Today I was faced with an interesting challenge - working with a very shy insomniac who recently had a terrible experience with massage and hates lying down because he goes into spirals of frustration about not being asleep. On the rare occasion that he does sleep, it's usually in a chair and by accident for 30 or 40 minutes. Even before I saw him lie down, it was clear that starting a lesson in that position would be pretty much impossible, so my challenge was to find a different set up and figure out where to go from there.
Step 1. Have him sit at the edge of the table. Start the lesson there.
Step 2. Ask him to lie down on the table to let his body settle. He lies down for about 7 seconds with the expression on his face saying, "I'M LYING DOWN. SEE ME LYING DOWN? I'M STILL LYING DOWN. CAN I GET UP YET?" until I give him permission to sit up whenever he's ready.
Step 3. Have him sit back up and work a little more.
Step 4. Have him lie down again. This time, after a moment of panic about lying down, he reconsiders and finds a way to relax into the table a little. His breathing deepens a bit. He stays on the table for more like 45 seconds or a minute this time.
Step 5. More sitting work.
Step 6. Lie down again, but it's different this time. It's not obviously comfortable to start with, but it's not panicky either. He stays there, breathing and letting himself settle into the table for at least a full minute. I decide to see what will happen if I keep him on his back and continue the lesson there.
Despite my offer to let me know if he wanted a break from being on his back, he stayed there and let me work with him for a full half hour. I even heard a couple of snores here and there! (Please ignore the sneaking plan at the back of my head that he didn't know about to maybe help him sleep a little during the lesson...) When the lesson was over he was thrilled to have been able to be comfortable lying down for that long and said that he felt "like a million bucks!"
We'll definitely be working together again.
Friday, August 24, 2012
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
