The people I work with are wanting to overcome injuries, aches and pains creating limitations in how they feel, be and do. They have seen a number of practitioners and still don’t have the desired results. They are seeking a sense of new possibilities – and it feels elusive. Perhaps, they are wary of conventional modalities or haven’t seen anyone yet, and aren’t sure where to start.  

They want to improve how they feel in everyday activities, e.g., cooking meals, grocery shopping, yoga class, sitting meditation, walking, hiking, rock climbing, working in the garden, making a sculpture, sitting at their desk, sleeping. Sometimes, they have a chronic condition. Sometimes, they are recovering from injury/surgery and want to supplement the physical therapy with something more holistic.

They want greater ease, pleasure and freedom in their movements. They are interested in learning about how they can move and be differently, rather than wanting me to ‘fix’ them. They want tangible steps and tools to grow their capacity for long term self-care and growth. 

Many clients have been taught to assume they can only experience the changes/improvements they want through pain and intensive effort. They are often surprised and relieved by how impactful this gentle, playful, compassionate work can be.   

Possibly, no one has shown them how different pieces fit together with them – beyond where/how it hurts. We humans are a system of connections. The playful children’s song which tells us “the knee bone’s connected to the thigh bone…” is more instructive than we might think. We twist left ankle, then we start doing something different with right hip which then impacts on how we move our shoulders. Or each time we stick the shovel in the earth while we’re gardening, we unconsciously clench jaw and the clenched jaw tightens muscles in pelvis. After half an hour, we are exhausted and lower back aches –  we don’t understand why. Or left knee hurts when we walk up an incline and what we don’t know is the pain in knee is connected to what we are doing with our feet.

Opening up new possibilities for less pain and greater ease in how we move and what we can do in everyday life, requires working systematically to uncover what we are currently doing. When you open up awareness of interconnections, you begin to get to the sources of the aches, pains, tensions.