Can you touch and talk away pain?

Gilly Thomas brings Rubenfeld Synergy to Hinton - and it's definitely not your traditional treatment

Gilly Thomas turns off the overhead fluorescent lights, leaving a much softer, warmer glow from a set of table lamps. I am sitting on a massage table at the Mountain View Chiropractic Clinic, about to get a hands-on demonstration of the Rubenfeld Synergy Method.

She asks me to lie back, relax and close my eyes.

"What do you notice about how your body feels?" Asks Thomas.

I didn't have to think hard about it. My shoulder was enflamed and stiff from throwing baseballs a day before when helping coach little league.

"My right shoulder is bugging me," I say, and tell her about ball practice.

Thomas starts by putting her hands gently under my left shoulder and raising it ever so slightly.

The Rubenfeld Synergy Method combines healing the mind, body, spirit and emotions in one holistic therapy session. A synergist uses light touch combined with talk therapy to encourage the body to heal itself.

"Less is more, and you can have gain with no pain," says Thomas.

She says the gentle touch heightens a person's physical and emotional awareness, encouraging communication between the person and the synergist.

"It's a gentle, supportive method; it takes people to their own healing," says Thomas. The underlying philosophy is that you are your own best healer."

******

Ilana Rubenfeld, creator of the Rubenfeld Synergy Method, developed the technique while she was studying to become a music conductor in New York. She had been seeing a therapist who specializes in body posture, because of a pain in her shoulder. Oddly, when the therapist touched Rubenfelds' pained shoulder she sometimes broke into tears.

Unable to explain the emotional outbursts, she saw a talk therapist in search of answers. But after some time, she found that she could not still explain her outbursts.

During one session, exasperated from trying to talk out why she cried when the posture therapist touched her, she blurted out, "Touch my shoulder and I might be able to tell you what's going on."

The talk therapist said he could not touch her, that it was not part of his therapy method. After that, a seed was planted in Rubenfeld that grew into a therapy that combined touch and talk.

*****

I'm lying on the massage table, utterly relaxed. Thomas is gently prodding and prying my arm, with a touch that wouldn't disturb a sleeping baby.

"What do you notice about how your left shoulder feels?" she asks.

I tell her that my left shoulder feels like it is in the right position, lie it's ... content. Thomas's light touch and her soft voice, combined with the stillness of the dimly lit room, are caressing me into a sleepy state of deep relaxation.

"How can we make your right shoulder more like your left?" She asks.

I'm in no rush to answer as I focus on how my left shoulder feels different from my left.

In a lazy voice I say, "I guess it's kind of pulled back. I could move it forward a bit."

When I really paid attention to my shoulder I could consciously relax muscles that I didn't even realize were tense.

After my shoulder, Thomas worked down my left side to my feet and up to the side to finish at the spot where I had complained about pain. When she lifted my foot, she asked me if any colours came to mind; Rubenfeld Synergy uses metaphors for people to approach their physical and emotional pains.

"Sometimes it is really simple, but also totally profound," says Thomas

*****

Immediately after the session, I couldn't feel an iota of pain in my shoulder. Later that day the pain returned, but over the next couple of days it disappeared completely. Thomas also suggested that I throw a baseball by generating more power out of my legs, and less from my shoulder.

Already a teacher with a Bachelor's degree in psychology from the University of Calgary, becoming a synergist seemed like a natural transition for Thomas. She spent four years in New York studying under Rubenfeld to complete her synergy training.

Thomas is now practicing once a week in Hinton at the Mountain View Chiropractic Clinic. Her private practice is based in Jasper.

She also conducts workshops for individuals, businesses and convention groups. She can be reached at the Mountain View Chiropractic Clinic or in Jasper at 780 852 4161 or by email.

by Jim Gates
The Hinton Parklander - Monday, May 5, 2003

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