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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A few weeks ago, I presented my research project to a local group of students and therapists in Paris. I was there to assist the second Fascia Therapy seminar, and Christian Courraud took this opportunity to have me do a lecture. The goal was not only to pass on know-how (knowledge about autism and how to handle it), but also to illustrate my personal development: I took up the method as a physical therapist to learn new techniques, secondly, to apply those techniques in a particular field (children, and later on autistic children in particular) and thirdly, to reflect on and to do research on the results coming out of the treatment.

When giving a lecture on ‘autism and the body’, I almost always start with telling the audience what brought me to this research, what my motivation was / is. In this blog I will go more deeply into it, and in another post I will write about my approach with autistic children.

Read more … (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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14 days ago I found this article in the newspaper:

> New sleeping bag to soothe a crybaby

According to this article’s author swaddling up a baby has effect on a baby since it feels secure (probably reminding it of its time spent in its mother’s belly), and because it can’t wake up itself by making rowdy arm-motions.

According to me there is more. Please read below … (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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At the beginning of the new school year the ‘Rehabilitation Centre for children with learning and behavioral difficulties’, where I work, in Molenbeek (in the centre of Brussels), organizes a therapist study day.

Our goal is to have therapists talk about their work and research themselves, so that they can learn from each other; besides that, it enables us to have a thorough discussion about themes, for which we can’t make time during the school year.

The therapeutic team consists of quite a number of speech therapists, some ergotherapists, social workers, educators and a very experienced neuropsychologist. It is led by Dr. Naulaerts, neuropsychiatrist and medical director, and Jorn Jehaes, general director.

Like the last four years, Jorn asked me to do a lecture. He is personally interested in the significance of and the approach to the body in the coaching of children with learning and behavioral problems, and grants me speaking time when it comes to thebody. This time he asked me to talk about the body and autism.

In 2006 I gained a pre-doctoral degree at Universidade Modema in Lisbon for my study on ‘The sensitive body and autism: proposals for a therapeutic coaching of an autistic child based on the principles of the perceptive psychopedagogics’. In that period of time I had immersed myself totally into the subject: I treated many autistic children of all levels, from deeply autistic to severely withdrawn children (autism spectrum), I devoured each and every publication (articles, books) I could find on autism, and participated to a study/work group focusing on this subject. (Read the article)

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The last weekend of August a seminar for the general public was organised in Drongen. The theme was: ‘Look after yourself and function more efficiently’.

Actually, it was on request of some Fasciatherapy students that we initialised this seminar. In 2OO2 the ECF organised the first ‘summer college’ in Houffalize, a village in the Belgian Ardennes. It was a 6-day-training under the leadership of Danis Bois, where several university professors introduced us to their research. Prior to this ‘summer college’ a 3-day-meeting with Danis Bois about ‘Stress’ had taken place for the general public. Many fasciatherapists had invited family and interested patients to participate and learn about the method and its founder. The seminar was a big success, which is not surprising at all as Danis Bois knows how to put across his knowledge, even though talking to a various public. After the seminar our students urged us to carry on this initiative. Since then the ECF has organised twice a year a seminar that is open to all.

All seminar groups have been heterogeneous so far:  patients of all kinds, therapy students, family members of therapists, aspirant students … each of them having his own expectations. (Read the article)

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A new college year has started. Last week, after a relaxing vacation, I held my first fasciatherapy session of the year. In all, it was the 11th session for the group that started the course in 2006.

At the first 10 seminars we analysed the treatment of the locomotoric system (limbs and spinal column), the cranial system and the visceral system. During the 10th seminar we evaluated this analysis. Now, we can move to another branch within Fasciatherapy: Pulsology. The study and the treatment of the neurovascular system is an important aspect of Fasciatherapy. One of the ‘sage sayings’ by Dr Still, founder of osteopathy, that influenced Danis Bois a great deal, is “Tell me where the blood circulation is disrupted and I’ll tell you where the illness (pathology) begins …” (in a free translation).

In 1985 Danis Bois published his first book Fascia, sang et rythme – Fascia, blood and rhythm – (Can the person whom I lend my collector’s item to, return it to me asap, please?). After the publication, however, treatment by pulsology faded into the background as Danis was working on other concept in that period of time. In 2003-2004, in cooperation with other scientists, he has delivered a penetrating inquiry to the effects of Fasciatherapy on the vascular system, which resulted in a new book Pulsology by Nadine Quéré. Moreover, last year, Nadine was invited by Harvard University to present her inquiry, and soon, her first scientific article will be published – I’ll keep you informed! (Read the article)

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