Date: Thu, 16 Mar 2000 13:56:37 EST
Subject: (no subject)

    Dear Mr Marxhausen,

    recently I've read your webpage about injuries and music. Totally cool, 
although I
found it strange that there were no remarks on the phychological aspects of 
being a
musician, for that was the reason for my tendonitus-problems. My story goes 
some-thing like this:
    I started playing guitar when I was four ( I'm 22 right now), you know, 
just fooling around, and after a couple of weeks I was able to actually play 
a tune ( at least I thought it was a tune...), and I took it from there. I 
took some lessons and by the time I was 14 I was good enough to play in a 
band, which I did, and we played a gig
at the school proms. Well, that was also the first night I had a private 
encounter with 
a girl, which I found strange, for I am butt-ugly. But she said I looked 
"sexy" when I played my guitar, and I thought: Really..? Cool!!! ' . So I 
decided right there that I was
going to play guitar for the rest of my life.
    I  was born and raised in The Netherlands, Europe, but the music I loved 
was American, the music I played was American, and you do not have a future 
as a mu-
sician in Europe, because people only want to hear music played by Americans. 
So
I decided to move to the USA. When I was 19, I packed my guitar and went to, 
of all
places, Hollywood, CA, to attend GIT, the Guitar Institute of Technology. And 
here trouble began.
    First of all, I grew up on a farm in The Netherlands, so the contrast 
between home and Hollywood was just overwhelming, and I suffered a severe 
culture-shock.
Second, I didn't have a single clue what to do with music. I knew I wanted to 
play guitar, but I had no idea of what style, so I did it all, from jazz to 
heavy metal, with
the idea that if I just practiced enough, it'll be allright. Well, within 6 
weeks I lost physical controll over my right arm and my left arm started to 
hurt pretty bad, too.
To make a long story short, I packed my guitar again, and went back to 
Europe, to chill out and to cure.
    Back home I went to several hospitals, and they all said I was perfectly 
fine, I just overplayed, but my arms still hurted. Then I read an artical on 
RSI and musicians,
and through that artical I came in contact with a hospital only for musicians 
with 
mussle-problems. They found out what my physical problem was and they 
reffered me to a movement therapist. I did some sessions, but I still wasn't 
improving that much, and my therapist thought my problems had a mental 
background, and she explained to me that there is a relevance between body 
and mind, based upon Eastern phylosofy. She reffered me to yet another 
therapist where I found out that
my problems where indeed mental. Again, I did some sessions, which one can 
compare to hypnotherapy, and within two weeks the pains were gone and they 
never returned, and this was two years ago. I returned to the USA and I can 
say, without being arrogant, that I have a pretty decent carreer and I'm as 
happy as can be.
    This whole thing here convinced me that RSI and music is not merely a 
physical
thing, but that at least part of the problem has a phychological nature, and 
I think it
would be a good thing if a phychotherapy would be included in the 
recovery-process
of RSI (For some reason I like the combination of music and therapy...ha ha).
    What is your opinion on this? If you'd like, I can give you some more 
details
about this therapy, which is called " Neuro-Emotional Integration". It worked 
for me,
so I'm sure it works for other people as well. In fact, in Holland, this 
therapy is included in the Healthcare system, fully covered by 
insurance-compagnies, and I be-
lieve this proves the relevance of NEI


PS: You have to excuse me for not being fluent in English, for it is not my 
mother-
language