Treating the Body as a Self Regulatory Process
Brazilian Rolfing Conference 1996
Excerpt of Keynote Lecture by
R.Schleip
It
has been pointed out that even in deep tissue work, any structural change in
the body relies on the involvement of the client’s nervous system. Short term
plasticity of the body to manual pressure is mainly a neuromuscular tonus
change. But this immediate neuromuscular change will be feeding - especially in
a state of "high behavioral plasticity"[1]
of habit formation - into long term plasticity changes of collagen density and
arrangement in the body.
Therefore
I don’t treat my client’s body as a piece of clay or a stack of mechanical dead
blocks. I suggest to treat it rather as an alive organism or - to say it in
more modern or cybernetic terms - as a self regulatory system.
My
own actions and perceptions are in constant interaction with minute responses
of my client’s nervous system. Any tonus changes that my hands detect (even if
it is only from a few motorunits) will influence my hands how they continue
with subtle changes in their pressure and direction.
Chart 1 emphasizes this "being in
dialog"-quality of our work. I consider it important to see oneself as interacting with the dynamics of a
selfregulatory system rather than working in a linear repair mode of
fixing this or that in a mechanical system. Of course non-linear system
dynamics are currently fashionable in almost any field of science, ecology or
art. One famous example for its necessity was the big Exxon Valdez
disaster. When this huge oil spill disaster happened near Alaska, the
responsible company Exxon immediately employed the best specialists
internationally to give them advice in how to repair the ecological damage.
According to their advice they cleaned the spilled beaches with hot water steam
in order to remove the oil. Years later scientists discovered a big surprise:
the beaches which had not been ‘rescued’ with this treatment (e.g. because they
had been too remote) were much better off than the cleaned ones. They then
learned, that this ecological system had a self regulatory ability via some
microbes which was unknown before and which the well-meaning helpers had
damaged with their intervention.
It is almost certain that there are many
self regulatory dynamics in the human organism of which we are currently not
aware yet. Could it be that some of our clients end up with much more problems
years later - after our well meant repair work - than if we had not worked with
them so well? I believe that this is easily possible. But how to avoid it? I
suggest that the best answer is to operate in a mental mode of interacting with
a highly complex self regulatory system which demands more non-linear systems
thinking instead of the logically and hierarchically oriented `linear cause and
effect thinking’ in which most of us have still been trained in school and
university. That’s why I have become now much more careful with the application
of "structural logic" or any other linear concepts in our
work.
Chart 1:
Interdependencies
instead of ‘structural logic’
Example of relationships among some relevant components for a specific
client. Instead of hierarchical cause-effect dynamics, most self regulatory
systems involve several interdependencies and feedback loops.
To give an example for non-linear systems thinking in our field Chart 2
demonstrates an application to a specific case. This client of mine came in
with a chronic headache as presenting symptom. It was clear that the headache
was influenced by the high degree of neck tension, which again was influenced
in the gravity field by the amount of thorax flexion (bent forward posture).
The thorax flexion was interdependent with her shallow breathing, and the more
headache she had the more her shallow breathing pattern would increase. She
also complained of indigestion which seemed to be influenced by her shallow
breathing as well as by her thorax flexion. Some traditional linear cause-and‑effect
thinkers would probably want to stop now in the analysis because already it
becomes rather complex. But if we want to avoid doing shortsighted repair
damage like the helpers of the Exxon Valdez accident we have to become
comfortable at managing much more complex pictures.
Chart 3:
Where is the ‘trimtap’?
Example of a systems diagram. Only after careful study of the complex
interrelations among many, many different components one should start searching
for the highest leverage point (“trimtap”). A small modification of the right
variable can then elicit an effective longterm shift of the whole person.
Chart 3 shows an expanded version of the complex
interdependencies. Of course, even this picture is much too simple, and one
could easily argue that many more factors need to be included. In my
understanding of her situation, those were nevertheless the main relevant
factors. The uninterrupted arrows indicate amplifying influence (the more neck
tension the more headache) and the dotted arrows oppositional influence (the
more thorax flexion the less good her breathing will be). Sometimes the style
of influence can change at certain threshold values (when she started looking
too attractive the relationship with her partner disimproved again).
The question now is "Where are the
high leverage points?". From where can I best influence the whole
system? Or in Buckminster Fuller’s terms: Where is the "trimtap"
at which one can most easily adjust the course of the whole big ship? A systems
analyst like Peter Senge[2]
at M.I.T. could work with this model on a computer and give all the different
arrows different mathematical correlations (usually with specific non-linear
equations) until the model behaves very similar like reality. In working with
thousands of such non-linear systems dynamics his research group found that the
highest leverage point tends to be quite far away in space and time from the
presenting symptom. Meaning that whenever you get an immediate improvement with
your intervention, it is quite likely that you haven’t hit the main leverage
point. If one hits the trimtap in such complicated systems, it usually involves
some "lag". (This reminds me of my "learning
experiences" about lag or of the value of small adjustments together with
patience that I had with some Italian showers and their temperature regulation,
after I had jumped between freezing and burning myself several times).
So
in the above described client of mine, I found the main leverage point in her
thorax flexion. Helping her to open up in the front of the thorax took some
time, and it didn’t solve her headache, her financial and marriage problems
immediately. But in the long run it seemed to have been a main key factor for
changing the whole system towards the better. (Of course additional work with
other elements like with her visceral organs, her psychology and neck tension
were also helpful.) The main point is that thinking in non-linear system models
can be trained, and we need to train our intuition to operate with those
complexities.
Table 1 demonstrates some of the aspects of this current shift in our
field from a biomechanical focus towards a more neurobiological orientation
which includes the self regulatory dynamics of the clients organism.
Table 1:
|
BODY AS MECHANICAL OBJECT |
BODY AS SELF REGULATORY PROCESS |
|
Image of perfect/imperfect machine. (with linear cause – effect relationships) |
Self regulating biological organism. (with nonlinear system dynamics, complexity, autopoiesis) |
|
Typical ‘industrial age’ viewpoint |
Typical ‘information age’ viewpoint |
|
Clear distinction between structure & function |
No clear distinction betw. structure
& function |
|
Subject/object separation ("principles of intervention") |
Subject-object connection ("interaction" instead of intervention)) |
|
Limited number of variables. Inner sense of absolute certainty in practitioner is
achievable & desirable |
High degree of complexity with almost unlimited
variables. Practitioner needs to be comfortable operating within uncertainty
principles. |
|
Problem solving attitude |
Goal: enhancing already existing self regulation |
|
Local "precision" admired |
Good timing and gradation (doses) getting very important |
|
"Technician" as idol (E.g. story of technician who specified
his $1000 bill for repairing the steam engine of a huge boat: "1 hit
with a hammer $0.01. Knowing where $999.99") |
"Facilitator" as idol (Chinese proverb "Give a man a fish, and you feed him
for a day. Teach a man to fish, and you feed him for a lifetime") |
|
Typical work example: Mobilization of a precise ‘spinal fixation’ or sacral torsion. |
Typical work example: Inclusion of facilitated active micro-movements of the client
during hands-on work. |
I don’t think that the inclusion of the
self regulatory dynamics of the nervous system in our view of human structure,
is far away from Dr. Rolf’s intention. She started the very first chapter of
her book with a quote of Norbert
Wiener, the father of cybernetics:
"We are not stuff that abides. But
patterns that perpetuate themselves."