Please try to arrive 5 to 10 minutes early to allow yourself time to breathe, check in with your body, and think about your intentions for the session.
Recommended Reading: “Your Inner Physician & You” by Dr. John E. Upledger. This book is intended for the layperson and included case studies to give you a better idea of this work.
For your initial consultation, please allow some extra time to fill out paperwork and chat. We’ll go over a quick anatomy lesson and answer any questions that you have. Then we’ll get to evaluation of the craniosacral rhythm and check patterns in fascia, dural tube, membranes and other systems such as immune cells, nervous systems, organs, and the lymphatic system.
After listening to your body and assessing your Inner Wisdom’s priorities – we’ll get to work. I typically use a blend of modalities – calling on the tools that best suit what your body needs to heal. This can integrate Swedish, Trigger Point, Myofascial Release, Lymphatic Drainage, Visceral Manipulation, and CranioSacral techniques.
Often clients find themselves in a deep state of relaxation and may slip into a hypnagognic state (the place right before sleep). They may experience awakeness with dreaming while theta waves increase and quiet the brain, alpha waves take them to a deep relaxation, and gamma and delta waves slip out to other levels of consciousness. As the tissues release, the mind may bring memories, emotions, colours, insights, or you may be so profoundly relaxed that you fall asleep.
Types of Releases That You May Experience & How To Recognize Them:
Myofascial Trigger Point Release – Relax and lengthen one specific muscle. Most trigger point work can be uncomfortable, but a good therapist is able to match the force of the tissue without going over. Thus, allowing the tissue to release effectively and without further injury.
Fascial Release – Fascia responds significantly to the intent of the therapist and client. Restriction can lower optimal function of muscles, organs, glands, and nerves. For example, “Let’s pretend you’re wearing suspenders, and we’ll stretch them from where my hand is on your sacrum all the way across your shoulders and down toward your waist.”
Energy Release – Open areas of constriction by applied touch with intent. Direction of Energy or V-spread technique is widely used by osteopathic physicians and other body workers.
Positional Release – Valid means of releasing tender points that are not responding to other techniques by shortening the soft tissue that is referring into the tender point until it is no longer tender.
Post-Isometric Muscle Release – Helps a muscle to regain its ideal relaxed length in order to re-establish normal tone and a pain-free state.
Releases Can Be Recognized By:
A feeling of widening
A feeling of lengthening
A feeling of settling
A feeling of warming
A feeling of pulsing
Respiratory change
How Can It Help Me?
Most all of us have restrictions of some sort from birth, surgeries, injuries, and just daily living. Some of us may be fortunate enough to not notice it or we may experience debilitating pain. Body/mind/spirit-work helps us get from the acute phase of symptoms and pain, to seeking sessions for stress relief, over-all wellness, and optimal function, to the final phase of personal growth and potential spiritual exploration.
How Many Sessions Will I Need?
The number of sessions depends on how long the issue has been around and your present health. Many times, as we match pieces in the puzzle, we find more that were forced into the wrong spot. Often significant progress is made in the first session or the first few sessions. After we begin to make progress, we can space out sessions accordingly.
All of us are absolutely unique and our bodies respond in different ways, so our treatment plans vary.