Category: Writings

Imagine that one day you are handed a vase and told that it is now your job to hold it with your hands alone. You cannot put it down or give it to somebody else. You don’t own it, but it is your responsibility to keep it with you, and this is what you are paid to do. I am… Read more →

As I walk toward the post office, I see him hold his hat firmly against a sudden wind. It’s the kind of wind felt only in the early Fall. More than cold, it warns of much more soon to come. The old man begins to exaggerate his action, puts on a show as soon as he catches my eye. I… Read more →

Always this fire smolders inside If it remains unlit, The body fills with a dense smoke from “Out on the Ocean” by David Whyte I begin each day in my office with a presumption that what I’ve found is unusual in manual care, but very common to ordinary life. I presume that my patients are always pursuing correction, improvement and… Read more →

To be nobody-but-yourself in a world which is doing its best, night and day, to make you everybody else – means to fight the hardest battle which any human being can fight; and never stop fighting E.E. Cummings In my essay “Origins” I emphasized that mechanical deformation was the origin of most of the pain we might help with physical… Read more →

Chaos – the science of the global nature of systems. It is distinct from the popular but infinitely more vague “holism” in its strict adherence to mathematical modeling and its lack of consideration for belief systems and their postulated effect. Dynamical System – systems in constant flux. This includes the human body and several of its sub-systems. These are not… Read more →

At every workshop I hear the same question at least once; “Just what exactly do you say to patients while you’re treating them?” This is commonly asked by a therapist with as much clinical experience as I, and sometimes more. The question makes me pause, and I never answer it directly. I’m reminded once again that for all our efforts… Read more →

We become physicians only when we know that which is unnamed, invisible, and immaterial, yet has its effect. Paracelsus, German physician/mystic, 1493-1541 In my office waiting room I have one of those books full of stereograms. These are the pictures you see in the malls surrounded by a bunch of people staring intently, blocking traffic, and occasionally saying, “Oh! I… Read more →

Did you know that you were once able to order an entire house out of the Sears-Roebuck catalogue? You were responsible for digging your own foundation, but beyond that, the whole thing would arrive by train and then be dumped on your lot, each piece numbered for assembly. I know this because I grew up in a Sears home. Our… Read more →

Literally thousands of times I have listened to my patients report a variety of sensations arising some distance from the placement of my hands. I am no longer surprised at the report of these sensations, their variety, or their location. Not only do they commonly occur within a dermatome totally unrelated to the skin I’m touching, but often cross the… Read more →

Paul, age 9, has had a terrible weekend. On Friday, he turned his head left in response to his mother’s call and it stayed there. Acute pain, worsened with any attempt to move his head back to the center, has remained until now, Monday afternoon. He stands before me, eyes full of recent tears, nearly sleepless for 3 days, shoulders… Read more →