Let it go, let it go

Those of you with children of a certain age will be well aware of the impact of the Disney film Frozen and how it has encouraged bursting in to song with ‘Let it go, let it go’. It’s scary to admit that it’s even had an impact on my osteopathy as I often seem to find the tune running through my head during treatment sessions!

It never fails to amaze me how much tension some folk can hold in their body and be totally unaware of it. I’ll sometimes try to trigger some awareness of this by asking a patient that is lying on my treatment table to relax fully whilst I lift an arm or leg in the air. I’ll then let go the limb and see what happens. Of course a nicely relaxed arm or leg will flop back to the table but it’s not unusual to find that many limbs stay exactly where I put them. As far as the patient on the treatment table is concerned they are completely relaxed despite the fact that their arm is amazingly suspended in mid-air as if held up with invisible puppet strings. This is when the Frozen tune filters it’s way into my head as I think ‘Let it go, let it go’.

Given that the patient in this situation is actively trying to relax, if that’s not a contradiction in terms, imagine what’s going on when they’re not relaxing.  I’m sure most of us have experienced the effect of shoulders rising up towards the ears after sitting in front of a computer, especially if there’s an element of stress thrown in to the mix.  There are many people whose heads are permanently sucked in towards their shoulders with no awareness that it’s happening.

In this situation often the first signs of awareness will be a stiff neck and even a headache and this is where the osteopath comes.  Stage one is to encourage the body to ‘let it go’ with some hands-on treatment.  Stage two has to involve some degree of encouragement to get the patient to ‘let it go’ mentally which has to involve becoming aware that it’s happening. Osteopaths can’t do this alone, it has to be a partnership with the patient to achieve lasting results.

So please forgive your osteopath if he or she starts humming a song from Frozen during a quiet part of your treatment.  You could argue that it’s a good sign that they’re focusing hard on one of the goals of the treatment.