In a shameless ripoff of the back page of the Sunday Times money section, in which a different person each week was asked questions about their finances and how they managed them, I have decided that this would be a great idea for the blog. Osteopaths can find out about how other osteopaths manage their work life, especially as many of us work alone or in our own particular silo, be it classical or biomechanical or cranial. So I am starting with Joanna Wildy, author of the recent book “Mind and Membrain”. In addition, she kindly answered some questions about the writing of that book.
Q: How do you pronounce your name – is the wild as in WILD or WILDERNESS?
A: Wilderness, but I don’t mind how people pronounce it.
Q: Where and when did you train?
A: I trained at BSO (now UCO) 1984 -88
Q: How was your undergraduate experience?
A: I had a good training in manual therapy but it was only after I left college that I started to get any grasp on Osteopathy in its intended format.
Q: What did you do before you decided to become an osteopath?
A: I had started doing a PhD in Genetics at Edinburgh University. Although I loved the subject I wasn’t comfortable with all that tampering with nature. Research was not for me.
Q: What inspired you to become an osteopath?
A: I wanted to be self employed, not be at a desk, have a manual skill and understand the human body – beyond that I really had no idea what osteopathy was. Not many people did in those days!
Q: Who are the osteopaths who have inspired you the most?
A: Robin Kirk who I worked with as a clinic tutor and he talked a lot about osteopathic principals. He infiltrated your brain subliminally, never by preaching. Max Girardin and Jean Paul Hoeppner who started the EvOst programme in Belgium. We studied Biological complexity through the understanding of Embryology (JPH) and Evolution (Max). It offers a new understanding/model of health and disease that suits osteopathy in it’s intended format just perfectly. It also gives us a language, accessible to all.
Q: What is your day to day life as an osteopath?
A: I’m slowing down now to just 3 days a week and I work on my own. I used to have a much bigger practice but I have shrunk it right down. I have headed for simplicity. It’s ironic as my practice has become the most fascinating it has ever been since I wrote the book with the patients that are finding me, but I have a bad hand and it hurts if I work too much. I am selective now of who I treat and I treat a huge amount of patients that have suffered some form of historical head trauma.
Q: How many patients do you see in a week?
A: 20-25
Q: How long are your appointments?
A: 30-45 mins
Q: How much do you charge for appointments?
A: (£125 is my initial fee)
Q: How would you characterize how you work?
A: I favour indirect technique over direct technique and I treat the whole body including the head and face. Why people stop at the O/A confuses me…
Q: What direction has your CPD taken?
A: Towards observing, palpating and treating the head and the face. It has taken me towards understanding the importance of chronology. If you understand how a biological system self forms and self maintains then you start to understand as a practitioner why and when it struggles to self maintain. It has taken me towards talking only about ‘Form’. The point about Form is that it is a structure with a behaviour (function is incidental). Form has a a past, present and a future. Osteopaths can influence that future.
Q: If you could recommend one book (other than your own) what would it be?
A: Difficult one…I’d like to recommend ‘Life as a Verb’ by Jean Paul Hoeppner. I think he is a genius and it is the most important book out there for us as osteopaths and for Biology but it is very difficult to read in its intensity and because he is a native a German speaker they write very differently.
Q: If you could recommend one course apart from your own what would it be?
And on The Writing of Mind and Membrain…
Q: What inspired this book?
A: My book was inspired by my personal and clinical experiences over 3 decades. I discovered on my first cranial course that untrained hands on my head and face triggered a depression in me. I discovered the same on my second cranial course, only then I realised it was untrained hands on my face. I had a history of 3 childhood accidents to my face followed by an operation when I was 11. I realised there was a legacy to that trauma beyond what was visible. I have since paid as much attention to my patients mental health as there physical health and have discovered a very obvious link between disturbed housing of the brain, namely the skull, the membrane and the irrigation systems and mental health problems in their many different forms. A disturbed physical environment to the brain is a significant contributory factor to mental health problems. This idea is simply absent from global consciousness in patients, carers, doctors, psychotherapists, contact sports people and even osteopaths. I call it Membrain Disorder.
Q: How long did it take you to write?
A: 3 years with the help of lockdowns during Covid.
Q: Were there any significant challenges you faced in writing the book?
A: None. It was serendipity. I have a wonderful patient, a retired scholar who writes and edits books. He was supposed to be away in India when Covid struck but instead found himself back home. He offered to edit the book for me and we worked on it together for 2 years. My son’s best friend had just qualified as a graphic designer and was looking for work and he illustrated the book – about 25 illustrations!I suppose my only challenge was finding a publisher. I wrote for the lay person as it is a new idea for everyone. I don’t sit in any position of authority, I am not a celebrity, I am a osteopathic clinical practitioner with 40 years experience. Publishers liked the book but they did not know where to place it as it covers so many genres – manual therapy,
Q: Are they your own diagrams?
A: All my own diagrams except a couple from JPHs lectures – redesigned.
Q: What do you hope the reader gets out of the book?
A: There are so many different types of readers that can read this book and each get something entirely different from it. The Osteopaths – a new way of thinking and talking about osteopathy in the cranial field give it a rationality and a language and a very specific application to those patient struggling with their mental health. The Psychotherapists and Doctors – a realisation that historical head trauma can leave a legacy in impacting the environment of the brain and this can disturb the behaviour of the brain. This can be named as Membrain Disorder which can be diagnosed and treated by an osteopath trained in the cranial field. The Scientists – to want to set up some research into this theory. I believe it is highly relevant to the mood disorders and long term brain health in contact sports players. Scientists are looking at the brain, not the housing. Patients – all those patients walking around with treatment resistant depression and any other labels you want to attach to mental health problems realising that they need their head checked. I could give you lists and lists of patient examples. The Contact Sports People – a realisation that all their team players should be head checked at the end of each season by an osteopath trained in the cranial. All retired players should be head checked.
Q: Are there any upcoming projects or plans you would like to share?
A: I am developing an online course on the Dimensional Model of Health which is the second half of my book. This I hope will be available through the DOOC (a German organisation) over the next few months. I am delivering my first face to face 3 day course in Hamburg, March 25, on Head Trauma and Mental Health.
For more about the book please see previous post here
