If you experience chronic pain or tension, either in a particular area or all over, this session is for you. It is focused mainly on working at the levels of the fascia and the nervous system, which are arguably the two most important systems involved when it comes to the body holding onto tension long-term. Fascia is the "packing material" of the body; it surrounds every muscle in the body, as well as every bone, joint, organ, nerve, even every cell. Fascia binds down and tightens in response to stress, trauma, injury, habitual postures, etc. and creates thickened, hardened tissue, which sometimes you may experience as "knots", depending on where it is in the body. These restrictions can range from annoying to extremely painful, and can cause a loss of flexibility/mobility in the area, plus can cause other parts of the body to work extra hard to compensate for the immobilized tissue. If you're ready to get rid of those places of perpetual tightness or pain once and for all, a Holistic Manual Therapy session might just be what you need.
Holistic Manual Therapy sessions take place on a heated massage table and require contact directly on the skin or over light clothing if the client prefers. It provides comprehensive treatment to the whole body, depending on your symptoms and on how your body responds to the work as we go along. The body is so incredibly complex and any particular dysfunction is not always straightforward. And yet, bodywork that gets at the fascia and nervous system levels can provide amazing results for a myriad of issues, since those systems so significantly impact every other structure in the human body. Here is a basic list of the types and variety of issues that this tends to help with:​
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Head/neck - sinus issues, tension headaches, migraines, tinnitus, TMJ dysfunction, neck tension
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Shoulder/arm - carpal tunnel syndrome, Thoracic Outlet Syndrome, nerve impingement, hunched shoulders, residual shoulder surgery issues, scapular winging, tennis elbow, golfer's elbow
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Back - low back pain, knots around or between shoulder blades, scoliosis, upper or mid-back tension, hyperlordosis, hyperkyphosis
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Hips/pelvis - lateral pelvic tilt, anterior or posterior pelvic rotation, pelvic pain, pubic symphysis dysfunction, tight hips, sciatica, piriformis syndrome, hip pain, inguinal ligament pain
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Legs/feet - femoral rotation, knee pain, pronation or supination of feet, feet turned inward or outward, plantar fasciitis, ankle issues, bunions
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Beyond helping to bring physical relief, Holistic Manual Therapy sessions also have a way of touching into the deeper issues that underlie the physical tension or pain.
Sometimes these things come as memories, images, sensations, movement impulses, or emotions that are tied in with the physical tension, often without us realizing it at first. We want to welcome those things as they come up, because they often hold the biggest clues as to the reason for the pain. We work to create a safe space, full of compassion and curiosity, where unresolved events and emotions can be sorted through and integrated into your fuller sense of being, instead of fragmented and painful. Of course this can take several sessions, as resolving emotional issues or the effects of trauma or prolonged stress is not quick work; deep work never is. But progress is usually felt at each level of healing, which provides the encouragement to keep going. You can read more about the stress/trauma work that is integrated into sessions here.