Bodywork: More than a Massage
What is Bodywork?
The term “bodywork” or manual therapy refers to the broad spectrum of interventions in which therapists use their hands, or tools, to affect change in the bodies of their clients.
By now dozens, if not hundreds, of methods, techniques, and ideologies have arisen from various professions regarding how to diagnose and treat their patients. Some are so similar they can hardly be differentiated whereas others differ so greatly in their view and approach to the human body that they can hardly be recognized as being within the same field of medicine.
Despite the complexity and confusion that comes with having so many differing strategies every technique can be classified into one of three categories:
Passive
The practitioner does something to their client while the client does nothing.
Massage is a passive form of therapy and it is likely more well known than any other form of bodywork.
Active
The client does something while the practitioner does nothing, except provide verbal direction when necessary.
Very commonly used in physical therapy offices, these methods can be likened to highly sophisticated personal training that is tailored to the patient.
Interactive, or Active-Assisted
There is a combination of the practitioner and client doing something simultaneously.
For example, most myofascial release methods consist of clients moving while practitioners apply traction (stretching) to a specific area to mobilize it.
What is KQ Bodywork?
KQ Bodywork is the name I’ve given to my ever evolving effort to restoring pain free motion to my clients and building their brain-body connection through physical touch and guided movement.
Bodywork is the art of using touch to reduce pain, increase mobility, etc…
KQ represents one’s bodily intelligence: their ability to feel and move.
During your sessions you can remain clothed in loose fitting shorts, and a tank top or sports bra for ladies, as we work together through a dynamic process that incorporates more movement and direct communication than a traditional massage.
I utilize all three types of the bodywork techniques listed above: each for their own purpose.
Passive techniques work well for initially calming the nervous system and reducing pain.
Interactive techniques are excellent for restoring range of motion and teaching people how each part of their body is functioning in relation to the others.
Active techniques, or in other words, specific movement sequences are crucial for reinforcing the brain body connection made earlier in the treatment sessions and altering the person’s subconscious movement patterns.
Put simply my strategy is to reduce pain with passive adjustments, increase my clients’ self awareness of how they’re currently using their body and explore alternative ways they can use their body with interactive techniques, and alter their patterns of movement with active techniques.