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Philosophy, Principles and Methods

Writer's picture: Simon EdwardsSimon Edwards

Philosophy in Greek means the "love of wisdom", it is not just about being wise, it is loving the pursuit of wisdom. A person or group's philosophy can change, can develop and can evolve. It will be based on the most current and relevant position that you finds yourself in. The best you have been able to come up with so far.

My philosophy has changed, developed, evolved, progressed, regressed, stagnated and blossomed in the years since I graduated. Some changes, in hindsight, were wrong, some were right - or as right as I can assess. But I now feel that I can sum my philosophy up in one word - "Facilitation". This word is used a lot across a number of professions and will certainly not seem odd to members of my own profession. However, it has become vital to me and my practice that I appreciate this philosophy more and more. My role is to facilitate the change towards the desired outcome. I am alongside the path to healing, recovery, strength, performance, but I am not the path itself. The path itself is an wholly individual journey. I can take that journey with you, but I can not and should not take it for you.

Sitting under my philosophy is the main principle that I strive to work within - "Tolerance" - this may be muscular or connective tissue tolerance to load, nervous tissue tolerance to stimulus, emotional tolerance to stress, financial tolerance to abundance or lack of work. The area to be worked on doesn't matter, the principle remains the same.

Within my field of physiotherapy, of healthcare, of human movement and performance, I primarily deal with a tissues tolerance to load or forces, whether internal or external.

This will often mean that someone seeks my help and advice for pain, dysfunction, injury or prevention of these things.

The method used for every individual will be different, because every individual is different. However, the philosophy of facilitation and principle of tolerance does not change.

If you have a shoulder problem, I am still here to facilitate the recovery of your shoulder back to your perceived goal of recovery. To facilitate this recovery I will have to help you to develop tolerance within the tissues surrounding, supporting and stimulation your shoulder.

The tolerance needed may be to high levels of voluntary contraction or producing force in a particular plane of motion. It may be repetitive movements. It may absorbing force. The principle is the same, we are looking to develop your tolerance.

The method can then adapt to the person taking the journey, the exercise selection and prescription is based off of the information provided by the person in question and from any assessment or information collection that surrounds that.

This is how I like to think of this flow:

  • You come to me asking for help with any type of problem.

  • My philosophy of facilitation means that I will always provide you with a map, this map is the best layout of the landscape of your problem that I know.

    • If you come to me about a physical, musculoskeletal issue you will get an ordinance survey map with ALL of the details

    • If you come to me about an financial issue I might be able to give you a slightly out of date AA road map

    • If you come to me about astrophysics you will get a map that points in the direction of someone who can actually help

  • Together we look at your map and workout where you are on there and work out where you want or need to get to

  • We build up our map with additional information that might help or hinder the journey

  • We add speed limits to roads, we check for road works and diversions

  • Then you can pick the method of transport

    • Do you run, walk, cycle, fly, swim, log roll, back flip

    • Do you go in a straight line, 2 sides of a triangle

  • Then you travel that journey

  • You can invite me along as a navigator or meet up with me a certain check points, that decision is yours

Notice that none of above lays out specifics of exercises, reps, sets, ice, heat, nutrition, recovery times. I can offer information the ranges of these things and how research shows that they help or hinder the journey but this doesn't dictate that you will benefit or not from each of these things.

This is my current best.

Will this change?

Who knows

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