The Power of Words and Self Learning

The most common feedback I get from my coaching and teaching is things like, I’m very articulate, I’m clear and precise, I’m intentional, and the student feels muscles they’ve never felt before in their body. Some of this is personality, and some of this is learned. All of it comes in handy when you’re teaching through computer screens.

Many of my clients were skeptical of Zoom sessions, and a few decided they’d rather see me in person or not at all. But now that we’re a couple of months in, I’ve discovered the transition to be much easier than I anticipated. The biggest contributing factor is that I’ve never relied on manual touch or adjustments to work with clients or students, so the skill of learning to use words well has come in handy.

I’ve had many students in the past ask why I don’t give big hands-on adjustments (small adjustments being a light touch in a specific place for proprioceptive feedback so the student/client can better sense her/his body in space. Therefore a big adjustment in this case refers to me actually moving one’s body). There are several answers. The first one involves yoga culture, the history of physical adjustments in yoga, and potentially harmful psychological and sexual implications of touching someone to deepen their physical sensation as well as the power dynamics involved in that. (You can read anything by Matthew Remski if you’re interested, as it’s a huge—important—rabbit hole topic, and I won’t be delving into it any further here.) The second reason is that if someone can’t get into a position on her/his own, I’m not interested in forcing that position with my bodyweight. I have heard countless stories of students getting injured by their yoga teachers. (This is also a gigantic topic, not unrelated to the first topic, where trust and power dynamics are key players when it comes to working with the body whether you’re a yoga teacher, a massage therapist, or a surgeon.)

Most importantly for me, however, is the lost learning opportunity when someone does something for you. This goes with anything. What if you were trying to solve a math problem? Having someone give you the answer without explaining to you how to get there isn’t helpful. I was taking some Arabic lessons over the winter and one of the things my teacher would do with me is run through vocabulary. He would give me the word and provide me with the definition. Let’s just say that I didn’t learn very quickly that way. What would have been more helpful was if he would use the word in different sentences and in different contexts to allow me to extrapolate the meaning of that word on my own. What about using massage as treatment for a “dysfunction” like tight hips? Don’t get me wrong, I LOVE massages, but they’re not teaching me about how to use my body differently so that my hips aren’t tight anymore, they just feel good. I’ll call these passive modalities. There is nothing wrong with them, at all. In fact, many times they’re exactly what we’re looking for. However, since the essence of my work revolves around empowering people to feel comfortable navigating their bodies, learning IS the essential component of that process and cueing people into exploration and adjusting themselves to feel things differently is how I tend to do it.

In a recent workshop I took with Jenn Pilotti, I learned about something called Self-Directed Learning Theory. SDL is a more active approach in which the student sets the goals, the pace, the level of engagement, and ultimately the degree to which she/he can integrate what’s been learned on her/his own. The stages of learning go something like this: initial dependency on the teacher, cultivated interest and curiosity in the material, increased engagement, and fully self directed. This entire process is the basis for empowering someone to navigate her/his body well through daily life and the basis of my work with one-on-one clients especially. In this model, strong hands on adjustments (not including light touch for proprioceptive feedback) would interfere with the learning process.

One of the principles of SDL is that the student has to choose to participate in this process.  I’ve been intuitively drawn to educators over the past four years who teach this way (likely without realizing there was a formal theory explaining their approach.) Not everyone cares to engage in this active learning process, and that’s ok . . .

Until there’s pain. In the world of one-on-one care for musculoskeletal health, working to decrease pain is an active process most of the time, particularly when dealing with long term alleviation of chronic pain. Pain is an alarm system, signaling us to change something about our behavior. Coaches, trainers, and physical therapists may guide us to notice what changes need to be made, which areas need strengthening, and guide us through the process, but only we as individuals can actually change our behaviors.  It’s been well studied that things like massage, chiropractic adjustments, physical therapy manipulations, and other manual therapies (passive healing modalities) are not long term solutions (Bialosky et al, 2008, Clar et al 2014, Schleip 2003). Therefore, to try to alleviate chronic pain is to engage in an active process of inquiry, self reflection, and change. Only you can change your sleep schedule, the way you walk up the stairs, or do an exercise that will strengthen your hips. My job is to guide you through my words, your job is to make the change through your actions.

I joined a webinar hosted by a well respected chiropractor, Craig Liebenson. His guest was one of the world’s leading pain science researchers, Lorimer Moseley. Hundreds of doctors, physical therapists, trainers, and other physical educators from around the world were tuned in. The discussion revolved around the benefit of telehealth in that it encourages clients and patients to be more involved in their pain care process. The discussion revolved around a meta-analysis that came out a few years ago found that Telehealth was as effective as in-person care. For those who’ve been depending on manual therapies for chronic pain solutions, I may argue that telehealth has the potential to be more effective.

So I guess you could say that in order to uphold the principles of learning and teaching that I strongly believe in, a specific and intentional use of words grew more and more necessary. Words that clearly help students transition through movements, become aware of parts of their bodies they may not ordinarily ever notice, and establish relationships whereby students/clients feels supported in their learning process and empowered by the result. I once had a family member tell me that it was too bad I didn’t choose to become a journalist/news anchor or something that involved my knack for communication. Here I am now, being more thoughtful, precise and intentional with my words than I may have ever been.

Next time you’re in a class, or working with someone one-on-one in any context, pay attention to the guide’s choice of words, where they take you, and how they make you feel. What did those words do for you?

keep moving.

xoxo