"The Role of Orthopedic Massage in True Health and Well Being" by James Waslaski
My role is to teach medical practitioners throughout the world how to correct or eliminate musculoskeletal pain throughout the body, by bringing the body back into balance structurally. But as I travel about 40 week-ends per year presenting seminars to massage therapists, physical therapists, chiropractors, doctors, etc., it seems that the clients with complicated pain conditions continue to challenge and teach me. After spending almost 20 years in a medical trauma center seeing patients with severe medical and orthopedic conditions, I have come to question where the patient's true healing comes from. Experience has taught me that just balancing out the structure, and restoring pain free function to the body can sometimes lead to only limited success.
My trademark is a technique that aids in the immediate release of patients with frozen shoulder problems. However, experience has shown me that in many of the clients with long term frozen shoulders there is a large percentage that have an emotional release along with the soft tissue release. Early in my career I was not quite sure how to support my clients through this sometimes unexpected part of their healing process. But a lot happens when you stay focused and always provide a loving and supportive environment for healing to occur. Sometimes just compassionate touch and being a good listener can be the emotional support that starts the true healing process.
So let me start this article with the physical or mechanical component for frozen shoulders, and then let me move to the even more important emotional and spiritual components of this revolutionary technique. The physiology in a frozen shoulder, often termed adhesive capsulitis, is when the client is unable to move the shoulder through full pain free range of motion, especially into flexion, abduction, and external rotation. Sometimes this occurs following a minor injury such as a rotator cuff injury, or bursitis, or bicipital tendinitis. Sometimes the clients just wake up with a frozen shoulder without any specific physical trauma. There is almost a super gluing inside the ball and socket joint of the shoulder and there is an abrupt bone on bone end feel from adhesions inside the joint. Orthopedic massage can balance out the muscle groups around the shoulder, reduce the scar tissue in the injured areas, eliminate trigger points ant correct the soft tissue component. This is done using disciplines including functional assessment, myofascial release, neuromuscular therapy, frictioning to areas of scar tissue, p.n.f. stretching, etc. The work must be very systematic, applied pain free, and focused on structural integration. However, surgical intervention involves putting the patient to sleep under anesthesia, and ripping the shoulder capsule free, often tearing all of the surrounding soft tissues. In my opinion this procedure is barbaric and most clients get worse post surgically due to all the resulting scar tissue.
Here is the divine intervention or spiritual part of this condition. After struggling several years with complicated frozen shoulders, I had a dream or vision where I could literally see a picture of the adhesive capsule inside the shoulder. It appeared as glue inside the ball and socket joint. Based on that vision I was able to find a human dissection of the shoulder to match the same picture from the dream. It showed fascia or connective tissue inside the joint that acts as superglue following prolonged poor postures or minor musculoskeletal injuries in the shoulder area. Based on the vision my thought was to use the humerus as a massage tool to gently melt the adhesions gluing the humerus to the scapula. Myofascial experts teach that a combination of heat, pressure, and gentle stretch will melt and mobilize the connective tissue called fascia. So why not use gentle movements of the humerus to melt the adhesions gluing it to the scapula. Or even use the head of the femur to release it from the ilium of the hip. This technique to the best of my knowledge was not taught anywhere else in the world, but has proven incredibly effective in releasing thousands of frozen shoulders and hip dysfunctions, usually in only one session. Many of our clients have had a frozen shoulder, or hip and back pain for as long as 30 years, and have been through years of intense rehabilitation. Since I was not taught this technique in my thousands of hours of training, I credit the vision that led to this technique as coming from a higher power, a sort of spiritually guided process.
Next came the emotional piece that was so vital to true healing of many clients. One of my clients was left for dead after intense physical trauma to her shoulder. However, she survived and many years ago when this technique was applied, she had an associated emotional release. She was crying and re-living the actual trauma that led to her living so many years with a frozen shoulder. I believe the emotional trauma was locked into the connective tissue and became stored in that connective tissue for years until she felt safe to allow release both mentally and physically. Fortunately, following the shoulder release, the therapists attending my seminar simply surrounded her with love, safe touch, and prayer to facilitate her body's potential to heal itself. Seeing her several years later, she still had total wellness in her body, mind and spirit.
Many other experiences like this have taught me the importance of presence in my work. It also reminds me that we are not the one performing the healing; rather we are there to facilitate the body's potential to heal itself. As a result of my presence; always coming from a safe and loving place, more and more of my clients feel safe and supported in their healing process, especially in cases with frozen shoulders and frozen hip capsules.
Many clients with frozen shoulders do not have an associated emotional release, but the therapist has to stay focused and rely on intuition to guide them while applying techniques that correct structure and posture. I remember a tough truck driver from Texas that lost his wife and child in a head on collision. When I treated his thoracic outlet, cervical sprain and strain, and frozen shoulder condition, he broke down feeling guilty to have survived. But he finally allowed me to facilitate his body's potential to heal completely.
There is also a huge nutritional aspect we feel may contribute to adhesive capsulitis in diabetics. We are looking into the effect of better regulation of insulin and glucose as that may contribute to capsule adhesions, and whether increased calcium supplements that are sometimes prescribed for diabetics, may actually increase the adhesions in the joint and potentially develop calcium deposits making adhesive hips and shoulders common in severe diabetics.
I have been blessed to have had many mentors such as leading osteopaths, orthopedic surgeons, psychologists, advanced massage educators, and spiritual advisors. Our staff prides themselves as consistent life long learners with a spiritual purpose. We cannot separate physical health, emotional health and spiritual health if we hope to facilitate true health and well being in the lives of our clients.
by James Waslaski
Published in:
Health and Well Being Magazine Spring '04 Issue