On this trip, I�ve been searching for opportunities to work with landmine victims. I�ve wanted to help ease some of the physical and mental pain that remains long after their explosive accidents. We traveled to a small community center in the Bovel District of Cambodia. It is there we are met by three landmine-affected men, all have families, all are rice farmers. After the initial meeting, I ask, �Have you pain?�
�Yes,� they say. Their spines and femur bones hurt.
�May I help?� I ask, and indicate head and base of spine. They smile nervously, titter and tell us they want lunch first.
Quietly, without notice, it is decided who will try, Mr. Phan Thong Kam. I had been enjoying Mr. Kam�s broad smile and strong, wide hands. He consents to lie down on his back, on one end of a long wooden table. I move to the end of the table and sit facing the top of his head.
I ask Mr. Chanthon, our CPI liason to the Cambodia Volunteers for Community Development, to tell him I am going to pick up his head and proceed to do so.
�Relax your head,� I say. Mr. Kam, a little hesitantly, does so. We begin. I know at once, the compensatory patterns he has formed to adjust for the missing left leg and the oddly, medially rotated right foot and leg that must carry his medium sized frame.
Mr. Kam�s neck is thick with congestion and feels quite rotated to his right upper cervicals, base of the skull and spreading up into the right side of his head. I follow the weight of his head which leads me toward a right side bend, ear to shoulder. I know this is a neural pathway to his shoulders and left amputated leg. We work slowly, at the pace his central nervous system is able to tolerate work. His body�s soft, connective tissue is the guide. Stored within the fascia layers are his physical and emotional experiences, the map to unwind what has happened. He tells me that he has daily headaches.
Soon his head volunteers back bending (extension). I invite him to move back, dropping his head into my hands out in space, to allow extension. This is a way the brain begins to unwind and tonify the capabilities of the spinal cord and associated neural ganglia. The real work begins, that of neural connections.
Mr. Kam�s body responds readily. His neck congestion starts to break up, the hypertensive tissue starts to unwind. His eyes close and he rotates his his face right to deepen the release. I acknowledge the information flow to his left arm by lifting it.
Mr.Chanthon translates again for us. I tell Phan that he may feel different sensations and to move his attention toward them. We will go into and through these tense, strained places, the working edge, and feel them release.
�For me,� I tell him, �it is like driving a car. I know the roadways, the map, and simply help his body stay the course for self-healing�.
We all laugh, his body guides. He is the healer.
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