How "The King's Speech" reminds me of Body Tuning

Last night I saw The King’s Speech and was struck by how methods of the speech therapist, Lionel, was so much like Body Tuning.  Even some of the movements he had Bertie do were reminiscent of what might go on in a Body Tuning session.

Now, if you haven’t seen The King’s Speech, this is a spoiler alert. I might be saying some things here that are revealed later on in the film for dramatic effect, and you may want to wait and see the film before reading this.

That being said, I was especially struck when Lionel was going to be fired because it was discovered that he didn’t have a PhD. He had never represented himself as a doctor, and yet he was the only one who had been able to help the Duke.  But despite his successful track record, he was about to be fired due to lack of ‘credentials.’

It’s such a shame that people value institutional learning so blindly that they are unable to see that the man knew what he was doing. They refused to work with him because he wasn’t part of “the club” of the elite. 

The film had shown how doctors were trying ‘the latest techniques’ on the Duke, only to leave him frustrated and swallowing marbles. 

The Duke of York almost fell prey to losing something that was very valuable to him; a treatment method that worked. And in a very similar way, many Americans today are in the same danger. We suffer from elitism in our healthcare system.  This is a society where anyone with a PhD or an MD calls the shots.  Despite the fact that maintaining proper diet and nutrition and getting a proper amount and type of exercise can be just as, if not more effective at treating many of the symptoms that doctors and surgeons would rather treat with very expensive prescriptions and surgeries. 

But because there is so much financial backing for the medical route, it becomes “the club.” Diet and exercise are considered radical and scoffed at, while health insurance companies, prescription drug companies, medical centers, hospitals and many other very large and powerful entities are determined to make sure we choose the “higher road.” No one has been cured by taking pain medication.  And surgeries are often a short-term fix; which is shocking considering how truly barbaric the practice really is.

This type of elitism often prevents people from getting proper care. Instead of body work, people take Advil. Instead of physical therapy, people have surgery. Instead of doing some exercise, people take cholesterol lowering drugs, or instead of changing their diet they’ll take blood pressure lowering drugs. The list goes on and on, but the truth is, as was the case in The King’s Speech, the most common and most ‘respected’ methods are not always the best. 

The King refused to let his voice teacher be fired because he was getting results. And he ended up helping the King make a fine coronation speech and stayed with him for the rest of his career.

The moral is:

Don’t let yourself be bullied by “the club.”  Believe that results can be found by addressing your behaviors. Seek experts who get you results. Don’t keep doing something if it isn’t working. And open your eyes to what it really means to ‘treat’ your bodily symptoms with medications and surgeries. 

Body Tuning is a lot like Lionel the Speech Therapist. He does whatever works. His methods are unique and, because they don’t follow a protocol, are considered controversial. However, as we could see, there was nothing wrong with the treatments; and they worked. In the end, this is what Body Tuning is concerned with: Making the body feel and move better.

Body Tuning doesn’t follow a protocol, nor is it beholden to one source of input or approach.  It is culled from many different scientifically-based somatic practices and  philosophies. And like Lionel, gets results.