Integrative Bodywork

10 Days of Holiday Stress Relief

What's next? 

Anticipating.   In one long-drawn in-breath of incessant drumbeats the internal pressure increases making my head hurt till finally -- no more space to expand -- the wave crests, ahhh, sailing, exhaling, freely surveying as I look 'round from the other side. 

Preparing for holidays I naturally notice anticipation building.  But while busying about, I can change up the rhythm by breathing OUT first and then later, breathing in.  So that's "Out ...pause...'N In." 

Prepare ye.  Look 'round. 

11 Days of Holiday Stress Relief:

A little at a time. 

Sure, I’m making a list and checking it twice.  

Right now, though, it’s just the one thing.  

When this is done, then we’ll see what’s next.

12 Days of Holiday Stress Relief

Simple things matter.

Take a step back: 

Is it simple?

Does it matter?

If not, leave it.

Walk This Way

This turned my head.  As I walked, breathing came more easily.   

My intent:  walking, looking more often...

Clients write

I highly recommend this type of work. The greatest benefit has been in my body, mind, and spirit not having to be controlled by fear.  With the "somatic experiencing" approach, you do not need to know what the trauma was or discuss it.  Your  body knows and it knows how to release it if given the chance.   Suzanne is gentle and understanding and makes one feel comfortable during what can sometimes be a difficult but profound experience.  ----- Judy S., Clergy

Spasms in my left upper back and arm -- my primary goal for treatment -- soon eased.  But I noticed a more system-wide result:  I felt more grounded, physically more solid against the earth, and also more calm and settled mentally and emotionally.  At work, I could let go of worrying and trying to problem-solve issues that previously had me anxiously churning inside.  This past week in particular, I noticed a different kind of calmness; a sense of balance in my thoughts and emotions.  I didn’t feel so scattered in my thoughts or reactive to them.  I could just sit calmly for a few minutes and it felt like my mind rested.  --- Christine T., Educator

Suzanne is unique among my health care providers in that she works holistically with my entire body, mind, heart, and spirit, from the inside out, with superb results. Many other doctors, physical therapists, massage therapists, and bodywork practitioners have instead focused on one body part at a time, and have treated my condition based on preconceived assumptions from the outside about what my body needs. Because each body is unique and mine has often responded differently than their other patients, many of these practitioners have made me feel worse rather than better, bringing on flares of severe pain. On the other hand, Suzanne's gentle touch invites my body's own healing response from the inside, and her inquisitive words invite me to explore and allow the full range of my body's strength and healing potential, even when it manifests in surprising ways.

Suzanne has helped me gain a new relationship with my body. My fibromyalgia came on very suddenly and very severely, and I felt at the beginning that it had taken away my dreams, and my ability to live the life I loved.  I felt like my body had fallen apart, and I no longer trusted it. 

Suzanne helped me to turn that around, to see all the things in my body that were still working right, and to feel able again. Since that day that I ran after her session, I have been able to hike (on good days, which is still not every day) up to 5 miles with 1000 foot elevation gain, up to some of the most exquisitely beautiful little lakes in the Sierra, and to camp there under the stars. I've even been dancing again, although months before, I could barely get out of bed!

My regained strength, reduced pain, increased energy, and more harmonious flow have given me my life back.

Suzanne uses the word "organism" to describe the whole body/mind/spirit/being that is responding and healing in this way, and as a biologist I understand this word as alluding to the animal within me, with instinctive responses toward protection and healing that I  share with other creatures. I have also read research articles that demonstrate the power of holistic therapies like Suzanne's, which effectively stimulate healing in the brain and nervous system, breath and circulatory system, digestive and immune systems. Most importantly, I trust Suzanne's expertise because I have felt its benefits, have felt my body healing itself in her presence, and have felt myself healing independently while remembering her guidance. For this, I am filled with gratitude.                                       ---------- Kristen S., Biologist

 

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.   

Social Networking Site

Our Wednesday evening site has moved!  The integrative bodywork booth is now located on Second Street, as part of Claremont's new Family Festival.  Food, fun, commerce and music on the street are livening up Wednesdays here through the summer, 5 pm to 9 pm.  So take a stroll in the Village, or head to the organic produce stands at the Packing House. 

From 5 pm  to 9 pm every Wednesday, we're offering chair massage ($1/min), and a chance to meet and greet!  Sample our hands-on, learn about myofascial release (Marilyn) and integrative bodywork (Suzanne).  Get some immediate pain relief or a referral:  We're handing out lots of the Claremont Wellness Professionals directory for holistic health care.  

Stop by and say Hi!  Let's do the social networking thing --- in person! 

Miracle Massage Ball

The city of Claremont is launching a new Family Festival, Wednesdays 5 - 8 pm through October.  Designed as "an evening of fun for the whole family," the festival includes games and activities for kids, specialty foods, and weekly entertainment. 

Stop by the Integrative Bodywork booth!  You'll find me on First Street, opposite the Green Market (organic produce!) and the Packing House.

On opening night, April 29th, receive a Miracle Massage Ball (& Free Lesson) while supplies last.  I'm sharing the booth with my good friend Marilyn Fay, a myofascial release specialist.  Our booth will be a fun place to hang out, so come over and meet us, try a chair massage, and ..... have a ball!

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.

   

Permission to Move About

"Your captain has turned off the seat-belt sign.  You are free to move about the cabin."

Oh my goodness, what a relief.  I can move.  I can breathe freely.  I can be myself.  I can (fill in the blank). 

Today, air traffic safety is assured: I'm not piloting a plane.  I'm working one-on-one with a client seeking to reduce overwhelm, pain and stress.  But, when I give permission to move about, my client noticeably relaxes.  I do, too.

You can try it right now, "Just allow your eyes to go where they want."  Or, "See how your head and neck might want to move right now."    As you bring attention to the body, what else happens?  You might find yourself adjusting your position, maybe stretching, moving a bit to feel more grounded.  And your breath might kick in with a natural shift.

Just permission, that's all.  It's OK to be there as you are.  I'm over here, with you when you're ready.