WHAT HAPPENS IN A LESSON?
Step 1. Awareness, Words and Touch
First, I will observe how you move. It will enable me to explain to you how your unique movement style relates to your symptoms. Learning the way you sit and stand, the way you perform daily activities, even the way you exercise or move in certain sports, all lay the foundation for becoming aware of the quality of your movement.
Guiding you while getting in and out of a chair (chair work) is a good way to learn how to spot tension and then to release it. Chair work focuses on defining and utilizing all your moveable joints while new thinking is introduced as a way of countering your habits.
If you do an activity such as tennis, rowing, running, dancing playing a musical instrument or singing, we will observe together what may be getting in the way and apply new tools built on self awareness and efficiency.
Step 2. Table Work
When you lie down it increases your awareness of your everyday habits that are causing you tension and discomfort. Once you become aware of these habits it gives you the power to stop them and let go, which results in an overall spinal decompression and experience of freer movement of the joints.
Often, this is where you become aware of your breathing and the movement potential of your ribcage, diaphragm and abdomen. Do your neck muscles tighten while taking a breath? Do they need to?
Step 3. After the Lesson
You will be eager to go back to your daily activities refreshed and with a new set of tools. My students often use terms like lighter, more relaxed, and calmer to describe how they feel after a lesson. However, it’s important for you to think about certain things during this critical phase.
For example, do you continue to tense your neck muscles while you are texting, picking up a child, singing or doing yoga? If so then you may want to do some lying down work on your own, using your thinking to release unnecessary muscle tension. This will lay the groundwork for ongoing relief as you move forward feeling progressively better and better.
