Field NOtes Blog
Posts from Michael McMahon
Field Notes is the place where our clinical interests meet genuine curiosity about how bodies work, heal, and change.
Pace Makes Space: Small But Significant Changes to Our CST Curriculum
It’s been 5 years since we launched our new CST program and we figured it was time to take all that we’ve learned delivering it and make some changes.
We believe education isn’t just about transferring knowledge or skills, but a living laboratory for possibility. Because of that we are constantly learning from our time in the classroom. Just like we do in the clinic; we reflect on what we are doing and ask ourselves what have I learned from my time with this person and how can I use that to create better treatment with them? MMI does that with our curricula too. Nothing about learning is static.
Thoracolumbar Fascia, the Lati Dorsi and Low Back Pain
There is no one size fits all approach to assessing and treating lower back pain. Each person deserves to be treated with curiosity and as open of a mind as possible. Of course, there are key characters like the psoas and quadratus lumborum, there is tension distributed into the low back via shortened hamstrings, and treating the glutes (especially glute medius) is often gold.
Perspectives on Fascia in the Media
The New York Times and Medicine Acknowledge Fascia is Important (!)
I always brace myself before reading an article in a mainstream pub about something that our collective fields have been working with and exploring for a very long time and to good effect (see NYT article on the vagus nerve that emphasizes potentials for drugs and inserted gadgets rather than attuned health care and relationships). Such was the case with the recent NYT brief on “New” understandings about fascia.