Body Blog
Exploring mindfulness and healing through the body for both horses and humans.
My Favorite Bodywork Modalities
February 18, 2020
As a bodyworker, self-care is pretty important to ensure that I’m fit and flexible enough to do the work, but also to ensure that I’m of sound mind and body when approaching the horse. I like to be the most clear and grounded when doing Masterson Method®, or really any work around horses.
Having experienced bacterial meningitis in my 2nd year of college that morphed into chronic infections and total hearing loss in one ear, I dedicated the remaining years of undergraduate study (and beyond!) to healing through the body. Although it’s 30+ years later, I’m still exploring movement re-education and body-based therapies that help foster my ongoing healing journey.
Here’s a listing of my favorite bodywork modalities, when I used them, and the benefits I received:
Hanna Somatics: This is my current fascination - it’s a movement re-education system that makes use of our neurobiology to regulate and integrate the nervous system through the body. As someone who’s experienced a good deal of trauma in my childhood, this work is having profound effects on not only my body, but also my social-emotional wellbeing. My teacher is Brenda Linn - she incorporates yoga with Hanna Somatics and her class has helped strengthen and stabilize my low back which is wonderful when you’re doing bodywork on horses and need to lift those legs! I love incorporating a daily practice into my self-care routine. If you’re scientifically minded, you might read The Science of Somatics.
Alexander Technique: Whenever my AmSAT (American Society for the Alexander Technique) teacher Lisa First comes to town - she moved out east - I take up the opportunity to study with her. This is a movement re-education system that makes use of our awareness to free the body through space. It’s often used to help performers - be they athletes, musicians, or even horseback riders - be more efficient and effortless in their work, but can also be used clinically to help heal from injuries, especially from back injuries. Sally Swift had scoliosis and her study of the AT enabled her to remove her back brace - she then applied AT principles to riding (see Centered Riding). I use AT to release my own tension and free my body when I practice Masterson Method on horses: they respond immediately when I remember to use AT in my sessions!
Rosen Method: There is Rosen Bodywork and Rosen Movement. They’re both founded by Marion Rosen, but quite different. In a bodywork session, you’ll lie on a massage table as the practitioner lays hands on your body and gently meets your body, reflecting through the touch how you are in your body. Words reflecting the body experience are shared by the practitioner or client as they arise. The session is intended to work on both the physical and emotional realm and has great potential for healing. It’s exploratory and relational, and for that reason, is suited for certain people at certain times in their lives and with certain practitioners. In a movement class, the teacher guides you in gentle rhythmic movements set to music to increase range of motion in all of the joints of the body. I often leave with a grounded and yet very playful sense - a wonderful way to start the day. I’ve been fortunate to have Marjorie Huebner both as my bodyworker and movement teacher.
Craniosacral Therapy: I’m in search of a CS therapist now… but I have used this to recover from meningitis or cope with stress which is often trapped in my head-neck-shoulder area. CS seeks to restore the movement of the cerebral spinal fluid between the cranium (head) and sacrum. It’s very gentle, and can make you rather spacey afterwards, but provides you with a very soft feeling inside.
Osteopathic Manipulative Treatments: Osteopathy is a branch of medicine wherein osteopathic doctors wishing to practice OMT undergo an additional 200 hours of training in hands-on techniques that help alleviate pain, restore motion, and support the body’s natural functions. It’s designed to help the body heal itself through gentle tissue manipulation. For my body, it has been the miracle approach: I walk in crooked from a twisted pelvis, and walk out straight, thanks to Dr. Scott Corbett!
Freedom Yoga with Erich Schiffmann: I took Erich’s yoga teacher training in the 1990s in California and nearly became a teacher myself (I was not ready to be at the head of a yoga studio) - but the important thing here is that his teaching really helps you find your OWN yoga. I’m considering getting back into this daily practice. You can Practice with Erich Schiffmann at YogaAnytime.
Surely there are plenty of other modalities out there, such as Feldenkrais or Acupuncture, but I have yet to be a student or client. Feel free to email me your favorite bodywork modality.
I encourage you to care for your body deeply through finding a body-based practice you can use at home to sustain your health and wellbeing.