Windy Days & Spring Greens

Settling back in after two rather anatomically intense seminars this month:  Dr. Jean-Pierre Barral’s NeuroMeningeal 2 – Upper Body Peripheral Nerves in Albuquerque and Visceral Manipulation: Thorax in Denver. 

Excited to be sharing these techniques for conditions relating to Long Covid, migraines, tinnitus, vertigo, neck/shoulder/arm/hand nerve/ligament/joint pain as well as effective techniques to increase function of trachea, thyroid, lungs, and esophagus.  The neck and chest make up a main thoroughfare of blood flow, nerves, and lymphatic vessels with muscles and fascia tucked in there too.  Our bodies really are miraculous!  It’s so much fun to add “new tools to my toolbelt” and amazing to watch the quick results decreasing pain and increasing range of motion/function!  I love doing this work – always more to learn. 

It’s unbelievable to think about all that I’ve learned and how my skills have increased over the past seventeen years after stepping out of massage training.  I was and still am fully enamored by muscles and fascia.  And now – everyday is a new day to work with ALL of the body’s systems and organs encompassed in that fascia.  Everything is intricately dependent on everything else – flow and structure.   Hormone regulation/production to chemical processes – all interdependent!

This month I’ll be presenting at the April Wellness Event held April 20th from 10-2pm at The Pines Ranch.  This quarter’s event will focus on Stress Management.  Something we can all utilize everyday and as simple as setting aside two minutes to fully breathe (stimulating cerebrospinal fluid flow to rinse our brains and regulating our nervous systems that control all of our organ functions).  I’ll have some cool books at my booth to discuss plus some simple self-quizzes for gauging stress management as well as handouts with easy exercises to quickly regulate the nervous system.  It’s free and open to all ages.  If you missed January’s event, make sure to stop by this time.  We have some great activities/presentations lined up and it’s always nice to get out and see folks after the winter – even if we’re all covered in mud.  Grins. 

In my own life, it’s been quite a journey over the past year and half of living/working in two towns/two practices.  My last day in Castle Rock was Dec 21st.  It definitely took me a couple months to adjust to slooooowing down the pace and finally get things unpacked and put in proper places.  I’ve re-organized the kitchen three times attempting to streamline how far I need to reach for an emergency potholder or spatula.  I’ve also been readying the seeds for when they’ll get to move outside.  True happiness for me involves a lot of dirt and green leaves.  So far the indoor lettuces, Thai chili peppers, and kitchen and medicinal herbs are quickly growing into strong little warriors.  Playing around with a couple aquaponic broccoli and baby watermelons.  Looking forward to direct sowing more medicinal herbs (for root medicines) outside as well as some pretty things like lavender, yarrow, lamb’s ear, sages, and coreopsis.  The literature categorizes them as “deer resistant” but I guess I’ll have to work that out with the neighborhood herd and might eventually succumb to creative fencing contingent to our agreements.  Windy days like today make it hard to imagine that the sweet young leaves of marshmallow, calendulas, comfrey, hyssop, and feverfew will be strong enough to withstand our climate but I’m open to successful surprises! 

One Step Before the Other

I’m new in town – so let me tell you a little about myself:

I currently have a thriving practice in Castle Rock, Colorado for which I could not be more grateful BUT one day I said to myself, “Where would I live IF I didn’t live here?”  That question opened a door of possibilities which slid straight down a mountain and plopped me directly into the Wet Mountain Valley.  So here I am!

For now –  I’m practising the challenging lesson of “One Step at a Time.”  It takes some time to build a practice and it takes some time to leave a well-built practice.  As I work toward building a practice in Westcliffe, I’m spending half the week here and half the week in Castle Rock. 

I love my job.  Every day is a new day to study more anatomy and reflect on the magical intricacies of our connections not only in the physical body but how fascinating and deeply connected the physical, emotional, intellectual, and spiritual bodies are.  It is a great honour to dedicate my life’s work to learning and practicing the skills of palpation, listening to the tissue, and offering a neutral and safe space for healing to be facilitated. 

My personal interests tend to cross-over and add more depth to my professional interests – observing nature, spirituality, creativity, knowledge-seeking, truth-finding, vegetable gardening, herbal medicine making, travel, and adventuring. 

I’m an artist – although over the years – my art has taken many forms from acrylics, pastels, charcoal, paper mache, writing, sewing, embroidery, loom-knitting, wood working, welding, and a period of finishing my third floor walk-up when I proclaimed, “Drywall is my art!” 

I look forward to meeting you and contributing my professional and personal skills to the community.