A patient retraces. The pain shows up in a new spot. What do you say?
A Foundations of Cranial Adjusting Q&A before level one sent me back to D.D. Palmer. It also sent me to Bessel van der Kolk’s The Body Keeps the Score.
Here is where I land. The body shows the nervous system’s current threshold. The brain decides what becomes pain, where you feel it, and how much. After years of overload, a brain can turn awareness of the body down. Adjust that patient and they may feel more of their life. For better or for worse.
Then I give you the words to use when it happens in your office.
What we cover – D.D. Palmer’s line on uniting man the spiritual with man the physical – Why every trauma-informed provider should read The Body Keeps the Score – Why “trauma is stored in the tissues” is a stretch, and what the body does show – What pain is: the brain’s interpretation of signals from the body – Phantom limb pain and referred pain as examples of the brain’s map – Fight, flight, freeze and central sensitization, including fibromyalgia, CRPS and AMPS – What a chronic subluxation does to input, and what an adjustment restores – Freeze: when the brain turns sensation down – Why patients can feel more after adjustments
Your assignment 1. A patient says, “Wow, I’m so sore, doc.” Look at them first. 2. Say, “Wow, that’s interesting. Tell me more about what you’ve been experiencing.” 3. Ask what else their brain has been noticing as it connects to their body. 4. Name what to expect. Sleep, immune system and stress tolerance may change too. 5. Name where you expect to feel it first. Neck and jaw before low back, for example. 6. When they ask, “Is that normal?” explain common versus normal. Then say, “Based on what you came in with, this is expected.”
Mentioned – The Body Keeps the Score by Bessel van der Kolk – Foundations of Cranial Adjusting – Law Abiding Citizen (the movie)
Free email series: thecranialdoc.com
Chapters 0:00 Cold open and intro 0:34 Today’s topic: dissociation and D.D. Palmer 1:22 D.D. Palmer and The Body Keeps the Score 2:43 Trauma informed starts with this book 3:27 Trauma and the tissues 4:59 What is pain? 6:37 The sensitized brain 7:23 Fight, flight, freeze 8:13 What an adjustment changes 9:09 Freeze: turning sensation down 10:50 D.D. Palmer: man the spiritual and man the physical 12:34 Why patients feel more 13:46 The assignment: what to say when a patient retraces 15:48 Outro