Every since becoming a NeuroKinetic Therapy (NKT) practitioner, I've had a few clients say the following phrases, "THAT'S CRAZY!", "What are you doing? Why did that happen?", or "It's like magic that it made my leg go stronger!". It's honestly one of the most fun techniques that some of my clients and I go through during our treatment sessions. NKT tells me that we're on to something (most likely some sort of biomechanical dysfunction) and we're going to correct it. It's been fun seeing a lot of different reactions from clients and also funny when clients see my face when I'm using NKT and something just "clicks" for me in my head!
NKT is not magic. It's all about understanding your body, your movement patterns, and how your brain processes those movement patterns to get you moving around every single day. I'm going to try to break it down in the simplest way to understand what NKT is all about and how it can help you better reach optimal function.
There's this section in the brain called the "Motor Control Center" (MCC). It coordinates all the movements within your body. It decides what is the best and the easiest way for you to achieve certain movements (ie. lifting your arm). Most importantly, it learns through failure (ie. a baby learning how to walk... Keeps trying until it stands up without thinking). So for example, if someone gets injured... your body starts creating compensations/functional weaknesses. The MCC learns of this and therefore creates the abnormal movement pattern that could possibly last for a long time if we don't change it or even injury. That's what we find and correct with NKT.
Here's how it works... As a NKT practitioner, we would asses the individuals gait, posture, movement and then use a system of tests to identify the functional weakness (a muscle or a group of muscles not functioning to its optimal function). By identifying the functional weakness, we tell the MCC that this is an abnormal pattern and we're going to create an opening for the MCC to learn a new movement pattern. When the MCC learns this new movement pattern, your body should be closer to optimal function and with the correct exercises will help engrave the proper motor pattern in the MCC.
So NKT isn't magic, but it can definitely sometimes feels like magic when we're going through the series of muscle tests. It's definitely been an invaluable tool in my practice and have been only a practitioner since October 2015, it has really helped a lot of my clients out for the better!
So if you're interested, give us a call at the Cathedraltown Health Clinic and see if I'm able to help you out! Just don't be surprised if you feel like you just experienced something kind of nuts. lol :D
Dr. Lee