Why Enrol in Pauls Workshops?
Introduction:
In Education there are two key elements required for integrated learning;
1) Learning the various categories of Knowledge (facts)
2) Learning how to integrate all the knowledge (facts) with each other; to make sence of it all in relation to what is actually happening within the whole person (Practically – based upon what you can see and feel from the bodies tissues – rather than only via book learning); and to be able to understand the TOTAL pattern of dysfunction setting up the symptom picture and therefore be able to understand and treat this pattern with a deeper AWARENESS of links and relationships between the various component parts of the whole person.
My workshops focus mostly on the second category (Point 2). Practitioners are usually very knowledgeable on the first point and think “if only i gain more (external) knowledge, I will be able to treat better” – but this doesn’t work on it’s own. This increased knowledge (of technicalities/facts) – whilst impressive from an intellectual point of view, means nothing unless you know when, where and why to apply it (which the body knows better than we do if we would only stop doing and start listening).
I will therefore teach you enough knowledge about each topic covered below covered below (MET, Articulation, Cranial, postural assessment, etc) to know about, it, how it works and can be used (satisfying the technicalities of point 1 above) – BUT MORE IMPORTANTLY – teach you how to “READ” the BODY and identify the clues that help you know what to treat and when. In short – I will teach you how to observe, feel and sence more effectively – and make sence of all the information you will uncover from assessment (to which you can then apply your external knowledge in order to render the findings more meaningful). Thus, I focus on developing YOU as an instrument to be able to PERCEIVE and make sence of the clues more effectively rather than purely filling your heads with more intellectual knowledge, data and facts alone.
EXAMPLE
For example – many practitioners know (or think they know) and use MET or articulation already (At least theoretically) but I have found that when I have taught people these subjects;
- The knowledge is often only theoretical and thus the techniques are applied to correct what people intellectually “think” is in trouble rather than what is actually needed as guided by the bodies tissues (i.e. based on intellectual guesswork rather than clinical findings)
- Even on a theoretical level – I have found that the principles behind the successful application of any technique are not always learnt correctly or covered deeply enough (with understanding) – and which, when understood, can be applied to improve any technique, with “knowing awareness” of what the body tissues are informing the practitioner.
- The knowledge is only applied to one or a few anatomical structures (such as joints) in a limited linear way and not with respect to other tissues and relationships involved in the overall problem pattern (i.e. it is applied to one structure rather than to balance the relationship with many other structures) or it’s applied segmentally – and not in a way that balances the whole person (which is always more effective once understood)
- Probably the most important point is the ability to read what the body is actually instructing the practitioner to do rather than just apply a technique with no awareness of “tissue needs” and thus – when the tissues are “LISTENED to” there are a whole range on HIDDEN adjustments that often need to be made to the basic technique to render it workable and effective and to get the “whole person” engaged. Participants are always surprised that by being aware of a few simple adjustments – a technique can go from being “useless to useful” in a matter of moments.
These are all the things I address in my workshops – to make you conscious of how to make the techniques effective (which has nothing to do with “EXTERNAL KNOWLEDGE (intellect)” but rather “INTERNAL KNOWING (practical wisdom)”.
If you want to convert intellectual knowledge into practical wisdom – then enrole in some of these workshops.
SUMMARY OF BENEFITS
Thus the feedback from participants is that;
- THE EXPERIENCE GAINED FROM THE WORKSHOPS MAKES EVERYTHING THEY ALREADY DO MORE EFFECTIVE (and makes the techniques themselves easier to use more effectively)
- IT DEEPENS ONES ASSESSMENT and PALPATION ABILITIES and RECEPTIVITY TO SENCE and UNDERSTAND LINKS WITH OTHER LEVELS AND TISSUES OF THE WHOLE PERSON
- HELPS DEEPEN UNDERSTANDING OF THE “WHOLE PATTERN OF DYSFUNCTION”; ITS RELATIONSHIP TO THE PATTERN OF HEALTH WITHIN, and HOW TO MODIFY TECHNIQUES TO SUIT THE NEEDS OF THE TISSUES/MOMENT – AND THERFORE HELPS MAKE TREATMENT AND REHABILITATION MORE EFFECTIVE (due to understanding more of how things come to be the way they are) – which is especially beneficial in the understanding and management of patients suffering chronic and complicated health issues.
NOTICE FOR PRACTITIONERS:
Many of my workshops cover topics that may be quite familiar to you and so you may think “hmm, i’ve studied this before and I know it already and thus won’t get involved”. However, In my experience from running these workshops in the past, even when this is the case (in any traditional sence of how it is usually taught), I have a few tricks up my sleeve to help practitioners deepen their practice. Most participants have found that their understanding of the principles to using any technique deepens and they learn all the tricks to adapting their techniques “HOLISTICALLY” to the needs of the whole person; rather than blindly following the mechanics of a technique with no awaress of tissue needs – and just trying it and hoping for the best. It all comes back to good assessment – not treatment techniques (which mean nothing if not applied to the correct relationship imbalances) – as the secret to making any technique work. It is essentially all about awareness of relationships and being able to use any technique with “conscious awareness” of what the tissues are trying to tell us and learning to “work with the Health within”. Thus i have found, for example, when teaching say “articulation” many people know how to articulate “structures and bits such as individual joints etc” but are not so familiar with “ARTICULATION” mindful of other imbalanced relationships, tissue layers and levels, not normaly considered – to restore harmony to the whole. The number of times for example i have been in a student clinic where a student may be articulating and area or tissue with no effect and therefore ask for help, and i then come in, put there hands in the correct place and their mind on the correct relationship connections, and then SHOW them how to articulate in communication and harmony with the whole picture (to maintain balanced relationships) – and then “THINGS START HAPPENING AND HEALING” (often within a few seconds to minutes) is numerious. They usually exclaim “oh – thats what it should feel like” or “Ahh… I hadn’t noticed that before” or “that explains it”. There is articulation (as taught in a technique book) and then there is “ARTICULATION WITH AWARENESS”, adapted to the needs of the whole to restore balance to the whole person – Two very different things entirely.
Similarily with Muscle Energy Technique. WHAT I may do DIFFERENT (or any facilitator who knows how to listen to the body in fact) is Teach how to understand, use and adapt MET principles to treat and balance the WHOLE PERSON – through any technique – rather than only on one structure as an isolated technique to correct one joint or muscle (e.g it engages synergists, antagonists, stabilisers etc in many potential areas – so the whole person is “connected”). Also there are elements to the principles and some (often) new information which is quite simple to teach and creates awareness in participants of “Why a technique may be working or not” or “How to engage the correct directions and tissues and forces” to make it work more effectively. In short, one learns to tell from the feedback of the tissues when the technique is effective or not and how to modify the technique, if possible, to enable some positive improvement.
So – if you have studied any particular technique and it just isn’t working on any particular patient – then it is probably not the technique that is wrong – its more likely its not used with the correct “Awareness” to make it work (or at least understand why it isn’t) or it is not the correct area/tissue/relationship to be used upon to create optimal change.
Therefore – whatever the WORKSHOP – I may help you learn to Assess and Treat with AWARENESS and diagnose and use techniques more multidimensionally. This might just make things and little more interesting Hmmm?