Structural Integration Atlanta

 

Hi Beth,

I apologize I wasn't able to speak with you yesterday at 2:30. Instead, I formulated some questions for you via email. I am focusing on structural integration and fascia, touching upon the thoracic spine, spinal issues and back pain.

How do you first assess a client and identify areas of tension and restrictions to work on?

How do you work together with a client to facilitate a session that is comfortable for them?

How do you judge whether the range of work is staying within a comfortable zone for the client?

Which anatomical areas of the body do you typically focus on during a session?

Do you find particular populations, such as athletes, benefit more from structural integration?

Are there particular conditions, such as lower back pain, that you find structural integration particularly helpful for? Are there any particular health contradictions that massage therapists should watch out for?

How did you personally become interested in structural integration?

What would you recommend to other massage therapists who are interested in learning about SI? Or recommendations for their current clinical practice?

Thank you again for your help with this article.

All the best,
Marcella


* * * *

Hello Marcella


I became certified in ATSI [Tom Myers School of Structural Integration] in 2012.

My background was in Massage Therapy [since 1989] but I began in Somatic studies in 1971.


A lot of my training is in looking and in moving. In assessing a client, I generally look, watch them move, move with them and palpate. I also take a significant history looking for accidents, illnesses, surgeries and traumas. I allow time in my first session of assessment for both a conversation about their concerns and goals for bodywork and for me to palpate and muscle test. The muscle testing is a system I learned from Jocelyn Olivier [NMR: Neuromuscular Reprogramming] . I love it because it allows me to "check my work" - in other words, to check the pattern I thought I saw to see if my visual findings were valid. I'm using Manual Muscle Testing to see which muscles might be inhibiting other muscles. "The victims are screaming but the perpetrators are silent."

I stress to the client that we are working together and that their participation in the session is really powerful. Having the client put their body in motion while I am working deepens the therapeutic effect.
I'm having the client perform small movement patterns [joint flossing, flexion extension, moving through small ranges of motion] while I am either deepening the movement with my hands, resisting the movement or extending the range or depth of the tissue involved. In SI we use a bench and work with the client seated. This work is really powerful in terms of integrating tissue. For example, there may be some restriction in the muscle layers, fascial layers or both and as we repeat movements, I'm able to assist the client to sense and feel areas of restriction so that together we are able to get a move fluid expression of that movement pattern. It's important in SI to engage with the complex coordination system of the body in that it isn't being a passive recipient like massage. Not to denigrate massage. It's just a different activity.

The SI protocols are 10 session or 12 session protocols, each with a specific targeted goal. The series is designed to take the person through their entire connective tissue network systematically, hour by hour. Or you can build session around the concept of one single targeted area.

It's a holistic system in that we are operating from a model that says where the pain discomfort or dysfunction is located may not be the area that needs attention. A wider exploration is often necessary.

I find that athletes, performers, actors, dancers, are great candidates for SI because they are people who are constantly looking for ways to enhance performance. And the demands of performance often leave a history of injuries and strain in the structure that SI can significantly alleviate.

A lot of my clients are active Seniors. This is also a population that wants to enhance performance, wants to continue to be active and able to do the things they've always loved to do - like tennis, hiking, dancing, moving well. They are used to the idea of being active in their own health maintenance.

I also see people with acute problems or chronic problems "that no one has been able to figure out." Back pain is a good one, because a lot of back pain is actually a bit more complex than "I just slept funny." Especially with someone with a significant history of injury, there may be an old injury or shortening in the fascia in one spot [like a hip flexor on one side] that is decreasing the ability of the person to pivot equally left at right in the thoraco-lumbar fascia. It may take some movement analysis and work to sort out what the factors are that are keeping the problem chronic.

Ida Rolf famously said, "Something can be done about anything." In other words, we may not completely "fix" a condition [like paralysis, MS, etc] but we can often make it better, more functional, more integrated in the nervous system, create conditions of health and comfort where they were inhibited before.

Tom Myers is offering short weekend modules to learn SI. You can take a little bite or a big bite, depending on where you are in your own life and practice. Jocelyn Olivier is also offering her modules one - four to learn neuromuscular assessment and testing. Just taking time in the regular work you do to palpate the body is valuable. Have the client stand and walk as you watch will train your eye to aid your hand. Our tools are really so simple, our hands, our eyes, our ability to be with and to "read" people. These skills have no limit as to how far they can be expanded and improved.

My journey in SI began with observing a Rolfing session in 1970, receiving the 10 session series in 1971, in studying Alexander Technique, Feldenkrais, other exercise and bodywork systems, and continuing to grow by reading and studying. My husband and I developed a system called "ReUnion" that uses manual muscle testing to access files that look into deeper bodymind connections of which the person may not be aware. The world is open to your investigation and will support it if you look and listen.

State of Grace: Session Two

 

My week 2 notes - once again, really for me, but sharing in case others find them helpful.

• Today I need to lay groundwork for movement work, much like last week I laid a theoretical foundation. This is an example of slow is fast
• “We do things best, when we are not thinking of ourselves doing them” - Plotinus
  • Emphasis can be on our “Ourselves” or on “Doing them”
  • David’s thought: “Thinking of ourselves” can’t be be useful most of the time, when we should be attending of the thing we are doing ...
• Today’s Central Mobial Etudes
  • “String Theory: “
    • Relate to things like there is an invisible string between us and the thing.
    • If the string is too tight, then the object can pull you in.
      • For example, a computer might be a fisherman that reels you in. This is an example of you doing something, but you’re not doing it yourself. This line can get slack, and be longer and looser ...
    • Then you can come close to something even if the string is loose
    • If you are in a tense conversation, you could also be pulling towards (or away!) from someone, and the string may be tightening
    • “Non attachment” if we gave a Buddist term.
      • David’s thought: when something else owns us ...
    • Homework: Pay attention to the string, and if it gets to taunt, give it some slack.
  • What is our central mobial?
    • For a human:
      • Spine Pelvis, Ribs, Skull
      • Spine & 3 spheres
    • In a mobial sculpture
      • The wind touches it, and the whole mobial responds
      • No matter where the movement begins, the whole mobial responds
      • It responds without effort, counterbalances
      • Then it comes to a place of rest (not fixed). It is moving, and free.
      • We have one of these inside our body, and it gets stuck in places
    • David’s thought:
      • How to make sure that it isn’t “looseness” but rather the response of a system and I believe there is also the question of how the system is bound to itself (without fixedness).
    • In tai chi, “If a fly lands on your shoulder, it should set your entire body into motion”
      • If you joints are not fixed, then the slightest perturbation should cause your entire body to move
      • This is how Bruce teaches a “True and Primary Movement” of Alexander, which later he called it primary control
• How to close your eyes
  • Eyes don’t close - you cannot close them. An orb never closes. You cover your eyes. And the path is curved. And when you cover and uncover, it doesn’t go very far. I don’t think “I close my eyes”, but rather that I am lowering my eyelids.
  • I imagine I have a flower, and it has the best scent, and the scent is so heavenly, that you have to lower your eyelids
  • David wonders: Does settling also mean compression? As rocks settle ...
• Let’s do a not-exercise. This instead: A movement etude, a movement meditation, or a physical contemplation, or a movement imagining, shapeshifting (in native american lore)
  • Not like doing pushups or pullups
  • Like going into an inner world of movement and sensation
• Pelvis on an imaginary stability ball
  • Movement in the pelvis, like on a stability ball
    • 1st:
      • Posterior pelvic tilt - allow the body (mobial) to immediately easily respond, without being fixed even when at rest (“soft rest”)
      • Play with this on a chair, using your imagination. It’s all about the quality of the movement
    • 2nd:
      • Diagonal. Side-to-side
    • 3rd
      • Rotational
  • Imagery
    • Baby on ball, adjusting
    • Spine as Slinky
    • Water reeds, moved by the water
  • More imagery
    • Mobial of the cheetah (pelvis, ribs, head ... )
      • https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=B4nd9GF1dRg
      • Because the cheetah is after something, the head is forward ...
  • Your Mobial
    • Pelvis was the engine
    • Ribs - help us feel alive. I’m an animal. You feel your heartbeat, your breath.
    • Head - a center of orientation. Orients you to the environment
    • When all 3 are working, you are a person alive in the world, oriented, who has power.
    • The spine is the integrator of these functions.
• Work as partners
  • Look for only 2 things
    • Watch for what is beautiful. I have not seen someone who isn’t beautiful in 40 years
    • Look to see what they are doing well. Look for that
  • Don’t say anything. Only say thank you.
  • Then switch roles
• Play, have fun, don’t take it seriously
• 
  

David Liu

 

*

Grace of Sense 2020: Session One

 

GRACE OF SENSE 2020

To share with the group ... the notes I took (because I am also a compulsive note-taker, although not quite as good an artist as Jenny) ...

When I'm speaking to you I want you to listen with your body as well as your mind, and I go slowly, because ...

... The body takes more time to comprehend than the mind

... The body doesn't learn well in a rush

... It doesn't learn well if it is given too much information at once

My interpretation / notes of some of the things he said:

When I give images, take them in your body, like you Are that image.

I'd rather not get through so much material, but do it well and do it thoroughly. I'm interested in the depth of the material ... in not skimming. That is why the amount we cover isn't that important, because we have another class, and just keep going. No big deal.

Move freely in front of your computer. You don't have to be static. Be comfortable.

Somatics in front of being in front of the computer - fascinating idea!

When you are in front of a computer, remember you're alive. He didn't mean this, but I took it as instruction to not be overly fixed in space, which was useful for me.

When you are stuck, more effort is not the answer. And be careful that "working so hard" doesn't become a habit.

I learned how to be free in movement, but then I realized that this was only true when the situation wasn't very stressful. And in that situation I was hurting myself.

Studying Tea ceremony, they say:

- For the first 10 years of studying tea, you just try to do exactly what the teacher is teaching you

- Second 10 years, you do exactly what the teacher does, but you question it. Why is it like that?

- 3rd 10 years, you start to change things, but imperceptibly, so small. But they feel enormance.

- 4th 10 years, you find that your work has become your own, and is totally different from your teachers.

Because I have taught in my own way for a while, I saw that no matter what country or gender or age, there were universal constants that could get of out of kilter. And they could bring us into balance as well, depending on how we are relating to them.

I don't see myself working on a person's physical body anymore. And I don't work psychologically anymore either. I just work with people in relation to these constants. I finally know what my job is.

Relating to these constants is the structure of this course... (there are 10)

• Ground
• Structure - Our bodies / our structure (I think .. his analogy was of a van, but he also says he doesn't view himself as working on people's bodies)
• Space (around you and within). And our little body relates to the bigger body (space / world around us)
• Time. You have time. You have a sense of time. You relate to time. Time pressure is an epidemic. The way we relate to time impacts our structure
  • The way you relate to each of these impacts your structure.
  • I like the term physical contemplation. The root is the latin templa, which is a piece of holy ground in a holy space upon which a holy structure can sit. *That* impressed me. I thought "wow", what if I'm the structure.
  • Anytime you go into a room ... Think "this is holy ground" and let this sink in. And then think "this is holy space" and let this sink in. Think "this is a holy moment" and let this sink in. Then "I am a holy structure" and let it sink in.
  • And then you are then contemplating..
  • Of the 36 prints of Mt Fuji by Hokusai, here is 1 print of Mt Fuji, where there is no Mt Fuji in the print. That is because in that print, everyone is on Mt Fuji.
• Vital Organs
• Breath
• Senses. But if we become overmotoric or overly busy or stressed, then our consciousness of sensation becomes very low.
• Movement
• Mystery, or uncertainty. We don't know what is going to happen, and that can unnerve us or it can free us, depending on how we relate to it.
  • David's note: I think this is related to "position". That I realize there is this instinct to hold the body still, and the act of making position or posture dynamic also requires a certain acceptance of uncertainty, which I find very interesting.
• There are others. I use the word others rather than people. "The more than human world".
• 
  

David Liu

*

Hildegard’s Vision, from the Scivias Codex (1174)

And behold, in the forty-third year of my passing course, while I was intent upon a heavenly vision with great fear and tremulous effort, I saw a great splendour, in which a voice came from heaven saying to me:

‘O weak mortal, both ash of ash and rottenness of rottenness, say and write what you see and hear. But because you are fearful in speaking and simple in explaining and unlearned in writing these things, say and write them not according to human speech nor the understanding of human creativity nor according to the will of human composition, but according to this rule: that you reveal by interpreting the things you see and hear among heavenly matters from above, in the wonders of God, just as also a hearer receiving his teacher’s words makes them known according to the tenor of his speech, as he wishes, shows, and teaches. So then you also, o mortal — speak the things you see and hear; and write them not according to yourself or any other person, but according to the will of the One Who knows, sees, and disposes all things in the hidden places of his mysteries.’

And again I heard a voice from heaven saying to me: ‘Therefore speak these wonderful things and write and say them in the manner they were taught.’

This happened in AD 1141 when I was 42 years and 7 months old: A fiery light, of the greatest flashing brightness, coming out of a cloudless sky, flooded my entire mind and so inflamed my whole heart and my whole breast like a flame — yet it was not blazing but glowing hot, as the sun makes anything on which its rays fall hot. And I suddenly experienced the understanding of the exposition of books, that is, of the Psalter, the Gospel, and of the other orthodox volumes of both the Old and the New Testaments, but nevertheless I did not thereby enjoy the interpretation of the words of their text, nor the division of syllables, nor a knowledge of cases and tenses.

But indeed I had already experienced (as I was still doing) in myself in a wondrous manner the power and mystery of hidden and wonderful visions from my girlhood, that is, from the time that I was five years old, right up until the present time. But I did not make that known to any person except to a certain few, also in the religious life, who were living the way of life as I was also myself. But in the meantime up to that time at which God desired this to be made manifest by His grace, I sank down beneath a quiet silence. But I have not received the visions that I saw in dreams, neither while I was sleeping nor in a frenzy; nor with bodily eyes nor with the ears of the outer person nor in hidden places. But I received them while waking and attentive, in a clear mind, with the eyes and ears of the inner person, in open places, according to God’s will. It is difficult for any one of flesh and blood to find out how this comes about.

But to resume, when my girlhood was past, after I had come to the aforesaid age of full physical strength, I heard a voice from heaven saying:

‘I am the living yet obscure Light, enlightening the person whom I wish and whom I have searched out wonderfully according to My pleasure and placed among many wonders beyond the limit of the people of old, who saw so many hidden things in Me. But I have overthrown that one upon the ground that he may not rise up in any mental self-exaltation. Indeed the world does not have in him any joy or pleasure nor any activity in matters that belong to the world because I have drawn that one away from stubborn boldness, to be one who is fearful and trembling in his labours. For that person sorrows in the marrow and veins of his flesh, having soul and senses constrained and enduring great bodily suffering, so that no conflicting sense of peace may lie concealed in him but rather that that person may judge himself guilty in all his causes. For I have hedged about the clefts of his heart, lest his mind raise itself up in pride or glory but rather that in all these things it would have fear and sorrow rather than joy or exuberance. Therefore in my love this one searched in his soul for where to find the one who runs in the way of salvation. And he finds the other and loves him, recognising that that one too is a faithful person and like himself in any part of that labour that leads to Me. And holding one another fast, they strive together in all these things with the eagerness from above so that My hidden wonders may be revealed. And that same person does not rely upon himself but turns with many sighs toward the one that he found in the approach to humility and the intention of good will. You therefore, o mortal, who receive this, not in the disquiet of deceit but in the purity of simplicity, having been directed toward the revealing of hidden things — write what you see and hear.’

But I, although I did see and hear this, nevertheless because of doubt and a bad opinion and the diversity of men’s words refused to write for a long time — not out of obstinacy but as an office of humility — until I lay on a bed of sickness, struck down by God’s lash so that finally, compelled by many infirmities — as a certain noble young woman of good morals and that person whom I had sought secretly and found, as is explained above, can testify — I set my hand to write. While I was doing this, even while experiencing the deep profundity of the books’ exposition, as I said before, and receiving the strength to lift myself out of my illness, I scarcely closed this work, taking 10 years to do so.

–Hildegard of Bingen, Declaration in the form of a Prologue to Scivias (1141-52)

from Scott Horton NO COMMENT blog at Harpers