It is true that our bodies are infinitely complex and sophisticated - their intelligent design is an opportunity for reverence and wonder. The beauty of bodywork is that it addresses the basic foundations of health by supporting every system of the body.

My approach is to support the foundations of health by paying special attention to your:

• depth of breathing
• tissue hydration
• alignment in gravity
• response to tactile sensation
• body-awareness/sense of embodiment

I primarily work on the level of the connective tissue system - the fascia. 

The importance of the fascial network is often overlooked in a study of the systems of the body. Actually, the fascial system is of utmost importance because it ties every system of the body together. Every nerve, bone, blood vessel, and gland in the body is wrapped in fascia. Fascia is thixotropic - it becomes more or less liquid in response to pressure and heat, which is provided by massage.

Fascia has the tensile strength of steel - it can carry 10,000 times its own weight. Because of its strength and its continuity throughout the body, fascia has an amazing supportive role in the body's integrity.

These two outstanding qualities of fascia - immense strength and connectivity throughout the entire organism - are both its blessing and its curse. Thanks to this strength of fascia, we are able to remain upright. (Contrary to popular belief, bones and muscles allow the body movement primarily, adding strength secondarily to the connective tissue). Also because of this strength and connectivity of fascia, areas of injury or misalignment refer to and affect all others in this network, and can eventually become held in very strong compensation and referred pain patterns.

Most pain comes from the fascial network as well. Muscles have considerably fewer nerve endings when compared to fascia. And most pain receptors are chemoreceptors. So in addressing pain I will address the fascial system - freeing impinged nerves and bringing circulation to tight areas to help facilitate the flushing away of chemical debris and metabolic waste buildup.

In a massage, as in most artforms, we are coming to understand existing patterns of held tension and muscular compensation within the context of the inevitability of change and the health-giving principle of life (patterns of wholeness). 

One goal of massage is to realize and facilitate the fluidity and adaptability of the organism by mechanically and energetically introducing new experiences into the tissues. 

These introduced patterns can be nourished and strengthened after the massage by moving your body and being active in new ways, so that novel patterns can be established in the space created from the bodywork session.

You may discover - as I have - that there are many forms of movement that your body has never been given permission to embody. It is by putting our bodies in diverse situations that we are able to gain a broader sense of body awareness - not just an awareness of pain and tension patterns, but also a new awareness of fluidity and joy through movement.

Massage is essentially the art of holding space. When you prioritize getting a massage, you are making space for centering and contact with your core.

Massage creates space in compacted and hypertonic tissues as well, leading to greater flexibility and resilience in life.

In the past decade, there has been an approach that sees catharsis - or the intensity of release - to be synonymous with the degree of healing. While at times cathartic and drastic healing does occur spontaneously under certain circumstances (normally when all expectation and striving have dissapeared through deep relaxation), placing an expectation on the body to heal immediately overlooks the inherent richness and nourishment that comes from the process of really learning to care for ourselves.

My firsthand experience and that of others points away from a cathartic approach. If we are to really establish profound change when attempting to address structural imbalances that have had a lifetime to manifest, a gradual process of release and reeducation is much more likely to lead to longstanding effects. This is because drastic, cathartic release is of little use if it is not integrated into the system and lifestyle. A gradual healing is much more likely to bring lasting change because the changes have time to become more firmly rooted in the tissues, attitude, and psyche.

Release can be gentle or intense, and can come in many unexpected forms. Or we may not want to express anything at all in the held space of a massage session. The open space may simply engage our witnessing awareness. It may verify and ground us in our desire to be silent, to stop expressing and simply to be in our bodies.

Either way, there is nothing massage should make you feel or do. Finally, it is the body that we are referring to as the ultimate authority here.