Whiplash

Skills in Integrated Manual Therapies with Bruce Schonfeld

If left unresolved, the body’s posture at time of impact, the contra coup (backlash) and the ensuing disorganizing movement sequence become the very positions the body organizes itself around avoiding. Much like a record that has a groove in it and skips, the body is also stuck moving around its traumatized or injured tissues. Similar to the underlying mechanics of psychology, the unresolved issue sits at the center of the complex surrounded by a web of compensation/adaptation.

Unresolved whiplash injuries can often be the unidentified and/or underestimated cause of ongoing pain troubling the body. It can take several weeks, or longer, before accident related trauma, pain, and immobility noticeably disturb the body. Quite often we don’t even make a connection to the original accident.

Effective manual therapy interventions are crucial when working with recent or chronic whiplash injuries. This class will cover as­sess­ment, palpation, and direct/indirect treatment skills to help restore normal range of motion to specific restrictions, as well as full body myo­fascial strain patterns. Understanding the elasticity properties of hyper/hypo tonic tissues and developing manual listening skills will also be explored. Whiplash is a whole body injury and will be considered from orthopedic, holistic, structural, and energetic perspectives.