My Clients

My clients have ranged in age and back­ground from a 16-year-old bal­le­ri­na suf­fer­ing from acute low­er back pain to a 94-year-old man work­ing to over­come diges­tive issues. The com­mon fac­tor unit­ing this diverse group of peo­ple has been their desire to free them­selves from pain and pro-active­ly enhance their qual­i­ty of life.

My Approach

I view my work with peo­ple – whether per­form­ing man­u­al ther­a­py or phys­i­cal train­ing – as a col­lab­o­ra­tion that builds upon open com­mu­ni­ca­tion and active lis­ten­ing. Com­mu­ni­ca­tion and lis­ten­ing take place in many ways.  First, I lis­ten to my clients speak about their phys­i­cal con­cerns and their chal­lenges. Then, I lis­ten to what their tis­sues are say­ing, what they are ask­ing for.  Based on this con­ver­sa­tion, I then tai­lor the work we do togeth­er to fit that indi­vid­ual client’s needs.

Ultimately, my clients want to improve their quality of life and, as much as possible, take charge of their own well-being. My goal is to empower them to do that.

Ulti­mate­ly, my clients want to improve their qual­i­ty of life and, as much as pos­si­ble, take charge of their own well-being. My goal is to empow­er them to do that. Depend­ing on the indi­vid­ual, I may start my client on a rou­tine of reg­u­lar man­u­al ther­a­py and/or phys­i­cal train­ing, but this is all done with the aim of enabling the client to min­i­mize their reliance on exter­nal care. In many cas­es, a client might even­tu­al­ly only return to me for occa­sion­al maintenance.

My Background and Skills

Twen­ty years ago, I was a wreck. 40+ hours a week at a seden­tary job in a high-stress envi­ron­ment left me suf­fer­ing from chron­ic back pain, bad pos­ture, mus­cu­lar ten­sion and an all-per­va­sive sense of fatigue. After numer­ous stop-and-start attempts to work out at the gym on my own, I dis­cov­ered a Gyro­ton­ic train­er who helped me devel­op core strength, body aware­ness, coor­di­na­tion and bal­ance. I, who had nev­er enjoyed exer­cise, found myself active­ly enjoy­ing mov­ing! After a few years, I became a cer­ti­fied train­er in both Gyro­ton­ic and Gyroki­ne­sis exercise.

I have since helped a number of clients move out of pain and recover from injuries, but I also found that many people had long-standing restrictions in their tissues that stubbornly refused to let go.

I have since helped a num­ber of clients move out of pain and recov­er from injuries, but I also found that many peo­ple had long-stand­ing restric­tions in their tis­sues that stub­born­ly refused to let go. I there­fore began study­ing mas­sage and body­work and ulti­mate­ly found myself drawn to the man­u­al ther­a­pies of Cran­ioSacral Ther­a­py, Soma­toe­mo­tion­al Release, Vis­cer­al Manip­u­la­tion, and Neur­al Manipulation.

Gyro­ton­ic exer­cise and the above man­u­al ther­a­pies are activ­i­ties that com­ple­ment one anoth­er.  Some­times, exer­cise alone is not enough if a per­son­’s sys­tem is locked in a pat­tern of ten­sion, which can be occur­ring at a neu­ro­log­i­cal, bio­me­chan­i­cal, fas­cial or soma­toe­mo­tion­al lev­el. Like­wise, man­u­al ther­a­py alone does not help a per­son change move­ment pat­terns that are feed­ing into or per­pet­u­at­ing dis­com­fort. Thus, the work my clients and I do togeth­er is often some com­bi­na­tion of man­u­al ther­a­py and move­ment train­ing, depend­ing on the client’s needs.