Imagine that the deepest healing doesn’t come from force, but from sensitivity and intention. This is the core idea of effective manual therapy: the softest, lightest touch often reaches the most profound levels within the body. Like a gentle whisper that carries further than a shout, a mindful approach creates change that heavy-handed techniques cannot. This essay breaks down the key principles you will learn and practice in this course, transforming how you connect with and facilitate healing in your clients.

(Declaration: This essay is a summary of one of the articles that Thomas Myer wrote for the column named “The Anatomist’s Corner” years ago. This is NOT an original article.)

1. The Foundation: The Three “Ins”

Before your hands make contact, your mindset sets the stage for depth.

• Intention: Your clear, focused purpose guides your touch. If your goal is simply to “fix” a problem, the body often resists. But if your intention is clear and respectful, the client’s tissues are more likely to soften and allow you in.
• Invitation: Think of your touch as an invitation to greater awareness, relaxation, and movement. Instead of pushing your way in, you wait, invite, or gently draw tissue toward you. This approach parts waves of tension, making true depth accessible.
• Information: Your hands are teachers, not just tools. When you touch with the intent to offer the body information it may be missing—about holding patterns, alignment, or release—the work becomes a collaborative educational process, not a forced correction.

2. How You Use Your Body

Your own body mechanics are crucial. Using muscle force to create change creates disturbance and reduces your sensitivity.

• Use Bones and Weight, Not Muscle: Let your skeletal structure and body weight do the work. “Fall” into the tissue gently and allow it to melt.
• Prioritize Sensitivity: The more relaxed and tension-free your muscles are, the more you can feel subtle changes in your client’s body. Remember: minimum force, maximum sensitivity.

3. Engaging the Client

For remedial or integrative work that helps clients connect with their own bodies, their movement is essential. Encouraging small, mindful movements during the session helps them process the changes and experience depth from within.

4. The Art of Slowness

Speed is the enemy of depth. Fast movements create resistance.

• Wait, Sink, and Swim Slowly: Move at the speed at which the tissue softens and melts before your fingers. If you have to pry or force, you’re going too fast. Your pace is correct when the tissue yields and the client is not instinctively trying to pull away.

5. Knowledge Meets Feeling

Depth is also a function of precision. Knowing your anatomy gives you a clear map of what lies under your hands. Combine this intellectual map with your developed “felt sense”—your ability to perceive what you’re touching—to truly navigate the inner landscape of the body.

The Ultimate Connection: Resonance

As you train in these principles, you’ll sharpen your awareness of subtle biological rhythms, like pulses. By increasing your sensitivity, you learn to enter a state of resonance with your client. This harmonious connection is where the deepest, most transformative therapy occurs.

In summary, this course will guide you beyond forceful technique into the art of perceptive, intentional touch. You will learn that by aligning your mind, using your body wisely, moving slowly, and applying your knowledge with sensitivity, you can achieve remarkable depth and facilitate healing with the lightest, most respectful contact.