About ten years ago, I was involved in a car accident. It didn’t seem that dramatic at the time – just your run-of-the-mill launch off a stray pile of construction debris, a series of rolls through the air with engine screaming (onlookers too), then a last minute explosion as I dived for cover. Okay, so maybe it was a rear-ender, but that doesn’t make it any less serious. Unfortunately, if it doesn’t look dramatic, a lot of people can find it difficult getting their heads around the concept that people might be hurt as a result. I mean, I looked normal – no cuts, no bruises, but inside something wasn’t right. I soon found out that my neck and back had suffered some hard core soft tissue damage (excuse the confusing grammar, but you know what I mean).

Prior to my accident, I’d played a lot of sport, so I knew about injuries – remove the hockey stick, slap on some ice, rest and pretty soon you’re as good as new, so my attitude was the same with this injury. Maybe skip the part about the hockey stick – but essentially I expected with rest and treatment I would get better.

I iced, I rested, I treated – but I didn’t get any better. In fact, I seemed to be getting worse. The experts told me my job wasn’t helping – lots of craning over a desk or peering up at ceilings (don’t ask). Pretty soon I was in a serious cycle of pain. I couldn’t do most of the things I could before and the things I could made my pain significantly worse.

I’d suffer through work, go home to bed, then start again the next day. Weekends were spent doing as little as possible. Most of the time I was trying everything I could think of to make the pain go away. But I couldn’t think – the pain and the ineffectual painkillers were making it hard to concentrate.

My sporting career came to a sudden and rather jarring halt. Even something as simple as walking drove steel spikes into the base of my skull at every step. My social life withered and died and pretty soon my mood was sinking faster than the Titanic.

Was all lost? Hopeless? Doomed?

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We recently reconnected and she gave her permission for me to share this with you.

At 25 years of age I have returned to hometown, Perth, for 4 months. It’s the first time I have lived here since setting off four years ago to travel and work across the globe. My motivation for taking this time out at home stems from two major reasons. A need to stop, reassess and clarify my direction and purpose in life. Also a growing need to address my physical condition, scoliosis. Scoliosis is ‘an excessive, sideways curvature of the spine’. (Encarta World English Dictionary) I wear orthotics, have dabbled in the Alexander Technique, had a diagnosis from a rather dry spinal surgeon specialist, experimented with hatha yoga, been the recipient of wonderful massages and have been crunched by a well meaning Osteopath.

I have found we are living in a world where modern treatment is all too often practised with little awareness of concern for the patient’s potential and interest to manage, understand and be an integral part for their individual condition. Frustration has prevailed when seeing specialists and highly trained people working apart and separate from each other, blinkered to the confines of their own method and understanding when dealing with a common condition. This has lead me to seek professionals who operate with an open mind, in turn leading me to a treatment that allows, indeed relies on, the emphasis for change and progress to start and end with me. Among other things, I had been led to working with a Feldenkrais practitioner.

…….

After journeying across the world into the heart of Africa, Mexico, Central America, India, Nepal, Thailand and Europe, I feel that in some ways it is only now that I really begin my journey. I look to the world, the future and my place in it with a renewed sense of wonder, clarity, openness and personal power.

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Made it!

I really enjoyed working with Bill.

He was thoughtful and interested in learning how to improve his walking and climbing. He actively applied what we worked on between sessions.

These characteristics allowed him to achieve his goal.

Congratulations Bill and thank you for including me in your journey.

I still remember our first session and how little we were able to do. And now to look back and see that each of the small steps have accumulated to allow greater comfort and improved ability for you to live each day independently – this is why I have chosen this way of working. I feel honoured to be a part of your journey through this part of your life.

Here are the first couple of paragraphs of Claire’s story:

In April 2005, I was involved in a head-on car crash. The result was internal and surface bruising, swelling and a bad whiplash among other injuries. For months I went to a ‘normal’ physiotherapist and experienced pain that at times was worse than the injuries themselves.

After two years I recovered physically. However, the pain in my neck returned and I knew it needed more treatment.

A close friend told me about a different form of physiotherapy called Feldenkrais and recommended the name of a clinic to attend. It was here that I met Sarah Wiin and my life began to change.

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Her story shows you don’t necessarily have to accept what life seems to be throwing at you:

… over the last 10 years (I) have become accustomed to all kinds of people, health professionals and others, telling me that I just have to become accustomed to the various aches and pains, that I must accept that I can’t always do what I used to take for granted .. I can now walk easily and the benefits have spread to all the things that I do that require walking! This has been so life affirming. I thought the problem was here to stay, a permanent and debilitating part of getting older …

As for the golf? Even better. Read Charmaine’s Story: Feldenkrais, Golf and Life