CNHC Registrant Marcia Fletcher has been practising Kinesiology for over 15 years in London, Devon and Central America as well as teaching Foundation Kinesiology as a certified Touch For Health (TFH) instructor. Marcia is a member of the Kinesiology Federation, one of CNHC's Verifying Organisation and is also a member of CNHC's Profession Specific Board (PSB) for Kinesiology.
In this blog post, she talks about her experiences last year of setting up free kinesiology sessions for patients at her local GP surgery.
My Exmouth GP practice has its own Patient Participation Group which meets quarterly to discuss ways in which it can support the Practice.
A Patient Participation Group (PPG) is a group of patients, carers and GP practice staff who meet to discuss practice issues and patient experience to improve the service. The purpose of a PPG is to give patients and practice staff the opportunity to meet and discuss topics of mutual interest.
I attended a Practice PPG meeting in November 2021 where it was mentioned that their current wellbeing therapist had decided to cease his one-hour chair exercise sessions with the patients of the Practice. At that meeting the Practice Manager stated that she would like the Practice to continue offering wellbeing sessions and was seeking a replacement. I offered to run free one-hour sessions and offer techniques that could help with stress, pain, sleep and anxiety. A meeting was arranged to discuss my offering with the Practice Manager in early 2022.
I met with the Practice Manager and presented what I would offer (see below) from the Foundation Kinesiology Touch for Health (TFH) syllabus. She reported that she would seek permission from the partners for the go ahead. I suggested that it would be useful for the partners and other staff members to sample a session so that they would be aware of the content of the session before committing to offering them.
The sample session to introduce the staff to the techniques I would offer patients was held in February and was well received. It was agreed, after approval by the managing partners, that the patient sessions would commence from the beginning of March.
I negotiated that the Practice would print off technique handouts to pass to patients and that they would also promote the sessions on their social media channels and Practice waiting room screens. A flyer was produced and placed on notice boards around the waiting room area along with take-away flyers for patients’ information. With a limit on 15 patients per session, and not knowing how many patients would wish to attend, the flyer asked that patients book their session with me via email.
The booking of patients had a slow uptake like any new product launch where awareness was low. However, from the beginning of March 2022 enquiries were received and a core of regulars developed.
Each session would begin with me giving a brief introduction to me, my work as a therapist and the aim of the sessions. I then introduced that all the techniques that we would be sharing would be summarised on a free handout available at the end of the session. When everyone was seated, patients were asked if they had any pain in their body, stressful thoughts or anxieties that they could use with the techniques to see if their issues improved. The patients only gave brief descriptions of their issues and I actively discouraged lengthy sharing discussions both for confidentiality and timing. I explained that the techniques were simple, safe and could be applied at any time and in their own homes.
Techniques/information offered were from Touch for Health:
Each session was flexible and could focus more on one technique than another depending on who attended and the health issues presenting.
Prior to ending sessions for the summer, I sought feedback from the PPG, the Practice Manager and participating patients. Feedback would enable me to make any changes to the Autumn sessions and address any concerns.
The Practice manager provided positive feedback and welcomed my return to the Practice in the Autumn.
The patients who attended completed a survey form which asked specific questions on their experience of the sessions and any benefits to their health that they had noticed. Again, the feedback was very positive and included comments on specific improvements to their health.
Feedback from the patients’ surveys will be communicated to the Practice with a view to communicating the positive effects experienced by the patients using the techniques and to encourage GPs to refer other patients who may benefit from them to join the sessions.
I will endeavour to promote the sessions more vigorously and redesign the session flyer.
The sessions ceased for the summer but restarted in the Autumn in a better location within the Practice. The Practice Manger offered the use of a private room rather than using the sometimes-populated waiting room of patients there to see a GP.
I have found offering these sessions very rewarding and the hour passes so quickly. There have been lots of questions from the patients about the techniques and I have enjoyed answering them. I can’t tell you the number of puzzled expressions I have witnessed from participants when they immediately see and feel the benefit of auricular energy or feel the lowering/removal of pain when using EFT. This made running these sessions a key part of my working week.