Unified Manual Therapy | Biovalent Systems | Visceral Manipulation | Craniosacral Therapy
I am pleased to welcome you to my privately owned manual therapy practice. Congratulations for taking a step towards better health. During the course of your therapy, please feel free to ask questions or express concerns.
Joseph Shindoll
1776 S. Jackson St.
Suite 614
Denver, CO 80210
303-332-6275
Frequently Asked Questions
What is Unified Manual Therapy?
Using unified in the name, implies a bringing together of therapeutic modalities: in this case, Biovalent Systems, Visceral Manipulation and multiple perspectives of Cranial Therapy, Muscle Energy Technique, Strain Counter Strain, Myofascial Release, Lauren Berry Method and Integrative Manual Therapy. All of these modalities have an osteopathic origin. When I began studying these various approaches, there was an aspect in my mind that assumed that the more techniques one had, the greater variety of problems one would be able to address. I have found truth in this viewpoint and have obtained broad experience to recognize various patterns of dysfunction. I've also seen each of these modalities be effective in their own right, some with greater scope than others.
For me the questions then became: What’s the common link between these modalities? What’s the generating factor for change in each of them?
These questions and
others like them were the genesis of Unified Manual Therapy. The common
link is the interaction between the patient and therapist. In
this case hands on interaction. The generating factor of change / healing
is within the patient and Unified Manual Therapy is the art of reawakening
this capacity to heal oneself. That is, some aspect of the patient
is having difficulty healing, meaning that healing capacity, relative
to the area that needs treatment, is dormant and in need of professional
assistance.
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Is Manual Therapy energy work?
Typically when people refer to energy work they are inferring energy, channeling energy, putting energy into or removing energy from the patient. Unified Manual Therapy does not attempt this type of treatment and there is a simple rational for not doing so. One metaphor to examine this process is to think of energy as money. If someone is indebted, or depleted of energy should you really give them your energy? If you do this work fulltime, such an output of energy would become quickly inbalanced and exhausting.
On the other hand, some people feel that there is
an unlimited amount of universal energy, and this is probably true,
however, this comes at a cost, like running too much electricity through
a circuit. Much like a filter of any sort,
there is some residual debris left in the filter following the filtration
process. Hence, using
oneself as a filter or conduit to drain off the patients excess energy
takes it’s toll.
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So what is Unified Manual Therapy doing differently?
Unified Manual Therapy works with the energy that is already present in the human body. One way to think of it is like anatomically specific energy medicine.
For example, any irritation,
scarring, tension, pressure, etc. diminishes the energy flow and
function of normal anatomic and physiologic processes. It
is the body’s recognition of this energy loss that generates the
signs and symptoms. With Unified Manual Therapy,
one helps the body restore normal energy flow, which is what it is
already attempting to do but has lost it's ability to accomplish
on it’s own. Restoring movement and balancing these tensions
results in improved health, decreased pain and a return of functions
that may have been diminished for years.
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How does Manual Therapy differ from Massage Therapy, Chiropractic, or Physical Therapy?
It important to tune the instrument as well as practice chords and music. Unified Manual Therapy tunes the instrument.
It may be reasoned that by treating any system of the body, the whole body is then affected. However this reasoning loses a bit of its leverage when one considers detecting and treating the system that is the root of the pain. As an example, muscle spasm may have many causes: the nervous system, organ system, vascular system, etc. Treating the muscular system as in massage therapy is likely to yield only temporary and local results due to the posibility of not diagnosising and/or treating the primary cause of the disability.
As for Chiropractic Therapy, the classical chiropractic perspective views the central nervous system as primary, and spinal subluxations as the main disturbance to this system. Clearly the central nervous system has a significant axis and role to play in the regulation of the body, yet the chiropractic model is a bit limited in a couple of ways. 1) All other body systems share a feedback loop with the central nervous system, which means there is two way communication, and as such, either side may be the aggrivater. 2) Aberrant feedback in the nervous system may come from a variety of sources, such as scar tissue, adhesions, visceral tensions, autonomic responses, hormonal imbalances and unresolved emotional turmoil, all of which may upset the balance of the central nervous system. In the case of overt trauma it is possible for a spinal segment to be displaced. "What is the spine, (the person) posturing around?" is a central question. The great majority of the time spinal positioning is an adaptive and hence secondary process. Here, Unified Manual Therapy literally dives deeper and seeks the cause of the spinal positioning.
Culturally we have embraced the exercise model of rehabilitation. While exercise, movement, and self-care are important, often they are not truly corrective. People usually feel better when they exercise, they get stronger, their stamina improves, areas that previously needed support now have it, and the person feels better. Isn’t that healing? To a degree, of course it is. Yet when a person says "if I don’t do my back exercises I have pain, or after my car accident I can’t sit for long periods of time, or I can't perform other activities that I used to enjoy," then essentially they have elevated their level of dysfunction. That is, the dysfunction is still there but they have just improved their adaptation through the conditioning. When the source of the pain which the body is reacting to is treated then the defensive posturing decreases, and with it actual positive functional changes are attained... The body is now "tuned."
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