AS A THERAPIST YOU NEED THIS SUPER POWER! – X-RAY VISION

At our school we are privileged to have two Cadaver workshops hosted by the Texas State University Physical Therapy Department. This year the Cadaver workshops are July 9 and July 23. This is a do-not-miss experience. (You can choose one or the other, not both).

I say to our students and graduates that each person is a gift. It is such a gift in therapy, for both for therapist and client, to explore the layers of fascia, muscle, and bone and to see how you can make a positive difference in their lives.

Yet what’s the sense of getting the gift if you don’t know how to open it? Our ability to have in-sight into what goes on inside the human body directly relates to the quality of our therapy. One of the very greatest gifts then is being able literally to see inside the person.

Many generous people have donated their bodies to be used in medical schools to help students learn. We are lucky that we have a long association with Texas State University’s Physical Therapy Department. They give us a unique opportunity to have two workshops in their cadaver lab. With the expert guidance of both their faculty and ours (Marc Frazier veteran sports massage therapist, trainer, and workshop presenter) , participants in these classes get to put on surgical gloves and explore through the fully dissected cadavers.

I can’t tell you the delight and almost sacred sense that comes from being able to see more deeply inside people. Actually seeing and feeling for the first time so many things – even “Bodyworlds” doesn’t come close! The first time I saw and felt the iliopsoas was unbelievable – I had never quite succeeded in visualizing its size and route. Just feeling the iliopsoas directly in my hands gave me a level of knowing that I simply could not get any other way. Seeing the diaphragm, the adductor magnus, all the muscles of the neck, the low back, the feet – unbelievable!!

It gave me the feeling, now when I work on people, that I have a kind of X-ray vision and, I’ll tell you, clients can feel the difference! And this experience increases your sense of reverence for being human. One can understand the wonder experienced by Leonardo and Michelangelo as they explored the inner workings of the human form.

If you are in Austin, do not miss this incredible opportunity.

To quote Gil Hedley, who teaches very enlightening cadaver classes and recently dropped by our school – “Dissection is an act of introspection. By unwrapping the layers of the donor’s gift, participants uncover hidden layers of themselves.”