From Physiotherapy to More

‘An experience-based journey’

During my final-year physiotherapy placement, I began to gain more and more practical experience. Whilst the focus had initially been mainly on acquiring theoretical knowledge, I was now immersing myself in practical skills. I was introduced to all sorts of manual techniques.

I set to work on these with great enthusiasm!

Yet I soon realised that recovery depends on far more factors than simply applying the right technique to the right complaint, at the right stage.

I began to ask myself questions.

• How much of a difference does really listening make?
• How important is that very first contact?
• And what role does clearly explaining what is going on play, and what part can a client themselves play in this?

These were questions that related not so much to the technical aspects of the profession, but mainly to everything surrounding it. It seemed to me that the effects of the technical interventions told only part of the story. Or rather: I felt there was more to it.

Much more.

My curiosity was piqued!
Driven by that curiosity, I began to explore further. During my final-year placement, I observed psychotherapists and specialists at the hospital. Immediately after graduating, I undertook a placement with various osteopaths, later supplemented by experience with haptotherapists.

I also immersed myself in psychology and haptonomy. I undertook studies and explored different perspectives. Although I came across interesting elements in these fields, I didn’t feel that this was the well-trodden path for me.

I felt a strong urge to truly follow my own path. For me, that means: approaching therapists, asking questions, observing, experiencing things for myself and putting them into practice. And repeating the process. My inner drive is boundless and the pace is fast. This way of learning gives me the freedom to develop in a way that suits me.

The frameworks offered within degree programmes tend to lock me into a certain structure that isn’t helpful to me. The experiential way of learning, where I’m in control, feels much more logical, direct and suitable to me.

I first had to experience the contrast between the two. Through sheer discipline, I had completed both my sixth-form education and my bachelor’s degree in physiotherapy. Yet during both courses – and certainly at secondary school – I had barely any idea what it was all for. The way in which knowledge was presented and assessed did not align with how I personally arrived at a genuine understanding.

For me, insight did not arise primarily from absorbing knowledge, but from actually experiencing something.

From searching to deepening
My search for myself was now in full swing. I carried a burden of suffering with me from which I wanted to free myself. During that period, I sought deeper understanding in various directions: intellectually, emotionally and spiritually.

Yet for a long time, it remained a path of mere survival. Despite everything I explored and learnt, I lacked a deep connection with myself and with who I truly am.

Gradually, I came into increasing contact with systemic work. My perspective shifted. Whereas I had previously operated on the principle of ‘seeing first, then believing’,space opened up for a different approach: ‘believing first, then seeing’..

Not because I wanted to let go of my critical eye, but because I began to realise that not everything can be understood or explained in advance.

Whereas my thinking had long kept me within the confines of the familiar, this different approach opened the door to new experiences. Systemic work felt like a gateway to a deeper level of exploration and awareness.

The train gets moving
Yet my quest only really found its direction when I came into contact with the right mentor.

The seven years that preceded this, with everything I had sought, lived through and endured, turned out, in hindsight, not to have been without meaning. In a sense, those years had prepared me for the journey that followed.

Together, we set to work, layer by layer, with conviction, perseverance and expertise. It turned out not to be an easy path. It was not, and is not, a matter of gaining a single insight and then being done.

Yet something fundamental did change.

Whereas the burden of suffering had initially been a constant presence, it gradually began to fluctuate. More space emerged to observe and let go, to get moving and to find peace. The baggage I was carrying became lighter, step by step. It is a journey that requires a great deal of resilience and perseverance. Something within me feels very strongly that this is the path meant for me, one that allows me to bounce back time and again and carry on.

I have now been on this counselling journey for five years. During the sessions, we explore the themes that arise in my life. Where something carries emotional weight, we delve deeper. Where themes in my life situation are touched upon, we end up ‘delving deeper’ into completely different aspects. Often these are experiences or perceptions that cannot be accessed through rational thinking. This certainly teaches me to be cautious about interpreting things or drawing conslusions.

Not everything needs an immediate explanation. Above all, it first needs to be felt through.

Knowing through experience
Early on in this process, I felt:‘this is what I do’!‘ !

In other words: this way of learning – or rather, experiencing – makes far more sense. Feeling it through without resistance leads to letting go of that very (often unconscious) resistance.

And that leads to insight. Or realisation.
That is how you ‘know’.

A different kind of wisdom from that which comes from reading and memorising information. The wisdom that arises when something is not only understood, but also truly lived through. To me, this stands in contrast to a way of learning in which knowledge is presented, memorised and then tested. A method that, personally, leaves little lasting impression on me. One might therefore wonder whether this is really ‘learning’ at all.

Beyond the individual
The society in which we live is largely organised around frameworks, categories and guidelines. When someone exhibits a set of complaints or symptoms that fit a particular pattern, a specific disorder can be labelled as the cause.

The focus therefore quickly shifts to the person: to their symptoms, behaviour and characteristics. In doing so, we risk losing sight of another perspective.

For is the person we think we are really the whole of who we are?

What we generally regard as our identity is, to a large extent, shaped by our experiences, beliefs and conditioning. It is the image we have built up of ourselves over the course of our lives and with which we have come to identify.

But what if there is an even deeper layer beneath that constructed identity?

Beyond the person we think we are, beyond the sum of our experiences and conditioning, there may lie a deeper essence. You could call this the deeper self. Not so much a new identity to cling to, but rather a perspective that invites us to look beyond our familiar self-image.

Ultimately, that is what I had been searching for all those years, without initially knowing exactly what I was looking for.

From self-exploration to coaching
It is precisely this layer that keeps speaking to me time and again during my own coaching journey. The experiences I gain there form the basis from which I now coach others myself.

Not based on a collection of theories that I have learnt and then apply, but on an ongoing interplay between experiencing, exploring and living through.

My journey from physiotherapy to something more is therefore not a finished story. It is a quest that continues to deepen and that shapes the way I view people, development and recovery.