In the beginning of this post I have no idea what new tell about yet another Maitland week. I am sitting in the airport and waiting for the plane to get me back on Finnish ground. I feel like my head is as empty as the non-reusable coffee mug next to me. Also I took almost none photos during the week so no visual fireworks here! Not sure of the vocabular fireworks either…
To be honest I was fairly tired about the idea of course week 6. I am not someone who enjoys constant travelling. At least I have noticed it during these past one and a half years doing so far more than I have done before. I am at ease with certain routines, ways of doing things and going to sleep early. Maybe it all just highlighted because just three weeks before I was in Poland at my new Polish bro’s wedding. In that night I didn’t hit the sack early though.

Even so I felt like coming back to something familiar and comfy. My expectations towards the upcoming course was mainly about further neurodynamics and maybe going through the old stuff for the exam at the end of the week. We had the first practical exam after week 4 and all I remember of that was that my grades of movement were not that good and I was extremely nervous though Sandra and Daria did their best to make the athmosphere as easy going as it could be.
What I mostly waited was definately the clinical patterns. The more the weeks have grown in numbers the more easy it has been to put the concept in practice when you bit by bit start to get the grip of the bigger picture. The certain selected clinical patterns are somewhat tools which make the diagnostical process faster in the clinic. In the best case that fastens the appliance of the right treatments and helps the patient faster. So that is why I was so eager: to make it easier to do as little as possible with the biggest advantage.

Would be nice though to always have a black and white ”symptoms and their 100% right treatment options” as a nice Excel form. Maybe some day the big data will do that and we could just proceed and function as suggested!
I believe that solely manual and passive ways to approach are very, very seldom the right way in the long term. As many other physios I would like to find out the different hypothesis or options that had led to a certain functional problem or pain. Is it the ergonomics, too static or too hyperactive living, too little rest, too much or too little activation in the myofascia or mainly psychosocial aspects. Nothing new, right? A nice little thought presented by a few before me.
Up until now I felt like this was a thing I was missing in Maitland concept. I felt like the prevention part was lacking but I strongly believed that it was just my own way of seeing things that led there. I was patient. We all take the courses from our own back-rounds and ways of doing the job so probably the others had gotten it before me. And then again: level 1 supposed to be mostly passive movements. One can’t get all of the knowledge at once. Maybe that is why there is the minimum of six months in between the levels… Again, feels like someone thought this before I did!

On this week that patience was rewarded. We took a pleasant step forward when we went through the patella femoralis pain syndrome. We discussed a lot about lower limb alignment and how big part of certain types of knee problems had with problems in the muscle function. We had practical exercises, tried some new stuff and ways to apply the active part to the treatment. Next to the active leg exercises in different starting positions we practiced modified ways to treat the knee manually. I was as happy as a Finn can be and smiled maybe on the inside without no one noticing.
As I mentioned we revised the previously learned every day during the week. As anyone can bet it was super helpful and eased the learning process once again. There were certain techniques and body parts that I didn`t remember so well… But we did some extra practicing in the evenings before the exam. We could even stay at the class after the lectures and go through the different techniques we found the most problematic.
In the exam everyone needed to perform 5 different techniques and demonstrate once again the grades of movement. My to-do list was shoulder quadrant, upper cervical quadrant, lumbar rotation, hip adduction in flexion and differentiation process in the elbow. I also demonstrated the grades on Matthew’s neck and this time (luckily) did better job than on level 1.

During the exam I was genuinely horrified that I would not pass. I felt confused with the elbow and had troubles getting my thinking straight. Fortunately, the other techniques and knowledge of applying them were easier to put on English words and to perform.
When Matthew congratulated me and handed the exam paper I felt very, very relieved. I was told I was accepted to take the level 2b. That will be a certain mile stone for me and maybe after that it could be a time to keep a short break before the third level of the concept. For me it is only a question of time, though. I want to go through more, learn more and climb the ladders higher.
So far I have been attending these trips on solo from the dark and cold North. On the course I heard that there will be more than 5 course attenders from Finland in Warsaw 2b in May! This is a direct shout out for those people: send me a message on Fb or somewhere! Would be fun to catch up!
I got curious… A Finnish invasion?
Thank you again Thomas, Matthew and Daria!
