What We Believe
Healing takes time
In a society with some of the best health care in the world, we hear from our patients that they often feel rushed through the evaluation and treatment process. Perhaps due to the constraints of managed care, well-meaning and caring physicians often do not have the time they would like to devote to their patients. We believe that this is a great injustice to the patients, and to the physicians who treat them. Rushed evaluation sessions are not good for physicians or their patients.
At Clear Passage clinic, we will not be rushed, We know that we have to take the time to listen deeply to what our patients tell us. In truth, our patients often tell us exactly what is wrong with them. Even better, when we listen well, they often tell us exactly what needs to happen, to fix them! More on this in the next section. . . .
The patient is an expert. The therapist's job is to listen, and follow
You are an expert on your own body. You have been living in the body we are treating for your entire lifetime. You have extensive, intimate, expert knowledge of what your body has experienced for your entire life. You have had time to think about the traumas, falls, inflammations, surgeries and emotions your body has experienced. The sum of your body's lifetime experiences, and your thoughts and feelings about them comprise your present physical and emotional state. For these reasons, we regard you as an expert on your case, whether or not you feel like an expert. Part of our job is to help you tap into that 'inner knowledge' you have of yourself.
During your Initial Evaluation, we may first begin listening to you with our intellects. Then we listen with our hands, as we feel your body tension patterns to determine what is moving properly, and what is adhered, inflamed, irritated or in distress.
To augment this information, we admit to also listening with our hearts and our intuition. We ask you if you have any insights to give us - even from your intuition. We don't think of intuition as some sort of a "smoke and mirrors" level of information. To us, your intuition is often a sum of all of your deductive reasoning added to your sensory (and even spiritual) feelings. These factors define you in ways that can help us understand what it will take to help you heal.
We are very grounded in clinical and medical protocols. Nevertheless, we recognize that there is a level of listening which exists beyond the mere scientific gathering of data. People would be very boring and two dimensional indeed if they were only plumbing and electrical impulses. For this reason, we have learned to augment our strict clinical training with a "depth of listening" - which is really just a very deep and focused caring for our patients.
When we listen well,- with our intellect and our hands, augmented by sensory input from you, we generally come up with a good sense of what is working and what is not working in your body. The same process helps us find the blocks to your success. Often they are physical restrictions, such as adhesions and physical asymmetries. At other times, there may be an emotional or spiritual overlay that needs to be resolved.
Our job is not to judge you. Our job is to meet you exactly where you are in life, and assist you to reach your goal, easily and painlessly. The summary of all of the above leads us directly into our treatment plan.
Therapy can be a marvelous adventure
The approach of deeply, completely listening to our patients makes therapy constantly exciting for us, and an adventure for our patients. Therapy can become a marvelous journey, as we unravel together the layers of pain, adhesions and dysfunctions to help free the harmonious, symmetrical, functional and pain-free individual within. Therapy is like solving an unfolding mystery, with every patient. We therapists share your story with your other Clear Passage therapists, as we are discovering the particular causes of your pain or dysfunction. Perhaps best of all, we get to share this adventure with you. Your participation is not merely considered, it is invited and encouraged!
In our approach, therapy is totally personalized to your history and your present condition. We encourage and incorporate your own deductions and feelings about your body. We find this approach provides us with the most direct path to decreasing your pain and increasing your function.
We differ significantly from some other medical approaches
We provide very different experiences from most patients' experiences in healthcare. A common medical model is to isolate the dysfunctional system from the rest of the body. Many healthcare providers limit their view of their patients to plumbing and bones. They are not interested in hearing your opinions about your body. In limiting their view, we feel they may be missing some data which is vital to your healing.
Our patients are sentient, vibrant people, who are (and should be) invited to be deeply involved in their own treatment process. We encourage you, if you can, to bring your own intellects, experiences, thoughts and feelings about your body to the treatment table. We feel your input is valuable, and can add greatly to the results of the treatment process.
In summary
We believe that much of the secret of our success is that we listen deeply to our patients' bodies,- with our hands, our minds and our hearts. Then we "go in" and follow, barrier upon barrier, breaking down the physical adhesions and restrictions that have been built upon a lifetime of inflammation, infections, traumas and surgeries. When we listen deeply and follow the tissues, the results are very personal, very individualized and often extraordinary.
Our approach differs from the model where the patient represents a group of plumbing and wiring that needs to be re-plumbed. In that model, the feelings, knowledge and role of the patient's experiences with her body are of little import.
In our model, we regard you as an expert in your case, whether you realize it or not. After all, you have been experiencing the feelings and history of your body for decades. We find it is absolutely necessary that we listen deeply to you and the insights you have about your body. We explain our work to you and invite (but do not require) you to become an active participant in your own recovery. You have the opportunity to become a vital member of the team,- and arguably the most important member of the team in charge of your rehabilitation.
