In my daily practice I increasingly speak of WE and YOU, less of I. For example, "Today WE treated this and that structure." Sometimes I add, "Today YOU sought me out to activate your self-healing powers. My person has served you in this merely as a tool."
Where does the WE, the YOU come from?
The answer to this question is deeply rooted in osteopathic philosophy:
"It is not the task of the practitioner to make the sick person well (...) but to align the system in its parts or as a whole so that the currents of life can flow through it again and irrigate the parched fields." (Still 2005)
The trained hands of the osteopath serve to find structures that restrict the flow of health. One or the other technique is applied, one or the other structure is moved. Always with the knowledge of the self-healing powers. With this background the only possibility is to work WITH, not against the human being - the WE. The healing process itself is processed by the self healing power - the YOU.
I, as an osteopath, do not heal. I am a possible tool to prepare the way for the miracle of health. You heal yourself. You take the osteopthic impulses, work on them and transform them on the way to your health.
Who is healing whom now?
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For me, this approach embodies humility, curiosity and gratitude:
Humility for every being and the miracle of health.
Curiosity for each person who enters my clinic.
Gratitude for every healing process I am allowed to witness.
* Note: I would like to point out here that the use of the word heals in this context is not a promise of a cure.
Literature:
Still, A. T. (2005). Das große Still-Kompendium. 2. Aufl. Pähl: Jolandos.
Photography:
Rebecca Thoma