Gentle Myofascial Release
Myofascial Release is a safe, gentle, person-centred approach to treating physical and emotional tension, longstanding pain, discomfort or restricted movement. It has a reputation for having profoundly effective and long lasting results, as it recognises and works with the connection and interplay between our physical, emotional and mental health. It aims to connect and work with the root cause of any tension you may be experiencing.
So what’s Fascia and how does it become damaged?
Fascia is the most abundant form of connective tissue in the body, literally affecting all its systems. Every cell, tissue, tendon, muscle, bone, ligament, blood, lymph and nerve vessel, as well as every organ of the body is infused, surrounded and protected by fascia. One continuous, uninterrupted weblike 3D network that connects head to toe, fascia helps to define, support, connect and disconnect different parts of the body. It simply holds the entirety of our physical beings together.
Healthy fascia acts to protect us, always responding to the environment we are placed in, enabling us to interact with and move through the world pain free, without restriction and in a very energy efficient way. It is a hugely sensory system, constantly sensing and communicating, helping us to know where we are in space and enabling us to stabilise our body enough to stay upright. It communicates with and connects different parts of the body together, helping to regulate our physiology. It also acts as a shock absorber, aiming to protect us from every impact that we encounter throughout life. Every stumble, trip, fall, injury, illness or emotional, or traumatic event or hurt impacts on the fascia and fosters the emergence and development of postural habits and tendencies.
Healthy fascia is gel like with a high water content (60%), allowing it to stay hydrated, fluid and relaxed. The tissue can then glide freely and move without restriction. This enables us to use our bodies without pain or restriction, creating space and allowing blood and lymph to move freely and nerves to act appropriately.
Fascia can however tighten and become damaged, becoming bound down, dehydrated , densified and hardened. As fascia absorbs the shocks of life it can cause pain, imbalance and discomfort, can impede and compress cardiovascular and lymph flow, put pressure on nerves and slow down the body’s healing capability. The whole area will experience pressure, malnourishment and ultimately painful restriction in movement and at rest. Habits become reinforced with the laying down of very strong, dense tissue to replicate the pattern. Restricted fascia and soft tissue leads to often undiagnosed pain, exhaustion and immune system dysfunction, as one restriction in the fascial system can lead to another.
Fascial restrictions can be caused by:
Physical injury
Inflammatory processes
Poor posture
Repetitive movements
Lack of movement globally, or in a part of your body
A history of participating in impact sports
Surgery and scar tissue
Emotional stress, or overwhelm and traumatic injury, situations, or history.
Emotional and physical holding patterns
Burns
Chronic injuries
Pain and discomfort
Reduced mobility
Deep tissue restrictions
How can Gentle Myofascial Release help?
Fascia is dynamic in nature, continually responding to the requests and cues being made by the body and the environment. With appropriate care it has the potential to let go of difficulties within its system and allow the body to reshape itself and express shapes that may have been forgotten. This is very positive as viewed from a certain angle it gives hope, suggesting that the potential for change in the body is continuous and life-long. With the right connection, education, guidance and time, fascia can begin to regain its elasticity, hydration and adaptive ability to respond to life, in order to glide and shift to support a more healthy body, enabling more ease and pain free, relaxed and diverse movement.
Gentle Myofascial Release offers an opportunity to work with the entire fascial system, by connecting with the skin, muscles and bones of the body. It is used for the release of fascia which has become stuck, hardened and dehydrated. I use a collection of techniques for separating different presentations of fascia, releasing restrictions, restoring elasticity, conductivity and hydration. The ‘right’ touch, gentle and mindful connection and trust, encourages the body to let the treatment in and aims to enable the body to recalibrate and restore movement and health, without excessive force.
Gentle Myofascial Release is one part of a journey towards pain free movement and confidence in our bodies, reconnecting us with degrees of movement and sensation that we may have temporarily lost.
By listening and responding to the tissues and encouraging ease within them there are many benefits:-
An increase in hydration and restoration of elasticity, allowing for further hydration and a decrease in compression around body structures.
A release of pressure on pain sensitive structures such as nerves and blood vessels, allowing them to flow more freely and thereby reducing pain.
Increased lymphatic flow.
As the fascia is a continuous web, affecting every organ and cell, it has the potential to affect you very deeply and generate and increase health throughout the body.
Scar tissue breakdown
Letting go of restrictive patterns enables the body to move towards realigning itself, via the muscles and joints and improves ability to move freely.
It can provide a holding space to allow you to begin to process experiences that have been felt in your body’s history and are at the root of any pain you may be experiencing.
What does a session look like?
A session starts with getting to know you, your history and what you hope to gain from coming for a treatment. Treatment then begins with taking time to land, by connecting with the space and completing a body scan to encourage a sense of settling, prior to connecting through touch.
Fascia varies in density, so fine and weblike it cannot be seen, while in other places it forms thick, layered sheets, chords or webs that are incredibly strong. I therefore uses a variety of techniques to meet individual needs: cross-hand stretches, skin rolling, light touch, deep three dimensional stretches, pulls, focused rebounding, shaking or rocking, following the tissue’s release and connection with other parts of the body, as a guide to where the treatment goes.
Fascia requires us to work differently to how we work with muscle and bone in massage. Fascia needs time to respond to touch, so work is slow and gradual. No oil, or very little oil is used. Hands are placed gently in holds on the body to connect with the fascial system, via sustained gentle pressure. The process cannot be rushed or forced, as the body will resist if too much pressure is applied. Typically a hold will last for three to five minutes, sometimes much longer. Your unique body dictates the pace. Fascia softens beneath my hands and tissues slowly change. As a therapist I follow my intuition to move with the tissue or change pressure appropriately to follow where the body is expressing release or need.
As the fascia is continuously connecting disparate parts of the body to each other, we look at the pain you are experiencing in the context of your whole body. We always consider how an area of discomfort relates to body parts that maybe far away from the injury, or pain site. These areas may in fact be at the centre of the difficulty you are experiencing. My work is therefore led by your body. Due to this, the effects of Fascia Informed Bodywork have the potential to be more profound and longer lasting than just working with muscle and bone.
I will always encourage you to take time to get up after a session to allow you to check in with how you are and begin to process the journey your body and mind have been on during treatment. Your body may feel quite different.
A Holistic Treatment
Each person is unique with fascial patterns particular to their body’s and life’s story. Working fascially is a holistic treatment, connecting with body, mind, emotion and energy.
The body stores your history, it is totally shaped by every one of your experiences, not only in your life, but also in the lives of your ancestors. Your body has been with you through childhood, adolescence and adult hood, experiencing all your achievements, all of your life defining moments and relationships, joys and difficulties, in turn shaping your postural habits, and unique characterful gestures. It is a tapestry of your life’s formative experiences and events.
Gentle Myofascial Release offers a pause to listen to the body, but also to discover and grow a different way of being in the body.
The body may have carried an issue for a long time, so the treatment is appropriately respectful. I work with softness, gentleness and kindness, very much working in partnership with you and following the way your body wants to move and let go. I aim to create a calm and peaceful space where you can relax and participate in this treatment. The treatment is quietly paced to allow time to process movements and emotions that arise and to meet the experience that you are having with a sense of safety, openness and groundedness from which to explore what is occurring for you.
Fascial treatment can also offer a way of looking after your body regularly, connecting with where you are at, allowing your body to move further into a position of ease