-By Cassandra Olson, TUCOM National Representative
“Don’t think.” As a first year medical student, that is not often something I allow myself to do, much less try to do. Even while practicing palpation in Osteopathic manipulation courses, there are always tissue changes to look for or a new barrier to find; we have been learning so much so quickly, that there is always something to be thinking about. At convocation, however, the notion that I should be able to find something was broken down, more than once. “Don’t look for anything in particular,” I was told during a Night with the Stars. I’ve already noticed a personal evolution of the techniques I learned at the beginning of the year. The art of being able to receive information, however, rather than find a diagnosis is something I will be working to perfect for a long time to come.
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Crunch n' Munch Convo Teachings
-Erin Smith, VCOM VC National Representative
Far removed from the majesty of the Colorado Mountains, new SAAO officers and members received a small token of the techniques and teachings learned by the second years at the 2014 Convocation. Attendees of the 2014 Broadmoor Convocation pulled clever and obscure maneuvers from the backs of their brains as our audience attempted to learn. Demonstrating OMM that is not only foreign but learned in an immersed and synergistic setting proved difficult for the second years to extrapolate and teach, but was nonetheless valuable. From post surgical trauma, to balancing sacrums in perinatal cranial trauma, from feeling fascia to balancing ligaments—to seated T1-4 HVLA, the Crunch n Munch session this Monday proved to be challenging, difficult to translate, but was essentially “how we roll”. See one, do one, teach one. Perhaps we haven’t grasped the entirety of the concept or palpated as deeply or as thoroughly as we should…but sharing knowledge learned from the stars of our profession is always a gift to be shared. And that is exactly what we intend to do. Share the knowledge, learn form one another, and realize that it is the parts that work in tandem to achieve balance, integrity, and a true “still point”.