Why 85% Aren’t Ready For Bodywork

BODYWORK FOR EMBODIED AUTONOMY?

Many people ask whether bodywork is the best approach to develop embodied autonomy. Inquiries come in every day from people asking about how to grow their capacity for embodiment, how to increase sexual desire and pleasure, how to find their way out of pain syndromes. People expect bodywork to be the fast track to many things: a solution to pain problems, a path to healing, even a shortcut to self-actualization.

The surprising truth is that without proper preparation, bodywork is simply not right for everyone right away. There’s often quite a lot of body-based housekeeping to do before bodywork becomes an appropriate vehicle to take us where we want to go. Each person has their particular chores to complete to improve their personal balance of four variables – this is their health equation to solve before bodywork is a viable tool to fulfill any promise of pain relief or personal potentiation.

BIOCHEMISTRY

First, it’s necessary to deal with the physical artifacts of stress – housed in our tissues. The primary requirement before considering bodywork is the quality of your blood. Most people have work to do in the domain of biochemistry. How of us live in a pristine environment, have eaten exquisite organic and nutrient-dense food from birth, were breastfed by a robust and healthy mother, have never seen a vaccination, a mercury filling, or taken medication? Each of these variables affects biochemistry and the quality of your blood. When your biochemistry is out of balance, even moderate pressure into your body’s tissues can be painful. Personal biochemistry is the first order of business to address before bodywork can connect you to your birthright of embodied autonomy.

EMOTIONS

Emotions must be excavated from their fleshy hiding places to come into the light of consciousness for integration. Bodywork can be an effective way to find and release emotional holding, but it can be a confusing and ultimately unfruitful process if your tissues are holding onto toxins. When used for emotional healing, bodywork requires bravery, patience, persistence, and a willingness to work through one’s history of trauma. Before dueling with your psychological demons however, most people must improve the quality and viscosity of their blood.

BIOMECHANICS

How many people have access to the perfect exercise routine for their body, and enough time to enjoy it without life’s interruptions? How many of us live life welded to computers or cell phones? This is the realm of biomechanics, and includes where you lie along a flexibility spectrum – from super-bendy Gumby-types to those who are as strong as bulls, but stiff as rigor mortis. Once you know where your flexibility fits in along this spectrum, it’s time to balance your biomechanics by becoming adequately flexible and appropriately strong. Making ergonomic changes (text-neck anyone?) is part of solving this equation.

SCAR TISSUE

When a blockage is present within any of these domains, it will stop body autonomy flow and sensation. Bodywork becomes unnecessarily painful, and incapable of delivering genuine growth. If scars from physical traumas are part of your body’s history, appropriate remediation allows bodywork to get into the place where the muscle meets the bone, right to the essence of body autonomy.

For years I held my clients’ pain for them, believing their passive desire for change was enough and that my hands alone were up to the task of providing help. Despite these clients’ reluctance to actively participate in their own healing, I thought bodywork should be enough to resolve their problems. I was afraid of confronting their initial resistance to stretching, cleansing, meeting their emotional demons, and actively remediating their scar tissue. My hands paid the price. I realized it was simply not useful, sustainable, or empowering to them or me to try and solve these problems using bodywork as my primary tool.

To empower my clients to do their homework first, I changed my professional focus to health advisor and consultant. Now I teach clients how to fish instead of handing them one “bodywork fish” after another, session after session. Bodywork is a catalyst. Before any catalyst can act effectively, certain biochemical conditions must be met. Be it an imbalance in your personal biochemistry, a lack of flexibility, emotional holding patterns, or unresolved scar tissue, each of these variables is sufficient to shut down bodywork’s catalytic potential.

ASSESSMENT

One of the most valuable services I offer is an accurate assessment. Assessment empowers you by putting the ball in your court – by offering agency and instruction to facilitate your health and healing. When clients demonstrate readiness to participate in their own healing process, they are far more likely to get what they came for when embarking on a bodywork journey. I now reserve hands-on work for those who have successfully connected to their own embodied autonomy – after assessment and any necessary coaching. When embodied autonomy becomes as natural as taking a deep breath, it’s time for bodywork to be used to its best advantage, as an exquisitely efficient vehicle for personal growth.

With the exception of postpartum care, work with me starts with the assessment process to identify your barriers to embodied autonomy and provide you with the most efficient map to begin your work. When you demonstrate commitment and a genuine desire to make necessary changes, there is the possibility to continue our journey together by coaching with me. During coaching, we partner to develop and refine your health practices, applying the insights gleaned from your assessment. The result is a rediscovery of your embodied autonomy, one step at a time. Once embodied autonomy is a felt reality in your system, it’s time for bodywork!

If you’d like to schedule an assessment, learn more here. If you’re not sure you’re ready for a full assessment, but would like to explore some basic questions about the assessment process or your embodied autonomy in an introductory session, learn more here. To read about what others have said about their assessments and coaching experiences with me, see the testimonials.