Embodied Being: The Philosophical Roots of Manual Therapy

As a professional counselor, massage therapist and fan of Somatic Ontology and Mind Body Zen, I was eager to read Embodied Being: The Philosophical Roots of Manual Therapy. As a chronic consciousness junkie, I’d been craving yet another of Dr. Maitland’s mind-bending, high-energy cerebral workouts, and his latest book does not disappoint! He has mastered the fine art of pushing readers to the edge of their comfort zones, and this reader is no exception. Like a hot Vinyasa yoga kriya or a cool set of Zazen meditation, it only hurts if you think too much. Did I mention Dr. Maitland is a former philosophy professor, Advanced Rolfer and Zen monk? Prepare for an exhilarating leap of consciousness, Grasshopper! When you surrender and allow his wise words to wash over you, you can feel the compassion he transmits from his core.Embodied Being is possibly Dr. Maitland’s most inspired and inspirational work. It is not just for manual therapists, it is for any practitioner who wants to elevate their assessment and intervention skills to new levels of effectiveness. It is also for anyone who suffers and yearns to feel free and at ease in your body and at home in the world. In Chapter 1, Dr. Maitland begins by contrasting symptom-focused corrective manual therapy, which is views the body as an assemblage of parts, with holistic therapy, which treats body, mind and spirit as a unified whole. As a corrective manual therapist, I flashed back on Firesign Theatre’s Everything You Know Is Wrong. Don’t take it personally! Dr. Maitland is intensely passionate about creating therapeutic models that actually work.In Chapter 2, he poses three questions every therapist must ask: What do I do first? What do I do next? When am I finished? From Rolfing, he distinguishes order thwarters as dysfunctional somatic, cognitive and emotional patterns that adversely affect how we think, feel, move and perceive the world. He presents an idea familiar to mystics and energy healers: we can learn to “see” holistically, with our feeling nature, perceiving what he terms phenomenological energy. Effective therapy depends on accurate assessment and intervention in Five Categories of Assessment: structural, geometric, functional, energy and psychological.In Chapters 3 and 4, he dispels confusion about what constitutes a principle in clinical decision-making, delineating Six Principles of Intervention for optimal client functioning. Such clarity of thinking about fundamentals characterizes Maitland's style. If you have a brilliant philosophical mind like his that delights in hairsplitting distinctions, you’ll appreciate this part. If you’re like me, a simple-minded practitioner who gets easily bored, you might want to trust his infallible logic and skip to the list of principles.Chapter 5 introduces the term psychobiological orientation to denote a person’s structural, functional, energetic, and psychological way of being in the world. (This is a revision of what he terms psycho-spatial, psycho-temporal reality in Somatic Ontology.) In a psychobiological assessment, the practitioner integrates cognitive, sensory and feeling-nature, to know the client “by feeling them in yourself.” This could be a conceptual stretch unless you’ve meditated with gurus, experimented with controlled substances or read lots of Heinlein, which I have, so I loved it.In Chapter 6, Dr. Maitland’s inner philosophy professor steps up to the lectern and shines as he employs clear, simple language to examine how our culture’s default worldview, Descartes’s metaphysical dualism, which views mind and matter as mutually exclusive, renders holistic mind-body interaction impossible. To counteract the Cartesian worldview, he introduces the philosophy of phenomenology and its key players. In Chapter 7, he invites us to “see like a Rolfer,” and details a three-step exercise to develop enhanced perception. In Chapter 8, he deftly debunks Descartes’s incommensurability thesis to prove the body is sentient, reflexive (capable of sensing itself sensing), conscious, and therefore not an object.In Chapter 9, he introduces a number of Rolfing terms, including spacial masses, orthotropism, palintonic symmetry, and the necessity of unbinding a client’s “morphological potential” by creating a “clearing” to allow the client’s self-organizing sentient body to “come into being.” In Chapter 10, he mirrors holistic and aesthetic perception as participatory ways of being that reveal beauty and universally subjective “felt truths.” He reiterates the intertwined relationship of cognitive and somatic order-thwarters, asserting, “The body cannot be ignored in counseling or therapy of any kind.” I trust that the Rolfers, osteopaths and phenomenologists in the audience will totally get this part and be enthralled. For me, these chapters were like the part of the yoga class where the instructor challenges you to touch your toes and you can barely reach your shins. Just surrender, do your best, and don’t worry if you don’t get every word the first time around. Dr. Maitland’s circular style of writing, like a Zen koan, conveys knowledge on multiple levels of awareness.Chapter 11 commences what I see as the book’s shavasana, or meditative integration portion. He discusses the potential of holistic manual therapy to open people to spiritual or “numinous” dimension. Be on the lookout for aha moments and blissful sensations in your sentient being as your subconscious integrates. Chapter 12 concludes our journey with a call to freedom and two implicit challenges: first, to become impeccable, creative practitioners whose work is effortless and inspired, and second, to awaken from a detached, anesthetic way of being and trust our sentient being’s intelligence. Says Maitland, “When somebody wakes up to the way things truly are and finds his or her place in all this, he develops the ability to know the love that penetrates the cosmos.” It is with this deep, embodied love that he writes this book. Embodied Being has inspired me personally and professionally, and I recommend it highly to anyone..

For many years, friends and business associates had been urging me to go see Dr Maitland for Rolfing, but somehow I never got around to it, even though they all said his method was gentle and effective, and even though his office was only a couple miles from where I worked.I'd been hearing about Rolfing since the 1970s, and frankly, although those who had undergone a course of treatment had visibly improved and swore by its effectiveness, these earliest adopters also confirmed its initial reputation as painful. Fortunately that's no longer true, especially if your Rolfer is Jeffrey Maitland. And fortunately for me, over the past three years I've had about a half-dozen treatments per year by Dr Maitland for various discomforts. I can report that never have I felt any pain during or after his sessions, and any pain I had brought with me to an appointment was quickly disappeared. I was, and still am, completely amazed.A good example is a recent session that also partially describes what this book is about. I had awakened one morning with my lower back "out", a condition from many years ago that had not revisited me until that morning. Call it coincidence, but I already had an appointment scheduled with Dr Maitland for that very afternoon. (Hmmm...What did my body know that I didn't?) Even so, I tried the stretching and other exercises I had learned years ago in the ordinary post-auto-accident physical therapy, but with no relief.A few moments after entering Dr Maitland's office, he asked me to point out the area in pain, then had me face him. He placed his fingertips from both hands on the lower portion of my sternum, then asked me to slowly lean toward him so that my weight increased the pressure against his fingertips. After only a minute or so, he asked me to stop leaning and simply stand up straight. "How does that feel?" he asked. Feels fine, I said. For good measure, I twisted my torso back and forth and side to side to test its limits. Wow--Not even a twinge of discomfort! And to this day, not even a twinge. Obviously he knew exactly what to do and where to do it...and it did not even involve touching my back or arms or legs or neck. How did he do that?It's not a secret. You will find the answer in this book, whether or not you are a body worker. And especially if your work involves bodywork, you will feel eternally grateful for what you will learn. It's likely to be transformational for you.Another example: I had broken my right arm at the wrist about 14 months ago, requiring surgery and an extensive course of required physical therapy. After a few months, that therapy staff began hinting strongly that my limited level of recovery was all I should expect. So shortly after I left there, I went to see Dr Maitland. In a single session, he located a particular spot in the palm of my right hand and applied firm pressure for a little more than a minute, then asked me if that helped. Yes! I had immediately gained almost 10 percent greater range-of-motion. He then seemed to invent, on the spot, a technique that I could continue to use on my own, in which I use my opposite elbow to apply the pressure. It works, and my range of motion has continued to expand. How does he do that?You will find the answer in this book. In fact, you will 'grok' the answer in this book (a reference for fans of Heinlein's 'Stranger in a Strange Land'.) And even if 'grokking' is not your thing, I can promise you will 'get' it.Thank you, Dr. Maitland.

Once again, Dr. Maitland has written a masterpiece venturing into the realm of perception and holism. In clear and concise language he takes the reader-practitioner along a path of discovery highlighting and exploring unique ways to “SEE” holistically.Throughout this book, Dr. Maitland compares the ability to appreciate a work of art, or the beauty of a natural setting with the ability to orient and perceive integrated wholeness within an individual. As a practitioner cultivates an orientation beyond traditional 'subject – object' or 'cause –effect' dualism, the beauty and health of structural integration reveals itself.Dr. Maitland also stresses the misunderstandings of the word ‘holism’ in current thought. Holism is more than massaging the entire body or taking an herbal remedy for a cold. Holism is an orientation to a 3 dimensional lived experience of ‘our-body-self’ in relation to and in communication with the environment and one another. Seeing and working from a holistic orientation dramatically shifts intention, strategies and outcome of a Rolfing® session. As a practitioner Rolfing Structural Integration® for over 34 years, Embodied Being is a must read for practitioners wishing to refine, deepen and educate dynamic perception and touch.Carol A Agneessens, MS. Rolfing® Instructor.