Rocking us to sleep

[Barrett Dorko]

The deep red of the wood reveals the cheery. It appears nearly new, and I know it has not been used much.

My Aunt Alice acquired it from an old friend, Orpha Post, it rested quietly in her various apartments until one day it disappeared into the basement of someone’s home an another county. My sister Laurel saw to it that it was returned and now it sits, again, unused in my home. This all took about 100 years.

I’m waiting; waiting for our colleagues to stop imagining that something has been revealed as true even though it certainly hasn’t. The premise itself is horribly flawed. But this idea endures like the chair my family has guarded through the generations.

A year ago my daughter had a little boy – Sam – but last night while being rocked in Orpha’s chair he fell asleep immediately.

[Barrett Dorko]

My point is this: The idea that strength and pain are related endures. The contention that weakness will eventually lead to pain endures. The notion that recovery from pain requires effort and professional guidance endures. The therapy community has been filled with human beings that feel that empiricism alone is enough to drive practice - and this situation endures.

Our colleagues, like Sam, sleep easily in this beautifully built and attractive item we can liken to the chair.

How can we waken them?

[Bas Asselbergs]

There are so many ways to change this.
Setting fire to the chair or using an axe however, are not exactly the appropriate ways.

Make the user understand that it is their own body (nervous system much at the forefront) that is always responsible for their comfort, and not the chair itself. This might wake some to the the erroneous habit of ascribing qualities to a structure that it doesn't have.

However, it requires a willingness to examine one's own notions.

I am extremely cautious in my optimism.

[John W]

I'm learning that I need to laugh more about this, or it's going to ki...oh, wait.

A Patient with Low Back Pain Meets His Physical Therapist

[Diane]

Originally Posted by John W

I'm learning that I need to laugh more about this, or it's going to ki...oh, wait.

A Patient with Low Back Pain Meets His Physical Therapist

[Barrett Dorko]

Bas,

I really like your response. Our colleagues have fallen asleep in something that is designed to be aesthetically pleasing and functional as long as we put some effort into it. After all, the chair doesn't rock itself.

We need to waken Sam, and while his grandmother held him this was unlikely to happen via any physical effort we might exert. She fierce

Shouting might work however. Is that what it's come to?

[zimney3pt]

Yes, that did help me laugh as well. Very well done John.

[zimney3pt]

Barrett, we could shout. But the problem is when awoken this way the person is often more irritated then when they went to sleep and probably even less likely to listen.

I wonder if we just have to wait till the body (therapist/culture) naturally wakes up on it's own. This unfortunately takes time, and patients suffer while we sleep.

Guess I have no good answer.

[byronselorme]

Do you think there is value in educating / enlightening the patients directly so that they may start to demand more? Sort of a public education campaign?

If someone asleep in their rocking chair hears some commotion on the next porch they might awaken and start to be curious about what is going on, possibly becoming concerned about being left out.

I know if 10 clients came to see me and each of them asked about something I was unfamiliar with it would slowly work on me even if I was able to talk each individual out of what they had learned.

[zimney3pt]

Yes, Byron I try to keep the Starfish Story by Loren Eiseley in mind as I educate each patient or PT student that I come into contact with.

[Barrett Dorko]

Yes, we make progress in small increments. Very small.

How about waking our colleagues by tipping the chair over?

[zimney3pt]

I think some of them would keep sleeping right through you tipping the chair over even if you yelled at them at the same time. As the late Patrick Wall put it, "PT is the sleeping giant". Unfortunately we are very good sleepers it appears with limited ability to wake up anytime soon.

[Barrett Dorko]

I have been saying to groups for a while, "Patrick Wall describes us as "sleeping giants," but I can't help but only see the word "sleeping" here."

Now I see that my unconscious produced a blog post about this situation.