Almost all indigenous cultures have direct, hands-on methods of healing.  Popular today include Hawai’ian lomilomi, Zuni high-velocity adjustment, Thai massage, and more.  The American osteopathy of Andrew Taylor Still owes its origins to the Indigenous people of Missouri — the Cherokee, Shawnee, Pawnee, and the Pottawatomi, among whom Dr. Still practiced for years.  We have reviewed the evidence for Indigenous influences on Still and have shown how similar the Indigenous practices of Missouri are to osteopathic methods. In Oklahoma, we learned that this approach to healing is called “reading the body.” In this workshop, we will introduce participants to this form of Indigenous touch therapy or “reading the body,” as Lewis learned it from traditional practitioners of this craft.  We will review the various strategies for touching, including deep pressure, rocking, shaking, running energy meridians, mobilization, and breathwork.  We will cover the body from head to toe.  We will review what is similar and different about the Indigenous bodywork practices of Missouri to other systems of osteopathic or “manipulative” therapy.  We will consider how techniques resonate with the cultures that produce them.  We will consider especially the Indigenous emphasis on the breath as a means to restore spirit to all parts of the body, and its consistency with many aboriginal languages in which the words for spirit and breath are the same. We will also explore similarities with tuinan from Chinese medicine and speculate about knowledge exchange with Chinese practitioners working on the railroad in the mid-19^th century.

            The workshop will include

• Supervised practice with the methods of the Indigenous bodywork of Missouri
• Practice with Indigenous breathwork
• Examples of incorporating imagery and dialogue with bodywork.
• Consideration of the importance of ceremony and ritual and intent in bodywork.
• Manipulative medicine as a means of dialogue with the body.
• Indigenous use of acupuncture and its energy meridians and energy medicine.

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We will begin and end songs and prayers to ask for a blessing on the work we will and have.

Web Bio

Lewis Mehl-Madrona, MD, PhD, DFAPA, graduated from Stanford University School of Medicine and completed his training in family medicine and psychiatry at the University of Vermont College of Medicine. He also holds a PhD in clinical psychology and is board certified in geriatric medicine. He currently works with Wabanaki Public Health and Wellness in Maine, which serves the needs of its five Indigenous Nations. He is the author of Coyote Medicine, Coyote Healing, and Coyote Wisdom, a trilogy of books on what Native culture has to offer the modern world. He is of Cherokee, Lakota, Greek, and Swedish heritage.

Barbara Mainguy, MA, LCSW, graduated from the University of Toronto in psychology and philosophy, from Concordia University with a Master’s in Creative Arts Therapies, and from the University of Maine with a Master of Social Work. She works as a psychotherapist and supervises crisis services with Wabanaki Public Health and Wellness, which serves the five Indigenous Nations of Maine. Barbara has worked with Lewis in Indigenous bodywork and other body therapies and narrative practices for years.  She is the co-author with Lewis of Remapping your Mind, 2015, and is the author of scientific papers on healing circles/talking circles, culture as medicine, and narrative practices.