Why Don’t We Want to Shame Our Clients?
One of my pet peeves in bodywork is shaming a client for his/her posture.
“If you sit up straight, you won’t have such tight shoulders.”
“What are you doing each day to cause that tightness/pain/discomfort in your back?”
“Your tissue is so dehydrated. How much water do you drink?”
Yes, there are conversations about daily habits that we need to have with our clients. But guilting and shaming them has never brought good, lasting results.
Besides, posture isn’t something you do, it’s something that happens when the anchors are removed from below, and they can float freely even in gravity. This is something that one of my mentors, Ron Murray, taught me. I will be forever grateful.
The truth is, I had been on the butt end of the shaming. I grew up with tummy trouble and didn’t even know what I was experiencing wasn’t normal. It turns out, when a person has digestive trouble for an entire lifetime, the body will get into a position that helps the organs do their job better, causing “bad posture.” Sure, you can muscle your way into sitting up straight, having “good posture,” but as soon as you stop muscling through it, you will start slouching again. Until the next therapist comes along and tells you to have “better posture.”
It was so refreshing to learn that tidbit, that “good posture” just happens when you have better internal health. It’s still a challenge for me to sit up straight, since it became a lifetime habit since I was little, but now I can do it and maintain it a lot easier, because my overall gut health is better.
What anchors am I talking about?
In my case, it was the small intestine that I think started it all, although, I did have a couple of pretty good falls with head injuries when I was pretty tiny. Either way, the head injuries probably inhibited gut physiology also, via the vagus nerve, so it all went together.
The small intestine hangs on an oblique line, starting just left of the spine, crossing the midline, and ending up on the right side of the body. The mass of the small intestine loops tends to hang down and to the right. Add inflammation, and some diaphragm tension, and it can get adhered to other structures, making it unable to come out of that position, even if the diaphragm gets released, and even if someone beats up my pectoralis major muscles. (Ouch!)
This causes it to be uncomfortable to get into “good posture.” So even if I would force myself to sit up straight, I would always find myself slouching.
This went on for decades, until I found Ron. He taught me about the issues in my tissues, and helped me to overcome them. Then he taught me how to fix those issues in other people. The visceral classes I have taken have also been eye-opening for these issues and how to help people to get on a path to better health, and thus, “better posture.”
Some other anchors that can cause slouching are:
Sacrum/Lumbar/SI immobility
Diaphragm
Falciform Ligament
Any part of the gut tube (esophagus, large intestine) or accessory organs (gallbladder, liver, etc.)
Pericardium
Pleural ligaments
And many, many more
If you’ve been finding yourself shaming your clients, just think about my story, and think about what makes you listen better—shame, or encouragement. Likely your clients will be the same as you. And if you want to learn how to free up some of those anchors, jump into one of my classes and learn to think past the meat suit!
