I am in favor of the Poland School of Regeneration, since software without hardware is just a dead computer. I am also shocked how many people who do attend Modality Empires and buy civil war tools to scrape fascia are so lost that one must witness real therapy to recalibrate reality. Waldemar, one of the top physiotherapists is not just hype or attached by athletes, but a master therapist who is not retired. While this post can’t get into details of some of his very private protocols, I will say that athletes have left with higher HRV scores from his work, after reaching heart attack levels of mid 60s on ithlete with the Toronto Graston Chiros and unable to run three days later. Therapy is both art and science, and the question is how does one know they are getting world class therapy? Photos with athletes in the waiting room? ART provider signs outside the facility? Speaking at the SWIS Conference in the early 2000s? What about marks or bruising on the skin that show something Must be going on deep inside?
Good therapy is hard work period. I have done better at shopping malls on average with therapists are clearly foreign and are just worker bees. Point and rub is not very cerebral (frontal lobe actually) but it works. No touching is not work, and it seems therapists are more interested in being problem solvers without doing the long division. It’s nice to think about it, but eventually you have to get the pen and paper out and do some work. Manual Therapy is one part mental therapy, but like Chiropractors, chiro means hand and sometimes they need to get dirty with the dirty work. Therapy breaks the body down if you do a lot of it, and the burnout rate is 3 years for massage therapists. Sometimes the best therapists just stay doing therapy and sometimes the worst become educators. This ironic twist is a problem, since many modalities come from gurus. So where to go? Here are some suggestions.
How is one getting paid? When one is getting paid by time, what are you getting? An honest effort for 30 minutes and a hot pack for 30 minutes? Oil spreading and navajo flute for 60 minutes. What about by session or treatment? One therapist charges 80 USD for 15 minutes including half that time asking verbal questions. When I shared this to several therapists some were angered that the main part of the treatment was placebo. This is the majority of therapy I see with some professions. Good hands is experience, effort, and talent. Some simply don’t have the gift. When shopping around make sure you ask if the price is different for deep work and many of the best will not raise the price, but tip well or take care of the therapist if they refuse tips. Some manual therapists under charge and I prefer them take payment rates that they deserve.
Lasers are nice, EMS is better, but nothing beats the hands. Good hands requires the therapist to have the palpation ability to sense the the tissue is being manipulated. Some think they are doing this and I know a lot of courses claim this, but that is not evidence based medicine. After one therapist claimed 8 magic sessions changed his clients posture, I asked how he measured this. Thinking a grid and plumb line was used, I found out it was all in the eye of the beholder. The difficult thing here is all of the PRI people are rarely showing more than photos? With Bigfoot being seen on camera, we need more. Therapy is hard work and requires great people who know what they are doing. It’s not that one is just a pair of hands a good brain is the the compass to the therapy, but the reality is we need people working and not talking.