Less than two years ago I made the decision to give my resignation. 

I did not know what my future would hold. If I would ever be able to return to physical therapy, cycling or enjoying the mountains at elevation. 

I went into visceral manipulation course hoping to learn another way for clients then having to take so many supplements and pharmaceuticals. The obvious hope of learning in my first course focusing on the abdomen was how to help the drainage pathways so patients and athletes could eliminate inflammation and inflammatory pathogens that create musculoskeletal pain. The reason most clients end up in front of me.

When it comes to health & healing, I get a lot of questions about one muscle group, a supplement, a book, or a nervous system exercise. There is likely no one thing is going to heal you (especially if the issue is chronic). Just like it is not just one part of your body that was injured. You have to heal the whole.

My hope is that collectively by sharing information and my journey that we can elevate our current sick care system and make changes so that we actually support providing health care. I truly believe lives could change.

Drainage…

How do we take something that has been made so complex and break it down to understand it?

Think of the drains in your house. The kitchen sink drains down to the basement or under the home (think lymphatic system). Gravity helps. What if something is too big or greasy for the sink to break down? The garbage disposal and soap help (just like the liver and gallbladder).

The feet are the foundation on which we stand. Supporting our bony and soft tissue structure should be a priority.

There are 26 bones and 33 joints in the foot and ankle that are all made to bend and move upon one another. When you stiffen one portion (because your big toe has become a bunion or you add a hard and rigid insole), another part of your body will pay the price due to compensatory strategies. Your arch was made to support your hip and knee structure and alignment. Make sure you are in the right hands with a physical therapist helps you address the whole body (holistically).

It sounds a lot like lions and tigers and bears… oh my. The parasympathetic nervous system, vagal tone and polyvagal theory are a complex topic that we will attempt to break down and simplify.

We now understand that our bodies reactions are a direct correlation triggered by our nervous system due to automatic (primitive) processes, past experiences and sensory feedback.

I am learning that there are many other people out there struggling with different health challenges as I walk this journey recovering from the effects of toxic mold. The one thing that we all have in common is the desire to help others, the necessity to self-advocate and the feeling of isolation.

Have you ever wondered why it takes you longer to heal from the common cold, skin to close from a wound, inflammation to subside, nerve pain lingers, joint pain will not go away?

The weather began to warm and whether you hit the ground running or you were at the end of your spring sport season and wore your body down, you are most likely recovering. As you are progressing from that spring time strain, my patients have asked “to stretch or not to stretch????”

“So what if we didn’t slap bandaids and started paying attention to clues the body was leaving to determine the root cause?”