Treatment
What does a typical session look like?
A session is highly specific to the individual but I always begin with a detailed history and depending on the presenting symptoms this may be followed by a physical examination. Once I have heard your story and outlined your goals, I will identify the priorities for your course of treatment.
Since so many people are carrying stress and or trauma in their nervous systems, it is common for me to work with downregulating the nervous system, using craniosacral therapy and/or yoga therapy and nervous system education. Although there is no typical session I do find that, especially with more complex cases, it works best to calm the nervous system and clear energetic blocks using Craniosacral Therapy and Bodytalk before I do physical treatments.Physical bodywork is an intuitive combination of massage, craniosacral therapy, visceral manipulation and energy work. On the other hand, there are those people whose problem is straightforward and only requires a few sessions of traditional physiotherapy.
I will create a highly specific home exercise programme (drawing from nervous system education, yoga, pilates, somatics, physio rehabilitation, mindfulness, and breathwork). I believe that true health emerges from a mindset of self responsibility and self care.
How many sessions will I need?
The answer depends on how long you have had the condition, how complex the condition, how stressed your body is and how much trauma you carry in your body.
3-5 sessions is usually enough to resolve a relatively straight forward problem. However if you are carrying decades of trauma and stress it could be a much longer process. In this situation we can work together to decide on an appropriate frequency of sessions that feels manageable and sustainable with a large emphasis being placed on what you can do in between sessions to support the process.
Physiotherapy
A Physiotherapist is trained in assessing postural and movement imbalances in the body and will use a variety of manual skills, education and therapeutic exercise to restore balance to the physical body.
Visceral manipulation
This is a system created by the French osteopath Jean Pierre Barral. It requires very gentle and subtle touch to feel where there are restrictions in the organs that may be affecting their position, their function and or/causing pain.
Therapeutic Yoga Classes
Classical Hatha yoga practiced in a slow and safe way, incorporating principles of physiotherapy rehab and somatic movement education. Suitable for those with physical issues, back or neck problems etc.
Craniosacral therapy
A system of working with the nervous system to bring deep relaxation into the body-mind. Because the nervous system controls the muscular system, the cardiovascular system, the digestive system and many other systems in the body, working to regulate the nervous system has many widespread positive effects on the body. It also teaches us how to gently process our emotions so that their energy does not get stuck in the body, creating energetic and physical blockages, resulting in symptoms.
It is a system for learning how to get out of the mind and into the body. When we are more connected to the sensations of our body, our brain has something to work with and will begin to do what it is designed to do: self-correct. It has an extremely sophisticated feedback system to do exactly this. The problem is that most of us do not feel anything in our bodies unless there is something already wrong. Learning to safely bring the sensations of the body into conscious awareness has a surprisingly powerful effect on the whole system.
It is an extremely useful adjunct to physiotherapy, especially in cases where the system is stressed or sensitised. This could be from the stressed of daily life or there could be a history of car accidents or another other kind of physical or emotional trauma.
Bodytalk
Bodytalk is a unique and deeply holistic system of healthcare that is based on the idea (supported by quantum physics) that our reality is created by our consciousness and therefore by changing our consciousness we can change our reality, including our health.
By tapping into the innate wisdom of the body, it is possible to determine what are the priorities for your system in that moment, what needs to communicate better in your body, what needs to synchronise or what needs to balance.
An analogy commonly used in Bodytalk is the image of the iceberg. 10% is above the surface of the water. This 10% represents the symptoms a client presents with. Under the surface of the water is 90% of the iceberg (you could also call this your subconscious mind). This represents the complex web that creates the person... genetic and ancestral information, unprocessed emotions from stressful time periods in their life, a fall they may have had 20 years ago, a stressful relationship with their boss, an imbalance in some organ system because of dietary choices, etc. Humans are complex. The beauty of the Bodytalk system is that it is priority-based, i.e. what is the priority to be cleared today that will gradually undo this underwater web so that the symptoms can eventually clear. This system looks at the whole person. For example, someone might come in with shoulder pain, but actually, there may be layers of emotions and belief systems and imprints from past experiences that have to be cleared before the body is ready to let go of the shoulder pain.
Bodytalk sessions can be done in person or on zoom.
Somatic Movement Education
A very slow and mindful form of movement where we are working at the level of the brain and nervous system to create new, more functional and easeful patterns of movement, allowing for more freedom in the body and in the mind, since they are not separate.