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
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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.
