May 2007

Today I’ve been planning this years’ order of events, or at least how I hope things will go. Trying to get a view of the big picture. I was distracted by an email coming in. This is always a good moment for me as it carries the seeds of possibility, anything could happen, everything could change! And in some ways it did. The email was from Danni.

Danni’s a client I’d been working with over the last year. Today, she’d been sitting at home doing much the same thing as I was, reviewing the last year and looking forward at this one. She was clearing up some things she’d meant to get done but hadn’t quite got round to before the year got into full swing. I’d forgotten that I’d asked her to note down some thoughts about how her postural patterning was going. I often ask people to do this as it’s a good way of getting feedback but mostly as it encourages people to formally look at the process and take stock as they find the right words. They don’t have to share their writing with me and it always remains confidential but Danni specifically said she’d like to share what she’d written in her email in the hope that it might help others. Here’s what she wrote:

I’ve had a lot of pain in different places over the years from using my back poorly. I’d looked in lots of places for help; for my neck, back, OOS. I got some relief for some of the problems along the way, but the pain in my vulva was what made me desperate and it was very hard to find any help for this. It’s been a very long and still incomplete journey to reduce the vulval pain that I’ve suffered for the last two and a half years. I’ve been repeatedly misdiagnosed and ineffectively medicated. Some days it was so miserable I couldn’t walk and stayed in bed. By the time I saw Nik, I was taking a variety of pillows and cushions everywhere I went just to be able to sit to do everyday activities, including work. Even with the cushions I was still not able to sit for very long and it was exhausting. To say it was embarrassing is a complete understatement. I’m still working on my posture but I feel more in control. I’ve lost the fear I had that the condition would randomly incapacitate me again. I now understand why it occurs and can do something about it. I no longer need any cushions, and I’m back to a more normal lifestyle – I don’t turn down social invitations just because I can’t sit for long. I’m also reducing the pain in other areas as well. It took me a long time to find the help I needed and I suffered a lot of unnecessary pain. I thoroughly recommend Nik and hope that other women start working with him earlier than I did if they experience this kind of pain.

Working with peoples’ health and wellbeing is a privilege that I’m reminded of everyday. As with most jobs it has successes and some results that could be better. Danni’s a success story and I certainly like the validation her comments give me but the reasons for her success and my pleasure in it aren’t as straight forward as the reduction of pain and improvement in lifestyle. When I first heard from Danni she’d rung me about an appointment and when I asked what the nature of her problem this is what she said “I have pain in my vulva all the time and it’s not getting any better!” I was really impressed that this woman, who only knew me through a friends recommendation, was prepared to state her problem in such a confident and matter of fact way. I knew that this sort of honesty is not easily come by and it bespoke someone who owns her situation and is ready for change. This is a powerful place for anyone to be and people who are as ‘knowing’ as this always do well. It’s exciting to work with them.

When I was assessing Danni a few days later I found many of the same loadings and imbalances as I expect to see in women over 30, or under 30 for that matter! She had an increased lumbar curve, dropped her head forward and stood on her heels as so many people do. The thing about Danni was that she was still standing like this after lots of treatment with lots of people from massage and physios to neuro surgeons and she still had her pain without any real diagnosis. She had a name for the condition, vulvodynia. This name is simply a Latin description of the problem – vulva pain, it’s not very much more useful than ‘sore throat’. What she didn’t have was an understanding of the cause of the problem and a pathway to fixing it. That was because there isn’t one. There is no definitive cure or prescribed method and Danni had tried everything offered before ending up with me and postural patterning. No wonder she was feeling desperate!

I must say that I like seeing people who have had lots of other work done to them. Usually they’re ready to move forward and make the changes necessary. Rather than feeling daunted by the size and seriousness of the problem Danni presented I was intrigued. The process of postural patterning is to guide people from their unconscious, unbalanced postural habit to a new, balanced posture. As this process unfolds many of the symptoms that people have been experiencing improve or disappear. This is the result of the strain and loading their bodies have been carrying becoming more evenly distributed and well supported. There’s no magic trick or miracle cure, it just requires a person to stop unconsciously aggravating their body in the same way all the time. That’s what posture is for. Our bodies work best in their optimal positions as they constantly work against gravity. ‘Good posture’ is when they’re doing this well and efficiently. Bad posture causes problems.

You’d think there’d be no mystery about this but it seems to be a hidden truth, an ‘elephant in the room’. In some ways the process with Danni was the same as with everyone else. Find the imbalance and use exercises and awareness to move towards a central balanced postural position. Danni’s situation was complicated and entrenched. She’d previously experienced OOS, which is an inflammatory condition of muscles, tendons and nerves. These were the same causes for her present problem and the same reason it was so easy to aggravate her condition. It was easy to make it worse and slow to respond. Taking the load off the affected areas muscles and joints is a fairly quick process but allowing the nerves to relax and recover is more difficult due to the inflammation and has a less predicable result. It takes a lot of commitment and awareness. The fact that Danni improved so well is a testimony to the consistent effort she put into ‘unloading’ her problem and supporting her body in a better pattern. It’s an ongoing effort and will continue to improve as she manages and understands her particular set of challenges better.

Looking after your own body is a never ending process, as it should be. Taking care of yourself should be your own responsibility – but you have to know how. That’s where postural patterning comes in. The process of caring for your body should go on for as long as you live in your body – but once you know and understand how to do it you don’t need more treatment. Danni comes to the free classes every now and then to check where she’s up to and occasionally for a session if she can’t resolve something herself. But, from being the desperate woman with nowhere left to turn she is now a self monitoring, self managing woman who understands her problem and is continuing to resolve it.