Introduction 00:00:01 You’re listening to From pain to Possibility with Susi Hately. You will hear Susi’s best ideas on how to reduce or even eradicate your pain, and learn how to listen to your body when it whispers so you don’t have to hear it scream. And now here’s your host, Susi Hately.
Susi 00:00:22 Welcome and welcome back. I’m so glad that you’re here today, because we’re getting into a powerful concept that I like to call Seeing the Matrix. Thank you, Keanu Reeves. In helping to see the layers of a human being and how both movement observation, the idea that compensations and not the sight of pain often hold the key of healing, but also beyond movement observations, understanding the nature of the human being and how to instruct and meet a person where they’re at, is also equally as important. It’s really my take and my interpretation of the biopsychosocial model, this idea of “seeing the matrix.” So if you’ve been following me. For any length of time, you know that I come into the conversation of healing and recovery from a body space.
Susi 00:01:12 I talk about movement a lot, and I talk about compensation patterns a lot. I talk about relaxing and nurturing, rest and relaxation a lot, moving from the largest joints first effortless effort. Can we cultivate more ease? These are all very body centric type of conversations, and this is all in the early stages of seeing The Matrix. And then as someone trains with me, they start to see something that I’ve seen over the course of my career, which is if someone really wants to recover and heal, there’s something that happens beyond movement, and that something that happens beyond movement occurs because it’s correlated to them moving better. So time and time again As someone moves better, as someone has more pure movement, as they have more ease in their system, which these days we now call central nervous system down regulation. There is a recognition that there’s something else going on, and I would also offer that that’s something else going on, was what brought someone to me in the first place, because they had this deep knowing.
Susi 00:02:24 And it started with: “I want to resolve this pain.” Now, they might not have really recognized what was going to come next, but again, it’s not uncommon as people get better, as they find the ground inside of themselves, as they find their new infrastructure, as they find this ability to not only have less or no pain, but to gain strength and resiliency, and this ability to be agile, that it also shows up in the other layers of who they are. In the layers of relationship with other human beings, with their work, with life in general. So why does this all matter? Well, if you’ve ever been stuck trying to fix a client’s pain and nothing seems to work, or you’re relying on sequences that don’t deliver results, then this episode is for you. Likewise, if you’re not a professional and you’re listening to this podcast, I have the same to offer you. If you’ve ever been stuck trying to fix your own pain and nothing seems to work, you’re relying on exercises that maybe aren’t delivering the results that you want.
Susi 00:03:27 This episode could be for you. So this is now going to the professionals, and then I’ll offer the same next statement to the non professionals. Listening is I want you to think as the professionals. And this is something I did with a recent training group. I want you to imagine a future where you can not only see your client and their movement, but you’re able to like zoom in to a granular level of what’s going on with their joint, and you’re able to zoom out and see the bigger picture of how that joint relates to more of their overall movement. I also want you to imagine that you can hear what they’re saying and what they’re not saying. I want you to imagine a future where you can be present enough with a person that you’re able to do those four things: Being granular is zooming in, being broader is zooming out, listening to what they’re saying and listening to what they’re not saying. So rather than listening to figure something out, just listening; rather seeing in order to fix something, you’re just seeing.
Susi 00:04:32 I want you to imagine a future where the effort that it takes to see what I call the thread between those four things starts to uncover and enables you to know exactly what you need to do. And the likewise is, as the client, the person who’s not the professional, I want you to imagine a future where you’re able to feel into a joint that’s moving. But you can also see the bigger picture of how that joint relates to all of your body. I want you to imagine a future where you can hear yourself talking with your own self. Like, what are the things that you’re saying out loud? What are the things that you’re not saying? What are your symptoms suggesting to you? Imagining that your symptoms perhaps are a communication mechanism from something deeper inside of you, and that you could listen to that and act on that, and it was safe to do so. I want you to imagine a future where that’s possible. Now, when I brought it up with the professionals in the training group, you could see them all light up and they were like: “I really, really want that.”
Susi 00:05:39 Because something else that I say, and sometimes people are a little struck by it, some have challenged me on it, I’ve done a few podcast episodes around it, is that while human beings are complex, we’ve got multiple layers. When we can grow our skill at being able to see movement both at a granular level and a broad level, when we can hear a client and what they’re saying and what they’re not saying, and do all of that at once, then it’s obvious what the next choice is for a stimulus, whether that’s movement, whether that’s breath, whether that’s mudra, whether that’s mantra, whether that’s suggesting them to do yoga or whether it’s suggesting them to do another exercise regimen or asking them what they want to do. I want you to imagine how working with a client who has physical pain, how it actually could be simpler than you know it to be today, and what that could mean for your being able to help people, and maybe for the clients who are listening to this, what if what I’m saying here today opened up this possibility that there could be a simpler response, that you could see more of the connecting features, and with perhaps a little bit of help from another professional who’s got this capacity, that you can find a way through.
Susi 00:07:08 The reason I bring this up is it’s something that I’m finding myself becoming more and more passionate about, because the current drumbeat in the scientific world is that pain is complex, and I’m not suggesting that it isn’t. There are multiple layers. What I am saying, and what kind of gets myself a little bit like “ahh” is how it lands for the clients and how that lands for the professionals working with the clients. Because if something is complex, it’s difficult to solve. But what if there are simple ways through because you’re able to go and see zooming in, zooming out, you can listen to what they’re saying. You can listen to what they’re not saying. You can be present to them. So as a result you see and perceive so much more. So to highlight these ideas, I want to bring into this conversation three of the tools that I teach inside my certification program and that I use every single day working with my clients. And it’s the matrix of movement, the client commitment blueprint and the body sensing mapping tool.
Susi 00:08:20 So when we’re thinking about the matrix of movement, the idea is that the body is a connected system, much like a matrix. There’s webs of muscles and joints and breath patterns, the nervous system, really all the systems working together. So movement doesn’t happen in isolation. It’s not one muscle. Part of the matrix can compensate. We can pull. If I just pull my sweater that I’m holding right now, if I pull it up my right shoulder, I can see the sweater pulling against my left shoulder and down to my left hip and also down to my right hip as well. So there can be strain and dysfunction elsewhere when there’s something that’s stuck, gunky, when it’s sticky. And so I like to say that pain often isn’t the problem. It is a signal that something is up. And maybe that something is up has to do with something physical. Maybe it’s upstream, or whether it’s downstream or whether it’s lateral or deeper. Because we are layered beings. Sometimes the pain’s arising and we have no idea why.
Susi 00:09:19 Something in our unconscious space doesn’t mean it’s not resolvable, though. But as we begin to move through body movement, the beauty is, is that every single human being compensates. And when a human being who has pain compensates, and I can help them reduce that compensation, they will have reduced pain. And then out of that reduction of pain, they start to recognize things they weren’t aware of. That unconscious or subconscious stuff that I just mentioned starts to bubble up into their conscious awareness. The connections between their physical and their breath, and their mental and emotional and spiritual layers starts to bubble up. So a person might come in with knee pain, and they might have a current protocol of strength in their VMO or that inner knee, or even around their knee. And as you get going, it’s not working. And you might start with, well, like hold on a second here. What’s the knee actually connected to? Well, we can see that the top of the knee, the femur is connected into the hip.
Susi 00:10:18 And we can see the bottom of the knee is connected into the tibia and that’s to the ankle. So let’s look to those areas to begin with. And then interestingly time and time again we find particularly with the hips because so many muscles that cross the knee or impact the knee also cross the hip, that when we actually improve the way the hip functions, the stability through the leg bone, that femur and the pelvis, as that becomes more stable, guess what happens with knee pain? Guess what happens with the engagement of the VMO? And that’s just one example of the movement matrix. Now, what also happens through this process, it’s not just “okay, let’s find the compensation patterns and tell you everything that you’re compensating with.” That’s not the most effective approach, because then the person that you’re working with is going to think that they’re doing everything wrong and, well, if they’re doing everything wrong and what the… like, that goes down into a whole rabbit hole of resignation and oh my God how am I ever gonna get better?
Susi 00:11:13 No, there’s an opportunity here because of your ability to be able to listen and to be able to connect and hear what they’re saying and not saying and understanding what really drives them.
Susi 00:11:25 You begin to gain an ability to speak with someone and speak in a way that they can hear. Not motivational speaking per se, but speaking in a way that connects with them. So then it becomes about educating about how the body moves. So one of the things I love doing, if we use the knee example, is when we go up to the hips and we discover that there’s some compensation patterns and we’re seeing how their leg bones are moving and their pelvis is getting all involved and their breath is holding, their jaw is getting tight, or they’re using their toes or all the myriad of things that might be happening; I get to say to them, this is awesome. Which they tend to look at me like I have three heads. And then I say, I know you’re looking at me like I have three heads, but guess what? This is where my talent lies. The fact that there is compensations here in your pelvis means that there’s a whole ton of opportunity for your knee. Let’s free this up.
Susi 00:12:20 Let’s get it working better. And guess what will happen? Likely to that VMO that the physical therapist wants to engage. You’re going to find that it starts to engage, and then you can get really rocking and rolling on the exercises that they’ve given you. So then we start to work at that pelvis in that leg bone. I teach them about how their body moves. I teach them about how that connects to their knee. I teach them about how that connects to their feet. Now it’s not going down the rabbit hole of resignation. And oh my God, my life is over. It’s oh, my body’s pretty darn cool. And look at me go. Isn’t that interesting? I now see possibility things are changing. I can do this. You see how that changes the belief. Now we’re moving out of just purely. Oh, do some exercises to shift your knee. But because we’ve met our client where they are at. Because I have done that work of connecting and of modeling a curious, excited relationship with their body and that, yes, you can do this.
Susi 00:13:17 Not from a “rah rah. Woo hoo hoo! Let’s go.” But like, just simple, like: here we are. We’re working on your mechanics. These are connected to your knee and your foot. I haven’t even talked about going upwards towards the shoulders and that’s for another episode. But they start to see possibility. And guess what happens when someone sees possibility versus when they’re in resignation? Possibility tends to be leading to more commitment to their exercises, to their process. Because they see the outcome, they see success within their reach. Now all of this has been built upon this client commitment blueprint. You might be surprised to hear that one of the most common concerns, or-slash complaints or wishes or desires from the teachers who initially come into my world when we give them a survey of “but like, where are your biggest challenges?” The number one challenge is: how do I get my people to become aware when they’re not aware? And the number two one is: how do I get people to do their exercises? How do I get someone to commit? How do I get someone to not be non-compliant? And those are all related.
Susi 00:14:27 If someone’s not aware of something, it’s very difficult, if at all possible, to change it. So we need to be able to meet them and connect with them so that they can understand how these things are all related. Not from a “I am going to tell you about your body and you must follow my instructions.” Not from a power-over position. We want to model the relationship we ultimately want them to have with their own selves. So in the Client Commitment Blueprint, we’re doing exactly that and there’s a stepwise process that I do and I teach, that I do with my clients and I teach to my trainees, that specifically walks the teacher through a process, that builds that capacity in the client to see that possibility. And it’s not that I’m going after, trying to make them see possibility. No, rather, it’s the process that I am walking them through that then has them see it. It cultivates the trust they have in their own self, in part because of the belief I have in them.
Susi 00:15:29 So this Client Commitment Blueprint becomes really, really important in how I use the body diagram, how I listen to their story, where I begin in terms of working with their movement compensation patterns and how I recognize and communicate those compensation patterns, how I zoom in and how I zoom out, how I bring those two together and explain that with my client. How I then outline a program for them, and how I often specifically avoid the word “homework” and how I put that program together and how I bring them into that process, and when they come back the next time, what I then do next. It’s all a process that’s so specifically laid out. It’s the key factor to why my clients get the results that they do. But there’s also one more piece to this that’s also vital, vital, vital. It’s the body sensing mapping tool. And we’re working on a guide that we’re going to be making available for people to explore. And it’s what I’ve talked lots and lots about around listening to the whispers. So you don’t have to hear the screams.
Susi 00:16:35 And we’re specifically using the term body sensing mapping tool because not everyone relates to the whispers and screams. I’ve also used the metaphor of yellow lights and red lights. But if someone’s been in a motor vehicle accident, using a traffic light signal often does not lead to great results. So then there’s different metaphors that people can utilize or come up with on their own that have a similar relationship. So when a client comes in, they have this red light pain or the scream that they’re wanting to resolve, although they wouldn’t call it necessarily that. But as they work through the movement matrix, as their story is listened to, as they can perceive that they are part of this healing relationship, and I am a part of this healing relationship, they’re able to feel their body more. As we move through these aspects, they’re able to tune in interoceptively and proprioceptively. They start to be able to feel what it feels like to not have pain or to have less pain. And a question that I ask them, while I have the body sensing tool out, is: so if you’re having less pain, what do you feel? They often say to me “well, I, I don’t… I don’t… it just feels like less pain.”
Susi 00:17:47 I’m like, yes. So what does that actually feel like? Can you name it? And they often look to me and say, well, I don’t know, you name it. And I’m, I can’t name it, it’s your feeling, you name it. And it’s such an interesting exploration because they’re often befuddled by it. And then a word comes up. They’re like “you know what? I feel grounded, I feel stronger, I feel lighter, I feel peace, I feel…” And whatever word they use is whatever word they use. They don’t need to describe it. They don’t need to explain it. I don’t need to understand it. It’s simply a word that describes what it is when their scream turns to a whisper, or their red light turns to a yellow. And so then I say to them, let’s move in your range now. That is your peace range, that is your strong range, that is your grounded range. And when you feel that that signal, when you feel that grounded, that strong, that peace starts to fade?
Susi 00:18:37 That’s when we stop. I’m able to walk them through this because we’ve been using this movement matrix in a very clear and specific way about them tuning in and being educated and exploring what their movement patterns are. I’ve already worked with this commitment blueprint around listening deeply so they know I’ve got their back. So now when we get into this feeling piece, they know I’m here for them. Because coming into someone’s interoceptive and proprioceptive feeling, even though it is like the fundamental, most important piece around recovery physically, it’s not the piece that people tend to think is the most important. Nobody, perhaps other than me and a few of my nerdy friends, are walking around saying “you know what? If I could just feel a bit more, I would get better.” Nobody is saying that. Feeling is a bit of a four letter word with an ING at the end. But when they feel safe, when they know I’ve got their back, when they know that I’m in it, I’ve got skin in the game, I am supporting them all the way through, they’re able to name these things.
Susi 00:19:40 They’re able to sense in. They’re able to tune in and they’re willing to go there. They start to heal on so many more layers than just the physical. And I will be the first one to say, after 30 years of helping people to reduce and recover from pain, that has to happen. If you want to get out of persistent pain, if you want your clients, if you want to help them get out of persistent pain, it’s not just on the physical level. And if you’re like me, where my training is body based, I am not a counselor. I’ve never suggested I am. I’ve been to a social worker. I’ve been to a psychologist, I’ve been to psychoanalysis. I’ve done a lot of that work. I am not that. That is outside of my scope. I am not doing any of that with my clientele. But I have a belief and I have a trust, and I have a knowing based off of 30 years of seeing people recover from persistent, chronic, long standing pain that when I can help them with this physical plane reality of how their body moves, if I can support them in feeling interoceptively and proprioceptively, guess what happens?
Susi 00:20:44 They go into the places they need to go because they feel safe and connected, relaxed and ready. And that is when the fuel just starts to work and they make their progress in a remarkably quick way. It’s a key reason all of those things I’ve just mentioned, key reason why I get the results I do. And the trainees I work with who really take these ideas on, they get the same or similar results as I do. It’s powerful. It’s really powerful. It’s step by step. It’s also quite simple, but there are tools that you need to learn, and you need to apply and gain some expertise and practice with. If this is interesting to you, if you would like a future and you’re a professional, if you would like a future where you’re able to zoom in and zoom out, listen to what they’re saying, listen to what they’re not saying, be able to take those things together? Learn how to get really, really good at educating clientele?
Susi 00:21:51 Not because you’re power over them or you know something that they don’t know, but you’re welcoming them into their body: this remarkable container of muscles and tissues and chemicals and electrical impulses, together with thoughts and emotions and spiritual connection? I would love to work with you. And we’ve got the therapeutic yoga intensive coming up. You can read all about it over at functionalsynergy.com/intensive. I’d love to see you there. Take care.
