The patient* is the specialist for the sensations of his body. Only he knows exactly where something hurts or what it feels like, and that’s a little different for everyone. Therefore, the initial consultation and the collection of the patient’s complaints cannot be about “drawer diagnostics”, but about looking very closely at which parts of the body are affected and how, i.e. how the patient feels in his body.
By the way, this also applies to a number of psychological complaints, since these are also usually felt in more or less clearly defined areas of the body (fear is often felt, for example, in the abdominal or chest area, sometimes it literally sits in the neck, etc.).
It is often possible to treat complaints even if one has already received a devastating conventional medical diagnosis which has declared the problem “inexplicable” or “untreatable”. In the sensorimotor body therapy according to Dr. Pohl, structures are at least treated which doctors and psychotherapists usually do not pay much attention to, but which are often the cause: tense muscles and tense connective tissue.
In my practice, the anamnesis also consists of recording and understanding the patient’s specific problem or complaint against the background of a bio-psychosocial model. This means that I assume that there are mostly physical, mental and social (family, social, professional, etc.) causes for complaints. The human being is not just a psyche, not only a family and not only a body, but always a mixture of all that.
Through psychotherapeutic conversations, some of these causes can be worked out. However, the focus of my work is on understanding the body and treating it accordingly. Because almost all complaints have physical expressions and the treatment of the body often helps to eliminate the psychological problem. For example, stress hits the stomach and a sensomotoric treatment of the stomach can help to reduce stress and so on.
Concrete diagnostic steps are:
Self-description: the patient explains what he has, where he has it, when he has it (and when not), how it feels, what helps him, etc.
Historical-biographical anamnesis: The patient reports when it started, what he has tried, etc.
Visual-structural posture analysis: the patient is looked at while sitting, lying down and standing – chronic contractions usually appear from the outside.
Visual-functional movement analysis: the patient is looked at while walking and moving – what can move well, what cannot?
Haptic analysis: the patient is touched to detect tensions
Analysis of findings: doctor’s reports and other findings are viewed
Ergonomics analysis: presentation of everyday and professional situations and circumstances such as the workplace, typical postures and movements, etc.
Psycho-social-family analysis: Which factors from attitudes, ideals, roles, prohibitions etc. could play an additional role?
Information phase: the therapist discusses pictures and videos with the patient, informs about anatomical structures and contexts and develops a treatment plan together.
The anamnesis takes place in the first consultation. If possible, this takes place within 120 minutes, so that at the end of the anamnesis one can still treat a little and the patient gets to know the method and in the best case its effects practically right at the beginning. In the further course of the treatment, however, short post-anamnesis will automatically take place again and again, the diagnosis may be adapted or the patient may suddenly remember another old injury that he forgot at the beginning, etc.