Dissection Classes
My first exposure to what I would like to call alternative or extended anatomy, was when I first saw Gil Hedley’s videos in 2006.
Watching them, my view on everything that I had been doing as a hands on bodyworker for over 20 years shifted in an instant and life was never quite the same from then.
In 2007 I attended my first Integral Anatomy dissection with Gil in San Francisco and started to follow the rabbit hole downwards into a way of thinking that I have never come back from. Until then, I was reasonably confident in my anatomy. Thousands of books on the same subject, all agreeing with each other, couldn’t be wrong. Could they?
To suggest that anatomy is wrong is a huge leap and one that has garnered me plenty of criticism over the years that I have been dissecting and teaching, so perhaps a more kindly approach would be to say that it is, at best, incomplete.
Anatomy teaches, by reason of an academic imperative stemming from a religious conviction that the body is composed of a series of systems. Digestive, central nervous, skeletal, circulatory and so forth. We learn these systems and the names of the parts they contain and kind of assume that’s the whole picture. On an intellectual level we know everything is connected, and even have a song for it. But from a functional perspective, that’s where it ends.
Looking at the way the body was dissected all those years ago, made me realise that the way anatomy is talked about, written about and taught, entirely missed the nature of connected function. We know the muscles of the shoulder, what nerves drive them and what they do, but we have no idea of the functional relationship of the shoulder to the opposite knee. If anything medicine leans towards denying that there even is one, with the result that we focus solely on presenting problems and fail to understand the reason for failure in treatment.
Anatomy is not function, but is the study of the body. The process of dissection brings this study into focus in a way that is remarkable, but if it is not extended into a wider understanding of how the living form functions as a whole, it fails in its potential.
The dissection process, if taught properly and from the perspective of understanding joined up function, bestows on the student an incredible gift akin to X-ray vision. Once we have felt the continuity of structures and seen the strength of the relationships in a three dimensional way, we can start to appreciate these in the living client and build a pattern of movement, previous experience and injury with a confidence of knowledge that would otherwise be unimaginable.
Let’s be clear about one thing. Anatomy isn’t wrong and there is no suggestion that we don’t need it or should somehow stop learning it. But it doesn’t describe the living human adequately and ignores the basics of physics and the concept of the human condition. A dissection class with me doesn’t fix that, but it does start to address the lack of joined up thinking and moves away from purely anatomical and takes the confidence and application of the average therapist to another level.
Only For Doctors?
There are some who might feel that dissection is something that only medical trainees should undertake and this is a view which merits some mention. Let’s be clear about one thing, we don’t just let anyone in to a dissection class and there are clear terms and conditions for those that we do.
I believe that the UK has an incredible health care system, which is the envy of many around the world. It is free at the point of delivery, staffed by dedicated, skilled individuals with incredible knowledge and expertise. But we all understand the pressures and demands it faces and the last few years ave stretched the resources of the NHS to unimaginable limits. The UK citizen can be reasonably confident that in an emergency, the NHS will be there and will perform a fantastic job. However we also understand that if we get a pain in our back or neck or a twinge in our shoulder, we could be facing a very long wait to get seen by an NHS physiotherapist.
Many people therefore seek out other forms of treatment or therapeutic exercise which has in turn has created an enormous industry of massage therapists, osteopaths, chiropractors, Bowen therapists and so forth, who combined are seeing hundreds of thousands of clients a week for day to day aches and pains. Pilates instructors, Yoga teachers, personal trainers and so forth have never been in greater demand and studios and gyms are seemingly bursting at the seams.
This industry is for the most part completely unregulated. Whilst chiropractic, osteopathy and physiotherapy have been regulated in the last few years, there is no oversight at all on the thousands of complementary therapists putting their hands on people. The degree to whether this lack of regulation is a good or bad thing is debatable, but the need to provide education and professional at the highest level is a priority.
Therapists need to ensure they are fully engaged with the learning process and committed to developing a deeper understanding of the tissues that we claim to be affecting, professional bodies need to create standards and other, established health care providers would do well to engage with this sector that creates an enormous safety buffer for a fragile system. After all, imagine if every massage client with back pain suddenly turned up at their GP or ER!
By engaging with and supervising training in areas such as anatomy, greater safety for the general public and better standards are clear and direct benefits to every stake holder. A hands on therapist is going to use his or her anatomical knowledge every working day of the week and the better their training is, the more benefit will accrue.
Academic Attitudes
The last few years have seen a shift in the attitudes of Medical Schools in the UK towards accepting therapists in to dissecting rooms. Having started teaching in 2007 at St George’s School of Medicine, with the express encouragement, support and mentorship of Professor Ceri Davies,
The Donor Gift
A dissection class is more than just experiential. It directly benefits those who are on a daily basis, suffering pain and discomfort. The donors who donate their forms, do so in order that others may benefit from their gift.
In my eight years of running dissection classes, I can honestly say that every donor gift has done exactly that.
A Functional Fascia dissection class hold the donor and the facility as the most important element in the whole class. As well as respecting the donor form at all times, we spend time each day cleaning the lab and at the end of the week scrub every surface and work space from top to bottom.
This is our way to acknowledge the extreme good fortune we have had to explore these forms and we leave the lab as clean or cleaner than when we arrived.
The whole process is incredibly respectful from start to finish and we cherish and take care of our donor gifts as if they were old friends. We strive to honour the individual who, when they no longer needed their body, gave it to people who could best learn from that gift.
Many people are coming to the dissection process with a keen desire to understand the body in a more three dimensional way, in order to fully engage and relate what see in the lab to what they are doing day to day in clinics.
It’s hard to fully appreciate the impact that this process has on hands on work, but hopefully some of the videos on this site from people who have attended the class, will go some way to explain it. You can also see Gil Hedley’s Integral Anatomy series, free of charge at his website, the link to which is here.
Finally, even if you never come to a dissection class, please consider donating your body after your death to your nearest medical school or university. These days the whole process is strictly regulated under the Human Tissue act of 2004 and regulated by the Human Tissue Authority, the HTA
You can find a list of universities who accept donations at the HTA website. Your gift will allow those working to help others to study the human form in a way that a book can never do..