By Heidi Aschenbrenner,BCTMB CCT, LMBT and Member AOBTA
Our bodies are wonderfully complicated entities, which makes the field of bodywork so exciting. Any kind of bodywork that delves into the fascia prompts change in those tissues, on a level that can’t be accessed with other methods of healing. (Fascia is a blanket term for all connective tissue in the body.) Our soft tissue (muscles, tendons, ligaments, skin – all the softer fascia of the body) can be stretched, strengthened, injured, or torn. Thankfully, our bodies adapt and compensate for an immense variety of potential mishaps that we encounter as we go about our lives with both our work and our play. Also thankfully, our bodies do heal, and they can also be retrained out of any bad habits we’ve had – all we need to do is prompt our muscles to do different things to learn new behaviors. What a wonderful fascial system we have!
Many of us have had some type of injury. We may have gone through physical therapy, we may have just put some ice on it and taken anti-inflammatories until our acute pain went away, or we may have ignored the pain until we no longer noticed it anymore, pushing through the daily “have to’s.” The fascia does eventually heal, sometimes in spite of ourselves. But… if there was any emotional trauma connected to that injury, the emotional aspect of the injury does not simply go away as we ignore it. Ah, the complication now arises.
Our fascia retains those emotional memories. If this is a new concept to you, then pause and think on that for a moment: our fascia retains those emotional memories until we release them. Unless you have experienced this phenomenon, it may be difficult to grasp. I had grasped the concept mentally years ago, yet I still was not fully prepared for the first time I experienced this type of healing. Many of us have learned to push down our emotions, pressing on and not stopping to feel or to grieve. There may be fear, sadness, or anger associated with any traumatic event that results in physical injury. How often do you think we allow ourselves the time and space to process those feelings at the time they occur?
Many of our chronic pain issues are simply our bodies crying out, begging us to pay attention to what still needs healing, and it may need to be on an emotional level. Our bodies can wait a very, very long time for this, but eventually push comes to shove and then someone’s back goes out simply from picking up some laundry. Chronic pain plagues so many of us, and so often the medical community doesn’t understand exactly what is causing that pain. Pain is the body’s method of communicating to us that we need to stop what we are doing and change something. Discovering what needs to change is not always a simple task.
How do we experience this healing? It requires trust in your therapist. It requires slowing down and allowing your mind, body and spirit to express what needs expressing. It requires not forcing your fascia to do what you think it “should” but rather just letting go. It requires not having an agenda for your bodywork session, which comes back to trusting your therapist. Letting go with your mind is imperative so that your fascia can then let go of whatever it still needs to; you need to be in a parasympathetic state for this type of healing to occur, and for any real changes in your fascia to occur. If you are one who likes to chat during massage, you will never get to this level of healing.
Not everyone needs this deep emotional release during bodywork, but many of us certainly do. If you ever feel the need to weep during a bodywork session, please remember that it is good and healthy to let that happen. Don’t stifle the healing process with any “should’s.” You are safe with your therapist, and all licensed therapists receive training on this very topic. I recommend that you talk to your therapist if you’d like to know more.
Heidi Aschenbrenner, BCTMB CCT, LMBT and Member AOBTA, is the owner of Renu Massage, Energy & Bodywork. Heidi’s team of therapists all strive to achieve balance in each session through the use of energy work incorporated into their bodywork therapies.
Quality does matter – it does seem to be true that you get what you pay for with essential oils.
Peppermint is wonderful for both digestive troubles and also for any sinus congestion or headaches.
Bio:
I could barely move my arm that day; the slightest rotation or abduction was excruciating. I did some Googling and found that common areas of referral pain for three of the four rotator cuff muscles were exactly where I was experiencing pain down my arm. Even though I had already figured out it was my rotator cuff as the pain progressed… confirmation is always nice. I knew my shoulder needed some good bodywork – massage is great, but cupping is much, much more effective as it promotes healing in ways that just aren’t possible with compression. Cupping is great for reducing inflammation and swelling, drawing up the non-circulating stagnant blood and sticky proteins found in edema, bringing them up to the surface so that healthy circulation of blood and lymph can be restored to the injured area.
had an opening so I could get some proper cupping and massage on all those rotator cuff muscles plus some great myofascial release work. It was intense. It felt different than the regular discomfort of really deep work; it felt like there were injured tissues. But we improved range of motion during that session on my first day of pain. The next day I visited my chiropractor and found that my clavicle, humerus, and scapula were all misaligned as well, and those all got fixed right up. Having the cupping done before the chiropractic adjustment was helpful to allow the muscles and tendons to move more easily during adjustment and accept the corrected state more readily. I began to use a scarf as a sling to keep my arm both pain-free and to minimize the possibility of further misalignment. Then the magic began to happen.
Or do you just come in for special occasions when you believe you deserve a treat? Massage is considered part of health care in other countries and has been an ancient form of healing. It’s no surprise that most chiropractors have an onsite massage therapist as part of their practices. Massage has benefits for the physical body, the mind, and your energetic life force.
Excellent and Affordable Massage and Bodywork
said another satisfied client, who prefers Renu under its current ownership and management which has been in place since 2011. Renu strives to provide excellent, affordable massage bodywork.
couldn’t.”
A friend of mine and I met the other day at an EVP Coffee
height. The teacher, Michael Morgan, CST-D, asked her to come to the front of the class to demonstrate. She told him it had been that way for several years. Morgan worked on her for about 5-8 minutes then asked her to sit down after, which we broke for lunch. Upon returning Morgan invited the student back up to the front of the class and asked her to raise both arms. When she did she was able to raise her bad arm above her head to almost full height. 
Kathy Bryant contracts with Renu Massage, Energy and Body Work. She helps clients develop the best healing “prescription” through the use of CranioSacral Therapy, Reiki, Acupressure and Crystal Therapy. For more information go to 
“All of our emotions can be divided into two basic categories: Love and Fear,”(2). When we love with an open heart, we are literally, opening up the energy field for love to flow out and to come into our hearts. When we reside in fear our hearts “contract” and close off to any heart-healthy emotion: gratitiude, forgiveness, lovingkindness, etc. 
that particular method of emotional and spiritual healing. I recapped my history with lingering chronic pain and shared how Reiki was helping to release another layer, and how wonderful it felt! I promised an update when I felt my journey was complete, and though I can’t know with certainty if completeness has occurred, I do feel enough changes have occurred to provide that update.
When I went back to Reiki, I felt some amazing sensations during the session, which seemed to be getting deeper into areas I have felt were holding onto past pain.
massage with a range of things from treating oneself for a special occasion, to working on a chronic pain problem to achieve results, to providing therapeutic maintenance to the muscles we use daily for years and years. Many of you have probably experienced massage in one or more of these capacities, but not all of you might know the benefits of massage during grief.
Now that we are experiencing grief, what next? Many people have trouble balancing life responsibilities while allowing grief to take its course. Sometimes it’s small outbursts of emotions when you can sneak them in during your own private moments – crying in the car is a great emotional outlet; I’ve used this many times after significant losses, and didn’t mind so much when I had a long commute. Allowing yourself these expressions of emotions whenever you can will help you fully feel, experience, and ultimately move through your grief.
emergency response after a tragedy such as a plane crash. After the Oklahoma City bombing, the state medical examiner observed that the massage therapists were “accomplishing more in 15 minutes than psychologists could in an hour or two” (Life, Aug. 8, 1997). How can that be? The need for touch is powerful, and it is often the most immediate need that we have after tragedy or loss. It allows us to take a break from life’s responsibilities and just feel for however long we are in session. We might even cry on the table or massage chair, and that’s not only okay, it’s good; it’s healing. The space of massage is always a safe place. You can be who you are, wherever your emotional state might be that day, that hour, that minute.