I feel so grateful to see my clients transform and heal thru Myofascial Release. I have been working with a client we’ll call him Henry. Henry came in because he used to run, and he didn’t anymore. He had been sitting at the computer for too much in the day. He was sore and tired and had had surgeries for two hernia’s and breaking his collar bone a couple different times. He wanted to be able to walk, jog and hike with out pain, and it had been over three years that he stopped running. He has had a high level of pain in his hip and down along the outside and back of one leg. The tissue was in hypertension and chronic flexion in his psoas/illiacus and greater trochanter/piraformis/glute, PSIS/ QL (Posterior superior iliac spine/ Quadratus Lumborum area) areas. 

In laymen’s terms front hip, glutes and sacral attachments. The sacrum is the triangle bone at the base of the spine, and low back areas. His scoliosis was collapsing one side of his body between his hips and his ribcage on one side. When we have muscles and uneven tension pulling the ribcage down on one side each one of the ribs on the other side flare out. The body does such a fantastic job at keeping it’s self erect. His spine was pulled to the side that was tense, and then it corrected.

Now when we have uneven tension the correction doesn’t mean that it goes back to center. It means that it has to counter balance to stay upright. So the curve above most often times overcorrects going the other way in order to maintain balance. We also have 4 sides, so the body will twist and rotate. Because the spine rotates, flexes to the side, the front and extends to the back. So it can rotate left and right, it can side bend to the left and the right and it can bend forward and backwards. There become many muscle groups and fascial layers that become involved in these actions, and these areas can also be doing multiple actions at once. So above and below an injury site, often times, the body calls upon surrounding areas to become involved, to balance the structure. Compensation is when the body moves in a way to get out of the pain, or to be able to walk, because of an injury or trauma. Compensation get’s other areas of the body involved in the carrying the body that is not in a normal anatomical function. Each area that compensates develops over time differently and this can further along the disfunction. This is why it is so important to get your fascial restrictions released and your body treated with MFR.

Henry has been on a healing journey, he has committed to treatment and sees how much his body is changing with Myofascial Release and Presence Centered Awareness Therapy. He embraces the home work and also brings his awareness to noticing his body, and the postures that he takes while he is in his chair doing computer work. He has been feeling freer with each session and he now is able to bike, walk, hike and has just started jogging. The big difference I see in him is he is learning how to choose pleasure in his body. He’s able to see the stressful energy and how it directly affects his tissue. We have been lengthening though the side that was shorter, Henery is taller standing more upright and has is head over his shoulders.

I have taught him relaxation and consciousness techniques and I’ve helped him identify what he holds in his hip. He ha then been able to notice, breathe through it and release it. For the past few treatments he has elevated to a different place. He is no longer in pain, he reports being in a sustained sensation and feeling of bliss. He has created an open communication pathway between his consciousness and body via the fascia. His experience is one of happiness and he’s getting back to doing what he loves. This time, he’s not in his logical engineer mind equating and contemplating, he is in his life-force as he runs. He is not afraid with each step, he is able to choose joy in his movements and to connect with the energy that is animating him...his breath.

You see we hold stress in our fascia, we hold stored emotions and memories in our body. The tools I offer in MFR sessions are called Presence Centered Awareness Therapy. The work helps to hear the voices of the body, it helps to process the emotions so the body can return to homeostasis it’s whole, healed, sol state. In awareness we sit and watch we observe with out judgement without restrictions, we are allowed to be, to rest into peace and ease. And from this vantage point we can notice these emotions but we are not worried, tired, angry, resentful, frustrated. We notice these emotions and hold space for ourselves to efficiently and effectively process them so they are not housed in the body creating disease. With awareness we have a choice to rest into the presence that witnesses. We make choices from this place to support our well being because we now know our bodies can (unknowingly to our conscious minds) be storing these energies in our body. It’s usually in specific parts, for specific reasons unique to your own story.

Throughout his day Henry becomes aware of what he’s up to. He watches from a space of observation and notices not only physically, but what’s going on upstairs, he’s not caught so far up in the mind. You see when people are too in their heads, they actually kind of float up there and leave their body. When people get really emotional, or don’t want to deal with their emotions they get stuck, and all of this can show up as extreme sensations housed in the body. So we do our best to become and stay present with all of ourselves, and when we do this, this is the fastest way to find peace and freedom.

Henry is now able to run, and it’s coming from a place of connecting to his joy, not measuring his success based upon the outer world, he is ruling his world by making powerful choices that affect his well-being.

I watch people everyday choose to heal and get treated with MFR. Myofascial Release delivers superior results that I have not seen in any other modality. MFR supports the whole you, so you get to feel held, heard and seen for your specific symptoms. You get the attention you need to explain the circumstances of what happened, to share your experience and be treated as an individual. Because your body’s medium is fascia, it is essential to have fascial health to support everyone of the systems of your body.

Fascia is your connective tissue, and thrives in it’s Sol state: Sol is also called the free flow state, where every part of you is in dynamic ease, able to be agile, to relax, to be strong. You want your fascia hydrated pliable, fluid, flexible strong, symmetrical, organized and aligned. Your body thrives when there is tensegrity. Equal and positive tension that supports the integrity of each individual structure like the each individual cell and the fibers, bundles, tendons, muscles ligaments, bones. At each layer of fascia as well as the fluid that bathes each cell we want our fascia layers in harmony and rejoicing together. As a community, as a team, we want things to be running smoothly.

If you are in pain, have inflammation, experience immobility, have unexplained mystery pains, you don’t have to be. You can release restrictions and find relief from symptoms, get treated with MFR.

Angela is a Myofascial Release Therapist and an Injury specialist, she treats her clients with Myofascial Release and Presence Centered Awareness Therapy. In Grass Valley at Sol Bodyworks.