Integrative Bodywork

Embodied Awareness for Health

Read in Alan Fogel's Psychology Today blog about embodied self awareness, one of the Therapeutic Lifestyle Changes (TLCs) purported to boost health.

 

 

A Little at a Time

I'm just back from another visceral training.  And -- surprise!  I'm not overwhelmed! 

Four days of new material.  Four days of intensive practice. Four days in an unfamiliar environment, working closely with an instructor and practicing hands-on with fellow students, most of whom are physical therapists. 

Why am I not overwhelmed?

It was my second time through.  The curriculum included review of another class.  These classes build on what I know --- from studying reference books and notes --- and on what I know more deeply, from practice.

Wow, at that first time 12 years ago, I sure was toast by the end.  Couldn't really tell you what happened on the fourth day of it. 

But this time, I could not only take it in, but expand with it.  Over the years inbetween, with study and practice, my body has had time to incorporate this information a little at a time, in context. 

You know what they say --- about how to get to Carnegie Hall? 

Practice, practice, practice.  

I can't wait to share visceral work --- with you!  And so I'm bringing it toward the front of the room, providing a context.

We all want to enjoy moving; it's how we live our lives to the fullest.  When moving happens with greater ease, we feel better.  Feeling good, we're better able to connect with people.  Part of feeling good is enjoying strength and support, and part of it is proprioception ----- body-to-brain, brain-body, and body-body ("...stable here, how about you?") messages inside.

Visceral work is all about relationships!  We're "waking up" proprioceptive connections on the inside, the messaging system that tells our body where we are and how we're doing, relative to other parts, and relative to the whole. Awareness of self, and self in the environment. 

Visceral work is also encouraging natural movement.

To function, our organs must be moving all the time, or we die.  (Ideally, joints and muscles can also move freely, but if not, mostly that won't kill you.) Where movement is hindered or stuck, that's where  therapeutic attention will focus, gently encouraging movement in the direction of ease.  That's it!  

So, I am not a healer but a person who listens to the tissues, and connects with encouraging movement.  Listening. Connecting. Encouraging.

When it's not too much input into the system as to overwhelm, the body can adapt, incorporating what's new, moving toward hope a little at a time.

 

Thriving in Your Container

 Elastic and energized, a healthy body container defines your outside boundary, keeps your insides safe and nourished.  And it’s unique to you! 

Join me for a fun 2-hour workshop, Sunday 10 July, 1 pm at Claremont Yoga.

Third in a series exploring bottom-up wellness, we’ll be using hands-on contact, restful play, and movement to invite learning.  Download Flyer

 

Come to get inside your own skin, dwell deeper in your personal space, explore your edges.....  

 

Head, Shoulders, Knees & Toes

Second in a series exploring "bottom-up wellness", this class embraces Shoulders, in context of the whole body.  We’ll be using hands-on contact and movement, so learning – expanding perception – can happen from inside.

Download Flyer 
 

Experience a bodyworker's twist on shaping your yoga practice, and unfolding into life. 

Sunday 22 May, 1:00 pm – 3:00 pm

at  Claremont Yoga

-- in the Village at 204 N. Yale Ave. (at Second)  on 2nd floor, stairs access only

 SPACE IS LIMITED!  Reserve your spot at www.claremontyoga.com

or contact Suzanne at 909.239.8313.  Class is $25.

 

Here's some of what to expect:

Free-Range Shoulders:  Go Where They Wish. 

Should:  Might We Invite “Can” and “May” into Alignment?

No Shoulder Is An Island:  Amiable Conversation with Neighbors.

Lean on Me:  Comfort, Defend; Contain, Connect.

Shoulder Rest:  Enjoy Support from Below.

Mind Your Head

This new class explores the kind of wellness from inside you --- "bottom-up wellness".  First class will focus on the head:  resolving stress that leads to tension, hands-on help for headaches, and the role your body plays. 

New class:  Mind Your Head

When:        Sunday 3 April, 12 pm - 2 pm

Where:      Claremont Yoga

in the Village at Second and Yale, on 2nd floor.  (Stairs access only.)

Sign up at www.claremontyoga.com

                  or phone Suzanne at 909.239.8313.  Class is $25.

Experience a bodyworker's twist on shaping your yoga poses, and unfolding into life. 

Here's some of what to expect:

• Taking the Ache Out of Headache.  Lie back and relax!  Learn 7 self-help techniques to relieve head/neck tension. 
• Finding Space Inside.  Get inside your head -- where space is needed for optimal physical and mental function. 
• Finding Your Head In Space.  Up in the clouds?  In Outer Space?  Discover how your body locates itself through sensing and moving.
• Not All in Your Head.  Why feeling good requires the whole body. 

 

 

Body Sense magazine

Here is a link to the latest issue of Body Sense magazine, compliments of ABMP.  (I've been a member of this national professional organization since 1991).

www.abmp.com/bodysense/spring-2011

Body Sense provides valuable information about how to make massage and bodywork a part of your healthy lifestyle. Inside you'll find helpful articles on the value of downtime, the body's intricate fascia network, and diet recommendations for low-back health.

I am excited to discuss any of the information you find inside, and happy to schedule your next appointment.

Best in Health,

Suzanne

Hammocks and Cathedrals

How Do You Experience Support?

The ground supports us.  Other people support us.  And very literally, our bodies support us in ways we're not even aware.  Learn firsthand how awareness of our internal structural support can give wing to our spirits.  We'll provide materials for you to express what you discover in your own creative way.

Suzanne Snijder van Wissenkerke, a seasoned bodyworker, and Cynthia Luna, an executive coach, lead this introductory workshop, sharing with the community our joy as we collaborate. 

Come to Explore, Connect, and Create with us!  Wear comfortable clothing, and bring your body along for fun!  We'll provide a nourishing snack mid-morning. 

Saturday, March 13^th             

8:45 am – 12:30 pm

$50 per person --- advance registration required --- fee is 100% donation to CCF

 

Payment by mail, phone, or online to Claremont Community Foundation

205 Yale Avenue, Claremont 91711      909.398.1060     www.claremontfoundation.org

 

Questions for Suzanne & Cynthia?  909.239.8313

Hammocks and Cathedrals: How Do You Experience Support?

It's a new workshop! 

I want to share the fun of my practice in a group setting.  Co-leading is my friend Cynthia, an executive coach and mentor! 

We'll be exploring together through our senses :  the physical support available in your body, how it feels when you're supported. Throw in some creative art-making, playful movement, and you have the picture.

On a Saturday morning in March, at a lovely home in Claremont......... 

        ..........I'd love to tell you more, but Cynthia and I are still working out the details. 

Want to receive the latest?  Just "subscribe" above, or email me.

Restore Balance Naturally

Would you like your body to feel better when you move?    

To move more freely through life?

 Integrative Bodywork offers a safe place to relax and invite ease into moving and connecting. 

I'm a California Certified Massage Practitioner, practicing 20 years (in Claremont, Calif. since 1998).  

My practice integrates Massage, Manual Therapy and Somatic Therapy --- effective approaches that facilitate your well-being. 

Manual therapy restores balance to the body's structure and function, to relieve pain and ease movement with alignment, flexibility, and strength. 

Somatic therapy restores balance to the body's responses to stress, for managing life's challenges with increased energy, motivation, clarity.  Addresses stress-related illness such as fibromyalgia, irritable bowel, gastric reflux. 

To learn more, see pages (at left, top), scroll down for recent posts and news, or contact me! 

 

Headache Relief: Let Gravity Help

At the base of your skull, lots of muscles connect and overlap with each other.  As these muscles constrict, this can reduce flow of blood, oxygen into and out of the head.   Paradoxically, pressing firmly here can re-set the body's message to constrict, therefore restoring flow.

Here are some self-care tips to try at home:

1                     Begin by lying down, face up, and putting your hands behind your head.  Apply pressure with your thumbs and fingertips along the ridge of base-of-skull bone (occiput), and just underneath, toward the neck.   Direct your pressure toward the front of the head, moving from spot to spot along the ridge of bone.   Allow the weight of your head to fall onto your fingertips, varying the pressure.  Try rotating or tilting your head to locate areas where pressure brings relief.  These areas might change day to day.

2                     A more passive version of this utilizes a “still point inducer”.  You can purchase one, or you can make one yourself.  Put 2 racquetballs inside an athletic sock; tie a knot.  Lie face up, positioning the 2 balls side-by-side in the sock under your head, supporting the base-of-skull bone (occiput) comfortably.  You may want to slightly tuck your chin as you begin.  Allow the weight of your head to sink with gravity over several minutes, adjusting your position as needed for comfort.   

Earthquake Relief Project, Sichuan Province

In March 2009, I spent two weeks as part of a USA-based team of six, training helping professionals in a brief trauma-stabilization model.    Trauma Resource Institute's educational model is physiology-based, modeled on Peter Levine's Somatic Experiencing -- an approach I have studied and incorporated into my own practice since 2000. 

In the TRI model, stabilization skills are presented in a condensed format, accessible across cultures.  Throughout the 1-, 2-, and 3-day trainings, I witnessed training participants practicing skills they could use immediately --- for themselves as well as in their work as physicians, nurses, psych counselors, hotline volunteers, teachers.   The six of us from the USA team relied on our translators -- brilliant young psych students from Beijing --  but the enthusiasm we felt from many of the participants transcended language.

This multi-phase project to help Sichuan province was initiated at the request of Rob Blinn, a psychologist in Beijing who had met Peter Levine  just months prior to the earthquake.    World Health Organization has funded much of the project, which concludes with phase 6 in May 2009, when TRI returns with another team, to consult, train, and make new contacts in Sichuan province.

Our travel to different training locations over the two weeks brought us past many damaged structures: Next door to the empty psych hospital, residents make do in blue-roofed temporary housing erected by the government.  Along a dirt road, makeshift shelters of branches and plastic are abandoned for newly built concrete houses.   With piles of new bricks and bags of cement, some families are still in the process of re-building their homes by hand.  As our bus passed through the misty landscape of terraced fields bursting with vibrant yellow flowers, we acknowledged in silence the pain amid the beauty, the scenes of loss, the hard life that, for so many, pre-dates this earthquake. 

The community-based re-building we witnessed in the countryside also reminded us that resilience is fostered through cooperation.  Though this training project draws to a close, it has planted seeds that may germinate and grow.   As phase 6 of the project coincides with the quake anniversary, this group will be seeking ways to continue its outreach for people in need.

Balance Rocks

Balance:  an active process of moving toward equilibrium, or alignment .  It's a process (not a static state) ever changing and moving, sometimes even taking us OUT OF balance.   And then, inside our human bodies, built-in systems can rock us back into balance.....naturally.  Like when we use both feet to stand, but shift from side to side. 

When we're feeling stressed, this can really help.

Rocking, back and forth, up and down, or from one foot to the other.  If I put a crying baby in your arms right now, you would start rocking.  Sure helps to bring comfort.  And you didn't even really think, just responded to what might work to quiet that child.

Even without the baby, you could try rocking right now in your chair.  Just allow the movement to come forth on its own,  letting the body go with it a little.  Stand if you want to try using your legs for balance, or continue sitting with feet on the floor.  Is it side to side, or front to back?  See what it feels like for you.

Feel OK?  If not, rest awhile.  Notice what IS still feeling OK, even the slightest bit, before going bac.

Springing Ahead

It's that time of year when I notice the sun is rising earlier.   If we're out  before 6, my dog and I sometimes catch a glimpse of the deer feeding on newly greened-up hillsides.   Or coyotes--- like yesterday, when we listened to a pair trilling at us from just a few yards away. 

It's the light.   Earlier in the season, I'm not out at this time.  But, drawn to rise even before it's light, my  morning walk is rewarded with wildlife sightings.

Because we've done this for years --- the early morning walk with the dog --- I know that seasonal change affects my behavior pattern.  Even without a walking routine, every year about this time brings a spring:  not only the name of the season, but a jump-y kind of spring.

A spring ahead.

Our brains lay down tracks that we call memory.  This invariant representation ("this is how it is") is then used when we later run into something similar -- a pattern like seasons changing.  The memory that goes with, "Spring brings with it earlier sunrises," follows a parallel track to "Summer comes after spring."

I like summer.  Summer is coming soon.  Spring is on the way to summer, so spring is positively associated.

I'm therefore more motivated, mobile, movement-oriented --- in spring.

Springing ahead.

Not necessarily springing forward; that would indicate too much structure.  Ahead could mean, to the side, or Up, Along, On, Over, and so many possibilities. 

And possibilities infers that I must look ahead in time. 

Hope for the future.