Holistic Body Correction – A Team Effort
We are responsible for how you leave. You are responsible for how you return.
This is the introduction to a series of blog posts discussing common misconceptions about what happens during and after a treatment with Advanced Biostructural Correction™.
In this post we will discuss one of our main mottos: “We are responsible for how you leave. You are responsible for how you return.” The following posts will discuss the common misconception that it is “normal” for things to hurt after a bodywork treatment; that pain the next day after treatment (or a couple days later) was directly caused by the last ABC™ treatment given; that bones “pop out of place”, we put them back, and they “pop out” again, and why the body can’t unwind all old structural problems in one go. We will also discuss the fundamental difference between symptom relief and true structural correction.
We are looking at our patients holistically: their bodies, their symptoms, and their environment
When we treat our patients with Advanced Biostructural Correction™, we look for holistic solutions to common body problems. “Holistic” means we pay attention to the entire person in front of us. This includes their current symptoms, their previous medical history, any previous events of physical trauma, and any factors that provide relief to the current complaints – as well as any factors that aggravate the symptoms. We look at the person in front of us from head to toe. We don’t just see a sore knee or an achy shoulder. This is because we look at the human body as a precision machine, with all parts mechanically working together 24/7. If one part doesn’t function as it should in terms of structural mechanics, the entire body gets affected. This is why we can’t just dig into a localised area right where it hurts. We have to take into account the way in which all parts work together, head to toe. A change (good or bad) to one part affects all other parts of the body.
When we look at a person holistically, we therefore consider what is currently going on with them and how they got to this place where things hurt. We assess what is going on and make the necessary corrections with Advanced Biostructural Correction™ at any given visit. And we look at the person in their daily environment. This means taking into consideration a number of lifestyle factors which can affect the way their body works.
The most important areas relate to the way people sit, stand, and sleep.
Making holistic changes to the body requires teamwork
For us to be able to truly assess a person in this holistic way, we typically rely on our patients’ help. Getting the body fixed is a matter of teamwork. Our job becomes significantly easier if our patients provide us with key pieces of information along the way. You can aid us greatly by providing information about your previous medical history, aggravating or alleviating factors, and insight into certain daily lifestyle habits. We have discussed elsewhere the typical results we expect with ABC™ and some of the reasons why we might not be seeing these results in the expected timeframe. Sometimes it’s as simple as not having all the pieces of information available – for example, which lifestyle area is holding you back?
One of our key mottos is: “We are responsible for how you leave the office. You are responsible for how you come back.” What do we mean by this?
- You should be upright, bright, and clear in the head upon leaving. If you feel unsteady or fuzzy-headed, let us know immediately. It means we’re not done for the day.
- There should have been some change to current symptoms. Changes to intensity, quality, exact location, or size of area are what we are looking for. It may not be possible to get the pain down to zero in one go, but there should have been some change to it.
- If you are in a “backwards unwind”, we expect you to return the same (if not better) as when you left.
- If you are in a “forward unwind”, we will advise you that hours to a day from leaving you may experience old symptoms again as the body brings them to the surface to unlock and heal them.
Each ABC™ treatment builds on the one before. At each visit, we unwind your body to the next level. This is also why our recommendations for your specific care plan exist for a reason. Skipping appointments may slow you down unnecessarily. The way you leave each time is your “new normal”. The next visit will build on this and we expect your body to improve steadily. Even during uncomfortable “forward unwinds”, your body is improving in structure and function. Symptoms are unfortunately common during this phase and usually last between 2 days and 2 weeks. Bear with it, it may not be fun but it’s a normal and necessary part of the journey.
When you are in a “backward unwind”, we expect you to return to the office feeling the same as when you left, if not better. If that is not the case, we need you to help us by playing detective. We will need the following information:
- When after leaving the office at your last visit did you FIRST feel the discomfort?
- What were you doing at the time?
- What position was your body in?
The answer to these questions will give us clues as to where to begin looking at your daily environment and your lifestyle habits. Most of the time, small modifications to the way we sit, stand, and sleep will make a big difference. They will help to avoid unnecessary flare-ups which may slow progress and prolong care.
It could be your shoes that are the problem. Or your pillow (or mattress). Or your car seat, office chair, couch, or even necklace. Or certain exercises you are performing. After a given visit, your body is structurally in a more stable state than when you came in. If the shoes, pillow, seat, or necklace are making your body LESS stable again, you could feel it. Is it worth the pain if there is an easy fix available? We’ve seen patients whose shoes threw them off by the time they had made their next appointment and walked out to the car. We’ve seen heavy necklaces destabilise bodies in less than a minute. Is a pretty necklace worth the extra neck pain? Only you can decide. Often, removing the heavy necklace or removing unsuitable insoles from shoes is all that’s needed. Will you let us help you make these changes? This part is up to you.
If a correction is truly made, the effects of that change are immediate. There is no “getting used to the changes”. There is no “it’s normal for things to hurt after a visit”. There is no “things need to work/settle for a while to improve”. There is no “I left here feeling fine, the next day things hurt but that’s normal”. There is no “pain a couple days later was brought on by the last treatment”. We will discuss all these misconceptions in future posts in this series.
This applies to both a small correction as well as a large correction. Here’s an easy analogy: you have a pebble in your shoe. It hurts. You could take the shoe off and rub the foot until the pain is gone. You could put on an extra pair of socks. You could take a painkiller, put some cream on the area, or use a cold spray. Does this make the necessary correction? No. When you put the shoe back on, it hurts again. Remove the pebble, i.e. make the small but necessary correction, and things change. There is no “getting used to” the shoe without the pebble. There is no “it needs a while to settle”. All it takes is true correction of the problem. Everything else is just temporary relief or masking the problem. Nobody would say either “the next day my foot hurt again, so it must have been caused by taking the pebble out”. This new pain could have been caused by a whole variety of factors (did you tie your shoe too tight? Did your socks slide down and were irritating your foot? Did you get a new pebble into your shoe? Were you even wearing the same pair of shoes or a different one?). Figuring out where the new pain is coming from would take some detective work and then making the necessary correction.
Our holistic assessment of your body therefore requires your help. Some of our patients keep a diary to keep track of symptom changes or put notes on their phone. Whatever works for you, it will help us fix your body in a truly holistic way.
Stay tuned for the next instalment in this series.
At our offices, we use Advanced Biostructural Correction™ , a revolutionary bodywork method, to correct faulty body mechanics. We regularly see patients with back pain, headaches , neck or shoulder pain, sciatica, scoliosis and a host of other aches, pains, or postural concerns. Most of these body problems have an underlying structural and mechanical fault as their root cause. These faults are usually the result of misalignments of a person’s skeletal frame (most commonly the spine and lower extremities). Such bony misalignments cause a person’s posture to change. Medical research is increasingly confirming the effect of posture on overall health. The culprits behind these structural / postural problems are usually falls, accidents, other kinds of physical trauma, and bad lifestyle choices. With Advanced Biostructural Correction™, we “unwind” our patients back through these misalignments, leading them to structural and postural correction, pain relief, and a healthier body overall. If you are suffering from any of the above complaints, why not schedule a free 20mins consultation with one of our practitioners to see how Advanced Biostructural Correction can make holistic changes to your body.
