To touch, or not to touch?

[noellpoff]

I was inspired to write because I had a question come up for myself.  I was working on material to teach which blends assisted stretching techniques with different functional goals in Rolfing/structural integration work.  In presenting the material to folks one of the initial reactions I get is that many health and fitness professionals, in the US at least, don’t or can’t touch their clients.  For example, a pilates teacher in Scotland said that Pilates teachers and yoga instructors weren’t allowed to and hinted that I may be asking participants to overstep their "scopes of practices" in showing them how to assist stretches.  Is that true for there?  When I gave a workshop to a handful of personal trainers in South Carolina, I asked how many of them touch their clients and no one raised their hands.  I was surprised seeing as some of these folks were pretty well trained. 

It's also been explained to me that physical therapists working in clinics in the US are only allowed to provide 5-10 minutes of hands on work during single sessions because of how medical insurance covers claims.  I've had clients come to me because their insurance ran out and their Pos exhausted all the modalities/tools they could implement to help, yet are limited how much simple hands-on mobilization work they could do for them.  I know there are legitimate reasons to remain within a scope of practice and sometimes we can get overzealous with our contact.  

I still don’t understand how, in professions where you’re essentially helping people move better, that collaborative contact can be seen as wrong in any way.  Especially, when the intention is simply to facilitate more support for a person exploring an edge in his or her own body.  I think my question for Kit and other experienced practitioners is if you’ve in some way run into a similar issue.  Are people often shy, hesitant, or resistant to provide hands-on assist?  Do you ever get criticism about assisting people with stretches or teaching the general population how to's?  What are some of the criticisms and how do you respond to them?  Thanks for your time in reading.  
 

[Kit_L]

@noellpoff

I have been treated by many massage professionals in the US who worked on my body for well over an hour at a time; similarly chiropractors and osteos. How else can they do their work?

Our work in ST headlines the use of partner stretches; we have never had any resistance to this, or any complaints, and here in Australia where Stretch Therapy is a named modality with Aon insurance, and partner stretching is explicit. So, body contact is explicit.

15 hours ago, noellpoff said:

...physical therapists working in clinics in the US are only allowed to provide 5-10 minutes of hands on work during single sessions...

This is completely at odds with my personal experience in your country and I have been worked on by many physical therapists in many states. I cannot understand your experiences, honestly. Other US-based teachers/practitioners of ST may comment further, but I ran workshops in the US a number of times a year for over ten years, and I experienced zero resistance to doing partner work.

[Jim Pickles]

I give classes as a stretch teacher in Australia (regular once a week group classes, plus occasional individual classes). Generally, my goal is minimal touching, to protect myself from potential accusations, no matter how misguided. Yes, we do partner stretches in class. I will demonstrate on one member and then assist the pairs in partner stretching - because this is all public and my class members are all older, around my age, everyone is very relaxed about that degree of personal contact. On the other hand, when I give individual classes at home, generally to much younger women when I am solo with them, I am very careful to not open myself to any potential accusations, no matter how misguided. I am also influenced by contortion teachers who I respect, who teach the most extreme poses with minimal touching - often just a light touch to elbow or ankle to guide alignment. There is one partner stretch that I routinely use that involves closer contact, which is the assisted lunge. I explain my policy ahead of the class, and ask permission explicilty before doing this stretch, and it is usually the only one like this. I have never detected any unhappiness with this degree of contact, but the last thing I want anyone to say is "the old man couldn't wait to get his hands all over me". By staying very well clear of any potential danger situations, I have found all my students very relaxed and confident.

I am also influenced by my own experience, which is that where it is possible to arrange it mechanically, I have found it more effective to use solo stretches. This way the amount of force applied can be exactly titrated to requirements, and one is able to relax into the stretch (or maybe bracing in certain places where that is needed too, while relaxing elsewhere) more effectively - there is a closer feedback loop between the effort to apply the force and the resulting stretch sensations which I have found allows you to go into the stretch more effectively.

I am in a different position from people like massage therapists and physiotherapists who have standard manipulations and a large number of professionals to back them up, so obviously my comments dont relate to those, just to someone in my situation. I just thought I'd add my views, because it is important to me, and also a matter of current discussion among contortion teachers that I know (I am not a contortion teacher by the way).

Jim.