January 7, 2010
Sometimes I feel like I must be channeling Ida Rolf. I don't know how I feel about so-called channeling, but I know that this feeling is so uncanny that I could almost let myself believe it is true.
I have been sputtering my frustration for some time when clients come to me and say their doctor could not find anything specifically wrong and then diagnosed them with arthritis. I take one look at the person who is not even old enough to have degenerating cartilage and quietly fume, "Sounds like another default diagnoses." I am not supposed to say things like that, but sometimes I cannot help myself. When a doctor gives a patient a diagnosis of arthritis, the patient assumes they now have that diagnoses forever, and that just upsets me to my core. I do make an effort to reign in my opinions by suggesting to the client, "Well, we will know for sure before this session is over. If you no longer have pain in that joint by the time we are finished working, then it was not arthritis."
They usually leave my office without their pain.
How I initially "knew" this about these clients, I do not know. Some things in life just come from a gut feeling and this arthritis thing was one.
I felt very alone in my opinion, until I was reading a first edition of Ida Rolf's book on The Integration of Human Structures. Here is what Ida Rolf says on page 90 of her book:
Until I borrowed Ida Rolf's book about "Rolfing", my idea of Rolfers was woefully ignorant, having only a general idea that they made you go through a series of sessions and they did a lot of poking into your abdomen. My only experience of a Rolfer, was one who refused to “Rolf” my abdomen because he intuited (rightly) that I was too sensitive for that work. Ida Rolf and Rolfing have just not been a part of my life, so it was a genuine surprise to read her thoughts on pseudoarthritis.
In addition to this similarity with Ida Rolf, I am also learning that she is in my mind the mother of all knowledge about connective tissue. I have been obsessed with the subject, much to the annoyance of others, since my introduction to it in school when I sensed, instantly, that it was a powerful way to access the body’s natural healing potential. Although Ida Rolf speaks more commonly of muscles, tendons and ligaments when she explained pseudoarthritis, she is really referring to the connective tissue within these known elements.
Although I am a little amused by all of this pseudo channeling business, my curiosity is peeked and I am going to go learn more about what the brilliant Ida Rolf has to say. Science is just starting to learn about this connective tissue she was so obsessed about - so Ida Rolf was way ahead of her time and I hope one day is recognized for it in the medical community.
Don’t you wait for that, though: If your doctor could not give you verified tests that showed you definitely had arthritis, might I suggest you talk to a connective tissue specialist? No sense living with pain if you do not have to.