What is the Kenji Method?
Kenji Method is a philosophy of treatment which takes a logical approach to assessment.
This philosophy can be summarized by the rules below.
1. What does it do? What does it do best? :
Can you cut down a tree with a pocket knife?
With great skill and practice this may be possible and at very least impressive but it is much easier to use a saw.
Knowing one’s own ability and skills allows one to know how and when to use those skills in the most effective way.
There are many different modalities and techniques that can affect the muscles, tendons, fascia, and joints, some of which are more practical and effective than others.
Focusing on what the modalities do best allow even the most novice practitioner or patient to achieve positive results, regardless of experience or skill.
For massage I found this to be:
- 1) lengthening the muscle and
- 2) increasing blood flow to the area massaged.
Once this was established as the most effective result of massage the next goal was to develop tests to find the short and tight muscles.
To see the different treatment groups and when they are the most approrpiate
2. Goal of the treatment is to create good health! What does good health mean?：
Good health is a state where the person can heal or recover in the appropriate amount of time for their issues.
This requires the understanding of how long particular issues take to heal as well as what is needed to ensure a proper recovery.
This is a different approach than “ try to fix the problem” which is common in the west.
The strength of the west approach is when the issue is an emergency or acute situation.
The strength of the health approach is to prevent injuries as well as chronic situations or when the cause is unknown.
See more about the phases of healing, what phase you might be in, as well as the appropriate time frames.
3. Make sure to have a complete diagnosis:
Where is the problem?
The location of the patient’s complaint is important to know the location of the treatment.
What is the problem?
This is important to know what type of treatment would be appropriate / effective.
What makes it better or worse?
This is a diagnosis of the person’s health. This is important to know what caused the issue to ensure the person recovers in the appropriate time and also prevent it from recurring.
Most diagnosis we learn in school focuses on where and what the problem is but seems to have less emphasis on the person’s health (What makes it better or worse)?
By adding emphasis to the health diagnosis I feel that it may be the key to finding solutions where the issue is difficult to treat or otherwise diagnose.
4. Yin and Yang:
Within the concept of yin and yang there is an idea of balance and relativity.
Yin and yang are opposites but yet support each other.
If yin is greater than yang, it could be a case where yang is deficient or yin is excessive or both or vice versa.
Therefore I feel it is essential to never look at one single sign or symptom by itself but always in comparison with another.
An area that feels tight may actually be the area that is being stretched or strained.
Pain most often is the result of inflammation and tissue strain.
If massage is used to bring blood to the area and lengthen tissue, why would one massage an area with too much blood and overstretched tissue?
In order to know if a muscle is actually short and tight, one must compare it to the other muscles in the body.
Therefore even if a muscle feels tight, that muscle may actually be in balance with the other muscles in the body and massaging the muscle can actually lead to dysfunction.
What is the length of a muscle?
In simple terms, this can be said to be the distance between the origin and insertion.
So the determining factor is the structural alignment of the patient.
The short and tight muscles will pull the two ends of its attachment sites closer together.
This will then be visible by looking at the position of the bones and the angles of the joints.
5. Assessment as the patient vs practitioner?：
Most therapies base most of their assessment through the subjective observation of the practitioner.
Did it feel hard or tight?
Does it look in line or off center? Etc.
This approach works well when the practitioner’s idea of what is correct fits with the reality of the patient’s situation.
I have had many experiences where the patient looked in better balance and alignment but felt worse after the treatment!
Often in this case the reason for the imbalances were there to help the person compensate for their injury or dysfunction.
By adding a secondary assessment focused on the subjective experience of the patient it can help prevent unfortunate side effects from the treatment.
As well as accommodate situations where the patient is dealing with structural issues such as scoliosis or arthritis etc.
6. Test and retest.
This allows one to learn when things do not go as planned.
Instead of doing the same thing over and over expecting a different result.
Also it can give insight when the patient may need to see a different type of practitioner and also what type of practitioner that would be.
Is the treatment not working because the area treated was incorrect or if one’s technique or skill level was not sufficient to make the change one was trying to create.
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