What to Expect in an IMT Treatment by Kimberly Burnham, PhD, IMTC, LMT

Carl Jung once wrote about a jar of pebbles. He said that if you knew the exact weight and measurements of all the pebbles in the jar you could compute a statistically average stone, and yet there might not be a single pebble in the jar that meets that average.

There is no average Integrative Manual Therapy (IMT) treatment, just as there are no average clients, but there are some things that typically happen in an initial evaluation and the first follow up treatment.

After contacting an Integrative Manual Therapy Practitioner for treatment, you can expect to receive a package of information containing, an initial evaluation form for you to fill out about your general information, medical history, areas of pain and your goals. There is frequently information about the clinic, location, maps, places to stay, who to contact, the therapists, etc.

You should wear comfortable clothes to the appointment, which is typically 1-2 hours. You will be treated with your clothes on. You may be in a private room with the therapist or you may be in a larger room where there are several therapists working.

The therapist will ask for your goals. This is a very important step. It is your opportunity to ask for what you want for your health and well being. The therapist's goal is to help you achieve your goals as quickly as possible.

The therapist will evaluate your range of motion by asking you to stand or sit and bend forward, backwards or to the sides. The therapists will also move your arms and legs to assess your movement.

Then you will be asked to lay clothed on a soft table, usually face up and then face down while the therapist does a "mapping".

Mapping consists of lightly touching the whole body and palpating or feeling the rhythm of the connective tissue or the Myofascial Mapping rhythm. It is a circadian rhythm like the heart beat that indicates how well the tissue in that area is doing. The therapist will usually record the results of their "Mapping" on a body diagram.

They will also do a Longitudinal Pressure Scan (5X) to assess the primary area contributing to pain and dysfunction. The 5X is done by pressing on five places: the bottom of the feet, hands and head, hence the name 5X. The therapist is evaluating how that pressure travels in your body. They ask themselves, "Is it smooth and wave like or does it get hung up in certain places?

As the IMT therapist is doing this assessment they are also making note of whether there is any swelling or puffiness, are there areas that are hotter than the surrounding tissue indicating inflammation. They are assessing the texture and quality of the tissue. They feel for sweatiness in the palms or feet, indicating a disturbance of the autonomic nervous system and give a marker of how much stress is contributing to the problem.

After the evaluation, which often takes about one hour, the therapist will discuss a treatment plan with you. They will talk about the correlation between what they found in their assessment and your symptoms and the fastest way to improve your health and well being.

In a two hour appointment, the therapist will then starts the treatment portion of the Integrative Manual Therapy session.

Treatment consists of the use of gentle hands on pressure to normalize the way the joints function and move. A joint can be the knee or the meeting place of the bone of the upper leg with the bones of the lower leg. A joint can also be where the colon meets the hip bone or where the diaphragm meets the liver. All these areas should move smoothly and evenly in order for good blood flow and healing to occur.

The IMT therapist will also contact certain reflex point that will assist your healing and recovery.

They are skilled in working with different rhythms in the body such as the rhythmical movement of the heart, the lungs, the blood flow, and the expansion and contraction rhythms of the organs, nerves and bones.

Many Integrative Manual Therapy practitioners are massage therapists, physical therapists, occupational therapists and chiropractors. They will each bring their own background to the table and assist you in your recovery.

At the end of the treatment, the therapist will often give you "homework" or ways you can assist in your own healing. The homework can consist of Neurofascial Process (NFP) (see the book Body Wisdom by Sharon Giammatteo, PhD, PT), which consists of placing your hands on two different places and keeping that connection for 20 minutes. The most common NFP homework is to place one hand on the low back over the ureters (the tubes between the kidneys and the bladder) and the other hand over the area of pain. Doing this homework can significantly decrease swelling and symptoms.

Other homework might consist of strengthening exercises, activities of daily living and following a nutritional program.

Many IMT practitioners have extensive training in nutritional supplementation and may make recommendations on things you should eliminate from your diet, such as gluten if you show signs of sensitivities and allergies. They will give advice on things you should add to your diet, such as fresh organic green leafy vegetables, blueberries and good quality loose green tea. They may counsel you in nutritional supplements, such as fish oils or essential fatty acids and vitamin B complex, depending on their evaluation.

At the end of the initial appointment you can book further sessions. We have some clients who fly in from a great distance, they may book 35 hours a week for several weeks and then we may not see them for a year. Other clients live nearby or within a 3 hour drive and they may come in once a week or once a month for one hour or a few hours at a time.

IMT practitioners work with clients with many kinds of joint pain and dysfunction, such as people before or after an injury or joint replacement surgery. IMT practitioners often work with nervous system disorders, such as, fibromyalgia, Parkinson's disease and autism.

They often specialize in immune system problems such as Multiple Sclerosis, chronic fatigue and reoccurring sinus infections, allergies or flu symptoms. People with poor circulation or other cardiovascular diseases can benefit from IMT treatment.

The typical IMT client may be a newborn baby in for a well baby check up or a child with cerebral palsy or failure to thrive. The client might be an adult with back pain or much more serious disease processes. Many Integrative Manual Therapists treat athletes looking to improve their function and there by their performance.

Most people seek Integrative Manual Therapy because they want to feel better and function optimally.

Kimberly Burnham, PhD, LMT, IMTC is a certified Integrative Manual Therapy practitioner practicing in Bloomfield, CT, USA. She has a PhD in Integrative Medicine and specializes in neurodegenerative disorders (Parkinson's disease, Alzheimer’s, Multiple Sclerosis, ALS) as well as working with vision problems and with children with Autism and Cerebral Palsy. There is also more information at www.CenterIMT.com. Kim can be reached at KimBurnham@CenterIMT.com