An update from our Australian Posse leader Robyn Lambird:
Robyn Lambird (center) at the 2014 Junior National Wheelchair Basketball Championships
Since first seeing the trailer for Enter the Faun I have been immensely intrigued by the techniques used by Tamar and Gregg. From then on I have read multiple books and watched countless talks on neuroplasticity and have found myself more and more invested in learning about this little old brain of mine. So needless to say I was very excited when I began Skyping Tamar to learn how I could apply these techniques to my own body.
However, doing this over the 2D environment that is the internet is challenging to say the least, turns out making brain to body connections is difficult without having anybody physically in front of you to demonstrate. Don’t get me wrong Tamar is excellent at describing specific parts of the body and how she wants me to adjust them but what feels right to me, probably isn’t quite as right as it should be, I mean that’s why I contacted Tamar in the first place. I can only imagine how hard it is for Tamar to judge if I am doing what she intended as well, how is she supposed to tell if my clavicles are even, or I have the right amount of curve in my lower spine, when all she can go off is the flat, two dimensional image on the screen.
Tamar and Robyn Skype Bodywork Session
Through all my years going to physiotherapy I know how beneficial it can be to be physically guided into the right position rather than just being told what to do. It gives you a chance to feel how you got there, to feel what is ‘normal’ rather than just assuming you have done it right. However in saying this, I believe I have already gained a lot from the sessions I have spent working with Tamar. I’ve learnt to be more aware of my body and to be more observant of the way I hold myself (and how others do to!).
Getting other people involved in the process has been helpful too, although mum’s probably sick of me asking her asking how my clavicles are looking. It’s easy to slip back into old habits, to go back to what comes naturally, so I’m thankful when I’m to “stop walking like a drunken sailor” and think about how my shoulders are swaying even if I’d rather be thinking about what’s for dinner.
Anyways that’s all from me and I look forward to the next session with Tamar, even if I do end up feeling like a goof ball because I can’t tell if I’m rocking my pelvis right. If this was going to be easy no one would have a CP pimp limp would they.
Very nice post guys! My Posse tried to teach each other things via Skype and had very similar issues. One way that we were able to work around some of this was to film ourselves on camcorder or cell phone video and send each other the videos via google drive or dropbox to get a better view of our alignment and/or the body directions. Maybe the Australian Posse and Robyn can try this? That being said being “guided” by Gregg or somebody else is always a world better than video, especially when you can’t feel your shoulder blades or clavicles very well. The CP has it’s own sense of aligned movement since we were born with it and have no other feeling reference of how able bodied people can move so we have to learn from scratch what other movements feel like. Once I learned what alignment felt like my body would give me little alerts like “Your knee is too far over.” Looking forward to my next session whenever it happens to be too. 🙂