Flexibility-related reasons clients seek my help:
- Be more active
- Hip pain and tightness
- Improve athletic performance
- Joint pain and stiffness
- Knee issues
- Leg and pelvic pain and/or stiffness
- Loss of functional movement
- Move more freely
- Post-surgery recovery
- Reduce aches & pains
Learn more about flexibility
Thanks (but no thanks) to social media, it’s easy to think flexibility means we have to be able to put our bodies into ridiculous pretzel shapes. No. That’s called hypermobility and, for the most part, it’s not healthy. Unfortunately, it’s easy to push past the body’s limits into overstretching. When we do that, strain and injury are sure to follow.
In our culture, we’re taught that stretching will increase our flexibility. Somatics says “no” to that idea. You see, the brilliance of our brain and muscles know when the muscle is at its maximum ability for length. If we pull it past that point, “stretch reflex” kicks in and the muscle snaps back to its tightness. It will even become tighter, as a protective mechanism.
Flexibility and mobility go together. Flexibility is the ability of a muscle and fascia (connective tissue) to temporarily stretch and lengthen when needed. Mobility is a joint’s ability to actively move. Ideally, our bodies are both flexible and mobile. If we are flexible but don’t have good mobility, the muscles will pull but the joint won’t move. Conversely, guiding a joint through its range of movement requires some flexibility.
Somatic yoga therapy is a way to identify chronically tight muscles and reteach them how to lengthen in a healthy way. The result is increased flexibility.
Somatic yoga therapy is an effective, holistic way to regain free and confident movement, expand your breath, and restore your posture.
How this therapy works
Muscle movement comes from the brain via a steady two-way communication stream within the nervous system. Sometimes, repetitive movement patterns of daily life overwork specific muscle groups to the extent that they can no longer access the communication stream. This is called “sensory-motor amnesia,” or SMA.
Somatic yoga therapy helps us locate areas of SMA and reteach the neural pathways on how to access the communication stream. The therapy is a partnership between therapist and client. As the client learns to sense and feel their body from the inside out, the therapist guides the client through very small, slow movements to lessen or eliminate SMA. Neural muscular reeducation takes place, the communication stream is reestablished, and functional movement improves.
I look forward to working with you!