Case Study: Advanced Treatment of Physical Dysfunction

Lynn shares a case study about working on multiple levels using advanced skills in the treatment of physical dysfunction. In her session, she works with a student and addresses limiting beliefs that had kept her in pain for years.

I love sharing the power of the Birth Healing Intensive work because the advanced skills for the treatment of physical dysfunction can take our clinical practice to a higher level of healing for our clients. During a recent live session of the Holistic Treatment of the Pregnant Body course, I had a student volunteer for a demo session in front of the class.

In this demo, I was able to show how we can use our clinical expertise to work with the body while addressing the limiting beliefs and life events that influence our client’s physicality. Through this advanced framework for the treatment of physical dysfunction we can get to the root cause of client’s pain and resolve issues often for good.

Client History

The student who volunteered for the demo complained of right ankle problems that had developed into right back and hip pain. In going through her history, she reported that she had done Russian ballet dance, that she has had R hip pain for as long as she can remember, but that the pain got worse after two injuries to her right ankle, and that she has a confirmed tear in her peroneus brevis on the right. She shared that the pain she was experiencing in her body eventually caused her to stop dancing.

Observations, Assessment and Treatment

Throughout the class, I noticed on several occasions that when the student who volunteered for the demo session squatted down, she would use her elbows to push her knees out to the side, forcing them into abduction. That observation just stuck out to me as I went into doing a session with her.

When I started my assessment with this student, I began with a listening technique that I teach in my holistic courses. As I listened to her body, I got drawn to her mid abdomen. There was an energetic block preventing her from connecting to her pelvis. I felt lots of tension in the tissues at her mid abdomen.

As we focused on that area, nothing really came up or resolved here, but I did get pulled into her right hip area, and we turned our focus to this area. In focusing on her right hip, she had some emotions come up for her. She just noticed them as I asked her questions about the difference from the left side of her hip to the right side.

I asked her how she felt about the right side of her body. As she pondered this, I got an inner image of her legs being pulled out into external rotation. I asked her how she felt about her legs being in external rotation. While she was pondering this question, my hands were still on the front of her right hip and the back of her sacrum, I was just holding her body feeling for any changes in her tissues. Her left arm was draped over my arm.

After a bit, she reported that a picture came to her mind of someone else pulling her legs into external rotation with ropes. She felt she had to maintain this external rotation as part of her dance practice. Without telling me what she was picturing, she mentally cut the cord holding her legs into external rotation. When this happened, I felt her arm drop heavily onto my arm and her whole body relaxed. I asked her what had just happened and she replied that she had just cut the cords. A huge release had happened and there was a greater flow in her body with the exception of down her right leg.

Shifting Limiting Beliefs

I felt into this limb and I asked her how she felt about this leg. She replied she didn’t think she could rely on it. This thought was her limiting belief. Through dialoguing, we shifted and replaced this limiting belief with, “I can rely on my right leg”. However, when she was shifting and replacing the belief, I got the nudge that she needed to add a cuss word to make the statements more powerful for her. When she did she laughed and cried as she said and felt the limiting belief shift and then sink in when she replaced it with her positive statement of “I can f—king rely on my right leg.”

The session came to and end and she stood up and immediately felt simultaneously more heavy and lighter in her body. She reported that her right leg felt connected in her socket and up into her trunk. She was amazed as she laughed, cried and hugged me in celebration of the change.

Working On Multiple Levels

For the treatment of physical dysfunction, keep in mind that sometimes the problems in the body don’t always have a physical solution. The body and tissues can hold things energetically and emotionally which can contribute to pain and/or dysfunction. Knowing how to work on all levels with advanced skills allows you to get the deeper held issues to release for further and greater healing.

I teach students the advanced skills for treating physical dysfunction and more in the Birth Healing Intensive. However, I do recommend that you learn how to integrate all of the clinical techniques I teach into your practice as well, so you become extremely proficient with your clinical skills. You can then dive deeper to guide clients through energetic and emotional blocks impacting their physicality. To learn more about the courses I would recommend to take your practice to the highest level, check out the Certified Birth Healing Practitioner program and consider becoming certified through the Institute for Birth Healing.

About the Author: Lynn Schulte is a Pelvic Health Therapist and the founder of the Institute for Birth Healing, a pelvic health continuing education organization that specializes in prenatal and postpartum care. For more information, go to https://instituteforbirthhealing.com