Experiences of a physiotherapist

Last Saturday, we held the second symposium about ‘putting Fascia Therapy into practice’.

I took the initiative last year, because we (fascia therapy) were losing touch with our origin, the physical therapy. If you would have asked the average physical therapist in Flanders (northern part of Belgium) what Fascia Therapy stood for, only few could answer. In fact, the situation was worse, most of them would have to admit they had never heard of it.

This year, the executive committee of the Belgian Fascia Therapist – Method Danis Bois (BFmdb) took care of the project, which resulted in a better organization, (much) more participants, lectures of higher quality and better geared to one another.

You can understand we were thrilled having welcomed more than 200 participants, all of them doctors, physical therapists, physical therapy or osteopathy students. The auditorium was rather small for this large group of people, but thanks to the flexibility of all present, we were able to bring the lectures and the two workshops to a favorable conclusion.

A symposium is not the same as a science congress. Its purpose is not to pass on scientific researches and results, but to have therapists talk about their experiences while practicing therapy.

I had the honor to open the symposium. After the usual word of thanks, I went more deeply into the challenges physical therapy is facing. Physical therapy must develop in order to stay in line with the insights and needs of the current spirit of times. Also, Fascia Therapy in particular is facing a great challenge: sound scientific research (but I’ll come back to this later on). (Read the article)

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Fascia Therapy has some very important trumps in the pre- and post-surgery treatment.

According to me, the medical world prescribes pre-surgery treatment too less often and post-surgery treatment far too late. Typically, post-surgery treatment starts as soon as rehabilitation can begin, in other words, as soon as joints can be mobilized again, muscles need to strengthen or, for example, there is a need for walking rehabilitation. In this situation valuable time is being lost. Immediately after surgery the fascia therapist can execute important handlings that speed up the healing process after the operation and set the most optimal situation for rehabilitation. There is no need to wait for the arm or leg to get out of the plaster, for the time that motion is allowed again or for the operated zone to be strong enough again.

Pre-surgery treatment is even less popular. And yet, a specific approach may generate important effects. The goal is to have the body on the surgery table in the best possible conditions: cutting loose all fascias, clearing the main blood circulation, working on micro-circulation, this all prepares the ‘consistency’ of the body. Next to this, optimizing the motion pattern, motion consciousness also can prepare the further rehabilitation process and reduce the rehabilitation period to a minimum.

Let me illustrate this by means of a practical example. It is easy when having didactical material runningcrawling around at home.

In the blog ‘About the importance of crawling’ I wrote that we hoped Michelle would ‘really’ crawl before October 23. That day she was going to have a surgery on her left foot: mother nature has given her 11 toes (and metatarsal bones). Because her left foot would get at least 5cm broader than her right foot and, as a consequence of this, she would barely be able to wear her ‘princess shoes’, we decided to have the ‘spare parts’ surgically removed. (Read the article)

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Last week I attended the second seminar of the Fascia Therapy course in Paris. The seminar was led by Christian Courraud and Nadine Quéré, both pioneers to the method. Nadine told us she already engaged herself in Fascia Therapy as from its split-off from osteopathy. I think she may have attended the first Fascia Therapy course in the early eighties.

It’s now the third year in a row that I’m leading the first two seminars of the Fascia course in Belgium. I had the need to observe how Christian Courraud, head of theFascia Therapy – Somatology school in France, handles the introduction of Fascia Therapy to physical therapists. Although I frequently take refresher courses – working together with Danis Bois at the university in Portugal, attending seminars for teachers and post-graduate seminars – and try to keep up the evolution of the method, the issue and the starting point of this ‘seminar for beginners’ are different. It is not about exploring the concepts of the method in depth or measuring the effects of Fascia Therapy MDB (Method-Danis Bois); It’s about teaching physical therapists how to work with those concepts.

(Read the article)

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Since a few weeks, I’ve been treating a young woman suffering from Bechterew’s syndrome. As I’m always trying to spent the time with a patient as efficient as possible, I failed to reveal the background of the treatment. My promise to her was that I would clarify the essentials of the treatment background on my blog. In other words, this article is not only interesting for her, but may also support other therapists (to get new insights) and their patients.

What this disease is all about, can be found on many internet sites. With this post I’ve chosen to describe a different vision on the pathology and the specific fascia-therapeutic approach in practice. For now, let’s keep it to this: Bechterew’s syndrome is a rheumatic disease that affects mainly the spinal column. In almost all cases there are acute inflammation stages followed by intermittent stages of rest/recovery. An inflammation stage usually causes structural changes to the joint. As a consequence of this, the mobility of the joint reduces gradually and the spinal column stiffens. The patients ends up in a vicious circle: Due to the continuously decreasing mobility more inflammations will occur, and these will limit the mobility again.

The disease appears in various gradations, and thanks to the evolution in treatment (a.o. anti-TNF medication) the extreme final stage, when the whole spinal column is bent and totally immobile, shows up less often than it used to do. My patient’s diagnosis was made only recently. Fortunately the spinal column hasn’t stiffened yet. (Read the article)

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Last week I treated a young man suffering from the loge syndrome in both lower legs.

About one and a half year ago he started having problems with his lower legs. In a first surgery the aponeuroses of the lower leg were opened in order to give the muscles within the fascia more space.

After a long rehabilitation period he still wasn’t able to play soccer though. He had to undergo a second surgery. All fascias, even the attachments to the periost of the tibia and the fibula, were cut loose from the lower leg. After rehabilitation the operation appeared to be not successful. He still wasn’t able to play soccer. After the first three training sessions the pain in both lower legs had become unbearable and he was forced to end physical exertion. He is being treated by a sports physical therapist five hours a day. A fascia therapy student introduced the young man to me.

This situation is a disaster to a guy of this caliber. He’s at a top sports school, has made it to the B-team of a first-division soccer club (not the right one though ;-)) and aspires to a professional football career. An injury of this nature could ruin his dreams. Will he ever be able to do sports without pain again? Will he be able to reach the top level? Should he better focus on his studies or give his all to soccer? (Read the article)

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Today I got a telephone call from a physiotherapist, whose practice is about 15km away from Wemmel. He had found my telephone number on the website of the fasciatherapists.

He told me the story of a patient who had a problem getting full extension of the knee after having had an osteotomie. Following the treatment the therapist was able to get full extension passively, but as soon as the patient flexed his knee himself, a limitation in extension of about 10 degrees kept percisting. He asked me whether fasciatherapy could help the patient to resolve the problem. (Read the article)

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