Sarah arrives with recurring shoulder pain.

She's had massage before.

It helps.

Then the pain comes back.

She's been told her shoulder is tight.

She's tried stretching.

She's strengthened it.

But nobody has really explained why it keeps happening.

So we don't start with her shoulder.

We start by watching her move.

Walking.

Breathing.

Reaching.

Rotating.

Loading.

Standing.

We assess range of motion.

We look at how different parts of her body contribute.

We palpate.

We test.

We ask questions.

We watch the small responses.

We build a hypothesis.

Then we test it.

Perhaps changing something away from the painful area changes the way the shoulder moves.

Perhaps releasing one area changes another.

Perhaps activating an inhibited structure changes the movement again.

Perhaps the person's perception of pain changes.

Every response gives us another piece of information.

And suddenly we're no longer asking:

“How do we loosen Sarah's shoulder?”

We're asking:

“What is Sarah's body trying to accomplish — and how can we give it a better option?”