Services - Mind Body Awareness

Mind Body Integration (Alexander Technique) sessions direct one toward the natural balance within oneself that has been masked by habits coming from life’s stresses, self-driven pressure, or injury. We build awareness of the dis-ease these habits impose – an awareness accessed by quieting the mind and finding a better way to use our bodies. The end result is the freeing of one’s self to live with ease and confidence.

In this Mind Body Integration (Alexander Technique) session with Cathy Fallon, the student explains what they are seeking to learn or change. This is often a pain issue but is sometimes a desire to increase achievement or joy in something they love doing. We explore sitting, standing and walking, trying to notice where habits of effort and inefficiency creep in. You will be guided physically and verbally toward effortless, comfortable, easy movement. When we notice a shift toward more balanced effort, we move to the table.

The student lies on the table fully clothed and we revisit how to use the self with better alignment and less effort. Not fighting gravity gives the student an experience of just how easy movement can be when the habitual patterns are by-passed. We may then return to the chair or explore walking to “test” new discoveries and discuss applications for life outside the lesson.

In subsequent 30 or 60 minute Mind Body Integration sessions, we will review the concepts of slowing down, observing and directing the thoughts and the body toward ease, balance, poise and improved functioning. It takes time to unravel habits that take years to layer on. While the pace of one’s learning is very personal, up to six months of weekly sessions may be needed to truly allow the student to own the concepts and change how they move and perceive their world. Some students continue to study for the rest of their lives, switching to monthly or as needed “tune ups” as they master their self-understanding.

Mind Body Integration (Alexander Technique) group sessions offer the opportunity to not only observe ourselves but to learn by observing others. A nonjudgmental environment where we can observe our balance and effort in sitting, standing, and walking provides a growth enhancing experience for all. We look for stiffness, or mal-coordination. We explore how to free our joints, always searching for where we work too hard. We may examine work-related activities that require repetitive movement. Group members may wish to apply their discoveries to activities they enjoy such as yoga, sports, singing, dancing, speaking, golfing, playing a piano and holding a baby. You may find you return to your day feeling calmer and more physically and mentally organized, feeling ease where there used to be stress.

IPT sessions are offered on a massage table, fully clothed, and it involves the practitioner moving you into gentle yoga positions. In her yoga classes and in sessions, Pat teaches you how to access these beneficial positions at home. Muscle imbalances come when some muscles are chronically too short (often because they are very strong) or too long (often because they are overstretched and weak). In both cases the muscles feel tight. Since muscle attaches to bone, bones and joints pull out of alignment. The result is pain.

IPT teaches you which muscles to relax and which ones to stretch to bring you back into balance to relieve pain patterns. You will leave relaxed, refreshed and with new awareness of how to reduce common chronic pain patterns. People with plantar fasciitis have found IPT to be remarkably helpful even after months or years of discomfort.

IPT can eliminate pain associated with many common conditions such as: headaches, low back pain, carpal tunnel syndrome, neck and shoulder pain, plantar fasciitis, sciatica, knee pain, TMJ, tennis and golfer’s elbow, and more. It also helps to restore range of motion, increase flexibility and strength, improve circulation to increase oxygen to the tissues, and to normalize myofascial tension. The thing that makes IPT so powerful is that it addresses the root cause of pain.

The most common cause of physical and muscular pain is poor posture. When the body is chronically out of alignment, we develop problems. This is much like a house built on a crooked foundation – our bodies, like the crooked house, will eventually start to express imbalances in different, often painful ways. The problems begin with muscle imbalance. The solution lies in re-aligning the frame and bringing the body back into balance. IPT is a safe, drug-free and effective way to correct muscle imbalance and restore alignment to relieve pain. The IPT treatment begins with a postural assessment to determine which muscles or areas are contributing to the conditions. Using a combination of Strain/Counterstain (SCS) and Muscle Energy Technique (MET), the affected muscles are addressed.

SCS – The body is placed in a position of comfort that passively shortens (slackens) the muscles. Once held in this position for around 90 seconds, the muscle spindles reset and restore to their natural length. 

MET – This is an assisted stretching technique that uses isometric contractions to activate a release of the opposing muscle. This facilitates a release and lengthening of the contracted shortened muscle.

The final important piece of the treatment process involves the education of the client to enable them to be an active participant in their own healing process. The client is given a Wellness Plan consisting of some simple, easy-to-learn practices to do at home. It is important to identify and correct any habits and patterns that have been contributing to the source of the pain.