The Thinking Practitioner

Art Riggs was one of the first Certified Rolfers[tm] to publish a book about "advanced" techniques. His textbook (Deep Tissue Massage) was adopted by massage therapy programs worldwide, and as a result, his teaching and style has influenced tens of thousands massage and manual therapists in the decades since. Art talks with Til Luchau about his work, aging, self-care, and more.  Get the full trans...

What are cervicogenic headaches? Are they even a thing, and if so, why are they particularly amenable to manual therapy and massage? Til Luchau and Whitney Lowe discuss these questions, and share some self-care tips for you and your clients. Download the handout with detailed episode notes, techniques and tests from http://a-t.tv/ttp-cgh/   Episode topics include:  What kinds of headaches CAN manu...

What makes taking care of ourselves so hard? Til Luchau and Whitney Lowe dissect the difficulties, and share their favorite excuses for not putting their own care first.  Episode topics include:  The five key self-care behaviors;  The date we’re most likely to give up on our resolutions;  Getting “internal bipartisanship” around your own self-care initiatives.  Get the full transcript at Til or Wh...

Til Luchau and Whitney Lowe review highlights and take-aways from the star-studded first season of their acclaimed podcast (yea, right).  Most-Downloaded:  03 Sacroiliac Joint Pain: Causes, Controversies, and Considerations  15 Robert Schleip: Talking to Fascia, Changing the Brain, 20 Years Later  07 Scoliosis and Manual Therapy  11 Stretching the Tissues, or the Truth?  12 The Cytokine Storm of C...

Whitney Lowe talks with Cal Cates, executive director of Healwell. They tackle the challenging issues of how to recognize advanced training and the challenges of integrating massage into the healthcare system.  Episode topics include:  Why is advanced credentialing important for us?  What are some of the big challenges we face when attempting to be part of the healthcare system?  Who is ultimately...

Til Luchau and Whitney Lowe discuss the most famous (yet, unreplicated) illustration in neuroscience, the sensorimotor homunculus, which purports to show the proportion of the brain dedicated to each body part. Is it accurate?  Episode topics include:  Is the cortical homunculus a map, or the territory?  How did it come about? Penfield's methods and limitations.  How might this all apply to manual...

Til Luchau talks with Polish physical therapist, Anatomy Trains teacher, and manual therapist Wojtek Cackowski about his innovative Zoga Movement method, and how it can help manual therapists not only with their clients, but with their own embodiment and self care.  Episode topics include:  What is Zoga? How does it relate to manual therapy and massage?  Fascial shearing and gliding, vs fascial “s...

Whitney and Til discuss the controversies, disagreements, considerations, and their own views on the infamous psoas muscle in manual therapy and massage. Download the handout with detailed episode notes, techniques and tests, and a special chapter from Til’s book from http://a-t.tv/ttp-psoas/  Episode topics include:  Psoas: Holy Grail muscle, or wholly irrelevant?  Psoas and back pain, leg length...

Whitney and Til share a treasure chest of foot-pain ideas and techniques, packed full of assessments, anatomy, concepts, and hands-on tools. Download the free (optional) handout and follow along as Til and Whitney give an audio preview of their upcoming Plantar Foot Pain collaborative webinar (part of the ABMP CE Summit).  Get the full transcript and handout at Til or Whitney's sites!  Resources d...

Mark Bishop’s research shows that clients who think treatment will help benefit more than those who don’t expect much relief. What is more, practitioners who expect their modality will help actually get better results than practitioners who are less certain. What’s up with that?  In this episode, Til and Whitney interview manual therapist, physiotherapist and researcher Mark Bishop about his fasci...

Anatomist Gil Hedley discusses fascial debacles, debates, and dissection with Til Luchau.    In this episode,  Gil Hedley’s Fuzz Speech: facts, fantasies, and furor;  Sexuality in the dissection room;  Conspiracies: pattern of meaning, or menace?  Get the full transcript at Til or Whitney's sites!  Resources discussed in this episode:  Gil Hedley’s Fuzz Speech on YouTube  Gil Hedley’s site: gilhed...

Whitney and Til discuss a very common (but poorly researched) complaint: upper thoracic spine pain, and what to do about it.    In this episode,  Does posture drive upper back pain? Does psychology?  Breaking the Upper-Cross-Syndrome rules (and what “PhD” doesn’t really stand for).  The Over-the-Edge technique for upper back pain.  Get the full transcript and handout at Til or Whitney's sites!  Re...

Whitney and Til discuss assessment and treatment considerations unique to working with the neck and cervical region; how their respective training programs are adapting to the challenges of COVID-19; and much more.    In this episode,  Neck issues: shifting from tissue fault to nociceptive driver  Can we treat the neck in isolation?  Thoughts on “text neck,” and more.  Get the full transcript at ...

How do we manage risk, in a world where we don’t even agree about what the risks are? Pathology writer Ruth Werner joins Til and Whitney for a lively conversation about risk, risk tolerance, and ethical decision making in massage and manual therapy, in the face of both COVID-19, and in the differences in how we perceive the risks involved.  In the Thinking Practitioner series, join two of the lead...

Project COPE is tracking the impact of the Covid-19 pandemic on both essential and “non-essential” healthcare practitioners, including massage therapists and bodyworkers. It’s already revealing some insights about representation and diversity in our field. Listen to learn more, and participate in the project at the link below.  In the Thinking Practitioner series, join two of the leading educators...

Manual therapy and massage practitioners are voracious consumers of professional continuing education. Who should be deciding what they learn?  In this episode,   What implications does the “medically necessary” discussion have on massage and bodywork education, CE, and credentialing?  Why don’t Rolfers™ think they’re doing massage, anyway?  What is the post-COVID roadmap for professional continui...

Benny Vaughn, an iconic figure in massage therapy, talks with Whitney Lowe and Til Luchau about his experiences as a African American massage therapist, and offers both practical advice and deep inspiration on how manual therapists can address racism and bias in their own lives.  In the Thinking Practitioner series, join two of the leading educators in manual therapy, bodywork, and massage therapy...

Fascia evokes widely divergent responses from manual therapists, with viewpoints ranging from “incredible” to “irrelevant.” Til Luchau talks with fascial researcher Robert Schleip PhD about his current perspectives on tissue change and the nervous system in manual therapy; fascial debates; and much more.  In this episode,  Questioning the tissue-based narratives in manual therapy,  Putting to rest...

A lot of hands-on therapists are wondering about “staying with it.”  Til and Whitney explore the reasons massage and manual therapy practitioners might (and might not) be thinking about quitting.  Join two of the leading educators in manual therapy, bodywork, and massage therapy, as they delve into the most intriguing issues, questions, research, and client conditions that hands-on practitioners f...

Inflammation is implicated in nearly all musculoskeletal complaints, including chronic pain. Til and Whitney explain this, and talk about the implications for massage and manual therapy.  In this episode,  Are most client complaints related to inflammation?  What most practitioners don’t understand about inflammation,  Key points practitioners should keep in mind,  Join two of the leading educator...

Coronavirus symptoms range from mild to fatal. Though still mysterious, in many patients it seems to be the patient’s own inflammatory reactions that tip the scale. Til and Whitney explain this, and talk about the implications for massage and manual therapy.  In this episode,  What is the deal about COVID-19 and cytokine storms?  What is a cytokine, and why do I care?  As massage therapists and bo...

Does manual therapy stretch the tissues? Til and Whitney consider the history, evidence, debates and implications of this fascinating question.  In this episode,  Myths and misperceptions about stretching,  Are we stretching connective tissue, or nervous system?  What does this mean for massage, bodywork, and manual therapy?  Join two of the leading educators in manual therapy, bodywork, and massa...

Whitney and Til consider the debates about tissue-based effects in manual therapy, and share their views about when it makes sense to think about the actual tissues and physical effects of hands-on works.  In this episode,  Why would people say that the tissue doesn’t matter in manual therapy?   Examples of tissue-based narratives; the arguments for, and against   Til and Whitney ask each other, “...

Whitney and Til discuss the descending modulation of pain in manual therapy.  In this episode,  What is descending modulation?  What are the implications?  How do we use it?  Join two of the leading educators in manual therapy, bodywork, and massage therapy, as they delve into the most intriguing issues, questions, research, and client conditions that hands-on practitioners face. Stimulate your th...

Til and Whitney talk about the key challenges and opportunities facing manual therapy, bodywork, and massage therapy. (Part 2 of 2)  In this episode,  Increasing the accuracy of our explanations,  Polarization, divisiveness, and infighting within the profession,  Consolidation and up-scaling of the bodywork “industry,”  and more.  Join two of the leading educators in manual therapy, bodywork, and...