Canadian RMT Fall 2016 Canadian RMT Fall 2016 | Page 15

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omething special happens when walking long
distances, day after day. A
slower, steadier, less hurried
rhythm establishes itself. As
the outer landscape moves
slowly by, it is the inner landscape—one’s
own thoughts, feelings, body sensations—
that gradually become the foreground of
the ambulatory world. Your companions
on the walk are an important part of your
world, as well. Moving at a similar pace,
they join you in your inner landscape, and
you join them in theirs. Conversations,
reflection, flights of fancy, easy silence, all
flow from one to another. Each moving
moment rolls by; until you arrive at your
day’s destination, where you rest, rub
your feet, relax together, and do it again
the next day.
Earlier this summer, my colleagues1
and I invited 28 manual therapy practitioners from around the world to join us
in Spain for a movable weeklong workshop, taught while walking together on
the Camino de Santiago Compostela. For
more than a thousand years, this wellknown pilgrimage route has been traveled
by many kinds of walkers: penitents,
seekers, wanderers; crusaders, kings,
popes; minstrels, robbers, monks; tourists, backpackers, movie stars. And now,
walked by us, a group of hands-on therapists. Our group hailed from six countries; our specialties included fascial and
myofascial approaches, massage therapy,
Rolfing and structural integration, physical therapy, Feldenkrais, sports rehabili-

TOP, from left to right: Walking on the Camino de Santiago Campostela, Instructor Larry Koliha lecturing
on foot biomechanics, Arriving in Santiago de Campostela at the end of our trek, Instructors Til Luchau
and Larry Koliha on the Camino. BOTTOM, from left to right: Instructors Bibiana Badenes and Chris
Pohowsky, On the Camino, The “laboratory” for our lessons was the Camino itself.
Photos by: Günther Bisges, Hamid Shibata Bennett, Ramona Peoples, Advanced-Trainings.com

tation, Pilates and yoga, movement therapy, and more. We came for many reasons:
technical learning, spiritual adventure,
physical challenge, professional companionship, realization of a dream, or a break
from the bus