Term 2, Week 1: ... And we're back!
You thought we were done, didn't you? No, we're not even close. It's true that I dropped off writing these little nuggets of joy at the end of last term because life was sort of exploding all around me -- but it's also true that I successfully made it through first semester and have moved on to the next. And who am I to leave you hanging? Come on, you know my obsessiveness dies a lot harder than that.
I can now say that despite many odds, I rocked it, with As in all five classes and glowing reports from all sides. I moved into my new apartment after an incredibly long and stressful transition period, and am nothing but thrilled with the new setup. My roommate is a dear friend, there are a two other lovely cats here, I found a huge desk for a workstation, my room is big, and in general things are looking up. My three weeks off from school achieved a near-perfect ratio of revelry and relaxation, staying up till dawn and sleeping till noon, seeing a ton of people and hiding out by myself, doing stuff I'd been putting off and doing nothing whatsoever. Also featured were my fabulous 30th birthday and one of the best New Yearses to date -- not an especially tricky feat considering how horrid the night was last year, but still. I'm happy to say 2009's off to a mostly awesome start, thanks to some much-needed time off and so many lovely people.
And now, back to the grind. I've consolidated my work schedule so that I only work three afternoons a week, thus leaving two afternoons free for practicing on classmates and studying and session-report-writing. Which there will be even more of this term. As we speak, I'm staring down the barrel of Swedish II, Neurology, Anatomy/Physiology II, Tools for Assessment & Treatment, and Shiatsu I. (Unlike Swedish, we had to learn an entire semester of theory behind Shiatsu -- the class called Eastern Bodywork & Theory -- before we could begin learning how to structure sessions). And oh man, it's a lot. Neurology's the only lecture class, meeting two days a week and sharing a semester with AP II. The rest of them are hands-on, requiring uniforms and many hours of practice on one another.
Swedish II is the follow-up to, obviously, Swedish I. We learn more concentrated techniques, focusing on one area of the body each week and working deeper in smaller areas of tissue. Right now we're learning what's called myofascial release. Did you know that particular kinds of sustained pressure creates heat in the tissue that surrounds your muscles, which then (due to various chemical properties I won't go into) can temporarily change the shape of the tissue such that it can stretch and expand? Neither did I. It's pretty neat. It's, apparently, like Jell-O. They love their Jell-O metaphors in this school. Time management and demonstration/practice organization do not appear to be this instructor's strong suit, and we might have to call her on it if it continues. Most of us from last semester's Swedish I are in the same section of Swedish II, and we're all a little bit wtf?. Also I wish she would just cough up whatever she's got going on in her throat and stop doing that little "ahem" thing. It's really distracting. But at any rate, it's interesting stuff so far. I like that we already have the basics, and now we get to refine them so we have lots of tricks up our sleeves. So to speak.
Neurology's a little terrifying, because... well, it makes me feel like a med student or something, and it's all so microscopic and intricate and crazy. The good thing is that, unlike Anatomy "why should we give it one name when we can give it three?", whoever invented Neurology's pulled off a pretty straightforward naming structure. Things generally have one name, they're descriptive, they make sense, and they refer to properties of what they're talking about and not, like, somebody's name or something unhelpful. The other good news is that it's logical, it tells a story, and if you can just figure out a system for remembering the million bits of information as far as types of ways things connect to one another and what they're shaped like and where they go and what they do and how they make muscles move, you're pretty set. The hard part is just how much there IS. I could talk to you for ten full minutes about what happens when you pull your hand away from a hot stove. My instructor's sort of fascinating -- sort of totally cool and unflappable, looks like a really nerdy John Travolta who is also a modern dancer, doesn't take any crap from anybody but also never raises his voice no matter what happens. It's amazing how people can establish authority in group settings like that, with nary a traditional crowd-control device in sight. I've begun studying for this class in the bathtub. This is my new coping strategy. It's productive and calming at the same time.
Tools For Assessment is basically learning how to facilitate stretching and testing muscles for length and contractability on a client who's having trouble in any area. We learn chair massage in this class and will end with a little bit of sports massage, but the majority of it will be focused on gaining an in-depth practical understanding of what to ask and what to do when someone says "My [whatever] is tight/hurts/won't move." All this is to be able to put together any number of useful sessions depending on where people are at, utilizing all the ways we've been taught to help and heal. It's sort of amazingly overwhelming to think about the endless number of possibilities of things that can be wrong with people, but we will come out as prepared as we could possibly be without being, like, physical therapists. We've only had one class of Tools so far, twisting one another around on tables and learning how to instruct each other how to stretch what and where and for what purpose, and I like the instructor and think she will be fun and knowledgeable to work with.
Finally, we have Shiatsu. Like I said, this is building on Eastern Bodywork & Theory class from last term. Our instructor seems a little bit of a nervous speaker, which would seem like a bit of a contradiction, but after time she warms up and she really knows what she's talking about. A lot of my classmates (again, mostly the same folks from Eastern) don't like her much so far, or they'd rather be done with the Eastern stuff and focus on Swedish. But I really like the Shiatsu, and I'm into it. There are 5 elements of Chinese medicine, and the intersections and properties of them as they relate to the body and one another form the basis of this sort of work. In class last week we reviewed the Water element, which relates to the bladder and kidney, and all the dysfunctions and symptoms that are associated with it as well as its meridian and point locations. Then we practiced some Shiatsu on one another, focusing on those 2 meridians, and it felt really good. I like that we have this class on Fridays. I'm excited for it, and I think it will be a great way to start the weekend.
So that's it for me for now... off to do a couple of mindless things and then take a bath and study more Neurology. I'm so not kidding. I armed myself with like eight different bottles and packets of bubble bath flavors today, and I aim to make this an ongoing practice this winter.
Thanks for following along so far, and there'll be more next week!
love,
b
I can now say that despite many odds, I rocked it, with As in all five classes and glowing reports from all sides. I moved into my new apartment after an incredibly long and stressful transition period, and am nothing but thrilled with the new setup. My roommate is a dear friend, there are a two other lovely cats here, I found a huge desk for a workstation, my room is big, and in general things are looking up. My three weeks off from school achieved a near-perfect ratio of revelry and relaxation, staying up till dawn and sleeping till noon, seeing a ton of people and hiding out by myself, doing stuff I'd been putting off and doing nothing whatsoever. Also featured were my fabulous 30th birthday and one of the best New Yearses to date -- not an especially tricky feat considering how horrid the night was last year, but still. I'm happy to say 2009's off to a mostly awesome start, thanks to some much-needed time off and so many lovely people.
And now, back to the grind. I've consolidated my work schedule so that I only work three afternoons a week, thus leaving two afternoons free for practicing on classmates and studying and session-report-writing. Which there will be even more of this term. As we speak, I'm staring down the barrel of Swedish II, Neurology, Anatomy/Physiology II, Tools for Assessment & Treatment, and Shiatsu I. (Unlike Swedish, we had to learn an entire semester of theory behind Shiatsu -- the class called Eastern Bodywork & Theory -- before we could begin learning how to structure sessions). And oh man, it's a lot. Neurology's the only lecture class, meeting two days a week and sharing a semester with AP II. The rest of them are hands-on, requiring uniforms and many hours of practice on one another.
Swedish II is the follow-up to, obviously, Swedish I. We learn more concentrated techniques, focusing on one area of the body each week and working deeper in smaller areas of tissue. Right now we're learning what's called myofascial release. Did you know that particular kinds of sustained pressure creates heat in the tissue that surrounds your muscles, which then (due to various chemical properties I won't go into) can temporarily change the shape of the tissue such that it can stretch and expand? Neither did I. It's pretty neat. It's, apparently, like Jell-O. They love their Jell-O metaphors in this school. Time management and demonstration/practice organization do not appear to be this instructor's strong suit, and we might have to call her on it if it continues. Most of us from last semester's Swedish I are in the same section of Swedish II, and we're all a little bit wtf?. Also I wish she would just cough up whatever she's got going on in her throat and stop doing that little "ahem" thing. It's really distracting. But at any rate, it's interesting stuff so far. I like that we already have the basics, and now we get to refine them so we have lots of tricks up our sleeves. So to speak.
Neurology's a little terrifying, because... well, it makes me feel like a med student or something, and it's all so microscopic and intricate and crazy. The good thing is that, unlike Anatomy "why should we give it one name when we can give it three?", whoever invented Neurology's pulled off a pretty straightforward naming structure. Things generally have one name, they're descriptive, they make sense, and they refer to properties of what they're talking about and not, like, somebody's name or something unhelpful. The other good news is that it's logical, it tells a story, and if you can just figure out a system for remembering the million bits of information as far as types of ways things connect to one another and what they're shaped like and where they go and what they do and how they make muscles move, you're pretty set. The hard part is just how much there IS. I could talk to you for ten full minutes about what happens when you pull your hand away from a hot stove. My instructor's sort of fascinating -- sort of totally cool and unflappable, looks like a really nerdy John Travolta who is also a modern dancer, doesn't take any crap from anybody but also never raises his voice no matter what happens. It's amazing how people can establish authority in group settings like that, with nary a traditional crowd-control device in sight. I've begun studying for this class in the bathtub. This is my new coping strategy. It's productive and calming at the same time.
Tools For Assessment is basically learning how to facilitate stretching and testing muscles for length and contractability on a client who's having trouble in any area. We learn chair massage in this class and will end with a little bit of sports massage, but the majority of it will be focused on gaining an in-depth practical understanding of what to ask and what to do when someone says "My [whatever] is tight/hurts/won't move." All this is to be able to put together any number of useful sessions depending on where people are at, utilizing all the ways we've been taught to help and heal. It's sort of amazingly overwhelming to think about the endless number of possibilities of things that can be wrong with people, but we will come out as prepared as we could possibly be without being, like, physical therapists. We've only had one class of Tools so far, twisting one another around on tables and learning how to instruct each other how to stretch what and where and for what purpose, and I like the instructor and think she will be fun and knowledgeable to work with.
Finally, we have Shiatsu. Like I said, this is building on Eastern Bodywork & Theory class from last term. Our instructor seems a little bit of a nervous speaker, which would seem like a bit of a contradiction, but after time she warms up and she really knows what she's talking about. A lot of my classmates (again, mostly the same folks from Eastern) don't like her much so far, or they'd rather be done with the Eastern stuff and focus on Swedish. But I really like the Shiatsu, and I'm into it. There are 5 elements of Chinese medicine, and the intersections and properties of them as they relate to the body and one another form the basis of this sort of work. In class last week we reviewed the Water element, which relates to the bladder and kidney, and all the dysfunctions and symptoms that are associated with it as well as its meridian and point locations. Then we practiced some Shiatsu on one another, focusing on those 2 meridians, and it felt really good. I like that we have this class on Fridays. I'm excited for it, and I think it will be a great way to start the weekend.
So that's it for me for now... off to do a couple of mindless things and then take a bath and study more Neurology. I'm so not kidding. I armed myself with like eight different bottles and packets of bubble bath flavors today, and I aim to make this an ongoing practice this winter.
Thanks for following along so far, and there'll be more next week!
love,
b