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Item Description...
Product Description This book is about detecting the cause of head and neck pain, muscle tension patterns, jaw problems, crooked teeth and other dental abnormalities, eating and swallowing disorders, speech and learning disorders, and emotional dysfunction, etc.
Item Specifications...
ISBN 1579212662 EAN 9781579212667 UPC 000000711549
Pages 192
Dimensions: Length: 8" Width: 5.62" Height: 0.43" Weight: 0.49 lbs.
Release Date May 1, 2001
Availability 6 units. Availability accurate as of Mar 17, 2010 05:19.
Usually ships within one to two business days from Johnson City, TN.
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Categories
1
Books > Subjects > Health, Mind & Body > Disorders & Diseases > Musculoskeletal Diseases [191 similar products]
2
Books > Subjects > Health, Mind & Body > Disorders & Diseases > Pain Management [266 similar products]
Books > Subjects > Professional & Technical > Medical > Dentistry > Craniomandibular & Temporomandibular [11 similar products]
8
Books > Subjects > Professional & Technical > Medical > Dentistry > Orthodontics [44 similar products]
Reviews - What do our customers think?
Wonderful discovery Mar 11, 2005
Note: This book only covers the theory behind Thumb Therapy, not the actual procedure to restore the reflexive oral swallow. For the actual therapy, see one may purchase an additional pamphlet at the website: three w's - a dot - petsitterspurrfection - a dot - com
Streicher clearly was onto something. It only makes sense that oral problems are caused by harmful habits that one acquires throughout life. This book explains multiple cases where Streicher evaluated and treated patients with stuttering, crooked facial features, misaligned teeth, bite problems, TMJ, and more. Like the Alexander Technique and Feldenkrais, he knew that habits overtime create changes in the structure of the body. He also recognized how, by changing these faulty habits, the body will "right" itself. The student or practitioner does not need to know what "right" is, but just how to get out of the way and stop interfering!
Inconvenient for the reader, the actual therapy is not thoroughly explained. He suggests to put the thumb in the mouth while speaking and to check one's swallow, making sure there is no facial involvement. But Streicher does not go into these procedures in detail.
Thus, a supplement was later published. In addition to this novel, you can purchase the actual therapy, as listed above at petsitterspurrfection.
Streicher also makes some assumptions without facts backing him and thus discredits his own work. If he were still alive today, there is a chance he would revise and reprint this book in an even more logical way.
Instead, after his death, those who knew him published a supplement to the book that explains the entire process (though it too, is not fully complete).
So, more on his theory. As described in the Alexander Technique, in the human body, destructive habits add a new force that can overpower the natural carriage of the human framework. For example, people who slump much daily, may in time no longer be able return to an upright, balanced position; their body stiffens and hardens into misalignment. Through the guidance of a teacher and thus learning to no longer collapse, overtime the body will regain its natural elasticity and poise. This macro concept can be applied in a micro manner to the mouth. This is why all it takes is an elimination of the habit. What a relief! Similar to Alexander's work though, Streicher really recommends one seeks treatment in the hands of a Thumb Therapy specialist.
And at the moment there are few, if any, practicing in the US.
What does that mean? The curious reader can attempt to discover for himself. I know I've made some headway. As a training Alexander Technique teacher, I feel that sooner or later I will be qualified to relearn and rediscover what Streicher had done. I am also in contact with many of his clinical associates; we are working on getting the Thumb Therapy out of the woodwork.
Due to the spam crisis, I cannot leave direct contact information, but I will offer that I am studying under Jane Heirich of Ann Arbor, MI and she can be reached through information listed on AmSAT (American Society for the Alexander Technique)'s website. Google may prove useful.
Happy, easy swallowing! Tim F.
The book is like paying for advertisement Jul 14, 2004
Well what can I say. The author started talking about his secret thumb therapy and from then on kept repeating cases after cases, without achieving much. It was like reading an ad for a therapy which was never discussed. Even from a general medical interest standpoint the material has little to offer.
Buying the book was a waste of money, reading it was a waste of time.
Do read it! Feb 19, 2001
I strongly recommend Pebble in the Shoe to those with a personal or professional interest in Speech Therapy, Orthodontics, or TMJ problems. I also commend it to anyone who enjoys reading about new discoveries and achievements.
For me Streicher's therapy was a break-through in my search for help with my own speech difficulty (following adult Orthodontic treatment). It offers understanding and practical help after months of professional consultations and browsing the Internet in search of understanding of my particular problem.
Streicher's therapy is a totally natural, non-invasive way to treat speech, dental and jaw problems. It describes how we can allow nature to heal us and has given me hope that I can be cured without further Orthodontic or Dental work.
John Streicher's search for and discovery of a cure originated from realising his Aunt's difficulty in communicating. He describes her problems and his own struggle to have his theories accepted.
I found the book interesting, exciting, informative and sympathetic and I dearly wish there were professionals in my own country who practise Streicher's therapy.
The Pebble in the Shoe Feb 16, 2001
There has been a proliferation of books, tapes, seminars that address stress, anxiety, muscle tension, migrane headaches, TMJ and jaw problems, neck and back pains. If these area's are of interest or concern to you then John P. Streicher's book, The Pebble in the Shoe, should be at the top of your list. What is most meaningful for me is John's approach to "swallowing difficulties, speech and learning disorders and emotional dysfunction and how these are symtoms connected by a common cause". If you are a parent of a child with a speech or language disoder or an adult with a speech or language disorder this book is priceless. I have read Roberta Pierce's book concerning "Tongue Thurst" and Richard Barrett's "Oral Myofunctional Disoders" and John Streicher accurately states that "their therapy does not cure;it does not recondition the reflex system. It is another way of teaching individuals to control or override their habit conditioned speech and swallowing patterns". This book reminds me of the world renowned "Alexander Technique" developed by Frederick Matthias Alexander. John takes it a step further than Alexander by providing a "Vaccination", a therapy, he discovered. Like Alexander, John saw the need of finding the cause of a problem not just looking at the symtoms of the problem. Alexander stressed a process he called "inhibition- the ability to stop, to stop at the source, those harmful habits of thinking and doing from which most of us suffer". John discovered "that an oral habit causes problems by forcing the body to operate around it". But, "simply eliminating a habit would not bring the body back into balance. Someting was needed to recondition the system", according to John. This "reconditioning the system" is what the Alexander Technique lacks. John's Vaccination and subsequent Therapy is going to benefit so many people especially for those who have lost hope. Indivduals who have taken the inititive to seek professional speech therapy, for speech difficulty, are highly motivated. These individuals recognize that they have a problem and want to correct the problem by seeking the knowledge and expertise of a competent, qualified and experienced speech therapist. Unfortunately speech therapy has been and is still today "a sympton-chasing practice". "Speech pathologists describe an articulation pattern by listing what sounds are omitted, distorted, or substituted with other sounds. They are not trained to address causes". For those who have sought professional help for speech difficulties and have felt frustration, humiliation and failure even after years of "professional therapy", John Streicher's, The Pebble in the Shoe is a miraculous gift! The most profound affect for me was in the speech field but the therapy is applicable in the fields of education, dentistry, psychology, and medicine.
