JB is a client who started seeing me with terrible hip pain. He and his wife went on a cruise and found himself sidelined with the pain. He described it as easily a 10 out of 10 or higher on his pain scale. While he found ways to participate in cruise activities the pain in his hip was always there. When he returned he saw his primary doctor and an orthopedic specialist. They diagnosed him with arthritis in his hip and told him at his age, 70, the pain is something he would have to “just manage” as he got older.  JB told me neither his primary doctor nor his orthopedic specialist touched him to evaluate his condition! JB was active for his age. He walked two miles a day, worked out several times a week, had a model train collection and sang in the choir at his church. He was really devastated that he may have to cut back on his hobbies and lifestyle or eliminate some of them all together.

Luckily his wife heard of me and myofascial release. JB came in for one session willing to try anything to help his pain. He admitted that he was not too sure about massage being able to help him. I let him know it was not a massage but Myofascial Release we would be doing. After his initial evaluation and bodywork session I recommended as many consecutive days as possible to break through the fascial patterns and restrictions causing his pain. I suggested some self care work to do at home and we booked his sessions. 

After his first session he said he felt “sore, but better”. Following his second session he said he was “starting to feel better and is noticing some tightness in his calves”. In his third session he asked for some neck and back work because while doing the suggested self care routine at home on his psoas, a hip flexor muscle, his neck would “get warm”. Before his fourth session he noticed he was “making progress”. When he came in for his fifth session he “felt much better!” He was able to do most of the things he normally would do around the house. He was back up to walking 1 mile! While his back and hips would feel tight afterwards he was able to do his self care routine and feel better. On his next visit he indicated that he was attempting his 2 mile walks again and that his pain afterwards was only a 2 out of 10 on his pain scale. After ten sessions over six weeks JB reported that his pain was “98-100%” gone and that [he] doesn’t even think about it anymore!” Imagine how much more quickly he would have felt better if he kept all of those appointments as close together as possible.

When JB comes in once a week now because he is blown away by how much better he feels with Myofascial Release. He is out of pain and we are working on old aches and pains and his general wellbeing. This is the kind of outcome that is not only possible with Myofasical Release but expected as well. 

One day at massage school I was demoing some basic MFR techniques. One student said they heard it was possible to do this work on the psoas area and would I demo on him. He is a personal trainer and knows how to take care of his body but he was still having issues with lower left back pain during/after working out. Especially after deadlifts.

I made sure to start very softly and slowly. But as the stretch intensified I could still see his furrowed brow and feel him working through the therapeutic pain. After a little while I got the intuitive sense it was time to start some dialoguing with him to help work through the discomfort. Before I said anything out loud I thought “What if I just send him the message first and see what happens?” So I mentally said and sent to him “What would it feel like if it wasn’t a struggle? What would it feel like if it felt soft?” After a few seconds he started to soften into the stretch even more. Then I asked another student to lightly cradle the back of his head and just gently touch the third eye area. The student on the table softened even more. The lines on his head went away and then we continued and finished the demo.

I only intended to spend five or seven minutes on his psoas but I ended up spending thirty minutes there. What is interesting is that no one, myself included, felt like it took thirty minutes. Time does fly when you are grounded, centered and having fun!

We had him sit up and give the class some feedback on what it felt like. He said initially it felt like the area was tearing or being stretched apart. Good pain but still uncomfortable. Then he started to have a full body sense of having a fever and he was taken back to high school, lying in bed while his mother and girlfriend using cool towels to help keep down the fever. The student was dealing with acute appendicitis in high school at the time and the fever had taken over his whole body. He said that right before the other student touched him he felt his body soften (that is when I was mentally sending him those cues). After the student touched his third eye area he said he felt the unconditional love and comfort of his “high school sweetheart”. Then the feverish feeling went down slightly and continued to dissipate until I was done working on him.

I told him about mentally sending the messages to him and he said “Well it must have worked because I felt it!”

The kinds of body work we do can have such an amazing impact on people’s lives. While I talked about discharging energy within the context of the flight, fight and freeze response I never mentioned reliving past traumas. This student wasn’t “primed” to expect a felt trauma from a past experience. He just felt it and it happened.

A week later I got an update from the massage student. He let me know that after the work we did on Thursday he felt great at the gym working with his clients. THEN when he got home all of the sudden he felt like he had to go to the toilet and have a bowel movement. He said he was in there for so long his kids started knocking on the door and asking him if he was ok. At the time he felt fine just that he couldn’t stop going to the bathroom. He said he was in there thirty minutes or more.

When he was finished he stood up and said it was the best he had felt in years.

Again, there was nothing to prime him to expect something like that to happen his body just took over and healed itself. He was overtaken with how different his body felt after the work and is really looking forward to someday taking Myofascial Release classes."