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PODCAST

The Thinking Practitioner

Til Luchau & Whitney Lowe

For the practitioner who’s never stopped being curious. Til Luchau and Whitney Lowe bring together leading researchers, master clinicians, and big questions from across bodywork, massage, and manual therapy — exploring not just what we do with our hands, but why it works and how to do it better. Smart, grounded, and genuinely useful conversations for the somatic arts and sciences. For professional practitioners in bodywork, massage therapy, structural integration, chiropractic, myofascial and

education courses

All Episodes

57:36

180: Fascial Elves and Vikings (with Heike Oellerich...

The Thinking Practitioner ·

2026/09/30

🎙 Fascial Elves and Vikings (with Heike Oellerich & Miriam Wessels)Some people can fold themselves into almost any position but struggle to find stability; others feel strong and solid but can’t reach their toes—and the difference may start long before either of them ever trained. Most of us were taught to read range of motion as a story about training, habit, and nervous system protection. That story is not wrong, but it may be incomplete. What if some of what we feel under our hands is a

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55:51

179: Nerve Pain: Stop Blaming Compression (with...

The Thinking Practitioner ·

2026/09/16

🎙 Nerve Pain: Stop Blaming Compression (with Whitney Lowe & Til Luchau)Ask almost any manual therapist what they learned about nerves in school, and you get some version of the same answer: not much. Most of us were handed the wiring model. A nerve is a cable, it carries a signal, and there are two ways it goes wrong — something presses on it, or something pulls on it. It's a tidy picture, it's most of what our field has run on for decades, and it leaves out nearly everything that makes a

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30:05

178: Menopause, Pain, and Bodywork (with Ruth Werner)

The Thinking Practitioner ·

2026/09/02

🎙 Menopause, Pain, and Bodywork (with Ruth Werner)What if midlife achiness isn’t simply aging—and isn’t necessarily an injury that needs fixing? Menopause can affect far more than temperature. As hormones shift, sleep, mood, cognition, bone and cardiovascular health, pain, and tissue tolerance may all change. Yet most hands-on practitioners received little or no training about what this means for the people on their tables—or for practitioners going through menopause themselves. Pathology

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58:00

177: Clinical Reasoning, or Clinical Improvisation?...

The Thinking Practitioner ·

2026/08/19

🎙 Clinical Reasoning, or Clinical Improvisation? (with Whitney Lowe & Til Luchau)Every good protocol, recipe, or routine is designed to be outgrown. The trouble is that almost nobody tells you when. Protocols are how most of us learned: a sequence, a recipe, a named technique for a named condition. They reduce cognitive load when you’re new, they keep you and your client safe, and they let you know what to do next. And then, at some point, they start to get in the way — because real clients

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63:40

176: Becoming Friends with Movement (with Nuria Bowart)

The Thinking Practitioner ·

2026/08/05

🎙 Becoming Friends with Movement (with Nuria Bowart)📌 Save the date: early December 2026 in Boulder, Colorado — as a result of their discussion here, Til and Nuria are teaching a collaborative workshop for bodyworkers, hands-on and moving, both. Details to come at https://advanced-trainings.com Tell Nuria you’re “not really a mover” and she won’t argue. She’ll just say: maybe you’ve forgotten. Most of us learned to work on bodies that hold still. Nuria Bowart — dancer, movement artist, Certified

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55:49

175: The Affection Question (with Kory Floyd)

The Thinking Practitioner ·

2026/07/22

🎙 The Affection Question (with Kory Floyd)How many of your clients come to you, week after week, not just for their shoulder or their low back — but because yours may be the one space in their life where they feel truly touched, attended to, and seen? Roughly 40% of people report not getting enough affection in their lives. And research suggests that for our older clients, that number is likely even higher. To explore what that means for our work, Til sits down with Dr. Kory Floyd — professor and

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51:30

174: How to Bend Time (with Til Luchau & Whitney Lowe)

The Thinking Practitioner ·

2026/07/08

🎙 How to Bend Time (with Til Luchau & Whitney Lowe) There’s a moment in many good sessions when the clock stops mattering — breathing deepens, your hands settle, and time itself seems to change. Til recently wrote about this as “bending time,” and here he and Whitney explore it as a practical, therapeutic part of hands-on work. They get into how time perception is tied to body state, attention, and interoception; how the practitioner’s own state sets the tempo; and how to work slowly without

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53:28

173: Recognizing & Touching Trauma (with Dr. Peter...

The Thinking Practitioner ·

2026/06/24

🎙 Recognizing & Touching Trauma (with Dr. Peter Levine) By popular demand! Originally aired as Episode 108, Til’s conversation with Dr. Peter Levine quickly became one of our most listened-to episodes ever — and it’s easy to hear why. The developer of Somatic Experiencing®, bestselling author of Waking the Tiger, and student of Ida Rolf shares how trauma lives in the body, how hands-on practitioners can recognize it, and how we can be most helpful when it shows up on our tables. Whether you

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48:45

172: Lateral Hip Pain: Stop Blaming the Bursa (with...

The Thinking Practitioner ·

2026/06/10

🎙 Lateral Hip Pain: Stop Blaming the Bursa (with Whitney Lowe & Til Luchau)Til and Whitney unpack why the old “trochanteric bursitis” diagnosis is almost always wrong—and what that means for your hands-on treatment. ✨ Topics discussed include: • The shift from bursitis to tendinopathy: only about 8% of lateral hip cases involve true bursitis; the majority are gluteus medius/minimus tendinopathies compressed under the IT band • Why women are affected at a 4:1 ratio—declining estrogen, wider

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26:49

171: The Most Skipped Step in Assessment and Why It...

The Thinking Practitioner ·

2026/05/27

🎙 The Most Skipped Step in Assessment and Why It Matters Most What if the most important part of your assessment never involves touching your client? In this solo episode, Whitney dives deep into the client history — the most critical yet frequently overlooked component of manual therapy assessment. While many practitioners rush straight into orthopedic testing or treat only where it hurts, the subjective intake holds the primary keys to understanding why a client is in pain, not just

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54:48

170: Hypermobile Ehlers-Danlos, Fascia, and Pain...

The Thinking Practitioner ·

2026/05/13

Ep 170: 🎙 Hypermobile Ehlers-Danlos, Fascia, and Pain (with Tina Wang) Listener FavoriteWhy do people with extra-flexible tissues often hurt more, not less? What does fascia actually look like on ultrasound in someone with hypermobility — and why did the findings surprise even the researchers? Dr. Tina Wang — a board-certified physical medicine and rehabilitation physician whose research uses ultrasound to study fascial dysfunction in hypermobile patients — joins Til and Whitney for a wide-ranging

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57:38

169: Exploring Anterior Neck Work (with Walt Fritz)

The Thinking Practitioner ·

2026/04/29

🎙 Unlocking the Anterior Neck: (with Walt Fritz)Walt Fritz is a physical therapist who has been in practice since 1985 and has spent the last 30 years evolving from a traditional myofascial release (MFR) background into a collaborative, patient-led approach to manual therapy. He returns to The Thinking Practitioner to talk to Whitney about one of the most intimidating regions for manual therapists: the anterior neck. Walt shares his transition from the "clinician-as-expert" model to one rooted in

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64:10

168: Listener Favorite: Back Pain, Stiffness & Manual...

The Thinking Practitioner ·

2026/04/15

What if the key to resolving your client’s back pain isn’t loosening things up — but “adding” stiffness? Dr. Stuart McGill is one of the preeminent back pain researchers in the world, and in this conversation, he makes his case — passionately and controversially — for why biomechanical factors deserve far more attention than they typically get in back pain assessment and treatment. He argues that the label “nonspecific low back pain” masks what a skilled clinician could find with a thorough enough

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49:05

167: Cupping & the Nervous System (with Joi Edwards)

The Thinking Practitioner ·

2026/04/01

Dr. Joi Edwards is a physical therapist with nearly 20 years of experience specializing in orthopedic injuries and a licensed massage therapist who bridges the gap between clinical assessment and intuitive soft-tissue work.She joins Whitney on The Thinking Practitioner to dive deep into the world of cupping therapy—exploring the physiological mechanisms, the various types of tools, and why this ancient modality is about much more than just leaving red marks on the skin. Joi’s fascination with

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48:35

166. Does Research Support What We Do? (with Bodhi...

The Thinking Practitioner ·

2026/03/18

🎙 Does Massage Research Actually Work? (with Bodhi Haraldsson)Bodhi Haraldsson is a registered massage therapist, researcher, and self-described “pracademic” who has spent over 25 years bridging the gap between clinical practice and scientific inquiry. He joins Whitney on The Thinking Practitioner to talk about one of the most important — and most misunderstood — questions in our profession: what does the research actually tell us about massage therapy? Bodhi’s journey into research began at

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41:53

165: Multi-State Massage License: Coming Soon? (with...

The Thinking Practitioner ·

2026/03/04

🎙 The Interstate Massage Compact (with Deborah Persinger)Deborah Persinger is the Executive Director of the Federation of State Massage Therapy Boards (FSMTB), and she joins Whitney on The Thinking Practitioner to break down one of the most significant regulatory developments in our profession’s history: the Interstate Massage Compact. If you’ve ever moved to a new state and had to navigate a whole new set of licensing requirements — or if you live near a state border and can’t legally work on the

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57:11

164: Dizziness Roundtable (with Ruth Werner, Til...

The Thinking Practitioner ·

2026/02/18

🎙 Dizziness Roundtable (with Ruth Werner)Ruth Werner returns to The Thinking Practitioner for a roundtable discussion with Til and Whitney on one of the most overlooked topics in manual therapy: balance challenges. Ruth is the author of A Massage Therapist’s Guide to Pathology (now in its 7th edition), a long-time educator, and host of the podcast I Have a Client Who. In this wide-ranging conversation with Til and Whitney, Ruth brings her characteristic clarity to a complex subject — helping us

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39:55

163: A Master in Plain Sight (with Art Riggs)

The Thinking Practitioner ·

2026/02/04

🎙 A Master in Plain Sight (with Art Riggs)Art Riggs is a Certified Advanced Rolfer™, massage therapist, and creator of some of the most influential instructional video courses in our field. His recordings were among the first truly comprehensive video trainings available to bodyworkers. Decades later, practitioners still return to them again and again, finding new insights each time. They age well because they’re packed with technique, yet grounded in principles that never go out of style. Here’s

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49:32

162: AI in Massage: Thinking Partner, Threat, or...

The Thinking Practitioner ·

2026/01/21

🎙 AI in Massage: Thinking Partner, Threat, or Crutch?Is artificial intelligence coming for your massage practice? Not the way you might think. In this episode, Til and Whitney dive into the rapidly evolving world of AI — exploring where it genuinely helps manual therapists, where it falls short, and why the human elements of touch, presence, and clinical reasoning remain irreplaceable. From AI-generated anatomical images with mysterious octopus tentacles to "massage robots" that feel like being

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57:46

161: Science, Skepticism, & Keeping Heart (with Paul...

The Thinking Practitioner ·

2026/01/07

🎙 Science, Skepticism, & Keeping Heart (with Paul Ingraham)What happens when a former massage therapist turns a skeptical eye on his own profession and starts asking uncomfortable questions about pain science and manual therapy? You get Paul Ingraham of PainScience.com — a writer whose work has challenged, irritated, and influenced practitioners in equal measure. In this episode, Til Luchau and Whitney Lowe sit down with Paul to explore how clinicians can think clearly in a field crowded with

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181 results

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