Techniques Used during Treatment

The benefit of bodywork is multifold:

Improves the flow of various fluids e.g blood, lymph, interstitial fluid in the body. This allows nutrients, hormones, antibodies, water to be delivered to every single cell and facilitates the removal of all the toxic end products of metabolism

Improves elasticity of the musculature and connective tissues which hold us together. These get stiffened, shortened or thickened as a result of bad posture, over use, injury, operation, aging, etc and massage helps to realign the fibres and thereby reinstate functioning

Realigning the skeletal framework, such as the pelvis, spine, knees and shoulders improves the balance within the body. It takes the strain off muscles, allows them to function well. The recreating of balance can potentially also help to slow down arthritic changes within joints, as one of the main causes of arthritis – wear and tear – is uneven pressure and torsion within a joint

Reduces the strain/impingement on the nervous system which improves communication within the body as nearly all the systems in the body rely on information being transmitted via the nervous system eg endocrine system, reproductive system, digestive system.

MASSAGE

Massage is a natural therapy with both physical and psychological benefits. It works on many levels and can greatly speed recovery because of its wide ranging effects. There are many different techniques within massage therapy and I use these extensively, including Muscle Energy Techniques, Positional Release Technique, Deep Tissue Release, to name a few.

However, I am intuitive holistic worker. When I am treating a patient, I am guided by my hands and not my head. I was once asked by a spiritualist, ‘When you are working, I feel you could walk out of the room and leave your hands to do the needful. Is this right?’ My answer to this was ‘Yes!’

My hands often pick up areas that the patient hasn’t stated verbally during consultation as being problematic, but when I begin working in such areas they exclaim ‘how did you know I had a pain just there?!?!’ It is only when they experience the increased range of movement and the loss of stress in these areas after they’ve had the treatment, do they realise how much they had changed their life to accommodate the pain.

CLASSICAL MANIPULATION:

Classical manipulation is a gentle method used for realigning the skeletal status of the body. Our skeleton keeps us upright and enables movement. It therefore has to be strong and flexible; however, its very flexible nature makes it prone to misalignment and, unless it is realigned, problems can occur at all levels – spine, neck and shoulders and pelvis, knees, ankles and toes. The pelvis and spine are of particular importance: the upper and lower parts of the body connect at the sacroiliac joint and unless the balance in the pelvis is right, this joint is put under enormous strain, giving rise to a multitude of problems, including back pain. The spine is like a stacking system of bones. It houses the spinal cord and at each level, nerves exit supplying different parts of the body. Slight misalignments here caused by tight or overstretched muscles, bad posture, accidents, misaligned pelvis, etc can potentially interfere with the information passing down the nervous system and the effects can be experienced as tingling, numbness, shooting pains, or malfunction of bodily systems e,g constipation, heartburn, vertigo, difficulty in breathing to name just a few.

techniques used

MOBILISATION

Mobilisation is a process of freeing up ‘stuck’ joints. Joints are dynamic – thanks to these, we can indulge in movement. But in the greater scheme of things, these tend to get ignored – however, malfunctioning joints are capable of causing immense pain. Spinal joints often tend to get stuck, even when there has been no overt trauma. This causes the body to ‘freeze’ the area around it to protect it and muscles go into spasm. If we continue to use the body in this state, the body tries harder to stop the movements and a vicious cycle starts, ultimately causing a great deal of pain and limiting range of movement. It is therefore very important to locate stuck joints and try and free these using gentle passive movements and keeping well within the joints normal range of movement.

REIKI:

Reiki is a simple technique for channelling healing energy from a giver to a receiver. The energy flows through the giver’s hands to where it is most needed and works on physical, mental, emotional or spiritual levels. It is a gentle, totally painfree technique and I use it to free areas that are particularly sore/sensitive and therefore do not respond to the usual conventional methods, or to facilitate healing in areas that are not responding to musculoskeletal measures alone.

Before using Reiki, I ALWAYS seek permission from the patient, being aware that not everyone is accepting of this technique.