Summer greetings to you!
This post is to give an update on my current transformation as a provider-human. Last month, I officially graduated from ATSI, under direction of Tom Myers! Tom has been acclaimed for his authorship of Anatomy Trains: Myofascial Meridians for Manual Therapists and Movement Professionals. It has been a special honor to learn under, not only an uncanny master of instruction, but an internationally-recognized figure in the emergence of fascial research. The ATSI program itself is known for its rigorous anatomy and meticulous training in postural assessment. However, the experience has pervaded every corner of my learning life, both personal and professional.
In September, 2022, Anatomy Trains will be the Platinum Sponsor of the biennial, international Fascia Research Congress in Montreal, of which I’m very excited to be attending personally! There, the brightest minds in anatomy, fascial science, and manual therapy convene to examine and discuss the body’s natural organ of form: the fascial system!
From my small office in West Madison, I have now transitioned into specializing in SI. My dedication as a bodyworker shall serve in its utmost this way, as it is the focus I’ve aspired to my entire career. For over 6 years, I have emulated, and even -admittedly- negligently claimed to provide Structural Integration, never truly knowing nor fully understanding the respect this work demands.
Simply put, this is a sequence of myofascial release sessions, coupled with movement education, designed to evoke ease and alignment in gravity.
Furthermore, the “magic” really is in the sequencing, a framework established by the original SI lineage of Rolfing®, developed in the mid-20th century by Dr. Ida Rolf. Under Dr. Rolf’s study at the Rolf Institute®, Tom learned the original 10-series Recipe, and after developing his anatomical “game” of the 12 Anatomy Trains, included it in his curriculum as the school’s anatomy teacher. Tom ultimately merged his Anatomy Trains theories with Ida’s original Recipe after she passed, practicing the series from the territories delineated by the ‘Trains themselves, which only variated slightly from those covered in the original Recipe. The main differences being that of an added Spiral sleeve session for Session 4, as well as an entire session for the arms: Session 11. The addition of these brings the total of the Anatomy Trains Recipe to 12 sessions.
The series is employed as a full-body structural redesign, with aims to remove undue strain in the fascial system. Compared favorably with Rolfing®, it has been known for resetting the most longstanding, deeply ingrained patterns that our clients cannot seem to shake no matter what interventions they try. We do so in a logical procedure, customized to the unique biomechanics of each individual.
This is unlike other piecemeal myofascial therapies which do not carefully lay a framework of support before releasing the deeper-held pattern. The Structural Integrator’s (and my own) contention is that, while these are completely valid interventions on their own, these methods keep us enslaved to our trauma by neglecting a safe “landing zone.” The body needs an established internal ecosystem of fascial balance in the supporting myofascial tissues before deep release can occur. If not, the unique pattern your body has developed (over the course of years of traumatization and re-enactment) can only let go in one physical dimension. Meanwhile, the rest of the fascial system is left operating from this very same dysfunctional support position. This means that either A) our symptoms just come right back again, or B) our symptoms are dispersed somewhere else into the fabric of our soft tissue matrix. Putting on my “Peter Levine hat,” this cycle is mere traumatic reenactment, sabotaging true renegotiation of trauma of which we yearn for at a soul level.
Thus, we remain dependent on endless treatment which cannot effectively touch resolution. We search aimlessly for answers within the prison of our already depleted vitality, arbitrarily oscillating between throwing the kitchen sink, or retreating fully into dissociation from our bodies.
Whereas these aforementioned more “indirect” therapies bring us further into the patterns we’ve already been living in to renegotiate them, Structural Integration instead takes us to where we have never been before.
The reorganization of the fascial system occurs beginning in the weeks of the series itself, and continues in the months following. This way we set a clean slate of posture for the years to come, and truly become the structure echoed in the series.
SI isn’t about breaking us down or beating us up, it’s about empowerment and validation. Over the years, I’ve had enough of aimlessly chasing symptoms, praying to Shiva they go away. Now, my goal as a practitioner is to appeal to the same inherent principles which likely sabotaged our alignment in the first place, coaxing new information through touch and active movement. Effectively doing so begs for an organized, collaborative project with mutually-agreed upon goals of which we track throughout the territories in each session.
An intervention as dramatic as SI is not something that we do indefinitely. A 12-Series has a beginning, middle and an end- an end in which the body’s structural holding patterns (posture) can naturally reset, emerging anew, and can continue to embody those changes in the many years to come. The mechanism by which this is achieved is the very same mechanism by which our insidious, day-to-day postural imbalances are permitted; it is the science of fascial plasticity.
My passion for this profound work will be apart of my developing career for the rest of my working days.
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I’m looking forward to my future in serving you as a Certified Structural Integrator. Wow it feels great to say that.