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Therapeutically Efficient Contact

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duychungquynhon2020
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52 views1 page

Therapeutically Efficient Contact

Uploaded by

duychungquynhon2020
Copyright
© © All Rights Reserved
We take content rights seriously. If you suspect this is your content, claim it here.
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therapist’s self is distant from the personality of the patient.

Only in this manner is it possible to produce a


therapeutic setting that, to some extent, corresponds to Sigmund Freud’s working principles. In the context of this
setting, the therapist will hardly be influenced by the patient’s own moods and feelings. Only within such a setting is
the therapist able to efficiently control the course and efficacy of the therapy.
Therapeutically efficient contact
It is extraordinarily difficult to document scientifically what occurs during the manual treatment of the human
organism. Part of the difficulty lies in the fact that human contact always manifests itself in the organism on
completely different levels at the same time. And whenever we observe one level in isolation, there is the danger
that we will take into account only a partial aspect of the investigation or even “measure” a pseudoresult. In
addition, contact always has an individual quality. The quality of contact may be similar in different people but
ultimately is always individual, like the handwriting of two different people. However, it is still possible to
formulate a kind of basic technical orientation that may be valid for the most varied types of contact.
I have already referred to the fact that every human contact unites in itself two aspects. One aspect may be
characterized as passive and nondirective—this means to observe, to diagnose—and the second may be
characterized as active, directive, and providing a stimulus—this means to actually treat. Many forms of treatment
attempt to separate these two aspects from one another to the greatest extent possible. They use the non-directive,
passive side of contact for diagnosis and the active, directive side for precisely defined manipulations. I think that
this kind of separation is not entirely realistic and, moreover, carries with it increased risks in treatment. Every form
of human contact in the therapeutic realm should unite directive and non-directive qualities. In other words, one of
the aspects can move more into the forefront while the other aspect retreats into the background and vice versa. This
means that the passive/non-directive aspect is present throughout the entire treatment
and not only during the diagnostic process. In this manner, it is possible for the directive impulses originating from
the therapist’s hand to be modified in such a way that they utilize forces already at work in the organism of the
patient and therefore are more effective and gentler at the same time.
The use of the hand-contact technique
The first and generally applicable distinction for the practical use of the hand is the distinction between weight and
active pressure. As soon as the therapist’s hand is placed on the surface of the patient’s body, the weight of the
therapist’s hand, forearm or upper arm, and shoulder is transferred onto the body of the patient. The therapist can
intensify this weight, for example, by leaning forward over the axis of the hip and adding the weight of the torso. In
this case, the coordination of the therapist plays a large role in the quality of the contact. Finally, the contact
becomes more effective as soon as the therapist uses active, directive pressure in addition to the applied, passive
weight.
In the treatment of fascial and membrane layers, it is essential that we train our own perception so that we can
clearly differentiate between the various forms of contact. When the patient is lying on his or her back and the
therapist’s hand is placed on the surface of the patient’s body, the weight of the therapist’s hand and forearm is
transferred onto the body of the patient no matter how carefully the therapist is making the contact. The therapist’s
hand being placed supportively under the patient’s back however is a completely different process. In this case, the
weight of the therapist’s hand and forearm is transferred onto the treatment couch and the patient’s weight is
transferred to the therapist’s hand and forearm. Both forms of contact have a different quality, reach different levels,
and are perceived by the patient as two fundamentally different ways of being touched.
The most efficient treatment techniques for the fascial and membrane system use both forms of touch at once. The
therapist can thus use one hand dorsally to support the patient lying on his or her back, i.e. to accept the weight,
while using the other hand ventrally to work with weight and/or active

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