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Tag Archive for: bodywork

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Body Treatments, Healthy Living, Massage, Natural Remedies

Emotions and Bodywork – We Are Connected Beings

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. 

therapeutic-massage-bodyworkOur 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. 

massage therapist certified cupping therapist

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.

March 17, 2017/by Heidi
https://renumadison.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/09/hand-massage-renu-madison.jpg 682 1024 Heidi /wp-content/uploads/2020/11/renu-logo-print-high-res-1.png Heidi2017-03-17 13:23:402017-03-17 13:24:45Emotions and Bodywork – We Are Connected Beings
Healthy Living, Natural Remedies, Reiki

Let’s talk about Reiki

Several months ago, I shared with readers how Reiki is helping my chronic pain – it was the beginning of my journey with chakra stones energy servicesthat 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.

What exactly is Reiki?  I find a whole lot of people have no idea.  It is spiritual; it works with the energetic forces in our bodies similar to acupressure and acupuncture, and it helps release and resolve areas that get “stuck” with various baggage we’ve been carrying around from old injuries, traumas, and stressors.  Stuckness creates an environment for pain to thrive, and it literally keeps us from moving forward when it is time to let go.  A gifted Reiki practitioner can assist us in letting go on levels we are not aware of, like a therapy for your subconscious and spiritual self.  A am so thankful for the very gifted therapist at my place of business who has done wonderful work with me!

I do have to be honest – I slacked a bit on consistency with Reiki after giving it a solid go in the Spring.  But over those slacking months, my emotions were also in a stuck place and weren’t yet ready to move.  That’s the thing with Reiki – as with most any type of therapy, you have to be ready for it and be willing to partner with your therapist to see results.  I began regular Reiki treatments in March for my chronic pain, then in April a bunch of things got shaken up in my world, and it took several months for my attitude to be okay with the changes.  Coincidence?  I’m thinking not.  It seems when we open ourselves up to a treatment to help us change, move on, or move through any type of stuck pattern, we should not be surprised when our world gets shaken up a bit.  I took a break from Reiki while my attitude decided it wanted to stay in an unhappy place for awhile. 

As I started to accept and embrace the changes, I saw that these changes really were good for me, and it seemed to be confirmation that the Universe was giving me wonderful gifts despite my begrudging attitude at my inconvenience and things not happening the way I had planned or envisioned.  Then I noticed something else… I had not felt my back pain in quite some time!  It had been getting pretty bad there for awhile, and though the Reiki did provide some relief, it wasn’t going away entirely.  Somewhere in that span of time when I decided to catch the wave of change and ride it instead of fighting it, I also let go of my pain. 

reiki energy bodywork sessionWhen 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.  I was told my energy is much smoother than it had been several months prior.  It was such a beautiful experience!  And as before, it seemed to stir things up again for awhile as things shift within me (this time internal, not with my external surroundings as had happened before).  And now I feel more in tune with what I’m feeling and experiencing, like I can tell we’re getting to some really good things. 

I know I’m not complete and done with Reiki, but as I was feeling some deeply held sadness over the holidays (that I still marvel can hide out within me for so long), it actually felt like I was reaching the bottom of it.  I was letting it out, letting it go, and replacing it with wonderful love and security now that I now feel so strongly. 

Reference:  http://renumadison.com/how-reiki-is-helping-my-chronic-pain/

massage therapist certified cupping therapistHeidi Aschenbrenner, LMBT, CCT, BCTMB, and Member AOBTA, is the owner of Renu Massage, Energy & Bodywork specializing in Eastern bodywork therapies and the healing arts. Heidi and her team of bodywork therapists, a Reiki master, and a Certified Personal Trainer, all strive to achieve balance in each session through the use of energy work incorporated into their bodywork therapies and have all been trained in Eastern healing techniques and cupping therapy.  Renu also offers an infrared sauna from Sunlighten Saunas for deeper healing and detoxification after your session. For more information or to contact Heidi, please visit renumadison.com.

January 9, 2016/by Heidi
/wp-content/uploads/2020/11/renu-logo-print-high-res-1.png 0 0 Heidi /wp-content/uploads/2020/11/renu-logo-print-high-res-1.png Heidi2016-01-09 16:36:552016-01-09 17:26:21Let’s talk about Reiki
Cupping Therapy

Delve deeper into your muscle restrictions with cupping therapy

Often in life it seems that returning back to basics can be the best plan.  Cupping therapy has been used by ancient indigenous tribes across several continents as well as by the ancient Egyptians and the ancient Chinese.  Traditional Chinese Medicine (TCM) has been around for thousands of years and still utilizes cupping therapy today as part of regular medical treatment for pain and disease. It has gained recent stardom from celebrities who have tried it, and was even talked about by Gwyneth Paltrow with Oprah about how amazing it feels.  So what is this cupping therapy?  cupping therapy

Cupping therapy uses suction to create negative pressure above the surface of muscular and epidermal tissues.  The result is that restrictions and adhesions in the muscles are more easily released than through compression techniques utilized in traditional massage and  bodywork therapies.  Cupping therapy can also reach more deeply into the tissues than can a therapist’s hands.  Blood flow is increased to the affected area, and blood vessels widen when the muscles relax, and the nervous system is also stimulated, which helps the body recover from pain.  

Therapists can achieve results much more quickly through cupping therapy than with traditional compression, and can quite often alleviate chronic, long-term pain quite rapidly, sometimes even in just a few sessions.  Cupping therapy is great for shoulder pain, low back, hip, or sciatica pain, or really any joint or fascial pain that you may be dealing with (knee, wrist, plantar fasciitis, and more).  Even numbness from nerve restrictions can be alleviated from cupping therapy.  

Blood and lymph might be stagnant in the areas of muscle restrictions (kind of like a traffic jam), along with a build up of waste products from the lack of oxygen in the restricted tissues, and those will all get pulled to the surface of the skin, so there may be some coloration after a cupping therapy session that will go away over the next several days to a week.  Don’t be alarmed!  It might look like a bruise but it most certainly is not – no capillaries get broken with cupping therapy.  Rather, fluids are being pulled through the restricted tissues so that they can then be moved by the circulatory and lymph systems – those wast products can then finally get processed where they belong.  

Cupping therapy is also utilized in conjunction with TCM to treat a variety of diseases, and it works very well with respiratory conditions.  Cups are placed along specific acupressure points to achieve specific results based on the TCM diagnosis.  So beyond working with your blood, lymph, and nervous systems, we can also work with your Qi and energetic meridians with cupping therapy (if your practitioner has been trained in TCM).  And that coloration we mentioned before?  Each type of color that surfaces means something different in TCM as to what is going on with the body. 

cupping therapy chinese medicineCupping therapy is widely performed by acupuncturists, and is becoming more commonly practiced by massage and bodywork therapists.  Look for a practitioner who has studied Asian Bodywork and/or Eastern medicine and who has received training in cupping therapy.  Contraindications do exist, application methods do matter, and it is important to select a practitioner who has been trained to treat you properly.  

July 23, 2014/by Heidi
/wp-content/uploads/2020/11/renu-logo-print-high-res-1.png 0 0 Heidi /wp-content/uploads/2020/11/renu-logo-print-high-res-1.png Heidi2014-07-23 16:15:072015-11-20 17:34:14Delve deeper into your muscle restrictions with cupping therapy

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