Are they the same…? Do they achieve the same thing…? No, they are not – let me tell you something
It’s not uncommon for people who have had many years of ‘spinal adjustments’ to present at our Clinic. For years they may have had little else in the way of help for their body – just what they call ‘spinal adjustments’. Their original course of treatment may have begun after an incident of back pain, or a bad fall or whiplash accident, or something like that. Then week after week, sometimes more often and sometimes less, they have ‘gone and had their spine adjusted’. I hear a story like this regularly.
Often this treatment has helped for a while, but sometimes, after a number of visits, which can even be as few as three or four, the adjustments seem to do no more than maintain the status quo. When this happens, if they miss their weekly or fortnightly adjustment, they seem to fall apart. In the very worst of these cases, the person finds that they are deteriorating despite their adjustment! How can this happen?
By our definition, a hands-on therapy that is ‘holistic’ takes the whole body into account. That’s kind of obvious, really, because this is what ‘holistic’ means – ‘whole’. A holistic approach to therapy doesn’t look only at the spinal joints, but at other joints too, and at muscles, tendons, ligaments, fascia, internal organs, circulation, the nervous system and so on. This sort of bodywork can assess how all the parts (bones, muscles, organs etc) relate to each other. It uses hands-on techniques that are specifically aimed at the muscles, ligaments, connective tissues, joints or whatever is needed for that person on that day.
Don’t forget that when a person has a fall or whiplash, it is not just their spinal joints that are involved; every part of their body participates in the injury. For example, a person with a neck whiplash may also experience back pain, or sometimes TMJ or jaw problems. Their car safety belt may have wrenched their chest or shoulder, damaging tendons and ligaments there; a driver may have compressed his or her knee or foot as their leg was squashed down onto a brake or clutch pedal. What happened to these tendons, muscles, ligaments or joint cartilage? Do you think that your practitioner should check these too, instead of just ‘adjusting your spine’ time and time again?
