Chronic left SI joint pain that doesn't budge is humbling. This patient had done everything right, good body awareness, great yoga practice, excellent care before arriving at my door, and still the pain persisted. So we started where we always start: listening. Over our first few sessions, the right thoracolumbar junction kept speaking up, and we kept following it. Things were moving, the relationship was deepening, even if the symptoms weren't shifting much yet.

Then came the flare. She could barely walk. I was finishing up my own urgent care visit when she reached out, and I saw her that same day. I had no idea what I was going to find or what I'd do with it. What happened in that session, starting with the diaphragm, moving into the liver, following fascial tension down the right leg, dropping her into an altered state and cutting her pain in half, is what this post is really about. And what came after, a three-way collaboration with her PT that neither of us planned, has been some of the most satisfying work I've done.

May is Ehlers-Danlos Syndrome (EDS) awareness month. I am three months into a training program through the Ehlers Danlos Society’s ECHOs program. I have learned so much and feel humbled at what I was unaware of regarding the symptom pictures associated with these syndromes. It's more than bendy joints.

I’m excited about our Visceral Techniques curriculum. I believe working with the viscera is of increasing importance and I want people to be able to access this potent region.

We are super excited to be presenting a synthesis of our manual therapy approach to the abdomen--specifically focusing on chronic digestive patterns in the small intestine (such as SIBO)--coming up next weekend. 

As many of you who treat these conditions know, they can be complex and often defy available diagnostic categories and treatment protocols (e.g. patients often relapse, symptoms can be beguiling and mysterious, and lab results can run contrary to the patient experience).   In our course, together we will explore a holistic understanding -- combining a felt-sense approach to the abdomen with insights from both osteopathic and classical Chinese medicine.  We hope it will serve towards the further understanding and treatment of these difficult cases.