Every session starts with what us Rolfers call bodyreading, where I’ll take a look at you as you stand & maybe walk. It can be a funny experience to stand in front of someone like this. It was a part of my training that I found a challenge; I love my body so standing in my pants in front of a group of people who are shouting out things about my body was difficult.
What I’m doing when bodyreading is looking for the potential in your body, what’s working well and what could work better. Where are the areas I should give attention to, where are the rich areas to work that will affect change. The experience from my training has made me very delicate with my words (and a little long winded) when talking about someone’s body. I’m sometimes appalled by the things other therapists have told people I see. As an example I might say “If we can get more life & power through your feet, then I think your knees might settle down” is so much easier to hear than “your knees are in pain because you have flat feet”. The first phrase has a lot of potential, that empowers the person I’m talking to, the second pretty much empowers the therapist at the expense of the client and has no optimism.
Every session closes with bodyreading too, in partnership we are looking for what’s changed, do you hold yourself differently now? Sometimes changes can be pretty obvious to both of us, I love those sessions. Other times a dialogue between what you notice internally & what I observe from the outside, can help us recognise the change. Often I might ask you to find your way back to the shape & feeling you had when the session began, acknowledging the old & recognising the new, hands on the responsibility for the changes we’ve made to you.
Thoughts & questions on bodyreading & word use would be most welcome.