When people ask me what I do, I respond with “I’m a Bodyworker” and sometimes this causes facial contortions as they try to imagine me working under the hood of their car and so I follow with “Like massage” and then they say “Oh! Like an RMT!” and then to them I say this:
I am a Certified Bodywork Therapist– this means that my scope of practice is not only to treat your physical body but also your emotional, mental, and energetic bodies. While bodywork may include massage techniques, my approach to session design is holistic and integrative, in that I treat to include all aspects of you. Humans are multi-dimensional beings with endless layers, nuances, and unique experiences – no two of us are the same so neither should our treatments be.
The term bodywork is a catch-all term for any body-based therapy that holds the intention of supporting someone to come into greater balance and ease in their body. Bodywork is about developing a deeper awareness of your body including understanding its patterns, habits, pains, sensations, and power. It’s like exploring a new language or landscape to understand and communicate with a part of oneself that may feel distant or unfamiliar.
Bodywork can help address:
muscle pain and tension
postural alignment
injury rehabilitation
stress & anxiety
nervous system dysregulation
digestive issues
sleep disorders.
As the practitioner, I am not here to ‘fix’ or ‘heal’ you – what I’m offering, is a space for your body to come into a state of regulation so it can receive and heal which it innately wants to do.
Typically, my style of bodywork is not a passive treatment. This work is conscious and collaborative – “we cannot heal what we do not feel”. The body is incredibly intelligent and often holding patterns, pain, or coping strategies at one time served a purpose – for protection or compensation. So we need to create a feeling of safety in the body for it to be able to soften – to let go. Sometimes we don’t even know what we’re shielding until we’re gently guided to look at it – we so often shut parts of ourselves down and pack them away and it is through bodywork that all of these parts are invited to integrate.
As a bodyworker, I am trained in many modalities, each with a different lens but all with the same client-centred thread that believes that by bridging the gap between mind and body, the body will reorient toward greater balance and ease. These modalities include myofascial and structural work, Shiatsu, energy medicine, breath, Somatic Experiencing,Deep Flowand Craniosacral.
Visit here to learn more about me and my training.
The only thing that stays the same is that everything changes. We live in a dynamic world and this can be unsettling. The mind likes to live in what it knows to be familiar, even if that familiarity is no longer in our best interest. Changing circumstances in our lives hold the potential for greater self-realization and empowerment. Yet change may also provoke uncertainty about the future and our place in it.
Our ways of navigating the world we live in may no longer be working for us and we may find ourselves needing to adapt to new ways of being. We may feel resistance to these changes which shows up as physical and mental tensions becoming intensified, and a myriad of emotions such as anger, confusion, sadness and fear may arise.
In the Chinese language the character for crisis is the same as the character for opportunity. Although incredibly challenging, these times of intense change can also provide us with an opportunity for tremendous personal growth as we release aspects of ourselves and our lives that are no longer working for us and embrace positive alignments with what is. A question we can ask ourselves is: Where am I being taken? This may not necessarily be where we think we want to be going. In order to embrace this change there is a surrendering of personal identity as this process unfolds. The person we once were transforms and we become a new version of ourselves.
Traditional Chinese Medicine is highly effective with helping release resistance to change in the bodymind, easing physical pain and tension, calming the emotions, and balancing our nervous systems. Learning to invite and enter into stillness and healing allows access to the wise parts of ourselves; to insight and awareness. As we learn to let go into the transformative shifts that are occurring within our bodies and minds we transition into an improved state of being where we can more fully live our truth and purpose. From this place, we can collectively begin working together to create a better world based in kindness, acceptance, equality, and love.
I have particular interest in treating mental emotional health. When someone arrives for a treatment I look at them first as a unique human being, then consider their particular patterns of disharmony at that time. My treatments are always dynamic, following each person’s individual process. There is much that Chinese Medicine and acupuncture can do to effectively treat anxiety, depression, grief, anger, and confusion and help people move forwards in positive ways that are in alignment with living their best lives.
In the words of Carl Jung:
“A tree does not get annoyed when its growth is obstructed by a stone, nor does it make plans on how to overcome the obstacles. It simply feels whether it needs to grow more towards the left or the right, toward the slope or away from it.”
