The Thinking Practitioner Podcast

Ep 93: Whitney talks with education specialist Patti Shank on what the current research tells us about the most effective methods of learning.

Ep 92: A good question is said to be the first half of knowing. Til Luchau and Whitney Lowe compare notes on some of their favorite questions to ask clients, mentors, and themselves, as well as principles that will help practitioners craft their own good questions.

Ep 91: Employers are having a hard time finding therapists to hire. Like workers everywhere, massage and manual therapists’ relationship to employment is different than it was a few years ago. Til and Whitney talk with independent clinic and spa owners Drew Freedman and Diane Matkowsky.

Ep 90: Back pain is incredibly common, and it can be incredibly puzzling. Whitney and Til discuss their respective views on causes, types, and effective manual therapy treatment strategies for turning down the volume on back pain.

Ep 89: What’s the reality of combining learning with travel? Whitney talks with Til about his recent  educational retreat in Thailand, his teaching trip to Taiwan, and his upcoming professional continuing education retreats in Puerto Rico, on the Camino de Santiago in Spain, and around the USA. 

Ep 88: Frequency Specific Microcurrent (FSM): In this episode, Whitney talks with Shannon Goossen about treatment strategies using Frequency Specific Microcurrent (FMS).

Ep 87: Shared decision-making: In this episode, Whitney talks with Walt Fritz about key challenges in the world of manual therapy.

Ep 86: Til and Whitney talk with self-care expert Jill Miller about her new book “Body by Breath: The Science and Practice of Physical and Emotional Resilience”

Ep 85: Whitney and Til talk about acute knee ligament injuries, with Til’s recent ski accident being an apt case study.

Ep 84: Essential skills in working with veterans: In this episode, Whitney talks with Nicole Miller about her extensive work with the veterans population.

Ep 83: How do we think about our business? In this episode Whitney talks with Allissa Haines of Massage Business Blueprint about pertinent business topics such as: What’s coming up for the new year? How to get more massage and bodywork clients? How to communicate with your client’s healthcare practitioners? And much more.

Ep 82: With a quarter-million downloads to date, Whitney and Til share their top 5 episode highlights and notable ideas from their third season of interviews, conversations, and inquiries into the thinking behind effective hands-on work.

Ep 81: Is language important? Do muscles actually change length? Does posture matter? Is “fascia” a reductionist idea? Whitney and Til head straight down these rabbit holes (and more) in conversation with clinical anatomist John Sharkey.

Ep 80: What can we as bodyworkers can learn about intimacy, ethics, consent, touch, and boundaries, from people working on the other side of the no-sex “firewall” that (appropriately) separates our profession from erotic and sex work? Betty Martin is a leading author, thinker, and trainer in the field of consent and touch; listen in as she and Til talk it through. 

Ep 79: Does stiff fascia hurt because it’s stiff? Why then is there pain with the softer-tissue patterns of hypermobility and Ehlers-Danlos syndromes? Dr. Tina Wang’s fascinating research (as well as her own story) helps shed some light on this paradox.

Ep 78: Most everyone agrees that the current system of continuing professional education (CE or CPD) for massage and manual therapy has problems. Should CE requirements simply be abolished? Or is even more regulation needed? Whitney and Til think these things through and come up with individual and system-wide options.

Ep 77: Whitney has a conversation with Sandy Fritz on her vision of the current and future state of the profession.

Ep 76: Til & Whitney share their takeaways, impressions, and highlights from the recent 6th International Fascia Research Congress in Montreal.

Ep 75: Unbeknownst to us, the hosts of the ‘Hands at the Table’ podcast recorded and aired a “secret shopper” episode about one of Til Luchau’s most popular online CE classes.

Ep 74: Whitney and Til dive deep into their differing (and shared) approaches to sacroiliac joint pain, pelvic anatomy, biomechanics, and much more, all in celebration of Whitney’s recent SIJ article and Til’s upcoming live-online hands-on training.

Ep 73: Can massage and bodywork help with long-term Lyme Disease? The answer has implications for working with similar conditions such as long COVID, post-viral syndromes, and more. Til Luchau talks it through with pathology writer Ruth Werner.

Ep 72: Til talks with Cal Cates about “massage therapy’s sex problem:” how the profession’s “touchiness” about the intimacy-sensuality-sexuality continuum, however well-founded, might not be serving either our clients, nor ourselves. 

Ep 71: Fascial researcher Helene Langevin MD talks with Til and Whitney about what we know (and _don’t_ know) about the role of tissue stiffness in pain; the effects of stretching on cell function and on inflammation resolution; contextual effects and placebos; and much more.

Ep 70: Whitney and Til have an in-depth conversation with Jules Mitchell (author of Yoga Biomechanics: Stretching Redefined) about topics like tissue change, flexibility, hyper-mobility as they relate to yoga and manual therapy.

Ep 69: Legendary back pain researcher Stuart McGill (author of Back Mechanic and others) talk with Whitney and Til talk with about spinal pain, fascia, biomechanics, and more.

Ep 68: Til and Whitney compare notes about their tests and techniques for recognizing, understanding, and working with sciatica, sciatic pain, and similar conditions.

Ep 67: Til talks with Jan Sultan (one of first Rolfers trained by Ida Rolf to teach her work), about his life and work; about aging well; and about his take-aways from his ongoing COVID recovery process.

Ep 66: Til gets personal as he discusses bodywork with people living with cancer, with Janet Penny and Rebecca Sturgeon, the authors of “Oncology Massage: An Integrative Approach to Cancer Care.” They’re joined by Til’s wife Loretta Carridan Luchau, a bodyworker and therapist who has herself been living with cancer for many years. 

Ep 65: Women account for about 85 percent of Massage Therapists in the US. However, there isn’t always a corresponding representation of women as CE providers, conference headliners, or in other roles of visible leadership. Whitney and Til explore this phenomenon in discussions with three women leaders.

Ep 64: It’s no exaggeration to say that in its ten years of existence, Handspring Publishing has had a profound impact on the bodywork and movement therapy fields. Til and Whitney talk with two of Handspring’s founders about some very big recent news.

Ep 63: What makes changing our views such a challenge? Whitney and Til compare notes about how their perspectives have taken a 180° from how they used to think, and, about how that’s played out.

Ep 62: Whitney talks with Anne Williams and Eric Brown about innovations in education.

Ep 61: Whitney talks with Niki Munk about massage therapy research.

Ep 60: Whitney talks with massage therapist and physical therapy assistant Matt Gavzy about working with other professionals in a team practice, and about integrating massage therapy with physical therapy approaches.

Ep 59: Whitney and Til compare notes about some of the major influences on their own careers.

Ep 58: Til Luchau asks pioneering movement and bodywork teacher Judith Aston “Do you think being a woman ever held you back?”
Then, they talk about what she thought of that question. 

Ep 57: Whitney Lowe and Til Luchau catch up with Aubrey Gowing about the practice of massage and bodywork in Ireland. Aubrey is Senior Instructor at the Holistic College Dublin and past President of the Irish Massage Therapists Association.

56. Til Luchau and Whitney Lowe talk through their hands-on approaches to rib pain, ribcage restrictions, and related breathing issues. Includes a technique handout.

55: Til Luchau and Whitney Lowe get personal with Diane Matkowski (The Massage Mentor) about what “success” means to each of them.

54: Whitney Lowe and Til Luchau review highlights and key take-aways from their busy second season of interviews, conversations, and inquiries into the thinking behind effective hands-on work. 

53: Til and Whitney speak with fascial researcher, anatomist, and manual therapy teacher Antonio Stecco MD PhD about his research in to fascial properties, pain, and the effects of hands-on work.

52: Til interviews Whitney about his use of Orthopedic Special Tests.

51: Til & Whitney talk with Todd Hargrove of the Better Movement blog and podcast about neuroinflammation and its role in pain and health.

50: Whitney interviews Jamie Johnston and Eric Purves about how massage education differs in the U.S. and Canada; and more.

49: Whitney interviews Til about his upcoming “Three Questions About Interoception” article in Massage & Bodywork magazine.

47: Til and Whitney geek-out on conditions, anatomy, function, and biomechanics of the ankle and foot.

48: In this “Greatest Hits” rebroadcast of episode 25, Whitney and Til discuss the controversies, disagreements, considerations, and their own views on the infamous psoas muscle in manual therapy and massage. Download the handout with detailed episode notes, techniques and tests, and a special chapter from Til’s book from http://a-t.tv/ttp-psoas/ 

46: Whitney and Til unfold the controversies, compare thoughts, and share approaches for working with the iliotibial band. 

45: Til Luchau & Whitney Lowe talk with researcher and Robert Schleip about fascia, movement, and research updates in the newly released second edition of Fascia in Sport and Movement, co-edited by Jan Wilke.

44: Whitney talks to Doug Nelson about the challenges and learning experiences of a great massage career spanning over four decades. 

43: Til Luchau talks about trauma, psychedelic psychotherapy, and the body, with Marcela Ot’alora G., the principal investigator in a very promising FDA-approved study into MDMA-assisted therapy for PTSD.

42: Til and Whitney talk to Cathy Ryan RMT about her book ‘Traumatic Scar Tissue Management: Massage Therapy Principles, Practice and Protocols,’ co-authored with Nancy Keenan Smith.

41: Going For It: The Massage Mentor (with Diane Matkowski). Whitney and Til talk to Diane Matkowski (a.k.a. the Massage Mentor) to find out what gave her the chutzpah to ask 10 of her favorite massage and bodywork teachers to teach in her first online event, and then, what it was like when 600 people showed up.

40. How to (Not) Fix It (with Cal Cates): Til and Whitney talk to Healwell’s Cal Cates about how their work with death and dying brought perspective and presence to their work as a massage therapist; and to living itself.

39: How often do we think about the assumptions that inform our decisions? Til Luchau talks to writer Ruth Werner about her recent work on critical thinking skills, steps, and stages.

38: Whitney Lowe & Til Luchau give a crash course on frozen shoulder/adhesive capsulitis, discussing recent research findings and comparing their respective views and strategies. Download the free handout with detailed episode notes, techniques and tests, and join them at the upcoming Shoulder Jam event via Whitney or Til’s sign-up link.

37: Til Luchau and Whitney Lowe share their ideas, strategies, techniques, and tests for better results with the most common type of shoulder condition, subacromial pain syndrome (SAPS) and its myriad presentations, including rotator cuff pain, etc. Download the handout with detailed episode notes, techniques and tests from http://a-t.tv/ttp-saps/

36: Whitney Lowe talks with Robin Anderson about her new role as president of the Massage Therapy Foundation and how research plays an important role in our field. They also dive deep into some issues around curriculum design and the crucial importance of developing solid educational programs to ensure the future success of our field.  

35: Til Luchau and Whitney Lowe share their top resources for information and inspiration, both professionally and personally, letting us in on everything from their favorite podcasts, playlists, books, and apps, to how they recharge and find meaning in their work and in their lives.

34: Whitney Lowe and Til Luchau share trivia, tips, tests, and techniques for working with thoracic outlet syndrome (TOS), including some cool self-care methods for you and your clients. Find out why TOS is “one of the most controversial topics in musculoskeletal medicine,” and how Til and Whitney actually work with TOS symptoms in practice.

33: Dealing With Adversity (with Drew Freedman) Clinician and educator Drew Freedman talks about navigating many challenges of managing a busy clinic in the heart of Boston. The clinic was severely impacted by the Boston Marathon bombing and then again this past year during the Covid challenge. We discuss how to face adversity and how to continue looking forward and not let these challenges drag you down.

32: Bodywork pioneer Art Riggs was one of the first Certified Rolfers to publish a book about “advanced” techniques. His textbook (Deep Tissue Massage) was adopted by massage therapy programs worldwide, and as a result, his teaching and style has influenced tens of thousands massage and manual therapists in the decades since. Art talks with Til Luchau about his work, aging, self-care, and more.

31: What are cervicogenic headaches? Are they even a thing, and if so, why are they particularly amenable to manual therapy and massage? Til Luchau and Whitney Lowe discuss these questions, and share some self-care tips for you and your clients. Download the handout with detailed episode notes, techniques and tests from http://a-t.tv/ttp-cgh/

Episode topics include:
– What kinds of headaches CAN manual therapy help with?
– What’s the controversy around cervicogenic headaches?
– What kinds of self-care help?

30: What makes taking care of ourselves so hard? Til Luchau and Whitney Lowe dissect the difficulties, and share their favorite excuses for not putting their own care first.

Episode topics include:
– The five key self-care behaviors;
– The date we’re most likely to give up on our resolutions;
– Getting “internal bipartisanship” around your own self-care initiatives.

29: Til Luchau and Whitney Lowe review highlights and take-aways from the star-studded first season of their acclaimed podcast (yea, right).

Episode topics include:
– Most-Downloaded
– First Season, by Episode

28: Whitney Lowe talks with Cal Cates, executive director of Healwell. They tackle the challenging issues of how to recognize advanced training and the challenges of integrating massage into the healthcare system.

Episode topics include:
– Why is advanced credentialing important for us?
– What are some of the big challenges we face when attempting to be part of the healthcare system?
– Who is ultimately responsible for advanced credentialing?

27: Til Luchau and Whitney Lowe discuss the most famous (yet, unreplicated) illustration in neuroscience, the sensorimotor homunculus, which purports to show the proportion of the brain dedicated to each body part. Is it accurate?

Episode topics include:
– Is the cortical homunculus a map, or the territory?
– How did it come about? Penfield’s methods and limitations.
– How might this all apply to manual therapy and massage?

26: Til Luchau talks with Polish physical therapist, Anatomy Trains teacher, and manual therapist Wojtek Cackowski about his innovative Zoga Movement method, and how it can help manual therapists not only with their clients, but with their own embodiment and self care.

Episode topics include:
– Fascial shearing and gliding, vs fascial “stretching”
– What is Zoga? How does it relate to manual therapy and massage?
– Til and Wojtek’s collaborative online courses combining Zoga and Advanced Myofascial Techniques

25: Whitney and Til discuss the controversies, disagreements, considerations, and their own views on the infamous psoas muscle in manual therapy and massage. Download the handout with detailed episode notes, techniques and tests, and a special chapter from Til’s book from http://a-t.tv/ttp-psoas/

Episode topics include:
– Psoas: Holy Grail muscle, or wholly irrelevant?
– Psoas and back pain, leg length, etc.;
– Safety considerations;
– What Til and Whitney actually do in practice.

24: Whitney and Til share a treasure chest of foot-pain ideas and techniques, packed full of assessments, anatomy, concepts, and hands-on tools. Download the free (optional) handout and follow along as Til and Whitney give an audio preview of their upcoming Plantar Foot Pain collaborative webinar (part of the ABMP CE Summit).

23. Mark Bishop’s research shows that clients who think treatment will help benefit more than those who don’t expect much relief. What is more, practitioners who expect their modality will help actually get better results than practitioners who are less certain. What’s up with that?

In this episode, Til and Whitney interview manual therapist, physiotherapist and researcher Mark Bishop about his fascinating investigations into how expectations can shape results; the role of client preferences in treatment success; and how practitioners can most effectively leverage these effects.

22. Anatomist Gil Hedley discusses fascial debacles, debates, and dissection with Til Luchau.

In this episode,
– Gil Hedley’s Fuzz Speech: facts, fantasies, and furor
– Sexuality in the dissection room.
– Conspiracies: pattern of meaning, or menace?

21: Whitney and Til discuss a very common (but poorly researched) complaint: upper thoracic spine pain, and what to do about it.

In this episode,
– Does posture drive upper back pain? Does psychology?
– Breaking the Upper-Cross-Syndrome rules (and what “PhD” doesn’t really stand for).
– The Over-the-Edge technique for upper back pain.

20: Whitney and Til discuss assessment and treatment considerations unique to working with the neck and cervical region; how their respective training programs are adapting to the challenges of COVID-19; and much more.

In this episode,
– Neck issues: shifting from tissue fault to nociceptive driver
– Can we treat the neck in isolation?
– Thoughts on “text neck,” and more.

19: How do we manage risk, in a world where we don’t even agree about what the risks are? Pathology writer Ruth Werner joins Til and Whitney for a lively conversation about risk, risk tolerance, and ethical decision making in massage and manual therapy, in the face of both COVID-19, and in the differences in how we perceive the risks involved.

18: Project COPE is tracking the impact of the Covid-19 pandemic on both essential and “non-essential” healthcare practitioners, including massage therapists and bodyworkers. It’s already revealing some insights about representation and diversity in our field. Listen to learn more, and participate in the project.

17: Manual therapy and massage practitioners are voracious consumers of professional continuing education. Who should be deciding what they learn?

In this episode,
– What implications does the “medically necessary” discussion have on massage and bodywork education, CE, and credentialing?
– Why don’t Rolfers™ think they’re doing massage, anway?
– What is the post-COVID roadmap for professional continuing education?

16: Benny Vaughn, an iconic figure in massage therapy, talks with Whitney Lowe and Til Luchau about his experiences as a African American massage therapist, and offers both practical advice and deep inspiration on how manual therapists can address racism and bias in their own lives.

15: Fascia evokes widely divergent responses from manual therapists, with viewpoints ranging from “incredible” to “irrelevant.” Til Luchau talks with fascial researcher Robert Schleip PhD about his current perspectives on tissue change and the nervous system in manual therapy; fascial debates; and much more.

In this episode,
– Questioning the tissue-based narratives in manual therapy
– Putting to rest the question “How is your work misunderstood?”
– Inflammation, insula, networking, and much more.

14: A lot of hands-on therapists are wondering about “staying with it.”  Til and Whitney explore the reasons massage and manual therapy practitioners might (and might not) be thinking about quitting.

13: Inflammation is implicated in nearly all musculoskeletal complaints, including chronic pain. Til and Whitney explain this, and talk about the implications for massage and manual therapy.

In this episode,
– Are most client complaints related to inflammation? 
– What most practitioners don’t understand about inflammation,
– Key points practitioners should keep in mind,

12: Coronavirus symptoms range from mild to fatal. Though still mysterious, in many patients it seems to be the patient’s own inflammatory reactions that tip the scale. Til and Whitney explain this, and talk about the implications for massage and manual therapy.  

In this episode,
– What is the deal about COVID-19 and cytokine storms? 
– What is a cytokine, and why do I care? 
– As massage therapists and bodyworkers, where does this leave us? 

11: Does manual therapy stretch the tissues? Til and Whitney consider the history, evidence, debates and implications of this fascinating question.

In this episode,
– Myths and misperceptions about stretching,
– Are we stretching connective tissue, or nervous system?
– What does this mean for massage, bodywork, and manual therapy?

10: Whitney and Til consider the debates about tissue-based effects in manual therapy, and share their views about when it makes sense to think about the actual tissues and physical effects of hands-on works.

In this episode,
– Why would people say that the tissue doesn’t matter in manual therapy?
– Examples of tissue-based narratives; the arguments for, and against
– Til and Whitney ask each other, “What tissue effects do you think about when you’re working?”

09: Whitney and Til discuss the descending modulation of pain in manual therapy. 

In this episode,
– What is descending modulation?
– What are the implications?
– How do we use it?

08: Til and Whitney talk about the key challenges and opportunities facing manual therapy, bodywork, and massage therapy. (Part 2 of 2)

In this episode,
– Increasing the accuracy of our explanations,
– Polarization, divisiveness, and infighting within the profession,
– Consolidation and up-scaling of the bodywork “industry,” and more.

07: Til and Whitney talk about hands-on work with scoliosis.

In this episode,
– What do we know about scoliosis’ causes?
– What are some common scoliosis myths?
– When is scoliosis a problem?
– What are conventional treatments?
– What’s manual therapy’s role? And much more.

06: Til and Whitney discuss considerations for hands-on work with tendinopathies and tendon issues.

In this episode,
– What is a tendinopathy? Examples?
– Tendinitis vs.tendinosis; tenosynovitis
– What are typical signs?
– What is known about causes?
– Inflammation or degeneration?
– Collagen, paretenon, fascicles, etc,
– Nerval arborization/sprouting,
– What’s manual therapy’s role?
– Approaches, debates, consensus, and much more…

05: Whitney talks with Diana Thompson about documentation, health records, and including massage therapy in mainstream healthcare practices.

In this episode,
Introducing Diana Thompson 
– History of Hands Heal and SOAP documentation for massage therapy 
– Washington’s “every category of provider” clause
– Electronic health records and the future of clinical documentation
– and more.

04: Til and Whitney talk about the key challenges and opportunities facing manual therapy, bodywork, and massage therapy. (Part 1 of 2)

In this episode,
– Aging practitioners, younger students
– Split personality of the profession
– The epidemic of over-busyness
– Income issues
– and more

03: Til and Whitney discuss sacroiliac joint pain and hand-on therapies: causes, controversies, and considerations.

In this episode,
– What causes SIJ pain? 
– Does the SIJ move a little, or a lot? 
– What about hypermobility? 
– What are the controversies? 
– What does the research say? 
– Key considerations for manual therapists, 
– and much more.

02: In this episode, Til and Whitney interview each other about their backgrounds, histories, and current interests. (Part 2 of 2)

In this episode, Til and Whitney interview each other about their backgrounds, histories, and current interests. Part 1 of 2.

Join two of the leading educators in manual therapy, bodywork, and massage therapy, as they delve into the most intriguing issues, questions, research, and client conditions that hands-on practitioners face. Stimulate your thinking with imaginative conversations, tips, and interviews related to the somatic arts and sciences. With Whitney Lowe and Til Luchau.