Prague, Lviv, and Taipei in 2024

November 6th in Prague:
I left for Prague, Czech Republic, ready to explore the three facets of my work: Bodywork, Movement, and Constellations.  Things had lined up in a way where I would assist in a Bodywork Class, then I'd offer my own movement workshop, and at the end of my stay, I would lead a day long Family Constellation workshop.  Excited to keep such a busy schedule, I let the energy of the city carry me through my sleep-deprived days.

While assisting Sharon Wheeler during this trip, I got to be immersed in the work from a unique perspective; as an observer to other's learning process.  I started to understand a bit about the art of teaching, of when to offer insight, when to witness, when to encourage and sometimes, how/when to redirect students.  One of the unique things that I like about Sharon's classes is that students get to spend ample time exploring the terrain that the class covers without a specific agenda.  Usually in bodywork classes, the format consists of first understanding a concept and then applying it to the person under our hands.  Students benefit from this style and the caveat is that not much attention can go towards how to assimilate the new concepts and techniques into the ever-growing skillset that the students already have.  Sharon's classes involve a different approach.  She framed it to consist of a deeper exploration of what's happening in the client's system, and then using the information retrieved from that person's unique pattern to create the appropriate means of treatment.  In this way, students learn to mold their hands into the appropriate shape and apply appropriate pressure to evoke change in the tissue.  This format teaches students how to become receptive to the requests of their client's tissue effectively every time.  Students also tend to stop overlaying various techniques that client doesn't actually need.

When I was a student in her classes, this time exploring served as a portal.  It led me into a special way of working; allowing my hands to mirror what the body is trying to do, and needed the leverage of intelligent hands to make happen.  This style requires a softness, steadiness, and enough mobility to track the subtle changes in tissue that naturally occur when we experience therapeutic touch.  I remember how the group effort of the students around me amplified my listening capacity.  I hope to offer this kind of portal to other students as I step into teaching this year.

I had a day-off after the class, and then I lead a Physio-Synthesis workshop.  I had a blast teaching and the competency of my voice surprised me.  If I remember correctly, we had sixteen SI students attend.  At the end of the workshop, each practitioner had learned how to give themselves a "tune-up," as well as, how they might start applying these movement concepts with clients.  This daylong workshop will be something I offer in Philadelphia to practitioners and clients.

Without skipping a beat, the next day, I provided four-handed sessions with my partner Justin Bonner, who had flown in from Philadelphia to meet me earlier that week.  I can't really express yet how rewarding it is to make new connections with clients in a new city,  to be welcomed in the way that Eastern Europeans express their hospitality, while at the same time working with and learning from another talented professional, who just so happens to be my partner.

At the end of our stay in Prague, I offered a full-day Family Constellations workshop in the sweetest venue.  One of Sharon's students hosted the workshop in a yurt, heated by a wood furnace in the center of a community garden.  Most of the participants had been in Constellation circles previously, so we reached a level of work and attunement that in the past has taken me a few meetings with a to discover.

Thank you to Zdenka, Irena, and Sylvie for your guidance and translation while offering the movement workshop.  And thank you to Martina for hosting me for my first Family Constellation workshop in another city.  I learned so much while teaching in another culture and having the work translated as I taught.  I’m so grateful for these fulfilling opportunities.

November 21st in Lviv:
After Prague, Justin and I took a train to Warsaw to meet with four other practitioners.  I felt particularly enriched in this group because we all came from different parts of the world.  Our group had a massage therapist and personal trainer from Spain, a Physical Therapist from Romania, a Structural Integrator from Italy, and an Anatomy Trains practitioner from California.  Sharon had brought us together so that we could travel to Lviv, Ukraine in order to help her teach a large class, with about 50 practitioners attending.  The classes in Lviv took place at a rehabilitation hospital for those needing amputations due to their wounds during the war.  Most of the rehabilitation center treated soldiers, however, we saw quite a few civilians in our time at the center.  The format of the class is that the students learn and practice on each other for two days, and then we bring in the class clients so that they can practice with supervision.  During the class, we worked with the men doing their rehabilitation in the facility as class clients.  It was relieving to know that we could have so many assistants floating around the classroom so that we were readily available to support the students.

Sharon’s work with scars and her work in helping reshape bones after damage is uniquely suited for people who have undergone invasive surgery, especially amputations.  After an amputation, the scarring and the osteophytes that grow from the severed bone create myriad ongoing problems.  She calls her work ScarWork™ and BoneWork ™.  Together, these modalities provide relief for patients in difficult situations.  The effectiveness is unprecedented for those with limbs removed.  Phantom limb pain disappeared for most of the class clients, and this allowed them to stop using pharmaceuticals to manage their pain.  The doctors that I met in Lviv discourage using opioids and other painkillers.  They said that the body heals a lot faster without medication, so ending a pain pattern from a phantom limb alone is a big benefit.  In helping the bone to complete its healing, the veterans could also start to be fitted and use their prosthetics without pain. 

We witnessed that within a few treatments, these men were able to roll over, move from their bed to their wheelchair, and in many cases put on their prosthetics.  That means they could be upright and walking, all on their own.  Before the treatments, many needed help with each of these steps.  Within the context of being sidelined from their cause in the war while their brothers still fight, many of the men expressed a newfound capacity to take care of themselves.  Over the two weeks that we were there, I got to witness so many men begin to tip the scale from feeling wounded and helpless to courageously facing their future.  It was also moving to see their wives and children support their healing process.

One special session in Lviv:
During the BoneWork class, there was one young man who's situation didn't quite apply to what the students were practicing.  He hadn't had an amputation, however, he had lost his ability to control his limbs because he had suffered a spinal cord injury while driving a tank on the front lines in October.  They did one surgery to remove foreign objects from his body, and then another surgery to do what they could with his lower thoracic and lumbar vertebrae.  As a result of the injury, he lost the function of about half of his spinal nerves that innervate his legs.  His prognosis was unknown; He could, in the course of many years, regain some function, and the Physio on his team told me that it was not a guarantee.  

The students and assistants helped a great deal with the scarring on his back, however, the deeper threads of this issue were not addressed during class time.  So, when I was asked to take a look, I decided it was best to see if I could restore some of this body's natural alignment, most notably the general slide-y-ness of his spinal cord.  I hoped that this freedom starting deep in his system would permeate out towards the more superficial layers where he had already received some good work.

I sat down with him and felt what I felt.  Thankfully, the portal that was first opened in Sharon's classes invited me to just feel what I feel -even if it didn't make sense.  My hands mapped it out.  I was surprised by the maze that his spinal cord had to navigate due to the way that the blast had jumbled his vertebrae.  Among other issues, the picture my hands showed me revealed some stark malalignments.  It felt as if his third cervical was tethered to his first rib on the right while his fourth cervical crossed in front and seemed to be suspended up behind the left angle of his mandible.  No wonder he had trouble talking and eating.  

What to do?  I thought about what I know from all I've learned, and how I might set up a one-time treatment for a client that needs so much.  The answer came quickly and felt obvious.  It was my informed intuition guiding me.  He needed his neck organised so that his brain stem could more easily communicate the chemically shifts that his body needed as his healing process progressed.  I got to work on balancing the thoracic outlet, and aligning his neck and head, and then eventually making my way to the upper cervicals and occiput.  It took a lot of steps and concentration, however, it felt as if I took about 70% of the problem out of his cervical alignment problem.  The work allowed the temporal bones in his cranium to softly open and balance as cerebral spinal fluid began to flow at a faster pace.  This was part of my aim in restoring the liquidness that's part of the spine.  When I was done with the treatment on his neck, I completed the session by softening his lumbar and sacrum as much as I could.  Then I went to eat, and he stayed there for another hour just sleeping.  I didn't see him again that day.  

One of my Constellation teachers, Suzi Tucker, popped up in my mind when she taught about the importance of letting clients go when the work's complete.  She  has modelled this very well for me, and I've noticed how this "purposeful forgetting" allows me to grow more freely.  I want that for students and clients, so it has become a regular practice for me.  Even though I'm reflecting on the work now so I can share with you all; In the moment, I erased him from my awareness and I could better attune to what else the students needed from me that day.

The following morning, we walked into the rehab facility.  Each morning reminded me of how I felt when I was an athlete in college.  As a team, we'd walk out to the back line of the volleyball court with an audience waiting for our arrival, excited to see the game.  In a similar sense, the staff and patients in the rehab facility were eager to see us each morning.  

The man with the spinal cord injury had already started on his rehab when we walked down the hall.  The place he chose to do it told me that he wanted us all to see his progress.  With a language barrier, most communication happened through gestures, feel, and out right behaviour.  He had some heavy metal playing through the speaker of his phone while he did reps up and down from his wheelchair.  He also struggled as he walked down and back on a straight away with rails so that his with hands could support him.  He grunted in his exertion.  Many of the staff and other veterans walked by without noticing that this was the first time he had gotten up in this way.  His determination filled the space, and even though at the time I couldn't fathom feeling more inspired, his contemplation and fortitude led me into a deeper sense of 'anything is possible.'  

I walked by and gave him a nod while my eyes well up with tears.  After he gestured me to congratulate him, I coached him on how to utilise his new alignment in his head and neck so that he had more stability in his shoulder girdle and arms.

What's next:
The experience in Ukraine inspired me to become serious about teaching professionals who work with patients who have had amputations.  I don't know how I will do this just yet, and I'm sure it will unfold over the course of my career.  Justin and I plan to go back so that as many people in Ukraine that want to train in this work can have the opportunity.  There are many wounded military personnel and civilians who have had limbs removed to save their life; injuries from mines and drone attacks since the war began.  Now that Sharon’s work has gained some traction in rehabilitation hospitals in Ukraine, we have an invitation to teach there as a part of continuing the growth of ScarWork™ and BoneWork™.  All things considered, we set the dates aside to go back in May with the hopes of providing education and support for upcoming teachers at least twice a year after that.  This is a long term effort to foster community and provide a skill-building environment for the myriad health professionals that support the wounded.

If you would like to support this work in Lviv, Ukraine, you can contact Joy Carey via email at [email protected].  If you would like to send money directly, Joy's Venmo handle is @Joy-Carey and the last four digits of her cell phone are 7289.  Your donations would go to plane tickets for Sharon, Justin and Joy to and from Europe, hotel accommodations, and materials for the students in the class.  Any surplus of money we would receive will be given directly to the rehabilitation hospital.  They often need to purchase individualised rehab equipment that the soldiers can take them home after their car in the hospital ends.  We will send out a thank you note to anyone that donates with an update on how the trip went, as well as, how the funds they donated were used.

December 3rd, in Taipei:
And if that wasn’t enough experience to pack into one trip, there was one last leg of it for me.  Justin flew home, and I travelled with Sharon to assist her in two classes in Taipei, Taiwan.  I assisted her last year doing ScarWork and BoneWork in this city, and this year she taught her classes on the Cranium and Pelvis.  It was heartwarming to meet many of the same students from last year.  It was especially exciting to see how much these practitioners have grown in their work in just one year.  I am amazed at the talent of these students.  

I feel so fortunate to be a part of this burgeoning field of manual therapy with a wider perspective that I would not have if I hadn't traveled into other cultures to teach.  In Taiwan, and many other countries in Asia, manual therapy serves as an intricate part of the healthcare system.  Clients trust the nature of the work without questioning its validity, and I suspect this is because acupuncture preceded allopathic medicine by hundreds of years.  The professions of the students in the classes ranged from acupuncturists (who are also MDs in Taiwan), massage therapists, internists, other physicians and surgeons.  To be in the room with these various professionals, while we collaborated to treat patients, gave me a lot of insights about the process of injury and healing.  It inspired me to think about what’s possible in a wider context.  Perhaps in my lifetime, the field of manual therapy will be more widely received in the United States in a medical context.  

In my corner as a fringe healthcare professional, I observe how I'm in a conscience in which the financial scaffolding for healthcare doesn't generally support patients receiving manual therapy.  In my career, I have heard many medical professionals denounce its relevance and effectiveness, even while being a client in my office!  I started practicing seventeen years ago, and in that short time, I have also seen many clients override their culturally-induced scepticism to become curious enough to receive the benefits of the work.  I accompany people through this process and stick firmly to the concept of aligning allopathic and complementary therapies.  Both forms of healthcare work better with the other as a part.  

I have many takeaways and reflections stirring in my mind and heart from the last leg of my trip in Taiwan.  The most poignant for me is staying fervent in growing in my skills as a practitioner.  I've been deeply influenced by the discipline that I witnessed from the students in Taipei, which reinvigorated my motivation to study anatomy more in depth.  I hope that that the effectiveness of my work speaks for itself overtime, and I'll get to be a part of a cultural shift surrounding healthcare in the United States.