What the Body Keeps

I work with bodies. That sounds obvious — physiotherapy is physical by definition — but what I mean is that I've learned to read them in a particular way. A shoulder that tightens when a patient mentions their job. A person who holds their breath when they describe what happened to them. Pain that exists somewhere the scans show nothing.

The body keeps things the mind has filed away. I see this every week. A woman in her sixties who had moved a certain way for forty years because of an injury she'd completely forgotten. A man who tensed every time someone moved quickly behind him and didn't know why, and eventually remembered.

I notice this in myself too. There are things I can't think about clearly but that my body seems to have a position on. My shoulders on certain roads. My breathing when certain songs come on. The body doesn't forget. It just waits for you to ask.

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