Tom Bisio info

[cjurakpt]

On the other hand, I have a strong anti-establishment streak and can appreciate the reasons why someone may choose not to go the LMT route. Of course, practicing bodywork carries different responsibilites than scholarship. To carry the issue further, martial arts schools have for thousands of years offered bodywork therapies as part of their curriculum, and many schools have long traditions that require expertise in bodywork therapies if students are to become teachers. This is however an apprenticeship model of dozens of years within a traditional culture that allows for plenty of time to address the ethical caveats mentioned above, with strong mentorship on a constant basis, and a "client" pool that is much more tolerant of mistakes than the general public.
In your particular case you have the advantage of already teaching in this kind of culture, and I gather from some of your posts on forum that your teacher may be part of a similar tradition. I would suggest to any martial arts teacher that that if you (rhetorically) want to practice bodywork you start within the context of treating martial arts students on a pro bono basis, and that if you wanted to charge for your services you'd do so only after getting a lot of practice in this manner (it certainly won't hurt your student attendence base). In addition, some might think that providing bodywork to students who are injured in the course of practice are just be part and parcel of the services that the teacher provides for his or her students. On the other hand, "getting the paper so I can practice legally" certainly has its practical merits, in addition to addressing the concerns described above.
it's certainly arguable that you've assumed an ethical responsibility qua martial arts teacher and that it carries over to any bodywork you decide to practice. Re. the issue of civil suits I should think that you are somewhat vulnerable if you practice bodywork in the context of "martial arts" and something goes wrong: i.e. "I wanted to learn martial arts and I got this cracked rib because I agreed to let my teacher practice "bodywork" on me," etc. However I think that the risk is mitigated by the kind of student you are treating, and certainly an explantation of potential risk to the student (however unlikely) goes a long way of covering you both here. Most bodyworkers that I have learned from have admitted to making "mistakes" along the way to becoming experts in their fields; at issue is the strength of their training to begin with and their abililty to assume responsibility for their mistakes and rectify them.

I agree with Steve - obviously my answer was very generalized, it did not speak to Rik's nor anyone else's particular situation; that said, it was also written in context of how Rik phrased the question by using the term "hang out a shingle" - this, to me implies advertising one's services to the general public, not limiting treatment to one's own students, which, personally, I think falls under a different sort of "contract", I am all for it as long as it is done safely and intelligently, because you already know them and have a rapport established (I'd say not to do it with anyone who has been there less than about a year or so though as a general guideline)

"Zheng Gu" (correct bone) is conceived as occuring within the scope and practice of Tui Na; I think a strong case can and should be made for not claiming to do Chiropractic "manipulations" and "mobilizations" insofar as we don't go to Chiropractic school and learn their methods. In contrast, furthermore, Zheng Gu always involves extensive soft tissue work beforehand, and there is a separate theoretical context for performing these techniques. All the Zheng Gu that I have learned always involves taking the joint along its natural lines of movement.
Although it may be argued that this is merely skirting the issue, I think that there are important reasons for skirting it (!) - not the least of which is the fact that Zheng Gu existed for thousands of years before the advent of Chiropractic. Why get mired down in a non-issue IMHO?

this is another one of my favorite topics; personally, I think it's a bit silly to get bogged down in the argument of what is a mob versus a manip, and if you do your manips like a chiro versus like an osteo is it different or the same thing, etc. etc.; personally I think it's all turf war BS, but it's how things work, and if an LMT writes somewhere that he mobilised a joint, he can be in deep doo doo; and so, we have to define these things in non-profession specific terms, so that they can be applied across the board; the bottom line is that if you oscillate a joint near or at the end of its available range in order to increase ROM, you are doing a mob, regardless of what your license is; likewise, if you perform a manuever to directly take a joint past some sort of non-physiological "barrier", you are doing a manipulation; so regardless of whether it's jing gwat or chiro, if you thrust something and it moves, you did a manip, and if someone reports you and it's not in your practice act, it can be a problem; now personally, I think that it is well within the scope of practice of an L.Ac. to perform all manual techniques encompassed by classical tui na, including doing jing gwat techs; but that's just me - I also think an LMT can do mobs safely,it's not such a big deal...and TBH, there are also ways of getting aroud the restrictions, e.g. - writing in your notes that the joint spontaneously re-articulated following soft tissue work when the patient was moved from pone into sidelying or some such silliness to account for the change in a way that doesn't compromise you;

Ethical and legal issues aside, the power of health-care in our country has been taken from our hands over the years and transferred to high-priced 'specialists'. Many of the techniques used in tuina, along with the folk remedies like cupping, guasha and herbs have been practiced by lay-folk for centuries in rural areas of Asia. The arguments presented previously both revolve around determining whether or not you are 'special' enough to be a 'specialist'. However, don't let these things scare you away from learning the techniques. Your motivation, however, is most important - do you wish to learn simply to make money or to serve humanity? Just food for thought (fuel for the fire?).

all good comments; again, I think the main issue is advertising one's services to the general public without proper training; in the "old days", someone may not have been licensed, but everyone in the village could vouch for their ability; essntially, a license is everyone in the village vouching for you without you having to talk to everyone in what is now a really big village...

in regards to power of health care being taken out of "our" hands: when the population starts expecting miraculous and heroic medicine to be the norm, then it no longer can be in their own hands; like mosst everything else in our culture, medicine has become, to a certain extent, specticle - we luv reading about those 45 hour surgeries separating conjoined quadriplits (?) or whatnot; as the modalities become more powerful, they are necessarilly restricted because it takes a lot less to apply gua sha safely and effectively than it does to do a heart transplant; in regards to the folk remedy stuff, I say power to the people, but somethings are just beyond most people's ability to get let alone use...

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[GeneChing]

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