YES, Fiona, a fair number of people have worked with me to passively stretch my aching body. The first time, of which I have no articulate memory, just family lore, is when I was a baby. After I was (mis?/)diagnosed with scleroderma and written off by the docs, my mother discovered the value of stretching my tiny, cramping limbs when I would cry out in pain. According to her it was the only thing that helped.

More recently, in 2000 or so, I began having sciatica pain halfway through pregnancy. My midwife told me that there was nothing to be done and that it would subside only when the baby was born. When I related the story to my yoga teacher she laughed and asked if I was attached to that belief. I said absolutely not. Three sessions of intense psoas stretching later, the sciatica pain went away never to return.

Since developing PD, my massage therapists, physical therapists and speech therapist each spend about 1/3 of our visits helping me to stretch. When I miss an appointment, I really feel its absence. Try as I might, independent stretching does not net a fraction of the relief of assisted passive stretching. So much so that, when I taught yoga, I incorporated assisted stretching, having my students work in pairs for that portion of the class. So you might look down that avenue as well....there are lots of resources on "partner yoga" techniques. The sweet thing about this is that, once you learn/teach the technique (including how to know when enough is enough in a given stretch), PWP can work on their own free of charge between or in the absence of therapy.

Finally, after my grandmother Helen was diagnosed with YOPD in 1945, a famous visiting neurologist (Kornbleu from Germany, a possible relative of today's Dr. Kornbleu in Texas) suggested that her doc should "send a woman around" to her home to work on her legs. From the description my mother gives it focused mostly on Helen's legs and was completely passive. Apparently it was quite painful, so much so that, when grandma cried out in pain, my grandfather threw the (male, as it turned out) therapist out of the house, threatening to punch him in the nose! I thought of him when I kicked my poor midwife during labor, which was a first in her 20+ year career. Unless you have had someone tip your uterus, don't judge. Don't mess with our family...LOL.

Hope this helps. Love,
Rose