Intuition

[Judas Rabbi]

I just posted this to my blog and I hope to get your opinion.

intuition
–noun
1. direct perception of truth, fact, etc., independent of any reasoning process; immediate apprehension.
2. a fact, truth, etc., perceived in this way.
3. a keen and quick insight.
4. the quality or ability of having such direct perception or quick insight.
5. Philosophy .
a. an immediate cognition of an object not inferred or determined by a previous cognition of the same object.
b. any object or truth so discerned.
c. pure, untaught, noninferential knowledge.
(from http://www.dictionary.com)

What does the word intuition mean to you? I hear it all too often, both in the therapy world, as well as in public. The impression most seem to have is that intuition represents an ability to “know” without having information to back it up. Intuition, or being intuitive, seems to be used as a badge by many, therapists included. What it appears to me is ego getting the best of them.

In my treatment room, I often make observations or decisions which leave my clients asking if I’m intuitive. DEFLECT, DEFLECT,DEFLECT! I can take a compliment as well as the next person, maybe even better, but I claim no higher or deeper power. To me intuition is simple. I’ve evaluated and treated patients for over 25 years. I’ve made observations, guesses, and decisions, based on my prior experiences mixed in with patient reports and feedback. I’ve had years to see if I was correct in my guesses and, if incorrect, make changes to how I view the body. Each interaction hones this ability, making mistakes along the way, but correcting my course and moving in a better path. At this point, when someone says “I hurt here and it happens when I do this”, I am pretty accurate in knowing where to start treatment.

I feel what most therapists view as a special talent, or intuition, is nothing more than what experience has taught them. There is too much mysticism in Myofascial Release (and massage) already. Honor your knowledge and experience. Leave your ego at the door.


http://www.waltfritzseminars.com/blog/

 

[mxxoxoxo]

Intuition

Walt, thank you for sharing those thoughts with us.

I've thought about this quite a bit over the last few years. Once you've learned how to do something (ride a bike, ski, type without looking at the keys and so on.............) that knowledge is always in your brain. You don't have to stop and actively think about what you're doing, you just do it. I have in my head all of the knowledge of anatomy and physiology. It also contains all of my experience. My brain knows that when I've seen someone in the past with xyz symptoms that doing such and such seems to bring about good results. I don't need to actively work it out, I can just do it because my brain knows. I can see how to some people this would seem like intuition but it's not, it's just the wonderful way our brains work.

At least that's my 2 cents,
Angie

 

[Pompal 09.]

Intuition

Without attempting to step on toes, being "intuitive" seems to me to be a magical cloak that many love to wear. It is fed by many teachers who I believe feel that by empowering their student with these powers, they claim a loyal following.

I have met people who, to me, truly possess an ability to see beyond what is visible. They stun me with their accuracy, or at least with the in-the-moment observations they make. I sometimes wonder where the stuff that I see or feel comes from, but I will stay in the experiential camp for now.

 

[Mr. Peanut]

Intuition

Oh I truely believe that there is intuition. Once when my son was in elementary school I was out running errands and I just knew that my son needed me. This was long before the days of cell phones so there was no way to get ahold of me. I went to a pay phone and called the school and sure enough they had been trying to reach me as my son was sick and needed to be picked up.

But....I also think that what is sometimes attributed to intuition is simply knowledge that we have that we can unconsciencely connect to and use.

Angie

 

[magul]

Intuition

I agree with you both. Yes, people are intuitive- everyone is. Some people might be better at recognizing it, but in my experience, people who try to "push" their intuition are often just dredging up their own past and experiences. A prime example of this was when I was getting a massage from a lady who didn't really have any formal training and claimed to be very intuitive with her massage. While she had some really great techniques and most of her massage felt nice physically, she started doing very intense, deep work on my low back. It hurt, I clenched up, asked her to go lighter, and this is what she said:

But this will be really good for you because you need to learn to let your emotions go. I can tell from some of these knots that you've been in extreme emotional turmoil for years from your past!

*Feeling very uncomfortable at this point (bruises forming, awkward conversation)..*
"Um.. My past?"

Yes, I work with a lot of domestic and sexual abuse victims, so I just know when someone gets on my table what they've gone through, and I can tell you've been a sexual abuse victim. It's okay to stop making your muscles guard your emotions from it!

Excuse me?!? :shocked: By the time this session was over, I had some very (unwanted) in-depth knowledge of her issues with abuse in her past and 3 failed attempts at correcting her. Even if this had been true, her "intuition" still would have been extremely offensive and uncomfortable to me. She brought SO much counter-transference to that session that I felt sick afterwords (not helped by the fact that I could barely walk).
If you have great intuition, that's fine, good for you. I think I just prefer to be oblivious and not know about it.
t012

 

[Dogshowfreak]

Intuition

Taoist,

I believe that this is the same nauseating take on intuition that prompted me to make this post.

Moogie,

Without a doubt we get those "hits" out of nowhere. Honor and respect them. But taking experience and knowledge to an extreme to foster ones own ends is simply feeding of the ego.

 

[Kelsi]

Intuition

For some reason that reminds me of humility. Once you think you've got it, you lost it!

 

[Ann O]

Intuition

Intuition may also just be the level of awareness one has of their surroundings.

Walt wrote: "I feel what most therapists view as a special talent, or intuition, is nothing more than what experience has taught them. There is too much mysticism in Myofascial Release (and massage) already. Honor your knowledge and experience. Leave your ego at the door."

Very true! So many clients think I have "magic hands" b/c I can find the areas of tension easily, but I explain to them it's just from years of experience and work. All great skill is based on practice and experience, it may look easy to the outsider but is based on years of hard work and dedication.

It's also a point of contention with me when mt's go the route of playing counselor. I find it annoying and definitely out of our scope. A few years ago I'd met an advanced MFR practitioner who was very skilled in her work and she took me "under her wing" and invited me to join her in her sessions to apprentice and she didn't charge me for it. I learned a lot and it was a fantastic opportunity but unfortunately she included plenty of emotional advice along with her work---like "your low back is really tight, where in your life aren't you feeling supported?" Although she was really good and people flew in from out of state and paid thousands of $$ for her work, I ended that relationship b/c I didn't agree with that type of work and that it is decidedly OUT of our professional abilities. I do have some experience in the field of mental health and am quite aware just how easy it is to plant ideas and emotions into people's heads, it's more easily accomplished than you might imagine...

 

[sHeENa_M]

Intuition

Kathryn,

That sort of reminds me of stories of when a client says to a therapist "I see the color purple" and the therapist says "purple means.....". I feel one should simply ask "what does purple mean to you?". No leading, no transference of forcing of beliefs.

There are clients who love the approach of the therapist that you describe, but it tends to be more about the therapist's beliefs and issues rather than what is best for the client. Leave it to the professional trained in that area. We have become a culture of pseudo-counselors and our teachers often do little but encourage this practice.

 

[Margey x]

Intuition

This is a great thread. Walt, you just put yourself at the top of the list of MFR instructors I'd like to study with.

 

[RosaMario]

Intuition

Thanks, Jason.

As a PT, most of my colleagues have a rather medical orientation to their thinking. But my profession is not immune from delusional thinking when it comes to their abilities. I only see MT training from the outside, though I interact with many. Moving into continuing education after graduation (from any program) opens one up to be easy prey in terms of filling one with false beliefs for the benefit of a body of work. I believe we all want to think we have "special" powers. Affirmation of this will bring you closer to those who affirm you. It starts a trap of cultish behavior.

I've no problem with enjoying and sharing things you feel, but keep the explanation rational. Unfortunately what is rational for one is outlandish for another. Subjectivity plays a part in what any of us view as acceptable. I'm not trying to set a standard, as it would just be my own. I just ask for rational reflection on what is known and unknown.

 

[Kelly V]

Intuition

Often there is no "rational" explanation for the unknown.
We do the best we can with the things we do not yet fully understand.

Quantum physics sounds more metaphysical than scientific...but there it is.
What was outlandish 10 or 50 or 100 yrs ago is normal and "proven" fact today.

Perhaps your comfort zone is in the scientific, the explainable.
I think that's great!
And I also think it's great that some people use what they choose to call intuition in their work.

I'm not sure that makes them "cultists" though.

 

[Peter J]

Intuition

Please rest assured that I am not calling those who rely on intuition cultish. I am referring to cultures that are created within therapy communities that reinforce these actions.

 

[Chen-Chu L]

Intuition

Intuition and energy fields definitely have a big part in our work, but overall I think a lot of people make it a lot more paranormal than it needs to be.

 

[INDIAN]

Intuition

What is an energy field? To me it is simple and easy to explain, as I do to patients. You injure an area of the body and it swells, gets inflamed. Put your hand on the area, it feels warm. Hold your hand over the area, you will still feel the warmth. There, you just experienced energy. Heat, cold, etc...all energy. Keep it simple, both to them as well as to yourself.

To me, intuition is no different. But, paranormal sells

 

[Pompal 09.]

Intuition

Kathryn,

That sort of reminds me of stories of when a client says to a therapist "I see the color purple" and the therapist says "purple means.....". I feel one should simply ask "what does purple mean to you?". No leading, no transference of forcing of beliefs.

YES!!! Or the therapist that says "I'm seeing purple while I'm working on you and that means........" :roll:

I'm really troubled by some of the stories I've heard from clients - I had one client who's chiropractor told her she'd been sexually abused. She had absolutely NO frame of reference for this, no memories, no stuff that was coming up for her to hint at this. He might as well have told her that the sky she'd thought was blue all these years was really purple.

Another client, who's son has cerebral palsy, was told by an "intuitive" massage therapist (during a first appointment) that her son's CP was "karma". Maybe it was, maybe it wasn't but who the h*ll are you to say something like that?!?

And on that note, I shall step off my soapbox t002

 

[Llado]

Intuition

Lisa,

Stay on your soap box! No matter what we've been taught, when it comes to meaning, it is the belief or interpretation of the teacher. There are absolutes in the physical world, but much of the more esoteric information that gets passed along to us in therapy education is belief.

 

[Gizmo13]

Intuition

I had an intuitive massage therapist say she saw me hand and hand with a man walking down a street that reminded her of England.

Hasn't happened yet but I won't discount it.

 

[Gamer12]

Intuition

I think there is a difference between an observation like this and "intuitive" observations that are meant to guide or direct.