Don Dillon-RMT

07/24/2025

What an episode! https://www.thethinkingpractitioner.com/e/149-bodywork-through-the-polyvagal-lens-with-stephen-porges/

Key Topics:

00:00 – 02:00 Intro, ABMP welcome & framing the Polyvagal lens for bodyworkers
02:00 – 07:00 Early research with Peter Levine and John Cottingham: how structural shifts (pelvic tilt, fascia work) alter autonomic regulation
07:00 – 12:00 Evolutionary foundations: fascia types, diaphragm function, and the hierarchy of autonomic response
12:00 – 17:00 Facial expressivity, voice prosody, and breathing as channels of co‑regulation
17:00 – 22:00 Identifying autonomic states (“tightly wrapped” bodies) and choosing when—not just where—to touch
22:00 – 27:00 The Body Perception Questionnaire: a tool for mapping clients’ interoceptive awareness
27:00 – 32:00 Trauma, autonomic reactivity, and parsing traumatic events vs. responses
32:00 – 37:00 The Safe and Sound Protocol: acoustic interventions for nervous system safety
37:00 – 42:00 Vagal “hacking” misconceptions: why rhythm and safety signals matter more than stimulation
42:00 – 47:00 Feedback loops: tissue ↔ nervous system ↔ fascia → chronic pain
47:00 – 52:00 Therapist intuition: physiological co‑regulation, broadcasting accessibility, therapist self‑state
52:00 – 57:00 Finding safety in a chaotic world: why therapists need safe colleagues and co‑regulation too
57:00 – 60:00+ New resources: Polyvagal Theory: A Science of Safety, the Norton-edited somatic therapies volume, Safe & Sound Protocol book, Our Polyvagal World

🎙In this episode, Til Luchau and Whitney Lowe speak with renowned neuroscientist Dr. Stephen Porges, originator of Polyvagal Theory. Together, they explore how our nervous systems respond to cues of safety, how touch can support regulation and connection, and what all this means for bodyworkers a...

07/21/2025

07/16/2025

From 2012.

07/09/2025

https://www.thethinkingpractitioner.com/e/146-touch-inflammation-the-grieving-body-with-mary-frances-o-connor/

🎙Grief is not just an emotion—it’s a full-body experience. In this episode, Til Luchau talks with neuroscientist and psychologist Mary-Frances O’Connor, author of The Grieving Body, about how grief changes the brain, affects inflammation, and alters our physiology. They explore how attachme...

07/08/2025

The formation of the Society of Trained Masseuses (STM) by four British nurses in 1894 is often opined as the beginning of the physiotherapy profession (Ottoson, 2015). In support, physiotherapy hi…

07/03/2025

Have you ever considered what magic massage conjures? Through the practitioner's skilled, intentional touch, coupled with an environment carefully designed for safety and comfort, the receptive recipient can experience dramatic changes in pain perception, body awareness, functional improvement and feelings of well-being.

Consider the neuro, hormonal, muscular and other body system responses, and the transformation that occurs. Massage - like magic - entices us to suspend our habitual postures and responses, surrender to the mystery of not knowing, and compel our perceptions to consider something new, something profound. My argument plainly stated...massage is magic.

And if you'd like to experience that other kind of magic, I whole-heartedly recommend you head to the Greg Frewin Theatre in Niagara Falls to witness truly remarkable illusions. You'll see Greg Frewin, internationally renowned magician, and now sharing centre stage, the enchanting Alexandra. https://www.gregfrewintheatre.com/

06/24/2025

An honour and a pleasure to meet with these trailblazers in our discipline.

Earlier today, SOMA held our first virtual meeting of the newly formed Massage History Advisory Panel (MHAP).
This was an awesome kick off meeting with luminaries and leaders including, but not limited to:
Benny Vaughn
Susan Salvo
Pete Whitridge
Sandy Fritz
Don Dillon-RMT
Pat Benjamin

SOMA’s Board of Directors is grateful for the generous support of these Advisory Panelists!

06/19/2025

"What is your relationship with the history and legacy of our shared discipline? Do you hold it in regard…or contempt? Are you ambivalent to the origins, consider them fossilized, and put your conviction in technology and “evidence-informed” practice? If so, I have an argument for you to consider.

Outside our discipline, there is a broader cultural shift in the West that has been taking place since the world wars. At that time, collectivist, “we are all in this together” values reigned. But increasingly, we in the West have moved towards individualistic and materialistic values, starting with the Baby Boomers, and amplifying with Gen X, Gen Y, Gen Z, and the upcoming Gen Alpha.

Our daily dialogue as evidenced through books, newspapers and social media have shifted from “us” and “we”, to “me” and “my”. American psychologist Jean Twenge provides a cogent depiction in her 2009 co-authored book titled, Narcissism Epidemic: Living in the Age of Entitlement.

Our current popular culture worships celebritism. We take our public health direction, political viewpoints, financial and relationship advice from actors, performers, athletes and social media influencers. We distrust public authorities, blaming previous generations for the financial crisis, the housing crisis, the climate crisis, the job market crisis.

As a result, the subsequent generations appear to ignore and deplore tradition, experience, tacit knowledge. This is devastating to a profession built on craft, on theory and philosophy, that grew based on the empirical experiences of those that came before us.

There’s good reason for subsequent generations to be terse and aversive. In the West we have increasingly hijacked their hope and optimism. No wonder the youth commonly relate to the homeless, the indigenous, ethnic minorities, people facing oppression of all types…because they themselves feel disenfranchised."
(from Q&A #5)

The Generational Divide Posted on May 27, 2025 by dqd Join me on the SOMA: Society Of Massage Archives broadcast, where host Kirby Clark Ellis and I discuss the history of MT regulation in ON & BC, similarities and peculiarities when comparing Canadian and American advancement in the profession, the...