It takes the time that it takes. You can’t rush healing.

You can’t rush the body through its process of releasing…

One of the most challenging elements of my work is not the complexity of someone’s health history, or the issue they are trying to address…

It’s actually being under a time pressure. 

Watch the real time releases of some of the fascial (connective) tissue restrictions in this client’s temporal area/sphenoid release, cervical para-spinal adhesions, gastrocnemius (below). If it doesn’t load here, please see my Instagram post.

Although it might not appear that much is happening, please focus on my hands and watch as they slide independently of each other. (When I work, my awareness is not where my eyes are looking, but the eyes within my fingertips or palms.) Breath & stillness invite presence and “listening” with the hands for the releases. This client is a well-hydrated multi-disciplinary artist…who I know takes care of her body, mind and spirit.

It takes the time it takes, and this “time” depends on many factors, not just the application of a technique. 

Of course, as therapists, we train in different techniques to give an input to the body, signalling for it to do something…in these cases, a fascial technique to help ease the tension between the cellular matrix, however, it’s not just about applying a technique. The technique is only effective if there are other variables present and in play as well; the tissues need to have sufficient hydration: connective tissue is not vascularized (has blood flow) like muscle tissue, this, it gets stiff and stuck faster, and is more tensile, rigid, due to its collagenous nature, and thus it requires an adequate amount of consistent hydration to be malleable and mobile for the soft tissue manipulation techniques we use in massage. 

In our extremely stressful environments, many are chronically stressed, thus chronically dehydrated. Stress creates contraction in the body (even unconsciously, if we’re aware of it or not). This restriction reduces the flow of all fluids in the body: blood, interstitial and waters (both for hydrating cells and for moving cellular debris and wastes out). These days, the chronic dehydration often leads to increase tension in the body. Many clients will say, “but I drink a lot of water.” Let’s upgrade the 8 glasses of water per day idea in this era of chronic stress, bad air and poor postures…8 glasses might have been adequate in another time and under different conditions.

Just considering the amount of stress, and then you could add ones daily activity like gym, walking, sports, parenting…and that 8 glasses is done and used up trying to hydrate the body from stress from weeks before… 

Time to be realistic and fine tune our individual needs to reflect the individual realities we live. 

Another factor is mobility. And yet, when I hear “I drink a lot of water” — and then learn that their daily rhythm includes sitting for 8+ hours, at a desk, driving, traveling, or settled into a couch or bed — water alone doesn’t find its way to the stuck places. The body needs movement to carry it there. It needs to circulate that hydration through itself to get to the layers of cellular fabric that are all stuck and keeping you stuck in stress patterns, postural fatigue and not contributing to your vitality. The body’s tissues need daily stimulation to get this water you’re drinking, around and in between all the layers of tissues.

When we apply techniques, we are introducing an input to the body, signalling it to do something. That input could be an acupuncture needle, or a soft tissue manipulation technique like applying pressure to a trigger point or meridian point…we are merely facilitating a conversation with the body and its pattern, introducing the input to activate a response of opening, release, circulation…

Depending merely on hydration and tissue texture and movability, the technique can facilitate this opening of the tissues, it could take under a minute or several minutes…

And very often the root of surface tension/restrictions, is really deeply rooted in a chronic fascial pattern in the body that often is connected to the tissues around the restriction point, or even in another area of the body. 

Myofascial trains will show that there are chains and patterns of fascia in the body that require us to not limit the release to one area, but to release the whole chain.

And this friends, takes time. It takes time to listen in with our touch, and follow a restriction to facilitate its release. Our bodies are wise and know what they need to do when given a moment to engage in self-healing. The input of stillness, the zero point or still point that we use in several modalities, offers the body a moment of recalibration, a neutral state, to then undo the chronic pattern. The clients quality of breathing & hydration of tissues, are vital components to the practitioner listening and following these releases. 

Hydration aside, we are also faced with the layers of trauma that the body is retaining. In any given moment of a treatment, the body may be hydrated and ready to release or if it’s still guarding for whatever reason, the release might take longer or require several sessions within an adequate time frame and the clients commitment to doing their inner work to facilitate the release (facing the trauma…).

As my life’s work continues to unfold, I am going to be introducing some important, long-overdue and vital changes to how I choose to show up in serving the world. It’s time to shift how we’ve been offering our energy – to be unbound from time restraints and tying our rates to a time frame, rather than the value of the gifts we provide. 

Would you be open to receiving a session that has no timeframe, purely based on release and the work that unfolds?