Jim

In his mid 40s Jim was diagnosed with an incurable muscular disease which caused him to lose his strength. Year after year he continued to lose his abilities and when we met he’d just lost his ability to walk uphill, even a slight incline. His goal was to be able to walk from his car into the gym, whose parking lot was on a slight incline, so he could continue his workout routine.

Though it was apparent that standing was laborious for him he insisted on standing while we spoke. He used a large staff for support and by the looks of it he’d topple forward without it. He concurred that he felt like he was always leaning forward and couldn’t stand up straight.

Due to his condition and his goal our work together was focused on his physical alignment. As his body straightened out and his center of gravity shifted backward, when his hips and torso became closer to being directly over his feet, he relied less on his cane and he was able to stand and walk with far less effort.

Daisy was wired.

She’d been in an accident a few years before we met and ever since she’d been suffering from anxiety, insomnia, and an overall sense of tension in her body. She initially came to see if I could help relieve some of the pain in the areas related to her accident. Her goal was to find a sense of peace.

Relaxing is a skill… the first skill Daisy learned during her treatment.

A few months into her treatment Daisy reported that she’d slept a full 8 hours for the first time she could remember. As we continued working together she told me about how all of her hard work in the gym was finally starting to pay off. She felt confident in her ability to work out without injuring herself and was able to get the rest she needed every night.

By the time we parted ways she’d found her sense of peace, she no longer felt like she was fighting against her own body, and she had all the tools she needed to achieve the much loftier life goals she’d set out for herself.

Ryan was a competitive runner when he was younger. He came to see if I could help relieve his crippling foot and ankle pain. He hadn’t injured himself running. He hadn’t had any traumatic incidents to explain why he was in so much pain. His lab tests couldn’t explain why either since they all showed that there was no structural damage.

This is a common occurrence when soft tissue dysfunction is causing pain and not structural damage.

The approach I took with Ryan was largely interactive. (Visit the What is Bodywork? page for an explanation of what I mean by interactive)

After freeing up the range of motion in both his feet and ankles he felt much more comfortable walking around in his everyday life. Then, by focusing on finding some corrective exercises that he could do on his own to alter his gait pattern (the way he walks and runs) we were able to get him on track to achieving his goal of running again, without his pain returning.