Case Study

My client was a woman who had undertaken sustained caring duties for a loved one who had recently passed away, presenting with tense neck and shoulders and pronounced forward head carriage, requesting manual therapies to release the tension. She was exhausted, had gut and sleep issues, brain fog and low mood. 

After some purposeful conversation through a TRAUMA INFORMED lens, I determined the best course of action was to leave the tension in place because it was placed there by her body because there were intense emotions and feelings that she was not yet able to process safely and the "brace" across her thoracic inlet and base of skull was a protection mechanism. To remove it and " loosen it up" could have been very emotionally difficult for her.

After outlining this to her we agreed on the following course of action. Firstly, resource her to get her nervous system to begin to find a sense of internal safety that was safe enough to begin further work. Guided by an accurate kinesiology tool we worked through vocalisations, breathing techniques and visualisations to bring her nervous system out of shutdown and emotional trauma response, this would be her tools for daily use.

I then employed kinesiology guided laser bursts to acupuncture points in the ear to help the body lower its survival response which allows the cells to begin to produce ENERGY and down regulate INFLAMMATION and OXIDATIVE STRESS. I worked with key brain centers to balance their actions. She would use her tools to continue this work for one week and was educated on how her nervous system may respond and how to regulate this. 

A week later her body was in a better state, and we built on the previous work by reducing overall blocks to healing like EMF exposure, toxins, organ dysfunction and added in some adaptogenic herbal support.

The following week having improved again in energy and mood, we began manual therapies (which take energy she didn't previously have) to respond. I used gentle indirect myofascial release to her respiratory diaphragm which was closed off and to her heart and upper chest area to allow the body to unwind itself in a peaceful, quiet manner that allowed emotions to surface and as long as she remained within her window of tolerance to process those, we were able to use various techniques such as laser bursts to the ear points and Emotional Freedom Technique to loosen their charge within the body. The neck and shoulder tension had dissipated, and she said she felt very much better in her body mind. 

This is a TRAUMA INFORMED staged treatment considering client safety, support and growth, managing available energy carefully so as not to overwhelm the client who was basically fatigued out and allowing increased AUTO - REGULATION to take place as the body is managing less load. 

A client in fight or flight stress activation WILL NOT respond to therapies well because the body has only one aim - survival (high adrenaline, poor digestion, tense muscles, poor sleep etc.)

A client in overwhelm - fatigue - shutdown CANNOT respond to treatments because the body is already overwhelmed. 

This is the core of my work, creating safety and unloading physical, chemical, electrical and toxic burden so the body can heal in an energy efficient manner if and when I use bodywork to restore fascial health and function.

The treatment was done fully clothed, and I was attentive to shifts in the client's nervous system state at all times assisting her to avoid treatment reactions that were too strong.