This is the one question I get asked most frequently before someone comes in for an appointment. It’s also the hardest question for me to answer clearly—yes BUT primarily no.
Does that sound vague to you? You are definitely not alone.
For the sake of simplicity I’ll put it like this—massage is a type of bodywork but bodywork is not a type of massage.
So why does it matter? It’s all in the details.
Bodywork can best be described as a holistic health umbrella. What lies under it are a vast array of healing modalities that involve improving the human body through manual therapy, breathwork or energetic medicine. And while I certainly don’t practice all of them, I do always use the term “bodywork” in reference to my own personal work: Restorative Body Therapy.
Restorative Body Therapy is an all-encompassing holistic approach to healing soft-tissue dysfunctions in the body. “Soft” tissue includes muscles, ligaments, tendons and the primary focus of my work: CONNECTIVE TISSUE (aka FASCIA). It is SO important because it is the giant web that connects everything inside our bodies together. The manual therapy techniques I employ during a given bodywork session can vary—but they all have this one integral element in common.
As a bodyworker, my goal is to treat your body on a therapeutic level. When we’re working together, I’m not only addressing the points of pain and/or restriction you’ve identified, but I’m assessing additional areas where the source of your problem might actually have originated from. Determining this allows me to use the most effective manual techniques to recover your fascial health. Specifically targeting the fascia helps in restoring balance and alignment in your body, thereby alleviating discomfort and restrictions.
Fascia is not only our great internal net holding everything together—it’s also our profound restorer. When the tissues in our body experience an injury (whether it be through repetitive stress or trauma) fascia acts as a natural band-aid and adheres itself to damaged tissue, joints and bones. These adhesions provide protection and facilitate healing in the short-term, but can cause pain and limit mobility in the long-term. One of my main objectives is to break down these fascial adhesions (aka internal scar tissue) through unwinding and creating space in the fascia, which results in reduced pain and improved mobility.
In shaping Restorative Body Therapy sessions, I integrate different bodywork therapies together to treat soft tissue disorders and improve overall fascial health. By weaving together complementary elements of distinct manual therapies I’m able to adapt each appointment to your individual needs. The slow and deliberate nature of my fascial work also activates your Parasympathetic Nervous System, which allows for you to become very relaxed just like you would in a massage BUT the work we are doing is fundamentally orthopedic and holistic in nature. By taking a comprehensive approach in addressing not only muscle tension, but fascial health and balance in your bodily structure, we are creating a blueprint of functional soft tissue well-being for your body. Maintaining healthy connective tissue is an essential component in alleviating chronic pain and helping prevent future issues.
To explore the specific characteristics and attributes of the bodywork therapies I utilize during sessions please click here or schedule your next session to receive the extensive benefits that Restorative Body Therapy can provide!
