Confused on a higher level..

I've been on a bit of a training roller coaster the last six weeks and have ended up slightly more confused than when I started!

The courses were held at CPDO in London and the participants were a mixture of Osteopaths, Physiotherapists and Massage Therapists.

The first two courses: Functional Stretching and Managing Shoulder Conditions were taught by Eyal Lederman. Eyal is an Osteopath, co-director of an MSc in Manual and Physical Therapy in Musculoskeletal Health at University College London (UCL) and is one of the Directors of the CPDO. He likes to stir things up a bit! From looking at research over the years Eyal's core beliefs (put very simply) are:

Stretching doesn't work
Bad posture doesn't mean you are going to end up in pain
Weak core muscles do not contribute to back pain
Eyal teaches a lot of movement based techniques to help tissue adapt back to its optimum length.

For the nerds out there here are links to two of his articles:
The fall of the postural structural biomechanical model
The myth of core stability


Quite a lot to take in over a weekend when you've been taught the opposite and use all those principles every day! So I was a bit broken after that..

The third course Positional Release Techniques with Leon Chaitow helped me back into my comfort zone. Leon graduated from the British College of Osteopathic Medicine in 1960, has written over 60 books and is the Editor-in-Chief, of the Journal of Bodywork and Movement Therapies. Positional release techniques are ways to increase range of motion and decrease pain by placing tissue in a position of ease. Leon likes stretching and good posture!

A training course is a product you've bought - it may be the wrong fit, make you feel uncomfortable or you may come away thinking you can walk on water. Since I started as a massage therapist I've always struggled with what I should learn in order to give my clients the best possible treatment I can. There is so much out there for any manual therapist (Osteopaths, Chiropractors, Physiotherapists, Massage Therapists etc.) to choose from. What's becoming more and more clear to me is that there is no one technique or way of working that is the holy grail. Basically, some things work for some people and some things don't. We don't know why a lot of what therapists do works but we know that it does. 

So the main things I've learn't over the last couple of weeks are:

1) There isn't a great difference between a good Osteopath, Physiopherapist or Massage Therapist. We all 

use the techniques that we value which enable us to get results for our clients/patients. Whether that's gentle 

energy work, deep tissue massage, high velocity thrusts (cracking!) or exercise based re-hab. It all works on some level for some people.

2) Research findings shouldn't be ignored  but should not dictate how you treat. There is a lot that happens in treatments that can't be measured. To quote Queen 'its a kind of magic' (sorry couldn't resist..)

3) Having your thinking challenged is really important; however, uncomfortable it may feel at the time.

So I think I'm finally over searching for the 'one size fits all' treatment. It doesn't exist and be very wary of anyone who tells you it does!

PS - I love a good stretch and always feel better when I sit up straight!