I want clients to feel safe and encouraged to let themselves move through whatever has been bothering them. To help provide them with a chance to learn to communicate with themselves, mind and body, with me holding the space for them. Neuromuscular Massage and Myofascial Release Therapies are developed to enhance a clients experience of relief by getting the connective tissue and brain to link up.
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Holistic Bodywork is an approach to Neuromuscular Massage Therapy that creates individualized goals for each client.
The goal of Holistic Bodywork is to determine the most appropriate course of therapy for the client’s therapeutic goals. Relaxation, stress reduction, muscle relaxation, and to release tension are a few. The therapy will start off with a consultation and Postural Assessment. This tool provides a view of what areas of the body may be most obviously off line. This also provides a chance to find angles of over compensation, such as one high shoulder on the right and a low hip on right. These opposing angles will show the righting reflex that helps the body maintain eye level across the viewing plane and keep our balance. Although balance in our gate is maintained, balance in the postural may be compromised. Usually after talking through the consultation to this point, other valuable information often gets remembered. Since the body holds on to whiplash and other trauma through cell memory. It usual takes something physical, like Postural Assessment, to remember it. Often when years have passed since these injuries or otherwise have occurred, they commonly get treated as something that will be permanent. This is not always the case, so trying to release the soft tissue to allow healing to happen can be addressed at any time. The length of therapy to achieve results can vary, based on time and processing. This is intricately important to consider when dealing with muscle that shows persistence and tenses with touch. A softer pressure and discussion with reminders of present safety often help people understand that they CAN let things when they realize they are in control. When talking about pressure, each muscle will have a different language. A threshold will present itself when pressure is starting to reach discomfort. This is our guarding reflex. We send in adrenaline to ward off the “attack”. Seeing as this is Massage Therapy and not the heat of battle, adrenaline is counterproductive. We all need to understand that we have a right to control our comfort levels. Then with Swedish massage therapy, which addresses the parasympathetic nervous system and creates our rest and relax reflex, we can access our endorphins. We need to connect with this in the session through breathing and understanding our right to control pressure. When a guarding reflex is present, their needs to be careful consideration to calm the senses and reassure the client of the therapist’s role in therapy. This essential conversation introduces the idea that we are all responsible for our own path of healing. I have gone to school to learn about anatomy and massage therapy. I bring what I’ve learned to the client and let them pick what tools they would like to use to facilitate their goals. The client is the one responsible for the release, not the therapist, because they have to decide to be safe enough to let it go. If there are acute symptoms present, such as limited range of motion or pain, we will address it first then radiate out to help balance the body. Otherwise, we can work a full body session into what I consider an Neuromuscular/Holistic Bodywork assessment. This gives me a blue print of the body landscape. We can identify postural deviations and muscle recruitment patterns. The rest of the therapy will be very unique and specific to each client. We are all as unique as our therapy. Wishing you time to heal. I hope this gives you a better understanding of the therapy that is available to you.
Practicing since 2006, licensed in SC MAS. 12978, NC LMBT #06550 and GA #MT006782, Anna Gallagher has been a student of Massage Therapy and has enjoyed researching how to use the guidance of Neuromuscular Therapy and Integrated Myofascial Therapy to help teach her clients to have a better relationship with the internal conversation between their body and mind. As a lifelong student of alternative medicine and movement, Anna began her own journeys into healing through martial arts, yoga, independent study, and training with holistic practitioners since her early teenage years. She has been lucky enough to train with Whapio Diane Bartlett and Eileen Sullivan of La House of La Matrona, West Asheville in their Holistic Doula program. Although Anna is not a practicing Doula, she feels that her training in compassionate care has greatly influenced her Massage Therapy practice and Yoga education. Anna was awarded a Board Certification in Therapeutic Massage and Bodywork (BCTMB #514641-06) by the National Certification Board of Therapeutic Massage and Bodywork for fulfilling and exceeding the requirements and standards to be recognized for this great achievement. Anna has over 200 hours in Continuing Education credits in Research, Ethics, Teaching, Gross Anatomy Dissection, Touch for Health Applied Kinesiology, and Thai Yoga Bodywork. In May of 2015, Anna graduated from Tough Love Yoga's Alignment based Hatha Yoga RYT-200 hour Teacher Training. Anna began training in Aikido in 2005 and received the rank of Nidan- 2nd degree Black Belt in Aikido in November 2018 under the Instruction of George Kennedy of the Aikido Center of Atlanta and her examination was proctored by the USAF Technical Committee at Florida Aikikai’s USAF Winter Camp. She is extremely grateful to all of her teachers, classmates, clients, and future students with whom she will continue her own studentship and training.
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