Still point

New York City
I have finally stopped moving and come to rest in NYC. Auckland - Los Angeles - Boston - New York. Sounds glamorous but i can tell you I am thoroughly pooped. All I can say at the moment is that if it weren't for pumpkin ice cream and a good italian restaurant and friends to stay with i would be a basket case.
I am hoping to add a post about the second conference and will do once my head catches up with my body.
All I can say about my travels at this stage is that noise-cancelling headphones saved my sanity.
I also have a tale about Homeland Security.

Stay tuned.

A few sleeps to go

Plane tickets? Check.

Travel insurance? check.

Conference registration? check.

All student assignments marked? Check.

With only a couple of days to go before departure, I figure its time to get this blog off the blocks.

So, perhaps a bit of background.

What am I going half way round the world for? What are these two gatherings of people all about? What might it mean for somatic therapists in day-to-day practice?

I hope to be able to answer these questions as I work my way closer to Boston through this blog.

So, onto the first question - what are these two events and why are they of interest to us?

Well the first meeting is the 1^st international Fascia Research Congress at Harvard Medical School.

It will be the first international conference dedicated to fascia in all its forms and functions and, as the long title of the Congress states, includes “Basic science and implications for conventional and complementary health care”.

If we break that down a bit more, we can see a few important aspects about this meeting already. First, it’s great to have the conference at the Harvard Medical School. I mean, that a prestigious address, right? Plum, right in the heartland of allopathy’s birthplace on the East Coast of the U.S., clinicians, therapists and scientists will be talking fascia and it relevance to somatic therapies in a venue that is arguably pretty attached to the biomedical model, is a nice juxtaposition. In addition, by what I see on the Web, it's a pretty fancy place!

Second, the basic researchers are there to present their findings and clinicians and practitioners are there to present their research and experience. The sessions are set up for dialogue and interaction so that both parties can answer each other questions and learn from each other. This is so important, as for once those on the front-line can seek answers and have access to those researching what they feel in their hands and what patient describe. Many practitioners will be happy to work and get results – and this is fine. However, in a climate of increasing pressure on health dollars, all health professions are feeling the pressure to show that what they do works and that its cost effective. Hence the research focus.

One of the co-originators of the conference will be familiar to those who went to the Massage New Zealand conference in Wellington a few weeks back- Robert Schleip. You can hear him talk about the Fascia research congress here on audio.
This site- Inside SI - has a wealth of information for the fascially inclined from a structural integration point of view.

That all for now. In the next post I'll background the other event: The International Association of Structural Integration's 2nd Symposium which follows hot on the heels of the Fascia Research Congress.