Weaved within all aspects of my approach to healing is the focus on developing your connection to the wisdom of your body. For some clients, the work begins by helping them experience the remarkable way in which the body guides us towards healing much of the physical and/or emotional pain we may be experiencing.

On the other hand, many clients already have a sense of their body’s wisdom when they start working with me. They have discovered that their body can be an ally through their work with body-based practices such as Yoga, and Mindfulness. What these clients usually find is that their already developed awareness is a great foundation for the sophisticated bodywork and healing that we will be exploring with CranioSacral Therapy and Somatic Experiencing.

Giving the Space For Your Body to Lead the Way 

Treatment often begins with CranioSacral Therapy to connect to your body. The gentle touch of CranioSacral Therapy will help us tune into your body’s needs and encourage your innate healing potential to kick in. When given this space, your body will start to relax, tissue restrictions throughout your body will be released, and your musculoskeletal system will begin to realign. In some cases, this work alone can lead to the pain relief and the healing you may be looking for.

In other cases, deeper work may be required. As the process deepens, each client’s experience will differ reflecting their body’s specific needs. By the same token, the help I will provide to support your healing process and the tools you will learn will be unique to your journey. Depending on what comes up, your healing process may entail:

Somatic Experiencing: This body-awareness tool  may be required to help you process and release trauma. Connecting to your inner resources, you will learn how to self-regulate and discharge traumatic energy stuck in your  nervous system. The skills of Somatic Experiencing are a key part of the bodywork I provide because they allow me to approach healing from a “trauma-informed” place. Though not all pain and injury is caused by trauma,  having this specialized knowledge has been crucial in supporting clients’ healing during CranioSacral Therapy and Physical Therapy.

This is especially true when the pain originates from accidents or stressful injuries, chronic tension/constriction patterns, emotional content from the past such as grief, sadness or anger, or when there is a complex pain syndrome. As a simple example, using CranioSacral Therapy to release a fascial restriction that is a result of a traumatic experience can be more destabilizing than healing in the long run and, likewise, stretching a muscle that is tense because of a tension pattern is ineffective until the underlying cause of this pattern is determined.

Being trauma-informed, my focus is to provide relief from symptoms in a safe way by respecting the the integration time that healing may require and honouring the steps needed to avoid unnecessary retraumatization of your body through catharsis/reliving of your past and emotional upheaval during body work. When trauma is carefully discharged from the body with Somatic Experiencing, the shifts in the body and your experience of life can be dramatic. It also leaves you with an inner sense of your resilience and capacity to deal with future stress.  For more information on Somatic Experiencing click here.

SomatoEmotional Release: This is an advanced CranioSacral Therapy tool that may benefit your process. It is a gentle body-led manual technique that will support your innate healing potential in releasing any past emotions that are held deep in the body tissue.

Supporting any life direction shifts that are required for healing. In some cases, the symptoms you are experiencing may actually require a more global shift in your approach to life. This is a slow process as it takes time to integrate these types of changes in all aspects of your life. The body is seeking a life – work, relationships and community – that is aligned with your authentic self. To make such a shift can seem difficult, but because you are following your inherent drive to healing, you will have guidance along each step and will be supported by your internal resources.

Connecting you to other resources in the community that can help support your healing process in other ways.

For some clients, building a new relationship to the body will only entail one or two of the above, and for others their body will seek more for its healing process. In each case, the tools you will learn and the relationship you will build will be there for you throughout your life. Furthermore, your symptoms of pain and/or emotional suffering will become gateways to a deeper understanding of yourself,  uncovering your inner resources and ultimately finding greater fulfillment in your life.