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Movement, touch and talk in Norwegian psychomotor physiotherapy

People suffering from musculoskeletal disorders are frequently treated by physiotherapists using a wide variety of therapeutic approaches. In debates over the relative merits of hands-on and hands-off therapies, proponents of hands-off methods have argued that hands-on clinical work turn patients in...

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Autor principal: Thornquist, Eline
Formato: Online Artículo Texto
Lenguaje:English
Publicado: Frontiers Media S.A. 2022
Materias:
Acceso en línea:https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC9712973/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/36466939
http://dx.doi.org/10.3389/fresc.2022.1011146
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author Thornquist, Eline
author_facet Thornquist, Eline
author_sort Thornquist, Eline
collection PubMed
description People suffering from musculoskeletal disorders are frequently treated by physiotherapists using a wide variety of therapeutic approaches. In debates over the relative merits of hands-on and hands-off therapies, proponents of hands-off methods have argued that hands-on clinical work turn patients into «passive» recipients. But this is a simplistic proposition. Psychomotor physiotherapy is a Norwegian therapeutic approach characterized by a more or less continuous bodily dialogue combined with talk in examination and treatment sessions alike. Touch is thus a significant part of the ongoing interaction between patient and therapist. Through concrete examples, the article shows how the physiotherapists—using hands-on methods extensively—induce active responses in the patients, aid them to trust their bodies, change dysfunctional habits and become aware of their capacity for handling their health problems. The therapists do this by exploring and molding patients' movements, handling their muscle tensions and encouraging ways of breathing in combination with talk. The examples demonstrate that the body is just as «communicative» as talk itself and how new insights—to patients and therapists alike—can be obtained by juxtaposing verbal and bodily messages systematically. The examples also suggest that the meaning of “touch” varies. Consequently, what touch entails will necessarily inform clinical practice. Combining the theoretical framework of psychomotor therapy with phenomenology, perspectives from neuroscience and insights from the social sciences, the article casts new light on potentials and challenges triggered by the intertwining of talk and bodily handling typical of psychomotor therapy clinical work. A case is made for a view of the body as intrinsically communicative and for a more profound understanding of what not only psychomotor therapy but physiotherapy generally can offer.
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spelling pubmed-97129732022-12-02 Movement, touch and talk in Norwegian psychomotor physiotherapy Thornquist, Eline Front Rehabil Sci Rehabilitation Sciences People suffering from musculoskeletal disorders are frequently treated by physiotherapists using a wide variety of therapeutic approaches. In debates over the relative merits of hands-on and hands-off therapies, proponents of hands-off methods have argued that hands-on clinical work turn patients into «passive» recipients. But this is a simplistic proposition. Psychomotor physiotherapy is a Norwegian therapeutic approach characterized by a more or less continuous bodily dialogue combined with talk in examination and treatment sessions alike. Touch is thus a significant part of the ongoing interaction between patient and therapist. Through concrete examples, the article shows how the physiotherapists—using hands-on methods extensively—induce active responses in the patients, aid them to trust their bodies, change dysfunctional habits and become aware of their capacity for handling their health problems. The therapists do this by exploring and molding patients' movements, handling their muscle tensions and encouraging ways of breathing in combination with talk. The examples demonstrate that the body is just as «communicative» as talk itself and how new insights—to patients and therapists alike—can be obtained by juxtaposing verbal and bodily messages systematically. The examples also suggest that the meaning of “touch” varies. Consequently, what touch entails will necessarily inform clinical practice. Combining the theoretical framework of psychomotor therapy with phenomenology, perspectives from neuroscience and insights from the social sciences, the article casts new light on potentials and challenges triggered by the intertwining of talk and bodily handling typical of psychomotor therapy clinical work. A case is made for a view of the body as intrinsically communicative and for a more profound understanding of what not only psychomotor therapy but physiotherapy generally can offer. Frontiers Media S.A. 2022-11-17 /pmc/articles/PMC9712973/ /pubmed/36466939 http://dx.doi.org/10.3389/fresc.2022.1011146 Text en © 2022 Thornquist. https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY) (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/) . The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) and the copyright owner(s) are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.
spellingShingle Rehabilitation Sciences
Thornquist, Eline
Movement, touch and talk in Norwegian psychomotor physiotherapy
title Movement, touch and talk in Norwegian psychomotor physiotherapy
title_full Movement, touch and talk in Norwegian psychomotor physiotherapy
title_fullStr Movement, touch and talk in Norwegian psychomotor physiotherapy
title_full_unstemmed Movement, touch and talk in Norwegian psychomotor physiotherapy
title_short Movement, touch and talk in Norwegian psychomotor physiotherapy
title_sort movement, touch and talk in norwegian psychomotor physiotherapy
topic Rehabilitation Sciences
url https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC9712973/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/36466939
http://dx.doi.org/10.3389/fresc.2022.1011146
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