Q. Why did Susan create a practice that focuses on helping performing artists prevent and overcome their injuries?

Up to 87% of professional and 90% of student musicians will become injured during their careers (Guptill and Golem, 2008). Musicians like athletes require healthcare professionals to understand their unique challenges they encounter. The healthcare provider needs to have a medical background as well as a performing arts background to provide the best care. Susan, an occupational therapist, had researched musicians’ injuries for her Master’s thesis and has been playing the piano since she was 7 years old.

In Karl Paulnack’s Speech to the freshman class Boston Conservatory

“… music was seen as the study of relationships between invisible, internal, hidden objects. Music has a way of finding the big, invisible moving pieces inside our hearts and souls and helping us figure out the position of things inside us.

Music is a basic need of human survival. Music is one of the ways we make sense of our lives, one of the ways in which we express feelings when we have no words, a way for us to understand things with our hearts when we can’t with our minds.
You’re here to become a sort of therapist for the human soul, … someone who works with our insides to see if they get things to line up, to see if we can come into harmony with ourselves and be healthy and happy and well.”

Susan has focused her practice to help performing artists be at their best so they can help us be our best.

Q. What is Occupational Therapy?

Occupational therapists believe that occupations (activities) describe who you are and how you feel about yourself. If you are unable to do the things you want, or need to do, to live and enjoy your life, your general well-being may be affected.  According to the World Health Organization, health is a state of complete physical, mental and social well-being and not merely the absence of disease or infirmity.

Q. What is the Feldenkrais Method®?

Developed by Dr. Moshe Feldenkrais (1904-1984), the Feldenkrais Method® is a sensory motor education that uses your ability to learn.  The emphasis is on body awareness, so you can improve how you interact with your instrument as well as your environment.  You can learn how to be more expressive musically, to avoid injury, and healer more quickly.  The Feldenkrais Method® is taught worldwide for over 70 years helping people recover and improve their function after injury and illness.

Q. Is the Feldenkrais Method® based on research?

Norman Doidge’s recent book, The Brain Way’s of Healing has two chapters about the Feldenkrais Method®. For more information on neuroplasticity, healing, and the Feldenkrais Method®, visit http://www.salon.com/2015/03/02/she_will_dance_at_her_wedding_healing_the_girl_born_without_part_of_her_brain/

According to Hillier & Worley, there is evidence that the Feldenkrais Method® is helpful in improving physical performance and self-efficacy.

Hillier, S.,& Worley,A. (2015).

The effectiveness of the Feldenkrais method:

A systematic review of the evidence.

From Evidence-Based Complementary and Alternative Medicine, 2015

Q. How many sessions are required to improve my function?

There is a prerequisite of an occupational therapy assessment to determine your treatment plan.

If you are ready to be an active participant in your wellness and know that changing your habits is a journey, then Susan can help you.

“You either get bitter or you get better. It’s that simple. You either take what has been dealt to you and allow it to make you a better person, or you allow it to tear you down. The choice does not belong to fate,  it belongs to you.”

~ Josh Shipp