What are sessions like?
The way each session looks is different, though generally involves some talking, and some time on the table. In the hands-on work, sessions address how the way you move and carry your body makes it harder or easier for you to be comfortable and perform optimally. Then, through gentle touch and movement that is specific to your needs, you naturally discover new ways of moving that are more efficient for your body. You lie in various positions – on your side, back, etc – on a low table that is wider and firmer than a massage table. Through a gentle touch conversation, your body find surprising ease and freeom. At the end, you will find you sit, stand and walk differently.
What Is it?
My work is based in my 14 years training and experience as a certified Feldenkrais(R) practitioner, in which I have extensive training and experience, and have worked in holistic centers, medical clinics, and private practice; and I am influenced by other somatic hands-on approaches like Body Mind Centering(R). I am also influenced by Focusing(R), Hakomi Somatics(R), Psychophysical Therapy(R), and Intentional Touch(R).
What’s the theory?
People often ask me this. The theory starts with the idea that your mind and body are actually connected and not separate. This is connected to the most current theories of human development, called “dynamic systems theory.” In the past, people who studied human development believed that we were all hard-wired to go through certain stages of growth. Nowadays, it’s shown that how you respond to life and develop is a complex process, and it is based on learning. You literally have to create new pathways in your brain and body to handle the unexpected. When it is too much, however, you feel stressed or in pain. By creating situations of awareness and choice, you can learn to become more resilient, relieve tension and pain, experience more joy and ease.
What happens on the table?
Through gentle, listening touch, you become aware of and let go of the habitual ways you carry tension and stress in your body. We slow down so that the parts of you that feel they have to hold on, can find new ways. You gain awareness of how to relax and let yourself take in support. By learning to sit, stand, twist, or roll or do other movements more comfortably, you stop straining your muscles or joints. Sessions also teach you to regulate your nervous system, and reduce your hyper-reactivity to pain or stress. Moreover, many times out of protection from past injuries your body can continue to compensate or protect after the danger is over. This actually leads to chronic pain. My work gives you the opportunity to feel that it is safe to relax and move freely again after accidents, trauma, or stress. This work reawakens your sense of inner life and helps you creatively rediscover safe ways to regain flexibility in yourself.
Why does it help with emotional issues?
Your emotions are felt in how you hold your body, your movement expressions, and your sensory triggers. Through sessions you learn new physical ways of standing, moving, and sensing yourself that lead you to be more resilient, act or feel differently. Thus, in sessions, as you transform physically, you will find yourself feeling calmer and internally clearer. Under intense stress, a natural response is to numb out in your body, or have protective responses, in the form of tension. Through sessions, you rediscover the safety to allow yourself to feel, and to move injured or protected areas, without pushing through resistance. Also, when you can be in touch with your body signals, you will start to change the way you do things so that you are more comfortable, more of the time.
By learning new postures and movements, you can also strengthen your ability to do things like set clearer boundaries, get grounded, or be able to ask for what you want, by matching your intentions with your body language.
How often do I need to come and for how long?
How we work together is dependent on your goals, which we can discuss at our first meeting. Many clients choose to come on a regular basis. Some come as needed. We’ll work together in a process to reach your goals.
How do I begin? Click here.
