Welcome Laura D

[Karen L]

Hi Laura,

I am happy to welcome you to the forum. I have pasted your first post here. Feel free to add more thoughts or observations if you would like. If you have questions or need a hand with resources and reading material just ask.

I was in the same spot you are and made it through. For now concentrate on what you learned in school as they did teach you all you need to pass the exams. That is th point of the 2 1/2 years. Once you have your RMT the you don't need their permission to think or practice in a way that doesn't make sense. There will be ample support for you in this forum and other local RMTs who are paving the way.

Keep posting as there are benefits to participating and access to lots of information.

Hi everyone,

Luckily I was dead before I even started school. But I felt it was important to study the Kool-Aid culture from a historical perspective in order to fully understand the challenges facing our profession, at least I told myself that to get through the daily grind. Massage school was like a religious studies course that lasted 2 1/2 years .

Early in the program Barnes and Cyriax were given a small amount of air time, then Melzack was mentioned in the penultimate term, but it was only the pain-gating theory.

I just graduated in April, so I'll be studying (as little as possible) the Kool-Aid until I get my RMT licence in October.

I want to thank you all for making sense of my career choice, and of course Barrett and Karen for the wonderful Simple Contact course last weekend. I now have a huge summer reading list that should help simplify it further before I start practicing this fall.

I'm somewhat relieved but also saddened that PT is facing the same challenges that we are.

Laura

Thanks again for coming here.

Sincerely,
Karen Lines RMT

[Barrett Dorko]

Laura,

Nice of you to register here. As you see, you're one of a couple from that class.

Your comment about being "saddened" made me pause. Like you, I suppose, I once imagined that the physical therapy community would change and progress toward new ways of thinking and methods of management that were commensurate with the sciences. The fact that it didn't at first surprised me, then it angered and frustrated me.

As of today I am resigned to it and try to find something to admire in the therapists who cannot be bothered with reading or any kind of study or thoughtfulness. If I can't, I grow silent.

I'm silent at work a lot these days, but coming to Soma Simple always makes me smile.

[John W]

Welcome, Laura.

Count me among the angry and frustrated, which is just sadness with an attitude, really. Before Soma Simple, I had nowhere to go with this "attitude" where I was able to encounter others who were similarly p.o.'d. about the direction the profession was inexorably heading.

From a health care policy perspective, it's like what's happening to Medicare in the U.S. Few people seem to be genuinely concerned (i.e. to the point of actually doing something about it) that it's facing immanent bankruptcy. When did we become so pathetically short-sighted? Or, so good at ignoring reality?

Soma Simple is the real deal. You won't get any glossy or perfunctory treatment of the issues facing manual therapy here. The regular participants are real pros who understand as much as they care about the importance of a science-based approach to treatment.

That's a deadly one-two punch, which scares many "contenders" away.

[mrupe82]

John W,

I think we started hiding from reality and lost sight around 1948.

Matt

[John W]

Interesting theory, Matt. The only reality shows that have thus far gained my attention was the first season or two of Trump's Apprentice, where the contestants actually had something real at stake- a job. And then there was also, maybe because of my fascination and appreciation for our military people, that "reality" version of Bootcamp that I watched for a season.

I'm not sure So You Think You Can Dance fits in the genre since you actually have to demonstrate real talent and ability versus just being particularly capable of making an ass out of yourself while flashing your cleavage. I appreciate people who can move like that.

I've never watched a single episode of Survivor, The Batchelor (although I have sat in the room and harangued my wife while she watched it), that idiot Paris Hilton or any of the other "reality" tripe that's out there.

Why people are fascinated by all this un-real "reality" is beyond me. We truly are in an age of escapism and delusion.

Perhaps we can start a thread that's relevant to PT because goodness knows PTs are about as delusional a group as there is. On second thought, this is a theme of most of the threads here (sorry to hijack your Welcome thread, Laura ).