Modalities
Your first session will be one and one half hours long. The fee for this session is $160.00
(I will conduct a postural analysis and gather a complete patient history. Please go to the Client Forms page and fill out the First-time Clients Health History form.)
All subsequent sessions will be charged according to the following:
30 minutes - $62.50 60 minutes - $125 90 minutes - $187.50 120 minutes - $250
Any of the following modalities may be used in your appointment.
Active Isolated Stretching
A Dynamic form of stretching that will give you greater range of motion and flexibility more quickly
than you ever thought possible. Isolating specific structures to attain the greatest results in the least amount of time.
Neuromuscular Therapy
NMT is a treatment of the soft tissues of the body following an assessment of ischemia (lack of blood flow), myofascile trigger points, posture, and biomechanical and or gait dysfunction. Other factors that will be considered because of their influence on pain patterns include breathing patterns, stress, and nutrition.
Hesch Method
A method that effectively changes the body by applying prolonged gentle forces. This gentle approach engages with the body to make the changes lasting.
What is Active Isolated Stretching?
All stretching is good, but some techniques are far more effective than others.
Aaron Mattes (my teacher) developed this method of stretching based on sound scientific principals that follow the practical application of Wolf’s and Sherrington’s physiological laws. AIS is used by Physicians, Chiropractors, Physical Therapists, Athletic Trainers, Massage Therapists, and athletes. It improves circulation, flexibility of the joints, and restores superficial and deep fascial planes.
A key concept of the Mattes Method is that only relaxed myofascial structures will allow themselves to be optimally stretched and that is what Active Isolated Stretching does. Even the deep fascial planes are stretched with Active Isolated Stretching the Mattes Method. This provides optimal flexibility without trauma. (Fascia is a balloon like membrane that encases the muscles and individual groups of muscle cells. It also surrounds nerves, blood vessels and lymph channels.) Stretching this way will enable you to move freely without pain and allow you to change your posture; get rid of rounded shoulders or swayed low back. Whether you are a weekend warrior, a seasoned athlete, or someone who simply is not as flexible as you used to be, this method of stretching will help you! Doing these stretches will allow you to live a more active, healthy, pain free life style.
Perhaps you have been taught to hold a stretch for ten-fifteen seconds or even longer. By using AIS in my practice for the past 25 years what I have seen time after time is that people will gain flexibility faster, maintain their gains longer, and will gain strength by actively moving into the stretch, holding it for no more than 2 seconds, but repeating the stretch 8-10 times. There are protocols to follow as well. For instance if your neck is tight stretch your shoulders first then the neck muscles will loosen quicker and easier.
Putting the active movement together with the two second hold, and the exhalation of your breath with each stretch will take you new levels of flexibility you never thought possible!
What is Neuromuscular Therapy (NMT)?
NMT is a specific massage technique that brings balance between the muscles, the skeletal system, and the nervous system. Balance within the body is important for maintaining optimum health. Neuromuscular Therapy is one of many approaches that can help you maintain a healthy lifestyle.
Neuromuscular therapy recognizes five factors of physiology can lead to pain in the body and must be addressed by the practicioner. If only one or two areas are addressed, the pain may be eliminated, but the results will be inconsistent and arbitrary. It may return in a few days or a few weeks because one or two of the underlying causes continues to irritate the nervous system. These five factors are:
- Ischemia - lack of blood and oxygen caused by muscular hypertonicity (spasm).
- Trigger Points - areas of increased metabolic waste deposits which excite segments of the cord and cause referred pain or sensations to other parts of the body.
- Nerve Entrapment and/or Compression - pressure on nerves by soft tissue (muscle, tendon, ligament, fascia or skin) or by hard tissue (bone or disk), respectively.
- Postural Distortion - when the body's alignment deviates from anatomically correct position in coronal, sagittal or horizontal planes.
- Biomechanical Dysfunction - when habitual muscular movement patterns create an imbalance in the musculoskeletal system
Two other important factors to take into account are:
- Nutrition - the intake of nutrients necessary for cellular metabolism and the exclusion of nutrients irritating and stimulating to the central nervous system.
- Emotional Wellbeing - in a word, stress.
All of these factors, individually and collectively, play a role in stimulation of the central nervous system. In other words, when abnormal or extensive stimulation comes into the cord, it sets up a cycle of excessive stimulation back out to all the muscles (somatic) and organ (visceral) tissues served by that nerve segment.
As a neuromuscular therapist I work to bring about a natural balance between your muscles, nerves, and skeletal system. Your body will always seek homeostasis (a state of equilibrium) between these systems. However sometimes because of stress, accidents, injuries, or illness the adaptive balance that your body settles into can lead to constantly held muscle tension, postural distortions, and more pain at a latter time. Add to this the fact that your conscious brain will block out constant sensory signals, including the messages your nerves are sending to your brain because of constant tension, and you can see how you can end up with trigger points, ischemia (lack of blood flow), even a nerve entrapment or compression. I often tell people “Today you will discover areas of tension that your brain has been shutting out.” With the release of this tension they are able to leave feeling more relaxed and less stressed than they have in months.
Benefits of Massage
Experts estimate that upwards of ninety percent of disease is stress-related. And perhaps nothing ages us faster, internally and externally, than high stress.
Massage is an effective tool for managing this stress, which translates into:
- Decreased anxiety
- Enhanced sleep quality
- Greater energy
- Improved concentration
- Increased circulation
- Reduced fatigue
Massage can also help specifically address a number of health issues. Bodywork can:
- Alleviate low-back pain and improve range of motion
- Assist with shorter, easier labor for expectant mothers and shorten maternity hospital stays
- Ease medication dependence
- Enhance immunity by stimulating lymph flow—the body's natural defense system
- Exercise and stretch weak, tight, or atrophied muscles
- Help athletes of any level prepare for, and recover from, strenuous workouts
- Improve the condition of the body's largest organ—the skin
- Increase joint flexibility
- Lessen depression and anxiety
- Promote tissue regeneration, reducing scar tissue and stretch marks
- Pump oxygen and nutrients into tissues and vital organs, improving circulation
- Reduce postsurgery adhesions and swelling
- Reduce spasms and cramping
- Relax and soften injured, tired, and overused muscles
- Release endorphins—amino acids that work as the body's natural painkiller
- Relieve migraine pain