Making the Most of Hip Replacement Surgery and Rehab
and How Hanna Somatics Fits In
Ken Bridgeman 4-26-2015
For the individual who faces hip replacement surgery, the prospect of surgical intervention may bring little sense of personal relief; it may rather represent abject failure. Over the years, this person may have spent a substantial amount of time and money — utilizing a myriad of movement arts and rehabilitative therapies — trying to stave off what now has become inevitable. Despite these efforts, this person daily faces the indignity of progressive physical debilitation; expanding feelings of helplessness; isolation and depression; and a sense of personal inadequacy largely as a direct result of chronic excruciating pain.
As HSE practitioners, we may find it quite difficult to accept that there’s nothing to “fix” here. We can only meet and support this person at whatever stage he or she happens to be. Over the course of a year, beginning in August 2012, I had double hip replacement surgery. Through the frank and gentle support of HSE colleagues and a trusted physical rehabilitation mentor, I finally accepted that surgery had become necessary. I then discovered that there’s actually a lot I could do to prepare myself in order to maximize the post-surgical outcome. In this workshop, we’ll explore some simple movements that I found I could do, despite my painful joints, to keep my hips and spine as mobile as possible. You’ll also learn to “somaticize” some of the standard post-surgical physical therapy exercises so your client can then practice these prior to surgery. This kind of pre-surgical preparation will certainly empower your client and help them to make a much more rapid and successful recovery.
Ken Bridgeman began his career in the helping professions as a medical corpsman on a surgical floor at David Grant Medical Center on Travis Air Force Base. He worked as a Nursing Aide and then as a Physical Therapy Assistant at Moss Rehabilitation Center in Philadelphia, PA. In both these progressive institutions, he learned the healing power of personal, compassionate care when offered within an allopathic setting. Ken has had a practice as a massage practitioner since 1983 and was active with the American Massage Therapy Association for 25 years. He studied the Hendrickson Orthopedic Method with Tom Hendrickson in 1991. For nearly 20 years, Ken studied and worked with Irene Smith in her pioneering work with persons with HIV and AIDS, to bring compassionate touch to sick and dying individuals in home, hospice and hospital settings, and brought this work to others throughout the United States, in Europe as well as in Asia. Ken became a certified HSE practitioner in 2003, has incorporated this into his own life and introduced it to his friends, colleagues and clients. He has served on the AHSE Board of Directors for 5 years.