Amani Massage

"...the heart of healing lies in our ability to listen, to perceive,
more than in our application of technique..."
— Thomas Myers, Anatomy Trains

My journey towards being a massage & yoga therapist began with my own "battle" to relieve myself of pain and "straighten" out my scoliosis. I began with traditional chiropractors, and worked my way through the gamut of body workers only to find that I was still in pain sometimes even more. It was only 7 years ago when I began to integrate movement therapies of yoga and feldenkrais that I began to have glimpses of freedom. My work has developed from these awakenings and has led me to begin my study with T. Myers. His work with Ida Rolf & Moshe has developed into a system called "Anatomy Trains" which has confirmed and systematized my discoveries. In order to demystify my work in both the yoga studio and my massage office I'd like to share some principles of this system.

ANATOMY TRAINS are linkages of fascia & bone that wind through the body, connecting head to feet, core to periphery. These which orchestrate the organization of gravitational & muscular forces necessary in stability & movement.

The MYOFASCIAL MERIDIAN APPROACH is a recognition of a pattern in the musculoskeletal system as a whole. It is not an evaluation of correct posture but a vision of a body in dynamic action. Our work then as practitioners is not to push tissue into a mold but to open up possibilities of movement — to free up the system and restore harmony.

The FASCIA is a web of connective tissue that energizes, supports, and translates muscle contraction into organized movement. A "snag" in the net is communicated throughout this web and creates a pattern of posture and "acture" which according to Moshe are characteristic patterns which we tend to keep unless altered for better or worse.

These snags then create patterns of compensation which become fixed patterns in the myofascia system. Structural integration work is to explore this web and discover these patterns.

The difference is this work is really based on the practitioners view of the body. When I was in school I was taught the "mechanical model"...muscles hang from skeleton and move it around, the head rests on C7, the thorax on L5, the body on the feet. My work then became a matter of reducing my client into muscles and their pain into pieces. Needless to say, I was not effective in relieving pain long term; it was a temporary fix.

The TENSEGRITY MODEL teaches that structure maintain integrity due to a balance of compression forces that push out ward against the tension forces that pull inwards. Our work as practitioners then becomes twofold.

1. To respond locally to the point of pain by removing trigger points and restoring fluid and function.

2. Then to act globally and find the strain on the system that is created the stress at that local point.

This is the art of the practitioner, developing an "eye" for the pattern beyond the pain. The Anatomy Trains—is a blueprint to work with the whole body patterns— as laid out by Myers . Once these patterns are recognized and the connections understood, the assessment and treatment are more effective. This is where the pain cycle begins to reverse and then the yoga & feldenkrais lessens awaken options for more efficient, integrated movement. As our perceptions grows, our pain subsides.