I recently sat in on an interesting webinar presented by the Fascia Hub. In the UK Jan offers one speaker per month for membership, and often there are some new and challenging ideas. A recent Thursday night was one such event.
These two presenters, Leonid and Mariana, have been working with Cerebral Palsy kids as their specialty population, and have a really new take that makes sense to me…they see the bodymindcore as collapsed and lacking tensional integrity, or tensegrity. Their work is therefore more about trying to bring tissues out into the environment instead of pushing them anywhere; they don’t want to force things to happen, but to coax and ask the blocked spaces to return to function and take up space. I found this a good concept, especially in that for the last ten or fifteen years, I’ve been suggesting we learn to ‘coax’ tissue instead of move it.
This supports the ideas of John Pierrakos who suggests to me we’re three-layered beings; the core or center of right energy, the body, and the environment, and many of us use our bodies to protect our cores from our environment. It’s the same concept in another language. We’ve collapsed or concentrated instead of moving out into the environment; how do we best ‘’fluff” that tissue back to life?
Where they differ from my work, and where I’m going to think a bit about their work, is the use of a semi-inflated ball; not the fairly hard ball that many use. In fact, they’re more likely to use extra cushions, pillows, and other tools to keep comfort foremost when they work with their CP kids. This makes great sense to me.
The call their work Tensegrity Assisted Therapy and believe that the big difference in their work from the work of others is this ability to use soft force to bring tissues out of ‘hiding places’ and into the appropriate structure. They see structure as something that needs to be load-bearing, and that those who can find a way to soften that structure will release lots of the tensions in the bodymindcore that are causing many of their problem
One of the first things out of Leonid’s mouth hooked me: “Avoid over-anatomization!.” I love that sentiment! I think if we get too focused on exactly what we’re working on and how we want to ‘change it’ we lose some of the intuitive skill that lets us follow our hands and hearts. So I was happy to hear this statement from him. He gives us permission to forget our anatomy first, then rediscover it.
If indeed as Leonid and Mariana posit, everything we’re doing is working with soft matter (including bones) we can change our attitude from the ‘fixing’ model into the ‘allow the tissue to come out and take up space’ model. I support this idea!
And if we’re a tensional network from head to toe, one truly doesn’t know which piece of the puzzle will be the piece that allows us to make changes. Another quote I liked: “Everything that maximizes distribution is good; what concentrates distribution is bad.” Can you see how this could apply to all of us who work with bodies?
So these two are giving us the gift of realizing chemistry has created wonderful balls that, if not totally inflated, are far softer than the human touch. I believe there’s something here for us all. I liked their image that we’re ‘painting’ on a crinkled canvas; wouldn’t it be much better if we could learn how to straighten the canvas before we started painting on it?
How does this fit with my work? For years I’ve been teaching students and clients about my layers one, two and three. Layer one is that place where a client says “Ahhhh! This feels so nice; glad I had that glass of wine before I came.” Layer two is the place where a client says “What’s happening here? Am I safe? I feel safe, I think I can stay with this.” Layer three is the place I feel they’re describing and exhibiting: “Let me know when you’re going to let go and I’ll come back in my body.”
Years ago my first fibromyalgia client was a puzzle to me. I suggested between our sessions she explore putting tennis balls in a sock and rolling on them while breathing. When she returned in a month and I asked how it was going, she shocked me by telling me she got best results by rolling in the stomach. I had envisioned her working her back; her success in stomach was a pleasant surprise. Now I wonder what would have happened if she’d had softer equipment to use. She put herself in layer three; it worked, but I imagine it would have worked better at layer two.
Now, after 35 years of bodywork, I rarely move to that layer three, really wanting to hover around layer two. I believe my hands and heart are attuned such that usually I feel I’m coaxing tissue instead of demanding change. But I’m considering finding a couple of semi-inflated balls, exploring with them to see how they work for me, and spend a bit more time between layer one and two. I still believe my best work is done at layer two, but I’m open to experimenting to see if indeed, less (pressure) is more.
Now, I’ll freely admit I still use force, especially on myself! I have an implement; a hard, studded plastic piece about the size and shape of an Upledger stillpoint inducer. I tend to place that under my back every morning at the quadratus lumborum area and really dig, stretch and breathe. For this old bird, a bit of force feels wonderful. But I don’t tend to use such force often—even though some clients persist in saying “You can go deeper if you want; I can take a lot of pain!” That’s not the point.
Mariana also said, “The ball amplifies what you’re feeling, and you don’t feel the muscle, you feel the interface through the skin.” Lots to think about here! If indeed we can remodel the fibroblasts so they can remodel the fascial spider web, this seems a worthy goal.