Category: Writings

I’m not sure how it began, but I recently had a brief discussion with another parent at my son’s baseball game about space aliens. I suggested at some point that just perhaps the earth had not actually been visited by beings from other planets. This woman immediately took issue with my opinion. She suggested that “I must have blinders on,”… Read more →

It might surprise you to hear me say this, but I honestly feel that astrologers do a remarkable job. Notice I didn’t say that I believe in the basic tenets of astrology, or that I regularly seek their advice. But I’ve just got to believe that they’re doing somebody some kind of good. Why else would there be so many… Read more →

“I just can’t do it anymore. I’ve got constant pain in my wrist and forearm. I’ve started to drop things and now I’m feeling it in my shoulder.” The speaker is not a patient in my office, but a therapist at a workshop. In her face is reflected both the discomfort she experiences daily and the terrible knowledge that her… Read more →

She came finally to a small bed and laid down upon it. It was not too hard, and not too soft. It was just right. Very soon she fell fast asleep. From “Goldilocks and the Three Bears I don’t often write of the specifics of technique. I’m convinced what we do should naturally follow a model of the body that… Read more →

His name was Richard Maxwell. “Dick” was the patient service coordinator at a rehab center in Columbus, shuffling papers, writing memos, and dealing with the personalities of the patients, families, and staff each day. In 1970 he was a very conservative ex-Marine who actually had an autographed picture taken with Spiro Agnew and Bob Hope on his desk. I was… Read more →

Every day for at least a few minutes I play a harmonica. I took lessons a few years ago and then found I could continue to learn tunes on my own or with the help of a few books and recordings. There are two aspects to this instrument that make it unique. The first is that you not only blow… Read more →

Ian has a Scottish brogue that immediately catches my ear and after awhile I ask him how long he’s been in this country. “Twenty years,” he says. It’s the shortest possible answer he can give me without being openly rude, and nothing more is offered. His face is perfectly straight and the silence in the treatment room deepens as he… Read more →

No matter where we are, the shadow that trots behind us is definitely four-footed. Clarissa Pinkola Estes We named Kneesaa after one of the Ewoks in Star Wars. Actually, her full name is Princess Kneesaa, but I don’t ever recall using the whole thing. I guess that would have been reserved for the show ring. She recently turned thirteen (that’s… Read more →

Of the three Gorgons, only one was mortal, Medusa. Perseus fixed his eyes on her reflection in his shield, and cut off Medusa’s head with one stroke of his sword. From “Perseus and the Heroes of Argolis” (The Larousse Encyclopedia of Mythology) I would conservatively estimate that half of the therapists attending my workshops suffer from chronic pain. To me,… Read more →

Perseus cut off the head of Medusa, and from her neck flew Pegasus, the winged horse. From “Perseus and the Heroes of Argolis” (The Larousse Encyclopedia of Mythology) I’m not always a popular figure with a certain segment of the physical therapy establishment. This is because I regularly criticize the theories of typical therapy. I don’t do this without citing… Read more →