At the end of almost every session I tell people to take a walk to help further integrate the work. I am specific ‘letting the hands and arms free, no iPhone, no leash, walking at a leisurely pace ( no more than 100 beats/minute.’ I usually exhort people to ‘let your hips be hips, ankles move like ankles, relaxed back and neck.’ These comments don’t make much sense, until they make ‘felt sense’ after a treatment.
During the session, that is also how I like to include subtle movement inquiry and information – when the body is already expressing something new in motion, time and space, and we have a brief window of time to integrate: hook up a newly informed, functionally differentiated coordination and new set of sensations in simple breathing, standing and walking that can be sensed, and even labeled with a gesture (that’s part of what I mean by ‘a unique dance for each person’ on my website).
I used to try to work with people’s gait in more detail, finding the kiss of the eye of the foot (just forwards of the heel bone) on the floor in the stance phase, or emphasizing lengthening back through the heel which allows the psoas to lengthen nicely above, or the big toe-hinge, connecting foot, hip and spine in a way that completes the movement of the stride though the entire body. Now I mostly watch and see what the newly re-informed body ( usually after some work on the table or seated on the adjustable bench) wants to explore naturally, and gently direct the client’s curiosity to that area. “What do you notice in your walking now?” “How does that show up through your whole body, spine, eye placement in the room, sense of the space, feel for the carpet, or sense of flow?” For me the trick is to find the questions that their body is already posing to this client and find language and opportunity for this to make itself known to their conscious mind.
That’s Integration, for me.
Leave a Reply