Mentoring

I remember shortly after meeting Dr. Sally Sutton for the first time, her telling us the story of how she got into practicing Muscle Energy Technique. She had been an Osteopathic Manual Medicine practicing DO, mostly using HVLA and Cranial (taught from Kimberly) and was physically struggling to do manipulations with many of the larger and sturdier patients in the farm community where she worked. She had met and observed a presentation by Dr. Fred Mitchell Sr at an Osteopathic conference and was impressed by it's specificity and gentleness, so she sent him a message asking if she could learn his method. Fred invited her to come and stay at his house and work with him for a week at a time. She made 2 more subsequent trips for the same amount of time and was still struggling to get the hang of the technique. It was then proposed that Fred come up by her for a class, which became the famed first official week long MET tutorial in Fort Dodge, Iowa; taught by Fred and attended by herself, Devota Nowland, John Goodridge, Ed Stiles, Rolland Miller and Philip Greenman. Fred only gave 4 or 5 more tutorials before dying of a massive heart attack in 74.

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What impressed me most about Sally's story was that, she later became known as the "Mother of MET," one of the greatest living practitioners of the method and it took her weeks of working, one on one with the developer of the method and yet she still felt as though that was insufficient to feel proficient. When we we're working with her at the age of 88 (still practicing MET) and I asked her how long did it take her to feel like she was really confident in her skills, her response was, "I think I'm finally getting it." That was over 14 years ago.

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A couple years ago after hearing of her passing, I realized how much I missed that interaction and wanted to find others, like Sally, to work with and continue to improve my own skills. I was able to track down two professors that were the immediate successor (Dr. Carl Steele) of Dr. Phillip Greenman and the one after that (Dr. Lisa DeStefano), who Phil asked to take over editing his book (Principles of Manual Medicine). As of this year, I'll have completed more hours in OMM, taught by MSU Professors than DO students at MSU get during their training from MSU Professors. And by itself, it's still insufficient. I continue to interact with them and other professors in order to work towards "competence."

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What is common in the higher educated physical rehab world and almost entirely ignored in the Bodywork world, is that skill development in any sort of method or technique, takes significant time and deliberate practice. Many DOs that practice OMM will do so only from the training they obtained in school, but the ones who specialize in it can take between a 1 to 3 year residency to develop competent hands on skills. In the PT world, it's the same: for a manual PT, often a 1-2 year post graduate residency, which is sometimes then continued through a fellowship. But in Bodywork.. it's a common complaint that a 3 day class is too long, a 2 day class is too long, even an any day class is too long. There are numerous reasons for this: financial, time, etc. All valid. The one point that I wish to push back against, is that to do more is irrelevant or unnecessary. It may be irrelevant to making money, but in every encounter I've had in 27 years of Bodywork, it's significantly important in feeling comfortable and confident in treating the typical conditions that the general public seeks out Bodywork for.

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There may be more, but currently the only 2 people I know that are running a well implemented clinical Bodywork internship/mentorship are Sarah Lashley in Evanston, IL and Doug Nelson in Champaign, IL. Both with an exclusive focus on PNMT. Sarah's program takes Massage and Bodywork graduates and over the course of working in her office for 2 years, 32 hours a week, meeting weekly with mentors, having in session consultation from senior therapists, attending and studying PNMT courses, you come out the other end as reasonably competent in PNMT. For those that can make it work, I've heard nothing but positives.

For me, I recognize the need for therapists to be able to work with mentors, beyond a weekend course and to do so on a continuing basis. Personally, I don't have interest in taking on employees and running a program in the way that Sarah and Doug have made so successful.

 

What I am offering is shorter (4 hr) but more consistent mentorship gatherings between Green Bay, Milwaukee and Chicago. These will be "skill builder" style meetings to help improve and depend your understanding and improve skills from courses that you've already taken. The topics that I'm setting up currently are:

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NMT: European, American and PNMT

(I've developed advanced course work, taught and practiced for over 25 years)

Neural Mobilization: Elvey, Butler and Shacklock Inspired 

(I've developed 4+ day course work, taught and practiced for over 25 years)

MET: Mitchell Method (I've done significant in person training with the best in the field)

PIR: Lewit and Janda (I've developed 4+ day course work, taught and practiced for over 25 years)

Low Load Long Duration Mobilization: Hesch Method

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For those outside of the Wisconsin or North Shore of Illinois area, I am also available for Zoom meetings or will consider travel for small groups looking to skill build, though travel rates would be included. My rate is $120/hour. If for a group, the fee can be split. Join the newsletter for more updates or contact me directly to set something up.