I’ve just returned from a cutting edge shoulder course taught by Jean-Pierre Barall himself. The first day was a very frustrating yet exciting event. I lay on my bed staring at the ceiling wondering what the past 20 years in sports therapy meant to me. This course was not only cutting edge, but a completely new exploration of the shoulder and it’s anatomy at a level my hands had never been before.
Every time we practiced on each other, my mind would shift to ‘weight’ what kind of touch am I supposed to apply? Is it light like cranial? or heavy like deep tissue work? is it visceral? is it intention? Anatomy should be anatomy wherever you go, but the precision of this work was mind blowing and by the end of the course I can clearly say my hands knew what to do, even if my mind seemed to interfere with the work.
To sum it up in a few words. The shoulder course I just completed is applying visceral work to the shoulder joint. It’s about listening to the body and locating the precise point to work with an insertion point and muscle,artery, nerve and to release the related organ which not only is an organ in function but with the mind-body connection.
I feel very privileged and lucky to have had the chance to train with such a wonderful tutor and ‘brain’. I look forward to applying some or all of the techniques in shoulder related injuries : )
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Published by Rawya El Gammal
I started my career in my late teens as a group exercise instructor and PT, then found my calling as a Sports Therapist where I worked with sports injuries and post op cases in the UK and Egypt. I found that people who came in needed support on a multitude of levels other than just return to sport, so I pursued my passion in studying more. Trained as a holistic therapist, hypnotherapy, homeopathy, Australian Bush flowers, then went onto a long journey of training at the Upledger Institute in craniosacral therapy followed by the Barral Institute in Visceral, Neural and articular manipulation. Over the years I developed my own techniques of work, incorporating the array of studies into sessions. A client would come in with complaints ranging from injuries, to random headaches and I'd take the time during a consultation to listen to what they have to say. Then I'd spend the rest of the session listening and assessing the body through biomechanical assessments, joint, visceral, neural etc assessments, listening techniques and by the end of the consultation will discuss with you what my opinion is and options. We'll set up a plan that works for you and take it from there. My intention isn't to keep you coming forever, but to get you up and going as quickly as possible.
In 2000 my masters was on meditation vs exercise on blood pressure. Meditation was one of the things I had incorporated in my daily life since I was in my mid 20's but by the time I had teens, the practice became a little bit of a challenge with all other demands of life. For a series of consecutive years I took my family to a mindfulness retreat, and started reviving that aspect of learning into our lives, went onto to study SER (somatic-emotional release) and it was applied through my manual work practice. 3 years ago, I enrolled in a three year SE course, I'm completing year 3 and am now incorporating the work into my practice which doesn't necessarily require manual work. As an addition to the titles I'm also a life/wellness coach and behaviour change in practice coach in fitness, I added a few more bows to my tie by studying CBT (cognitive behavioural therapy through the Achology institute), NLP and Heart Math.
The combination of all the studies and 30+ years experience in being a therapist helps me help you even more.
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Sports & Complementary Therapy 
I am happy and look forward to have your new “insights into shoulders” brought to life on mine…
Cheers Uli