What to Expect in a Trauma-Informed Bodywork Session: How Touch Helps Heal Trauma and Regulate the Nervous System

When people ask me what trauma-informed bodywork looks like, I usually explain that it’s a gentle, hands-on approach that helps the body (and nervous system) find its way back to regulation and safety.

Much of what I practice is inspired by the work of Kathy L. Kain, who integrates Ortho-Bionomy and somatic approaches,  Dr. Peter Levine, the founder of Somatic Experiencing®, and Feldenkrais®, a method of somatic education. The basic idea is simple but profound: when the body feels regulated, our emotions and thoughts follow. We’re more grounded, less reactive, and better able to make healthy decisions.

What a Session Might Look Like

Sessions usually begin with a simple, supportive touch — for example, a steady contact at the small of your back while you remain fully clothed and comfortably lying on a treatment table.

This touch helps support the the adrenal glands, located just above the kidneys, and help regulate stress hormones like adrenaline and cortisol — key players in the body’s stress response. When these glands can “settle,” the body starts releasing long-held tension and stress hormones that may have been stuck in the system after prolonged periods of bracing or overwhelm.

When the adrenals are overworked, the body stays in a chronic fight-or-flight state. By helping them find balance, we remind the body how to access its parasympathetic response — the “rest and restore” mode — instead of constantly preparing for danger.

In practice, this might look like my hand resting quietly under your lower back for 10–15 minutes on one side, then the other. There’s no manipulation or movement — just gentle, steady contact that gives your system space to unwind at its own pace. I’ll often check in to see what you’re noticing, since this work is more of a collaborative process than something I do to you.

Deeper Layers of Regulation

Once your adrenal system begins to regulate over time (which can take several sessions depending on your history, nervous system and physiology), we can explore other forms of trauma-informed touch.

For example:

• Brain stem holds can calm the nervous system and restore a sense of safety.

• Fascia work helps release tension in the connective tissue just under the skin — a place where emotion and stress are often stored.

When fascia is tight or “activated,” it can contribute to feelings of agitation, anxiety, or even physical sensations like chest pressure or a creeping sense of fear. The mediastinum fascia, which wraps around the heart and lungs, is especially sensitive — calming this area can bring a deep sense of ease and spaciousness to the breath and chest.

• Viscera work supports trauma healing by gently engaging the organs — where deep-seated “gut reactions” and stress responses often live. By helping the viscera release stored tension, this work can improve emotional regulation, support healthy organ function, and allow for a greater sense of presence and ease in the body.

Releasing Protective Patterns

Many of us live in bodies that are unconsciously bracing — jaw tight, shoulders rounded, chest tense, breath shallow. These are protective patterns that once helped us survive but now keep us stuck in chronic tension.

To support release, I often integrate movement-based approaches like the Feldenkrais Method® or Biodynamic Craniosacral Therapy. These gentle methods help the nervous system recognize safety through movement and awareness, softening patterns of holding and protection.

Feldenkrais helps your body unlearn old tension patterns that formed in response to stress or protection. As the nervous system discovers new options for movement, a natural sense of stability and calm begins to emerge.

Craniosacral Therapy uses light, attuned touch to help the body unwind from stress and trauma. From a trauma-informed lens, it helps the nervous system feel safe enough to release old patterns and return to a natural state of ease.

Why It Works

By working directly with the body, trauma-informed touch helps regulate the nervous system faster than talk alone. Once your body feels calmer and safer, talk therapy (if part of your process) becomes much more effective — because the body and mind are finally speaking the same language.

If you resonate with this information, you might consider working 1:1 with me. Please schedule a complimentary 20-minute consultation to see if your needs align with the expertise I offer. This call helps determine if it’s the right fit for both of us.

Trauma Informed Bodywork and Somatic Experiencing® for Narcissistic Abuse

A study published in the Journal of Social and Personal Relationships reports that about 25% of individuals have experienced some form of narcissistic abuse in their relationships.

From 2012-2017 I myself was in a narcissistic abusive relationship. 

I recognize that the term “narcissist” is a buzz word these days, but I’ve had several licensed clinicians confirm that this person was someone with textbook NPD, Narcissist Personality Disorder. Anyone who’s experienced this, is unfortunately very familiar with the signs, symptoms and predictable cycles.

Even if a person is able to leave a traumatic situation of this type, they are often left with emotional and physical symptoms that don’t simply “go away” or fade over time.

One of the characteristics of a narcissistic abusive relationship is that it’s insidious. This means the cues of danger may not be present at the onset and they develop gradually without being noticed.

In other words, narcissistic abuse often starts slowly and gradually worsens over time. 

Relationships of this type usually begins with “love-bombing," a phase where the abuser initially seems loving, generous and supportive. It can be so intense that the victim feel the abuser is too good to be true, “the love of their life.” Then, the abuser slowly begins to use manipulative tactics, such as gaslighting and belittling, silent treatment, passive aggression, and triangulation, to undermine the victim's self-worth and confidence. This is intermingled with intermittent acts of kindness so the victim becomes confused about which version of their abuser is real. As time goes on, the abuser adds in verbal abuse and sometimes physical abuse. 

The aftermath

In my own case, the experience left me with severe and long-lasting effects on my physical and mental health including PTSD.

I went to therapy regularly for a number of years and found that talking about what I had experienced only made my physical symptoms of anxiety and my depression worsen. I tried EMDR and it didn’t really help me, although I know it helps some people and it’s recognized as “evidence based” by the American Psychiatric Association.

For me, what began to change my physiology and regulate my nervous system was trauma-informed somatic work.

Note: If you are more comfortable staying with traditional, medical evidence-based psychotherapeutic techniques like CBT, then what I’m about to share may not resonate with you and that’s okay. It’s up to each individual to choose what methods make the most sense to them. If you’re in the midst of a narcissistic abusive relationship, it makes sense to stay with your therapist and add in somatic work once you’ve left the situation and are safe. In writing about this, my goal is to share some lesser-known alternatives to traditional psychotherapy or medication that worked for me and for many others.

Common physical symptoms of anxiety and hypervigilance include:

• Digestive issues, nausea

• Not being able to eat or overeating

• Chronic neck, shoulder and back pain 

• Physiology of “bracing” or “contracing”

• Jaw pain

• Joint pain, sciatica

• Shallow breathing or not being able to take a deep breath

• Headaches and migraines

• Racing heart

• Sweaty palms

• Face heating up suddenly

• Migraines, headaches

• Trembling, shaking, twitching, buzzing

• Insomnia

• Chronic fatigue

Some emotional symptoms—that are not always talked about—may include:

• Feeling like you’ve always done something wrong

• Feeling confused about what’s really true (cognitive dissonance)

• You don’t recognize yourself, feeling lost and empty

• Feeling isolated

• Shame and hiding what you’re experiencing from others

• Feeling anxious or depressed or hopeless

• Trouble setting boundaries

• Are ready to forgive and forget at the first sign of kindness

• Loss of self trust; disconnected from your own intuition

• A feeling of overwhelm (or freeze)

• Feeling like you’ll die if you leave them (trauma bonding)

• Hypervigilant - “Walking on eggshells” like you’re constantly waiting for the next attack

Two effective Somatic Tools: The Feldenkrais Method® and Somatic Experiencing®

In the case of narcissistic abuse, we feel we’re “under attack” 24/7 — unless, of course, the abuser senses they’ve gone too far and then they are attentive and loving as they were in the beginning of the relationship. When this happens and they show signs of the person we first met, we wonder why we felt so anxious and we wipe the slate clean, only to go through another cycle of abuse.

We’re stuck in a state of hypervigilance and confusion and it takes its toll on our brain, nervous system and body.

Feldenkrais is a gentle, non-invasive way to reconnect to your body so that you can sense, feel and trust yourself. 

The Feldenkrais Method®, a robust somatic method that helps release chronic muscle tension and regulate the nervous system, was the first tool I used in order to learn to trust my own inner guidance again. 

Amidst the chaos in my daily life during the abuse, this somatic work allowed me to reconnect to my body and listen. I was able to feel those physical cues of danger. For example, when I felt my stomach tense, I knew my body was telling me to listen. When I felt my chest or throat constrict, I was able to trust myself vs being confused. I began to be less dissociated or out of my body and to feel a sense of safety and grounding that I hadn’t felt before.

Before I was constantly scanning my environment and his face for cues of danger because I was dissociated. But now, I could feel my body give me cues and I knew I could trust it.

Feldenkrais is also an effective way for someone to learn to self regulate. During narcissistic abuse, it wasn’t safe to “relax” deeply. The constant threat of being under attack was always present. This method allows muscle tension to release effortlessly, and muscle tension = emotional tension.

This method— whether working 1:1 with a practitioner or taking group classes — allows a person to:

• Unwind habits of stress and overstimulation 

• Regulate breathing 

• Relax muscles and ease joint pain

• Respond vs reacting 

• Calm the mind and emotions 

• Feel grounded

• Improve sleep

• Feel a sense of safety, well being or neutral
  

Somatic Experiencing® (SE) is another somatic method that helps a person complete threat response cycles. 

For example, when I felt the desire to fight back or speak up about the abusive treatment I was receiving, but I remained silent because I was afraid of the consequences, that powerful “fight” energy got stuck in my body. It had no where to go but inward.

Or when I felt the deserate desire to get away, but couldn’t leave — again, that energy was thwarted, and stayed lodged in the physical tissues of my body: in my muscles, joints, gut, jaw, etc. 

This is common in any traumatic situation. But with narcissistic abuse, it’s especially relentless and continuous, and takes a significant toll on a person’s mind and body.

Some time after I finally left the relationship, I found myself with sciatica and plantar fasciitis, and chronic fatigue, but it made no rational sense. Now I know that was stuck energy. With Feldenkrais and SE, that chronic pain and fatigue has dissipated. I’m gradually increasing my energy and health. 

Next Steps

As a client and practitioner of both of these robust somatic methods, and several others, I have found that the somatic option for releasing trauma from the body is far more effective than talking about the experience.

If you or someone you know has experienced narcissistic abuse, you may  consider trauma-informed somatic work to help you on your healing journey. 

Please allow me to support you in this process. If you’d like to talk in person, please schedule a free 15 minute consultation to see if working together is a good fit for you. We can work in person in San Diego or online. Schedule here or email me and I’ll get right back to you.

Physical Symptoms of Anxiety and Hyper-Vigilance

From a somatic, or body perspective, anxiety refers to the “sensations generated by the body’s total response to a threat.” The body reacts to this threat because it will do anything to survive.

Physiological symptoms of anxiety and being in a hypervigilant state include:

• Chronic muscle pain (back, neck, shoulders, hips, pelvis, etc.)

• Heart palpitations or irregular heart beat

• Holding breath, shallow breathing or shortness of breath

• Migraines and headaches

• Contraction in throat, chest, belly

• Digestive issues (constipation or loose bowels diarrhea, etc.)

• Sleep issues, insomnia

• Fibromyalgia

• Sweating, especially palms of hands or soles of feet

• Heat or shivering

• Dizziness, light-headedness

• Pins and needles

• Trembling, shaking, twitching

• Feeling weak or tired

• A churning feeling in your stomach

• Nauseau

• Feeling restless or irritable

• Difficulty concentrating

• Grinding teeth or pressing tongue into backs of teeth

Do any of these physical symptoms sound familiar? If so, the good news is it’s not a bunch of different problems — it’s all one thing: a dys-regulated nervous system, very possibly like this for many years, and possibly your body’s way of managing a fight or flight charge that was never released at the time of one or many traumatic events — either recent or from many years ago. 

To learn more about how many of us hold a bracing or protection physical pattern in our musculature, click here

THE AMYGDALA’S ROLE IN ANXIETY

Some people find psychotherapy helpful, but often people report there’s no real change in their physical symptoms of anxiety from talking — also referred to as a “top-down” approach.

One reason for the inability to feel physical relief is that the amygdala, the part of the brain that is scanning for danger because it’s wired for us to survive, continues to fire and send signals to the body to be vigilant. So the body continues to “brace” and “contract” in anticipation for the next bad thing to happen. The rational thinking part of the brain can’t come online until the more primitive, survival part of the brain calms down.

The amygdala doesn’t listen to reason, it acts to keep you safe. 

When the amygdala, the part of the limbic system that protects us, perceives a threat, it triggers a fear or anxiety response that activates the body's fight-or-flight system. This response can include increased heart rate and blood pressure, feelings of fear and anxiety, and increased stress hormone levels, and any of the symptoms listed above.

We can’t control our physiology with the thinking (rational) part of our brain. We can’t reason ourselves out of a burst of cortisol or rapid heart rate. 

But we can use the sensory part of our brain to regulate our physiology.

BOTTOM UP APPROACHES TO REGULATE THE NERVOUS SYSTEM AND REDUCE PHYSICAL SYMPTOMS OF ANXIETY

This is where “bottom up” approaches such as trauma-informed somatic techniques and trauma-informed bodywork are effective in changing the physiology of anxiety and regulating the nervous system. 

Some of these techniques include: Somatic Experiencing®, The Feldenkrais Method®, Havening Technique®, and Craniosacral therapy.

The goal is not only to simply feel calmer for the moment and then fall back into anxiety, but to learn how to regulate nervous system physiology and create new, healthier neural pathways (also known as neural “habits”) that begin to overtake the older, habitual neural pathways of anxiety. 

Neural pathways are simply the connections that form between the neurons, or brain cells, in your brain.

Somatic Experiencing® and Feldenkrais® work with the process of neuroplasticity. Neuroplasticity is the ability of the brain to change and reorganize and to create new neuralpathways.

With these somatic methods, you actually change nervous system “habits,” but instead of doing this from the top down (i.e., mind over matter or forcing oneself to be or think a certain way) it’s done with a bottom up approach, which means including one’s body in the equation and following and listening with one’s focused attention to the sensations of the body to guide the process.

Movement as a common pathway in the body

Feldenkrais uses focused attention and slow, gentle, small movements to access this inherent plasticity of the brain. 

Movement is the common pathway to all of our body systems: respiratory system, nervous system, muscular system, cardiovascular system, digestive system, urinary system, endocrine system, lymphatic system.

Our nervous system keeps us safe by knowing when to move toward, move away from, stay still to conserve energy, and so on. 

The nervous system processes as a very slow pace. In Feldenkrais, we move slowly to match the pace of the nervous system. We make small movements to create a non-threatening environment for the brain so that it can signal muscles to release. 

To read more about how Feldenkrais works with neuralplasticity, link here.

The reason for the nervous system is movement.

Fast movements heighten the sympathetic activity (fight and flight) and slow movements allow the nervous system to be in a parasympathetic state (rest and digest). 

In Feldenkrais we move slowly to allow the brain to access this parasympathetic state. 

When you’re in chronic pain or experiencing other physical symptoms of anxiety, your thinking brain is off line and the brain is noisy. The brain believes there’s a threat that’s emminent. 

Feldenkrais provide alternatives to what has been the status quo of anxiety.

When working within the framework of Somatic Experiencing®, this trauma informed bodywork can create an experience of safety, grounding and resourcing so that people can begin to work with the unprocessed trauma through the wisdom of their body.

If you’d like to learn more about how Somatic Experiencing® and trauma-informed bodywork and whether it might be a good fit for you, please schedule a 15 minute free consultation here.

The Hidden Messages in Your Pain: Why You Should Pay Attention

Pain is your body’s way of communicating with you. It’s a signal in your nervous system that something may be wrong. It feels like an unpleasant feeling and can feel like a prick, tingle, sting, burn or ache. It can be sharp or dull. It can be deep or superficial. It can come and go or it can be constant. 

There are two types of pain: chronic and acute. Chronic pain generally has come on slowly and gradually and it can last for a long time. Acute pain usually comes on suddenly because of injury or inflammation.

Pain can be inconvenient and frustrating, so it’s common to ignore pain or override it. It’s also scary when we don’t know what the cause is, and we can feel overwhelmed about how to address it. So we often push it to the side for as long as we can.

Muscle pain, like neck and shoulder pain or back pain, for example, often begins slowly and gradually. It’s easy to ignore it when it first begins and we hope it goes away. Things like massage or yoga help hold it at bay, but they can only provide temporary relief.

Muscular pain is often caused by a combination of unhealthy posture and repeated daily activities, like sitting at a computer in a slumped position for many hours each day or repetitive movements. It can also be the result of asymmetry in your body. 

For example, let’s say you had an injury in your left foot many years ago. You recovered long ago, but in the process, you “learned” (and I really mean your brain learned, so this was unconscious) to adapt your entire body around your hurt foot. 

Maybe you haven’t put equal weight on both of your legs since that time, but this imbalance between your legs feels normal to your conscious mind. And everything has been fine…until you started feeling (for example) pain in your right shoulder and side of your neck. And for some reason, now your lower back is complaining. 

Your body does an amazing job at compensating for asymmetries for many years and when these aches and pains start showing up, they seem illogical. For more information about how compensation patterns occur, click here.

Another reason for physical muscular chronic pain is emotional stress. Our bodies take on musculoskeletal patterns of stress and anxiety. We round forward and all the muscles along our backs are held in a stretched-out position, while the front of our body is chronically contracted, causing our breath to be shallow, our bellies to be contracted in an unhealthy way, and our neck and jaw muscles to be contracted.

The Feldenkrais Method® is a way to identify these muscular contractions that feel like chronically tight muscles, and teach your nervous system how to release these habitual patterns that show up as chronic or acute muscle tension or pain. It uses your attention to small, slow, gentle movement to restore ease and freedom to your body.

The history of these muscle contraction patterns took sometimes years of practice to create, but with some time and commitment, these unhealthy patterns can be unwound so that you can move with freedom and ease once again. Many people no longer need pain medication and are able to do activities they once loved to do again, pain-free.

For more information about Feldenkrais, click here.

To schedule a virtual or in-person session, click here.

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For a simple and effective self care practice, try this FREE audio recording that is designed to calm your mind and relax your entire body. Notice if you feel the muscles of your back body melt into the floor or bed as you practice these easy hand movements. 

Can Feldenkrais® Help You Break Habits Faster? What to Expect

One of the first questions new clients ask is “how long will it take for Feldenkrais to work?” 

They often aren’t sure whether they should expect to feel immediate relief, like you feel after a great massage, or if their pain or discomfort will be relieved after a few visits or in several months.

This is a reasonable question, and here’s the frustrating answer: it depends.

It depends whether a person has been suffering with a particular issue for several days, months, years or decades. It depends what the issue is. It depends how often a person is willing or able to receive treatment. And it depends whether the person is willing to practice the assigned movements while at home, or in group classes, between sessions, in order to reinforce the new healthier neural pathways that are created during a session. To learn more about how to get a clearer sense of how long treatment might take, read “How Long Until I Notice Results from Feldenkrais® Sessions?”

And like almost anything else in life, it depends on how long the person has been practicing certain habits.

Neural Pathways

Neural pathways are the connections that form between the neurons, or brain cells, in your brain. They’re like a pattern that represents any thought about anything you’ve ever had – as simple as an apple, as complicated as love and integrity, every thought is a neural pathway.

These neural pathways, or connections between neurons, light up when you think of something or learn something like movement for the first time, and the connections form a pattern in your brain. Your brain has now attached meaning to that specific pattern.

When your brain processes a new connection for the first time, like when you first learned to walk as a baby, the neurons connected from your brain to your muscles, for balance, etc. The more you did the movement in the same way again and again, the stronger and more dominant the neural pathways became. And now, as an adult, you don’t need to think about walking anymore because it’s a well-formed dominant neural pathway in your brain.

Habits are learned — habits we want to continue AND habits that aren’t serving us; mental habits, emotional habits, and physical habits.

And unfortunately, this learning process happens if you’ve had many years of practicing muscular habits that aren’t healthy, like poor posture, or you’ve been unconsciously compensating for an injury (even from 20 years ago), or have been practicing a repetitive action in misalignment. You’ve now learned to associate certain muscular tension with these movement patterns.

This holds true for any type of learning. The more you practice something and it becomes a habit, then it will take a certain amount of time to change it to a new habit.

Feldenkrais® is not the same as massage or physical therapy. These other modalities work directly with strengthening, releasing or training muscles. Feldenkrais® works with the brain, the controller of the entire body (including the muscles). In this way, it’s actually a method of “learning” and also of “unlearning.”

To learn more about how Feldenkrais® works, click here.

When you first learned your multiplication tables, you probably were taught each table, one at a time, at school. Then you were given homework to practice at home. At first, that table might have been hard to remember. But after several weeks of writing and reciting the 3 times table out loud, it became second nature to you. 

It took some time to create new neural pathways, but once reinforced, it became a “habit.”

A 2009 research paper by the University College of London says “it takes on average about 66 days of repetition to form a habit (which could indicate a change in the neural pathway). But it’s different from person to person. Some people change habits in as little as 18 days, others take as long as 254 days of repetition.”

So, having said this, this is what a person can expect with Feldenkrais.

If you’ve been experiencing pain or discomfort for a few weeks, then it is likely that a series of 6-8 sessions, received within a few weeks will begin to change the neural pathways. Unconscious habits of muscular contractions may have been practiced for much longer than the few weeks you’ve been experiencing pain, however. But the brain is always looking for the most efficient and healthiest way to move.  And if you can practice some of the movements at home or in a weekly group class, then the new healthier neural pathways will be reinforced and lasting.

If you’ve been experiencing pain or discomfort for 10 years+, then most likely it will take longer to reverse the unconsciously held muscular patterns of tension. I recommend you begin with a series of 6-10 sessions, received within a month or so, and then see where you are. Very likely you’ll feel better and encouraged and will want to add another 6-10 sessions, perhaps spacing them out a bit more. Again, reinforcing the work at home or in a weekly group class is critical.

Anything between a few weeks and 10 years is someplace in the middle, depending on what the issues are that you’re experiencing. Regardless of the length of time an issue has been with you, most people feel better after their first session. 

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If you’d like to experience feeling general relief from muscle tension and overall relaxation, try this FREE audio lesson.

Yes, Your Brain Can Change Itself. How to Harness the Power of Brain Plasticity to Relieve Pain

THE BRAIN CAN CHANGE ITSELF. It is a plastic, living organ that can actually change its own structure and function, even into old age. This breakthrough in neuroscience is called neuroplasticity, and it’s changing the centuries-old idea that the brain is fixed and unchanging. 

Norman Doidge, MD, a psychiatrist and researcher, who wrote several books on the topic, including “The Brain that Changes Itself” and “The Brain’s Way of Healing,” reports that the brain is not, as was previously thought, like a machine, or “hardwired” like a computer. 

Doidge says, “Neuroplasticity not only gives hope to those with mental limitations, or what was thought to be incurable brain damage, but expands our understanding of the healthy brain and the resilience of human nature.” 

If you suffer from chronic muscle tension or pain, neuroplasticity might be of special interest to you!

If you’re dependent on daily stretching or frequent massages just to feel comfortable in your body, then you’re not alone. Some common tension issues people live with include tension or pain in their backs or neck and shoulders, jaw and/or TMJ symptoms, hips, or have regular migraines. 

We assume that feeling this way is normal, or that it runs in the family—that tight muscles are just an unavoidable way of life as we age. But this is not the case. 

Chronically tight muscles are basically unconscious habits of contraction that the nervous system has “turned on” in order to stabilize your skeleton as a whole. 

For example, if you hurt your left knee years ago, your entire body had to compensate at one time. As time passed, you got used to these compensation patterns until it just felt normal to you. 

Consider this scenario: perhaps you unconsciously learned to lean a little bit into your right hip and leg when you walked, to avoid putting full weight on your left leg while your knee was healing. 

And then, to counterbalance the right-leaning of your lower body, you learned to lean in the opposite direction with your shoulders and neck. 

All of this was a brilliant way your brain orchestrated to support your whole body while there was instability. In fact, you became so good at this new muscular “pattern” that you didn’t even notice it — until the muscles holding you in this “pattern” began to hurt and cause pain. You see, the muscles were holding the bones in place based on their instructions from your brain.

Learn more about how compensation patterns are formed and how we can work with them.

So a massage might help relieve this constant tension temporarily, but the original muscle patterns has not changed at the origin. After a few days, they’ll snap right back into place per their instructions from your brain, the control center of your body.

Another example might be chronic jaw and neck pain or neck and shoulder pain. 

This is where neuroplasticity comes in!

When a person’s nervous system feels safe, like it can relax and let go—when it feels “heard” rather than fighting to hold muscles in place—the brain will tell the muscles to stop holding on for dear life. Depending on the history and physical trauma involved in a given situation, this can happen within weeks or months. 

For physical muscular tension, The Feldenkrais Method® is an effective modality to change these neural pathways from old, unhealthy patterns to more efficient, healthier ones. To learn more about how Feldenkrais® works, click here.

When old muscular tension is released, there is also a sense of emotional calm and mental clarity. This makes sense because when your nervous system no longer has to expend so much energy stabilizing your whole system, there’s a natural feeling of physical and mental relief and ease. When you learn how to regulate nervous system physiology, you automatically regulate emotional tension.

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For a simple and effective self care practice, try this FREE audio recording that is designed to calm your mind and relax your entire body. Notice if you feel the muscles of your back body melt into the floor or bed as you practice these easy hand movements.

How to Cultivate Inner Strength with Being Easeful

When I was younger I was able to power my way through anything — I was physically strong and was proud of this quality. I was mentally strong and when challenges arose, I met them head on. I started 3 separate businesses–two while raising 3 children and taking care of my family while my husband at the time traveled internationally frequently for his job. We moved across the country 3 times in six years and I managed each move from start to finish, practiced vigorous sweaty yoga 90-minutes/day, 6 times/week. I was strong and efficient and capable and could handle anything!

But in the past few years I’ve been brought to my knees. 

Besides being older and having less energy, I’ve been through some pretty darn challenging life events that left me holding relentless tension in my body from anxiety and chronic stress. I’m slowly recovering from adrenal exhaustion and I’m having to find a new way to live and to be — a way where I don’t have to force my way through challenging physical and emotional situations. 

It’s a scary proposition to not be able to rely on my own ability to power through life.

Perhaps you can relate to some of this.

And although, I can’t say I like having to change my ways, this is what I’m discovering….

Being easeful is actually powerful

In my Feldenkrais practice—as a teacher, practitioner, and student—I’ve learned to make very slow, small movements within my own range of comfort. I pay attention to my physical sensations as I move. 

I’ve learned to observe where I feel muscular resistance and effort or thoughts that tell me to “try harder” or “do more,” to make the movement I’m practicing “happen.” 

When I sense I’m contracting muscles to make these small, gentle movements, then I do even less and go more slowly. 

And the paradoxical thing that happens is, within a few minutes, the ease of this movement improves and the range spontaneously becomes bigger. On it’s own. With no help or forcing or managing or “pushing through” on my part. 

In fact, if I do “help” or “force,” the improvement doesn’t happen.

This is the same principle applies when a client is on my treatment table. I’m listening with my hands for what range and trajectory of movement is completely easeful for the person. And as I join her nervous system, with no agenda on my part, she suddenly has more movement and mobility available. Muscular contraction melts away almost spontaneously.

The work is easeful and the results are powerful.

In other words, in order to have a powerful result, I must practice ease.

Last weekend on a hike in Boulder, I felt my energy was low. My legs felt heavy and my breathing felt forced. Initially I walked quickly and was pushing myself, berating myself for not going faster.

And then I remembered the process of Feldenkrais and thought “Is it possible to create power ease-fully?”

I slowed my steps way down, to the point where I was breathing easily and my pace felt effortless. I started to look at the flowers and my surroundings. I stopped for water breaks frequently and to breathe in nature. I didn’t allow myself to feel tired or as if I was pushing myself at all. 

And I gave myself this leeway without judgement or it needing to be different.

At around my turn-around point, 45 minutes into my hike,  I noticed that my pace had become much faster — effortlessly. I wasn’t tired at all and I was breathing evenly. I had energy and my hips and legs felt light and loose.

I can only conclude that this phenomenon is somehow related to what happens on the treatment table— that the nervous system is involved in all aspects of life, movement, thinking, and manifesting.

In other words, ease creates power in more areas than the physical. 

My practice this week has been to notice when situations arise that cause me stress (which is multiple times each day in the world of an entrepreneur). 

Initially, I observe myself automatically go to: overwhelm, anger, fear of not being able to handle something, self pity, forcing my way, overexerting, overworking, and so on. 

And then I remember to ask myself: how can I create the possibility of ease and power?

I want to spread this quality of ease into my daily life and trust it in the same way I trust this process when I work with people in my practice. 

So, the next time a stressful situation comes up for you, try noticing what your habitual thoughts and emotions are. It’s likely that you, like me, respond this way every single time you face a stressful situation.

It’s an opportunity to ask yourself how you might create the possibility for ease in this situation? Where might you do less? And observe if somehow, a sense of power arises that you never expected or could have anticipated while doing things your habitual way.

To learn more about how The Feldenkrais Method® works, click here.

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To feel this ease and power simultaneously in your body, try this FREE audio lesson!

3 Ways to Regulate Your Nervous System When You're Stressed

It can take less than 20 minutes to feel calmer, have more relaxed muscles, breathe more freely, have a calmer mind, feel at peace, and feel more balanced emotionally.

Three of the most effective ways to come back into a parasympathetic (rest and digest) state involve your hands, your mouth and your breathing.

Your mouth, tongue, and jaw take up 35% of real estate in the sensory part of your brain and your hands take up another 35%. (It’s surprising to learn that the entire rest of your body only takes up the remaining 30%!) This means that these areas have the most influence over your mood and sense of well-being.

So it makes sense to work with one or both of the areas of your body that are the most sensitive, or available to sensing, in order to make the biggest improvements to calm you down, in the quickest and most efficient way.

Below are 3 self care practices for you to try. See if one of these helps you feel grounded, calmer, more physically relaxed, and able to breathe more naturally and freely. To learn more about what constitutes a “self care practice,” click here.

1. Natural Breathing

Many people recommend breathing deeply when there’s stress, to calm your nervous system and send the message to your brain and body that all is well, but I recommend natural, easy breathing. 

If you think about it, deep breathing is what we do when there’s a big task to accomplish or when we have to prepare for action or have to exert ourselves. But natural, relaxed, easy breathing signals the body and brain that all is well.

Practice: 

Lie on your back either on the floor or on your bed, and get comfortable. You can bend your knees and stand your feet or put a bolster underneath your knees. 

• Rather than having your head on a pillow, see if you can rest your head on a folded flat towel or folded yoga blanket so that your forehead and chin are on the same horizontal plane, and your throat is open (rather than your throat closed and your chin tilted lower than your forehead).

• Relax your tongue and your jaw.

• Follow your breathing. Notice if you’re breathing at all or if your breath is shallow. Simply follow your breathing. Don’t worry if your breath is shallow or uneven or if there are long gaps between each breath. Simply allow your body to inhale and exhale at its own pace.

Your brain knows how much oxygen your body needs at any given time. You’ll find that your breathing isn’t always even. It varies. Sometimes you may need more breath and sometimes it will be shallow. Sometimes you’ll notice a big space between breaths and sometimes your breath will quicken. 

At first it will feel difficult and you’ll be tempted to control your inhales and exhales or do a pranayama breathing practice or yoga breathing that you’re already familiar with. But see if you can come back to your natural, uncontrolled breathing. You’re only observing — not forcing or making anything happen. 

2. Hand Movements

As I mentioned above, because your hands take up 35% of your sensory brain space, your hands are extremely effective in lowering stress generally throughout your body. 

Here’s a FREE audio recording for a short practice that uses your hands to calm your stress and relax your entire body. This is especially helpful if you have trouble falling asleep. 

Rolling your hands practice instructions:

Lie on your back either on the floor or on your bed, and have your legs long or bend your knees. You can also place a bolster under your knees — whatever you need to do to feel really comfortable. See #1 for recommendations regarding a pillow.

These movements are to be done very, very slowly, very small, only in the range that is completely comfortable (no stretching or straining or forcing), pause between each movement before doing the next, and rest as often as you like.

3. Mouth and Tongue Movements

As I mentioned earlier, your mouth, jaw and tongue also take up 35% of your sensory cortical space. Many people hold tension in their jaw, tongue, face and neck. This practice will not only help you release any unconsciously held tension in your mouth and jaw, but generally, throughout your entire body, as well. 

Here’s a link to another FREE audio recording called “Relieve your Jaw Pain” so that you’ll feel calmer, more relaxed, less stressed or anxious, and breathe more freely within 20 minutes.

In conclusion, these three, very efficient and effective ways to immediately relieve stress and regulate your nervous system involve observing your natural breathing, and sensing yourself as you make gentle, small, slow movements with your hands and mouth.

The above two audio recordings are from The Feldenkrais Method®, a somatic practice that helps people regulate their nervous system and let go of unconsciously held muscle tension patterns. To learn more about The Feldenkrais Method®, click here.

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If you enjoyed these practices, and would like more information about online classes or working together, please email me.

Schedule a FREE 15 minute consultation here.

How Long Until I Notice Results from Feldenkrais® Sessions?

When people are considering working privately with me with Feldenkrais, one of the first things they want to know is HOW LONG WILL IT TAKE? 

Of course the answer depends on several variables — your specific concerns and history, how long you’ve had the particular issue(s), your consistency in coming as recommended, your commitment to practicing the “homework,” and so on. 

A good place to begin is as follows: if your quality of life is being impacted by whatever physical or stress-related issue you’re experiencing, and the outcome you want is to eliminate chronic pain. For more information about how often to schedule your sessions, click here.

Having said this, here is my general recommendation:

Phase 1 - Introduction

(once or twice/week for 4-6 weeks)

This work is cumulative. In your first few sessions, we’ll begin with small, gentle movements and teach you to sense your own comfort. In this way, we’re actually working with your nervous system to identify and begin to release the first layer of unconsciously held muscle tension patterns.

Ideally, sessions are fairly close together so that the old, unhealthy patterns of tension don’t have a chance to take hold again.

If you’ve been holding these tension patterns in your body for years, then it takes a bit of time to let them go. But because we’re working with your brain and nervous system, as long as we reinforce the new neural pathways that are created each session, the old patterns won’t have a chance to go back to their old ways. 

These private sessions are effective both in person and on-line.

Phase 2 - Reinforcement

(every one - two weeks for the next 1-2 months)

By this time, you’ll know if this work is helping you. I recommend that as you begin to spread the in-person sessions out, you add in a home practice. There are several options for this:

• practicing short movement sequences a few minutes each day that you learn from our sessions together

• class recordings I can share with you

• attending weekly group in person or online classes

The idea is to reinforce what we’re doing together in your private sessions, at home. The intention is to gradually move the responsibility for your wellbeing back into your own hands and give you tools to empower you.

Phase 3 - Maintenance

(once/month or whenever you feel it’s needed)

Once you’re through the first two phases of this work, you’ll find that you’re moving more freely and your chronic pain is gone or much less. Your nervous system is much more regulated. This means that you don’t react to stress as dramatically as before, you feel less anxious, you can begin to add things back into your life that you had to give up because of pain, exhaustion and feeling too overwhelmed, like walking and hiking, cycling, working out, yoga, and so on. 

By now, you’ve realized the amazing benefits of this method and are either taking weekly group classes or practicing recordings on your own a couple of times each week to complement our in- person sessions together. 

The key is to provide the environment for your brain cells to continue to wire together in a healthy way and not slip into old patterns. It took you many years of practice to get where you are now — it may time several months to practice and reinforce the new patterns. To learn more about how Feldenkrais works, click here.

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To experience for yourself how this method works, download this FREE audio recording now and let me know what you observe about the suppleness of your spine afterwards!

Photo Credit: © 2005, Rosalie O'Connor. Used with permission of the Feldenkrais Guild® of North America.

4 Guidelines to Get the Most from Your Feldenkrais Method® Online Class

Awareness Through Movement® classes, or the group class aspect of The Feldenkrais Method®, is different from so many activities or therapies we’ve encountered before.

People often ask if it’s a form of physical therapy or massage? It is not. 

Or they wonder if it’s like Reiki or yoga. Not at all. 

In fact, it doesn’t involve stretching or any type of manipulative therapeutics. 

It does involve small, slow movements that have been sequenced based on early human development. But even this is misleading because the movements themselves are not what produce the sometimes almost magical outcomes — it’s a persons’ focused attention on the quality of the sensation they feel AS they perform these tiny movements. 

See my blog post on how Feldenkrais works.

The best way to understand Feldenkrais is to experience it. And the best way to get the most from the experience is to follow these four guidelines during class. Of course, you’ll be reminded of these often during your class, but here they are with a bit of explanation.

Go slowly. 

Do each movement slowly. When you move slowly, you can sense and feel yourself more easily and become aware of any unnecessary muscular effort throughout your body. 

Make very small movements.

The idea is to use as little muscular effort as possible. If you feel any stretching, strain, or discomfort or effort, make the movement even smaller — sometimes moving 1/32nd of an inch is enough and will make a huge improvement in your brain (i.e., muscles let go quickly and easily).

Only do what’s completely comfortable.

Avoid all stretching, strain, muscular effort or force. The entire range of each movement should be equally easeful and comfortable. We’re used to thinking in terms of “no pain, no gain.” This is the complete opposite of the Feldenkrais philosophy!

Rest often.

We rest between each movement so that each movement is separate and fresh from the one before it and the one after it. We also rest whenever we finish a sequence of movements. And we encourage resting whenever you feel tired, confused, frustrated, irritated, or whey you lose focus. This gives your brain time to absorb the sensory information and lay down new more efficient neural pathways.

Feldenkrais is a paradox. 

In most activities we participate in, doing more and doing things faster or bigger is the goal. We stretch more, we push ourselves harder, we do more repetitions, we do it faster…. 

But in Awareness Through Movement® classes, the group class aspect of Feldenkrais®, the number of movements you do does not matter. Making the movement bigger is actually not helpful. You small, slow movements with your focus on the sensation that you feel as you do the movement. 

In fact, the emphasis is purely on HOW you do the movement that counts, not how many times you repeat them. By “how,” I mean, does it feel easy, is it comfortable, is it smooth or do I feel resistance? For example, do you feel yourself engaging your muscles to force your head to turn or does it turn smoothly and easily in both directions without any effort? The brain doesn’t care how big the turning movement it — it cares how easy and comfortable it is.

By focusing on the quality of the sensation, and eliminating any stretching, strain, discomfort or muscular force, the ease of doing the movement will spontaneously become easy, smooth, and pleasurable. The brain is always working in our best interest, looking for the most efficient way to do a movement and as we feed the brain sensory information during a class or session, the brain overrides old neural pathways (of muscle tension) and replaces them with new, more efficient neural pathways (of ease and comfort).

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Download this FREE audio lesson to experience for yourself what I’m talking about. See if you feel more relaxed, freer to turn easily, and mentally calmer after this simple seated lesson!

Photo credit: © 2005, Rosalie O'Connor. Used with permission of the Feldenkrais Guild® of North America.

How to Set Yourself Up for Success in Your Online Group Class

If you’ve been thinking about joining a group online Feldenkrais® class, but feel a little nervous about what to expect, here are some tips so that you’ll feel more comfortable!

Zoom!

For those of you who made it through your professional years without having to participate in online meetings, welcome to Zoom!

But please don’t let Zoom deter you. If you don’t understand the technology, email me. We can set up a time where I can walk you through the set up. You’ll be a master after your first class and the benefits of the class will be so worth the effort!

For those of you who spend TOO much time on Zoom, please know that you won’t be sitting in front of your screen. Your camera will be set up on your while you’re lying on your mat. Your only job will be to follow the verbal instructions I give to you as well as you can. There’s literally no right or wrong so there’s no pressure to “perform!”

Will you fit in?

All classes are BEGINNER Level. The students range in age from late 20s to 80s and students are super friendly and welcoming to newcomers. 

Clothing

Come dressed in loose, comfortable clothing and have a sweatshirt, socks or blanket nearby in case you get cold. Remove your belt, glasses, watch or other jewelry.

Space set up 

Have a comfortable space to lie on the floor or carpet and have light padding underneath you. The idea is that the surface that you’re lying on is firm enough to give you sensory feedback, but soft enough so that you’re too comfortable and fall asleep (but if you do, that’s okay).

Ideally you have some space around your mat so that you can extend both arms in a wide-T position easily, but we can work with whatever space you have.

If you can’t lie on the floor, your bed will be fine. But move your pillows out of your way so you can lie flat.

Props 

Have one or two flat, folded bath towels or a flat, folded yoga blanket to use as head support for lessons where you’ll be lying on your side. A small stack of gardening knee pads are also useful to rest your head on. You want to be able to lie on your side with your head on the support so that your neck is neither tilting downward or upward. In other words, your neck is an extension of your spine.

Camera set up

Set up your laptop or device camera approx. 5 feet away from the long side of your mat (side view of you). Bird’s eye view also works if you prefer to put your device up on a chair or table, looking down at you. 

You don’t have to see me. I’m not watching you to make sure that you’re doing the movements “right or wrong,” — there is no right or wrong! Rather, I’m watching you so that I can adjust my instructions based on what I see students doing in class. Adjust your volume so that you can hear my instructions. Also, other students are not watching you!

Eliminate any distractions or noise if possible. The improvements this method offers are highly dependent on the ability of a student to pay focused attention to her own sensations during the movements. Pets are welcome (and seem to love the calming energy), but please turn off cellphones, close the door and give yourself this hour for your self care.

If you have any other questions or concerns at all, please email me: susan@restorewithawareness.com.

Once you are ready to give it a try, please try your first class for FREE! The Zoom link and schedule are posted in the weekly newsletter or you can contact me here and I’ll send you the link.

To learn more about group classes and the four guidelines that will help you have the most improvement, click here.

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Download this FREE audio lesson and experience what we do in class, and how it makes you feel, for yourself.

Observe how you feel afterwards. Does your spine feel more supple and do you feel more relaxed overall?

Photo credit: © 2005, Rosalie O'Connor. Used with permission of the Feldenkrais Guild® of North America.

Discover Lasting Relief for Jaw and Neck Pain with These Effective Strategies

Jaw pain, also known as Temporalmandibular Joint Disorder (TMD), is experienced by many people in some form or another. Symptoms can include minor to severe pain in the temporalmandibular joint (TMJ) itself, jaw popping, headaches, aching in the facial muscles, grinding teeth, difficulty chewing, tightness in the jaw and can be responsible for neck pain, shoulder pain, and even tinnitus (or ringing in the ears). 

And oddly, many people who experience pain in their jaw also experience pain or tightness in their lower back and pelvis and/or hips. 

We are not just a bunch of parts and pieces 

Here’s a simple anatomy lesson:

The jaw is not actually separate from the pelvis because the lower jaw, or mandible, is connected to the temporal bone by the temporalmandibular joint (the TMJ). The temporal bone is connected to the occiput, the back of the skull, through which the vertebrae (or bones) of the spine intersect. 

If one area of the spine is not free or mobile, then every other part of the spine, and those bones attached to it, are affected because we are a whole skeleton and a whole person, not a bunch of unrelated muscles and bones. 

So, if the vertebrae (or bones) of the neck are restricted, the responsibility for movement is left to the less restricted vertebrae of the spine — from the neck all the way down to the lower back. 

The lower vertebrae attach to, or rather become, the sacrum (a small upside-down triangular bone that sits between the two sides of the pelvis). If there is any disruption in the spine’s ability to move freely at any part, then every part of the spine and those bones attached, is affected. 

We are a whole living, connected, moving person. This is why if there is restriction in the jaw, the pelvis or low back are very likely affected as well.

But back to the jaw….

So how do we find lasting relief?

Most people who have experienced jaw pain have tried several different therapies. Some provide temporary relief for a day or two, some longer. 

Sometimes people find that deep tissue or intra-oral massage is helpful to relieve the pain and tension in their jaw. As a massage therapist in my previous life, I know even relief for a day or two is better than nothing. 

But attempting to relieve chronic pain at the site of the muscle is the same as if we were to look in the mirror and see dirt on our face, and try to remedy it by using Windex on the mirror. 

Brain Plasticity

Muscles grip for a good reason. In fact, muscles are simply following orders given by the brain and nervous system. 

The brain — the control center of the entire body — is responsible for perceiving any instability throughout the body, and then sends directions to the muscles to “hold” here or “let go” there, based on that instability. The brain is ALWAYS working for the benefit of the whole person. 

When practiced consistently, these unconscious muscular tension patterns become habitual. In other words, some chronic jaw tension patterns can go on for years or decades.

The good news is that it doesn’t matter how long a tension pattern has been in place— chronic pain and tension can still be released by working with the brain because of something called “Brain Plasticity” or “Neuro Plasticity,” the ability for the neurons (brain cells) to form new neural connections.

This means that chronic jaw tension (or any chronic musculoskeletal tension) can be relieved permanently— sometimes this even happens immediately, and then it can be reinforced over time — creating new neural pathways. And the new pathways then become the dominant ones. The old tension pattern is overridden for a new, healthier more efficient musculoskeletal pattern.

The Feldenkrais Method®

The Feldenkrais Method® is an effective way to identify and release these chronic unconscious muscular tension patterns. Read more about The Feldenkrais Method® here.

A person doesn’t have to understand or believe in this method for it to work. But it does help to have an open mind and give the process some time to allow the brain to do it’s magic!

Click here for a FREE lesson that is designed to relieve your jaw and neck muscles in 20 minutes!

Did You Know You Can Rewire Your Brain to Relieve Muscle Tension?

If you’re like me, you’ve tried many different practitioners and therapies in an attempt to relieve muscle tension and chronic neck, shoulder or back pain. You may have felt better and relaxed for a few days after a massage or relief from a physical therapy or chiropractic session. 

But here is THE reason manipulations involving soft tissue (muscles) never seem to last: because the “issue” — whether it’s neck and shoulder tension, jaw tension, lower back or hip or even legs and feet pain — is not being treated at the source, but at the level of the symptoms (i.e., tense muscles).

The brain is the controller

What is the “source” then? The brain is the controller of the entire body. The brain tells up when to breathe in and out and how much oxygen we need at any given moment. The brain tells our organs how and when to function. 

And the brain monitors our muscle tension — when to contract and when to let go. We can apply pressure to or stretch the muscles and they’ll release, but within a short timeframe, they go right back to their habitual “patterns” of contraction. 

The brain is ALWAYS working for your benefit

These unconscious habitual patterns of “holding” or contraction were put into place by your brain when your brain perceived that there was some instability in you as a whole — perhaps you experienced a period of extreme stress, perhaps there was some injury somewhere else in your body, maybe while healing, part of you was immobilized to mend, perhaps you practiced some repetitive movement or posture so often that certain muscles became the stabilizers while others didn’t carry their weight.

Every single person’s circumstances and history are unique. 

We don’t have to understand WHY, only HOW

But when we work with the brain, the interesting thing is we don’t have to definitively understand WHY certain muscles are contracted, or the exact path of what caused what, when. We only need to recognize the patterns that are presenting themselves.

In the Feldenkrais Method® we don’t work at the site of the muscles — we work with the brain, the master controller of the entire body!

So… this is why this method is very likely different from anything you’ve tried before. 

And this is why there’s so much hope for you to find relief for most muscle tension or chronic pain.

I’ve seen it with my clients over and over again. It doesn’t matter how long you’ve had muscle tension or where it is.

It doesn’t even matter whether you completely understand the details of how this works or even believe what I’m telling you. 

When we work in person, you’re moved gently and slowly in a range that is completely comfortable and where there is no resistance. We don’t push through pain or force or strain you. The same holds true for when you participate in online lessons — you make small, slow movements in a comfortable range and rest often. During the rests the sensory information you took in by sensing and feeling yourself as you move is fed to your brain and it’s almost as if this information is “processed” by your brain and muscles spontaneously release on your behalf.

Reinforcing new neural pathways

You may notice some relief from pain the first time you have a session or practice a lesson. But remember, you’ve been “practicing” old tension patterns for a long time. So it might take several sessions to reinforce the new healthier neural pathways. I usually recommend to begin with 6 session scheduled a week apart. For more information about how often to schedule sessions, click here.

If you’d like more information about what your pain is telling you, you may like to read “The Hidden Messages in Your Pain: Why You Should Pay Attention.”

Think about when you learned your multiplication tables. (The 6s were always a challenge for me.) I could remember them for a few hours but if I didn’t practice them every day for at least a week, I would forget them and have to look. But after awhile, they became second nature to me — the neural pathways were reinforced often enough that it became permanent. And now, if I forget them for a moment from not “firing those specific neural pathways,” I only have to remind myself and they come right back to me.

Because we’re working with your brain to release muscular contractions and creating new, more comfortable muscle tone, it’s the same idea. The muscle tension that has been part of your life for months or years will let go as new sensory information is received by your brain. 

New healthier neural pathways override the old, unconscious, habitual pathways and when these movements are practiced with attention, and reinforced for a period of time, the old muscle tension is permanently gone.

Click here for a FREE audio lesson to experience for yourself how calm, relaxed and less muscle tension you feel throughout yourself!

How Often Should I Schedule Feldenkrais Sessions to See Results?

My clients often ask me “how often should I receive a session?”

There is not a one-size fits all answer, but here are some questions to ask yourself when deciding how often to schedule.

1. Why are you coming in?

• Do you have an injury, recovering from surgery?

• Are you holding relentless tension in your body that is making life uncomfortable?

• Have you experienced a stressful life event and you find it impossible to relax and let go of stress and anxiety?

• Is your nervous system dysregulated? Do you feel anxious, stressed, irritable or have physical symptoms of stress and anxiety?

• Do you feel dissociated from your physical body and physical sensations?

• Do you have chronic jaw pain, frequent migraines, or other stress-related physical chronic tension and pain from which you’d like permanent relief?

• Are you looking to improve your function in athletics — like running, cycling, playing tennis, golf, or even fishing and you’d like to be able to use your body more efficiently and without pain?

• Do you spend 8+ hours sitting or standing at a desk all day and feel back, neck or shoulder pain?

• Are you pregnant (or not pregnant) and have chronic sciatica, lower back pain, leg pain or some other lower body discomfort?

• Are you nursing and have chronic neck and shoulder pain that’s impacting how you feel while you’re stepping into this new role as a mother?

• Or do you generally feel good and you just want to relax and restore and have a physical or nervous system tune-up?

2. How long has this “issue” been part of your life?

• Do you have a recent injury or you’ve noticed this issue in the past several weeks/months?

• Are you experiencing physical symptoms of anxiety and stress?

• Has this issue been with you for as long as you can remember?

• Somewhere inbetween?

3. What is the impact of this issue?

• Is it a minor nuisance, but you still live your life to the fullest?

• Is it causing you to have to modify your activities or you find yourself pushing through the pain, but it’s taking it’s toll?

• Can you no longer do the things you love?

• Are you in constant discomfort or pain and can’t think about anything else?

• Is it taking too much of your energy to “hover above” the physical discomfort or symptoms of anxiety?

4. What makes sense for your schedule?

• You’re fine with quick relief for a few days once in awhile.

• You can commit to a monthly session plus daily at-home practices.

• You can commit to weekly sessions for a period of time, plus at-home practices.

• You are super serious and will do whatever it takes to get your life back permanently, as long as you believe you’ll move toward your desired outcome.

5. What do you want to budget for this work?

Do you consider Feldenkrais to be part of your health and wellness program or is it purely for relaxation? There is no wrong answer, but understanding the value of this work to you will help you feel clear about how often to receive the work. I trust that each person knows what’s right for them. Learn more about how Feldenkrais® works to relieve chronic pain here.

Besides in-person private work, I also offer weekly group classes on Zoom as well in online private sessions. Any of these options will benefit you greatly.

Beginning the work:

I suggest you schedule your first session and see how your body and nervous system responds. The work is subtle, but you WILL notice a shift during or after the first session. See how you feel, and if you feel it’s something you want to invest your time, energy and money in. I trust that each person has their own body wisdom and you’ll know after one session if this resonates with you. For more information about the 3 phases of treatment, click here.

If any or all of the above resonates with you, and you are interested in making significant changes in your body and nervous system, then let’s have a discussion about partnering together and coming up with a treatment plan that works for your schedule and budget. You can schedule a FREE 15 minute phone or video consultation here or contact me at susan@restorewithawareness.com .

© 2005, Rosalie O'Connor. Used with permission of the Feldenkrais Guild® of North America.

Finding Confidence in Your Feet and Ankles: A Journey to Better Mobility Part 2

In Part 1 of “Finding confidence in your feet and ankles,” we explored the relationship between mobility in our ankles, feet and other leg joints and the functionality we need to be able to confidently navigate uneven terrain. Whether you’re on a walk, hike, walking down a city sidewalk, or on vacation, traversing over cobblestones and bricks, when your joints are all able to bend and flex easily, you subconsciously feel confident in your ability to handle yourself.

Below is a simple Feldenkrais® exercise you can do at home to give you more mobility in your feet and ankles. You may notice a difference immediately when you stand up to walk afterwards, or it might take a few times.

In this lesson, you’ll be working with your brain and nervous system to release unconsciously contracted muscles in order to have freedom and ease in your walking!

Remember this is different from what you may have done in the past — stretching or physical therapy.

Follow these helpful guidelines to get the most improvement. In this method, doing more, bigger, and faster are NOT helpful.

Guidelines for lesson:

Make sure you do the movements very slowly, make the movements very small. Don’t stretch your feet or ankles — do only the movement that feels easy and comfortable.

Mini Lesson for ankles and feet:

1. Take off your shoes and walk around your room to get a sense of how free your ankles and feet feel. What is the progression of each step you take? Heel to toe, toe to heel, middle of your foot first?

2. And now stand still and notice where the weight is on your feet? Is it centered, more to the inside, more to the outside?

3. Now, please lie on your back and bend your knees and stand your feet about hips distance apart.

   Very gently lift the front of your right foot away from the floor, just the tiny little bit that’s comfortable. (I guarantee you, you’re lifting it too much. Let it be TINY.)

   Then put it down and take a breath. Do this 3-4 times slowly. The more slowly you do this the better the improvement will be.

4. Then rest for a moment with the sole of your foot on the floor.

5. And now lift your heel away from the floor several times, resting between each movement.

   Again, make it as small and slow movement as you can. Notice if you feel anything in the right side of your pelvis as you do this. Don’t worry if you don’t notice anything!

6. And now alternate, 3 or 4 times, first lifing the front of your foot away from the floor gently, and lowering it, and then lifting your heel away from the floor and lowering it. Really go slowly.

7. And now rest again. You can lengthen you leg to rest if you like.

8. And now, stand your feet again and very gently lift the outside edge of your foot away from the floor.

   Do this 3-4 times and rest between each time you do it. Pay attention to whether it’s comfortable to do this and make the movement smaller and slower.

9. And now lift the inside edge of your foot away from the floor a few times, slowly, resting for a breath after each time you do this.

10. And now alternate, first lifting the inside and pausing in the middle, then lifting the outside.

11. And now lengthen your legs and rest.

Before repeating this entire sequence with your left foot, stand up and walk around and see if you notice a difference at all?

When you’ve completed this on both sides, stand up and notice how you’re standing on your feet now. Then, walk slowly around the room and see if anything has changed with the contact or progression that your feet make with the floor as you walk.

Maybe you notice a difference and maybe it will take a few times. Either way, please shoot me an email to tell me what, if anything, you’ve noticed!

If you’re interested in exploring this further with a full length lesson, join our online weekly classes. Here’s a link for more information. If you’re local, you can schedule a private session here.

Finding Confidence in Your Feet and Ankles: A Journey to Better Mobility Part 1

Do you find something is keeping you from hiking in nature or taking long walks this summer? If you’re lacking confidence in our feet or ankles, it’s common to find yourself avoiding putting yourself in situations where you risk tripping or falling.

Sometimes either a foot or ankle injury or even a simple of lack of mobility in the bones of your feet or ankles can cause you to be fearful about walking on uneven terrain. You might find that you don’t have confidence that you can navigate the stones, tree roots or even bricks and cobblestones of some streets when you travel. 

But you may not realize you don’t have mobility because your feet and ankles feel “normal”  or familiar to you. You might notice that when you wake up in the morning, during your first steps, your feet, calves or hips feel stiff. But you probably don’t really think about it as being an issue you can do anything about — anything easy, that is.

These signs that you’ve lost some flexibility in your feet or ankles not only affects your ability to walk comfortably and feel safe in certain environments, but it also affects your entire posture and ability of your spine, shoulders and neck to move freely.

What does less mobility in ankles mean for the rest of your body?

When there is less mobility in one joint, like for example, the ankles, it puts more responsibility on the other joints of the legs — the knees and hip joints. If the bones of the feet are not mobile, then it means that the ankles, knees and hips have to make up for their lack of flexibility. In other words, there is a significant relationship between the feet, ankles, knees and hips. And it doesn’t stop there — your whole body is affected.

For example, if your nervous system perceives instability in the feet or lack of mobility in the ankles, then you will automatically keep your eyes on the ground, where your feet are stepping. Your entire body will organize itself around where your eyes are looking (in this case, downward). So this means your spine is rounded, your neck is tense, your jaw juts out. And it follows that your chest and ribcage are compressed, hence your breathing will be shallow, your abdomen will be contracted unnecessarily, and your pelvis will likely be tucked under, causing lower back tension or chronic pain. 

The good news is, when the bones in your feet are mobile, and your ankles, knees and hips are all working together, the responsibility for movement is shared. And when the weight is evenly distributed over both legs, then your pelvis can relax, your shoulders are relaxed, and your eyes can look along the horizon as you walk, enjoying the scenery. Your spine will organize around where you’re looking and your posture can be relaxed. As your posture improves, your belly relaxes and your breathing improves.

Simple way to release tension in your feet and ankles!

Rather than stretching or forcing our muscles, there is a way to find mobility and freedom in your joints by working with your brain and nervous system to eliminate these old unconscious muscular patterns of holding tension. One way to change these old muscle tension patterns is with The Feldenkrais Method®.

We’ve been conditioned to think that our problem is that we’re not stretching our achilles tendon or calves enough or we need to get a massage on our feet to fix this issue. I mean, sure, go get a massage because it feels good, but this will not change anything about your tight calves, ankles and inflexible feet long term. 

When you work with your brain and nervous system, chronic muscular tension patterns release. It might take a series of sessions to change the chronic tension pattern, especially if you’ve been experiencing this for awhile. The process of replacing unhealthy muscle tension patterns with more efficient, healthier patterns will benefit your entire body.

There’s no need to miss out on enjoying summer hikes, walks, and traveling in the coming months. Your confidence will increase as the stability in your legs, ankles and feet increases.

Check out my foot and ankle mini lesson here and let me know what you think! And those of you who are locals, go here to schedule a session and we’ll have you confidently on the trails in no time!

How I Restored Myself with The Feldenkrais Method®

In 2015, I had moved from Denver to Washington, DC to be with someone with whom I had fallen in love. But within weeks of arriving, red flags began to appear. I made excuses for each thing that happened because I really believed he was the person with whom I would spend the rest of my life. I'd jumped through hoops to make this move — I'd sold my home, left my friends, and heartbroken, left my son who had decided last minute to take a gap year before college. I'd started a new business in this new city and I believed we could make it work.

But within a couple of months of relocating, it became clear to me I was in a toxic, abusive relationship. I felt anxious and fearful that anything I might say or do would set off my partner into a rage — putting flatware in the dishwasher facing the wrong direction, hanging pots on the pot hanger in the wrong order, leaving my water bottle on the dining room table. 

Essentially, my nervous system was responding as if I was living in a war zone, waiting for the next surprise attack of yelling and name calling or silent treatment.

My attention was not on myself, but on my environment, my partner's facial expressions, constantly scanning for clues of what was to come, being hypervigilant to say and do things "right" — to not cause an outburst. It was as if I was like living in a minefield and existing in the ancient limbic part of my brain — in survival.

On April 13, 2017, while riding on the back of his motorcycle at Joshua Tree National Park— a "vacation" my intuition warned me to avoid, we T-boned a car that was doing a U-turn in the middle of the road.

It was as if I was literally stopped in my tracks. 

And although the accident resulted in me breaking my foot, a finger, and a rib, it was this accident that also saved my life.

I spent the next few days at my ex’s friend’s house in Palm Springs on pain meds before flying back to DC. When I returned, I cleared my work schedule. My abusive partner was suddenly attentive, kind and loving and I was all too ready to forget the past and believe he’d had a change of heart. I allowed myself to enjoy his attention and trust him… for two glorious weeks, until the abusive behavior started again. 

We were getting ready to go to his country house in Virginia for the weekend and he asked me to pack the cooler while he took care of some business. I did my best with limited use of my arms and foot, and in the hurry to beat rush hour traffic, I forgot to pack the milk. And he was enraged. I forgot to pack the milk and now we’d have to stop on the way. He couldn’t count on me for anything — everything is always on his shoulders. He raged for miles and then refused to talk to me, and I felt myself afraid again. I was confused — was he right about me? Was everything always on his shoulders? 

The cognitive dissonance and confusion and brain fog was muddying my ability to see clearly. The anxiety and depression from feeling that I couldn’t trust my own gut was back with a vengeance. Read this article for more symptoms of narcissistic abuse.

My recovery

When we returned to the city, I scheduled two Feldenkrais® sessions each week with a nearby practitioner for the next 3 months. I knew I needed to become physically self-sufficient as quickly as possible, to get solidly back on my feet and not be dependent on him. To learn more about how The Feldenkrais Method® works, click here.

Some sessions were almost magical — I felt such increased mobility and lack of pain that I had to pinch myself to believe the improvement I felt was possible. Each session was different from the one before, and I had varying results. But cumulatively, the improvements steadily continued. 

By the end of July I was no longer in pain and had recovered much of my flexibility and function. Gradually, I was able to see my usual client load. I continued with weekly sessons and for another month and I kept improving physically. 

the most surprising effect

But the most surprising effect was that I no longer felt I was completely focused outside of myself, scanning the horizon for danger every moment. I had embarked on Feldenkrais® sessions in order to improve my physical function and release pain. How could release of mental and emotional tension be a result of a this method as well?

Regardless of whether I understood mentally what was happening or whether I believed it was possible, the thing I knew for sure was that it was happening. I was feeling physically stronger and better and I was mentally and emotionally clearer, calmer and more grounded.

I felt connected to my own body. I could breath normally. I could sleep, after months of insomnia. I was developing the ability to feel myself, and the clarity to trust my thoughts and to leave a situation that would certainly have killed me.

If you or someone you know have experienced a relentless experience that has left you with physical symptoms of stress, anxiety and overwhelm, please consider The Feldenkrais Method® to help you find relief physical and nervous system relief. To learn more about the physical symptoms of stress and anxiety, click here.

Schedule your FREE 15 minute phone or video consultation here.

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Try this FREE audio lesson to help relieve your stress and anxiety and leave you feeling physically relaxed in less than 20 minutes! Feel free to share with a friend.

Here's Why Compensation Patterns Happen in the Body

When we injure a part of ourselves, we usually see a specialist. When we have a broken bone, first the broken bone is immobilized by an orthopedic specialist, and then we see a physical therapist who focuses specifically on that body part, showing us exercises to strengthen or stretch that specific area.

We’re fortunate to have such experts at our disposal. 

And yet, my experience has been that once a bone heals, then that injured foot or wrist which was immobilized for a number of weeks, is left on its own to reintegrate with the rest of the self as best it can. After spending two months in a cast, the ankle seems to have forgotten how to move normally. Once the cast is off, we practice stretching and strengthening the foot, and most movement seems to come back, but it isn’t actually reintegrated into the moving whole of ourselves. It adjusts while many of the compensating musclular patterns still remain and it feels “normal” to us.

Because our brain is always working for our benefit, when a part of us is injured, our brain directs our muscles to “hold” the unstable bones in place or make up for other muscles that are temporarily unable to do their job. 

Compensating muscular contraction patterns are put into effect, and stay in effect, until they’re no longer needed. And years later, the imbalances that our brain is managing, begin to appear as neck pain, shoulder pain, neck pain, and so on, depending on each person. 

We don’t connect the pain we now feel to that old compensation pattern from years ago. 

We seek out therapeutic relief for the specific areas where we feel discomfort, but the relief is not lasting because we’re dealing with it on a muscular level, not at the level of the brain—the control center of the body.

This thinking in terms of “fixing parts” is called segmental thinking and it’s a common way of thinking in the West.

As a massage therapist for many years, when a client came to me with pain between their shoulder blades, they would request deep work on that specific area to give them relief. This is completely understandable—we all want relief!

And yet, we are not a bunch of segmented pieces of muscles and bones. We are a living, moving whole organism. 

As my teacher David Zemach-Bersin writes,“Your shoulder blades don’t live separately from your whole self…there is not one part of you that lives separately or distinctly from the entirety of yourself.

The Feldenkrais Method

The Feldenkrais Method®, a somatic movement method, includes the whole person. To learn more about The Feldenkrais Method®, click here.

Whether someone is lying on the table for a private in-person session, or lying on the floor for an online group Somatic Movement class, the intention is to connect the dots so that the person can feel their wholeness and become aware of how she’s connected—from their pinky toe to their head, from their sacrum to their jaw, from their hurt wrist to their ribcage.

I’ve experienced significant improvement in the range of motion of my neck from tilting my pelvis in a certain way. I’ve seen my students find relief from tinnitus after a pelvis/jaw lesson. My plantar fasciitis went away over time after connecting small movements from my head and neck to my ribcage and pelvis. 

Sometimes there is immediate improvement, and other times it takes several months. Natural healing takes time and it’s not generally a linear progression. 

When we let go of the muscular tension that has been preventing this ease, and begin to move as an integrated whole person, we are free from the habitual chronic tension and tightness that we may have been living with for years.

If you’d like more information about what options are available to release your chronic muscle tension and pain, schedule a FREE 20-minute consultation and we can discuss the best plan for you.

You’re welcome to join your first live weekly online classes for FREE to experience this for yourself. Click here for more information about schedule and pricing.

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And if you’d like to experience how the method works, download this FREE audio lesson and see what you observe! You might notice your back muscles feel supple and you feel calmer overall after only a few minutes!

How the Feldenkrais Method® Helps to Alleviate Stress and Chronic Pain

The Feldenkrais method

When a person has experienced a stressful life event that has left them holding relentless tension in their body, chronic musculoskeletal pain and chronic anxiety often result. We think the only way to relieve this tension is to stretch or get deep massage. What we don’t understand is that the brain is responsible for directing all bodily functions, including directing our muscles to tense and “hold” our bones when it perceives instability or a lack of mobility.

In addition, when we’re in a sympathetic state of fight, flight or freeze, our nervous system dysregulates and we might feel constant anxiety and/or disconnect from our body. We try to meditate or rest as we’re told to do, but it’s almost painful to be still. We lose connection with ourselves, physically and mentally and our emotions can be all over the place.

Emotional tension = physical tension.

The Feldenkrais method is a process that helps a person reconnect to themself by identifying and changing chronic tension patterns, and shift out of them for good. To learn more about Feldenkrais®, click here.

This method helps a person identify and change habits that might be causing pain and discomfort in exchange for long-term healing and relief. 

Feldenkrais® is a method of "learning" for the brain and nervous system that uses physical movement to help identify and then permanently change a person's musculoskeletal patterns or biases that cause chronic discomfort or pain.

This allows permanent relief for chronic pain and tension so that a person can move more freely and with ease, breathe more deeply, and regulate emotionally when stress arises. Feldenkrais gives a person back her life so that she can begin to participate in activities that she thought were out of reach and that make life worth living!

There are two aspects to the Feldenkrais method:

group classes

"Awareness Through Movement®” (ATM) classes are practiced in a room or on Zoom with other participants, similar to a yoga class, often lying on a mat while led through a series of movements by the instructor. These classes are cost effective and help empower individuals by giving them tools they can apply in their every day lives to make changes little by little.

Unlike other types of activities most of us are used to, in these classes students do the movements very slowly, make them very small, and avoid any and all discomfort. There is no stretching, forcing, straining or doing lots of repetitions. In fact, improvements happen after only two or three movements done with focused attention on ones’ own comfort. It’s a paradox — the smoother and easier a person makes a movement, even if they’re barely moving, the quicker and bigger transformation they experience!

Private in-person sessions

The other aspect of Feldenkrais is private sessions (called "Functional Integration"), that are done on a table, similar to a massage table. But that’s where the similarity to massage ends!

During these sessions, the practitioner moves the client very slowly into movement patterns that have been intelligently sequenced based on human physical development. We never force, stretch or impose any agenda on a person. In fact, as patterns of tension emerge in each person, we follow their body, and in a sense, do the work of their muscles for them so that these chronic unconscious musculoskeletal patterns of stress and tension unwind on their own.

I often suggest beginning with one session to see if it’s a good fit, and then move on to a series of ten sessions done fairly closely together so that the unwinding of these unconscious habitual muscular patterns and the creation of new, healthier neural pathways can be reinforced. Each person responds differently, which is why each person will have a unique treatment plan for the desired outcome. For more information about how to determine how often to schedule sessions, click here.

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Enjoy this FREE recording of a lesson to reduce anxiety and regulate your nervous system and see what you notice before and after the class.