Chiropractic (General)

Chirokinetics -- The Inherent Psychology in Chiropractic Practice

Edwin H. Kimmel

Living in our rigid and tense society with its multiple stresses, we all develop muscular tensions and rigidities which affect our emotional and personality growth. As a result we unconsciously develop habits which are potentially negative and self-destructive. The psyche does not only reside in the cranial vault, but permeates every tissue cell. Feelings are blocked by chronic patterns of muscular rigidity, and behavior is influenced by long, continued, subliminal, neurological aberrations affecting subcortical centers.

The aim of chirokinetic therapy is to free the body of neuromuscular tensions, thereby allowing an increased capacity for feeling. The "muscular armor" is furthered softened utilizing neo-Reichian, psychokinetic, myofascial and other modified muscular techniques. Simultaneous work on the character structure and the physical structure is recommended for more rapid progress.

Grief, fear, rage, resentment, anger, and emotional pains that have been held in by muscular rigidity since childhood begin to emerge into consciousness as the physical contact with these tensions induces relaxation. As the work progresses, structures soften and many chronic tensions disappear. The participant becomes more open and direct, with an increased capacity for health aggression, which furthers emotional growth and maturity. In time the voice becomes more resonant, expressions soften, postures straighten and become more relaxed, movement is freer, and the capacity to experience profoundly gratifying. Increased sexual feelings and tenderness occur as the tensions begin to melt away. Positive changes are frequently reported in every aspect of interpersonal relationships.

These deep changes are not easily achieved. They come from sustained, regular work with the body and the therapist. Such a psychostructural approach enables the patient to surrender negative patterns, embarking upon a new dimension of reality with physical comfort and emotional growth. Neurokinetics, chiroenergetics, chirokinetics or psychochirokinetics concern themselves chiefly with the release of residual muscular tensions associated with long, buried psychological traumas. It bridges the gap between mind and body, enabling patients to get more closely in touch with their body and feelings. It induces the release of muscular armor, thereby allowing for more mature, socially acceptable behavior and further emotional growth. It will frequently cause long dormant feelings, sensations and memories to surface, as the muscular rigidity associated with that feeling is softened and relaxed.

Sometimes with the aid of a psychotherapist, the patient begins to understand the repressed experiential trauma or emotion, and can then deal with the feeling on a more realistic level.

The true physician does not treat disease, he treats people. The true physician never treats just a painful back, for example, he treats a person that has a painful back and he understands that the back pain influences the patient's total social behavior. The ramifications and complexities of low back pain on a person's personal affairs, economics, loves, hates, etc., may be more important than any other local pain or disturbed physiology. Furthermore, different diseases are produced by different personal problems, and different personality types react in various ways to the same disease or discomfort.

The treatment of personality disorders then is the sum total of all medical lore. Treatment must be given to the whole individual and any attempt to separate the psyche from the soma is not only unwarranted, but illogical and actually impossible.

The structure of the body is not fixed. We are changing from moment to moment by the teaming activity that goes on within the body at any given second. Cells are dying, being replaced; neurological impulses are continually transmitting to the brain. Yet, many individuals find that in spite of exercise, healthy diets, transcendental meditation, yoga, and psychotherapy, they are still embodied in old pains, both physical and emotional. Such old pains are trapped in rigid body structures, such as a forwardly tipped pelvis (that fails to respond to sexual stimulation), or a head that does not seat itself properly balanced upon the cervical spine, or a low back that is abnormally rigid.

The possible emotional effects of gravity or "gravitosis," the difficulty in maintaining the erect posture, have hitherto been given little recognition as an etiological factor. As a pathogen, gravitosis is analogous to bacteria, climate, nutrition, socioeconomic factors, and other stressors to which we are exposed throughout our lives.

The physical body holds emotional memories. Touch evokes those memories, and once aware, the tension that produced pain and discomfort are released.

The manipulative process we use allows a patient to open up, tension is relieved, and memories surface, resulting in a more easily communicative patient. Gaining access to the psyche through the body is an astonishing process. Get your hands on the body and remarkable things begin to happen.

Edwin H. Kimmel, DC, DABCO, FICC, FACC
Ocala, Florida

September 1997
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