immediately.”
This is where the simple feedback mechanism I use comes in. I use function as feedback, because the first thing to quit is muscle “continuity” where other muscles can no longer depend on a weak one to stabilize. I get to ask first generally, then muscle by muscle- movement by movement- where is the breakdown in the system? I get a pretty clear overall picture, then hone it in with the specifics. This allows me to see where the patterns of dynamic strength have broken down into less efficient patterns.
Seeing this alone is the reason Muscle Phasing stands out. We could write SOAP notes just with the findings and do assessments and send people on their way. With that note in hand, taken seriously, those findings could bring sharper scope, faster results, and deeper value to nearly any kind of body therapy I am aware of.
Yes, these are seemingly big claims. I’ve been told by wiser people than myself- “Always under promise and over deliver.” Truthfully, I am so excited about how what I know could change the face of body therapies by multiplying the accuracy and effectiveness of treatments people get. That means faster relief, fewer visits, and feeling way better longer. You may think that this means I’m shooting myself in the foot- getting people well enough that they just don’t come back as often. Yet again I’d like to say that someone smarter than me has said that “working your way out of a job is the smartest way of proving your usefulness.”
I think that, with the world as we know it, it will take all too many years, of sharing this fantastic news with people, teaching it, and watching the effect spread, to share the relief and restoration fast enough. I think people would have less surgeries, be on less pain pills, pay less doctor bills, and generally feel happier if they got to spend some of their preventative medicine budget on treatment empowered with this simple method. If that doesn’t sound that exciting to you, then… well I’d like to know what in the world DOES make you excited!
Let’s take just a quick detour on this little tirade I have going here and acknowledge something. There’s this inextricable, un-separate-able thing that many religious traditions have said are un-related or even (yes) *gasp* opposites. When your body feels bad, your soul feels it. When you are hungry, when you are thirsty, when you feel deprived, your soul struggles to feel goodness. There are a trillion different things that your body is doing, and you feel it happening moment by moment- whether you want to escape it or not. Trying to escape is the way of numbing, blocking, and hiding… what? The truth. Many times these are hard truths. Sometimes these are truths that take a long time for us to rectify our orientation and communication until they are pleasing truths once again. This sometimes makes people lose a bit of hope.
Let me say something more. I believe that it is right to hope- to hope that we will feel safe in our bodies, the hope that we will feel the joy of strength and the absence of pain, the hope that life is not too heavy a burden to carry without numbing hiding blocking and ignoring the lessons our bodies are trying to teach us about the beautiful way to live- connected thriving and full of joy and energy. Truly, we can’t work on just ourselves and find this level of healing- we need many hands to make the work light. We require a community of people able to give healthy touch and safe affection to a world that is so lacking in good connection. We need the hands of the other to help us be our best self and live a life worthy of this opportunity in the vision we call hope.
If ever there was a better “American way” I think it might be something along those lines.
Imagine what an army of practitioners armed with great feedback tools could do. I am imagining this very thing every night before I go to bed, and it’s the idea that I wake up to in the morning. So this is why I have some trouble explaining exactly what I do in just a few words- because it’s not yet really known.
But it will be.