In a nutshell:
I WANT YOU TO HAVE THE TOOLS TO REGULATE MENTAL, EMOTIONAL, AND PHYSICAL STATES WHEN THEY ARISE ORGANICALLY OUTSIDE OF THE TREATMENT ROOM!
Let me explain:
I believe and partake in all kinds of therapies. In fact, I have learned how to employ specific therapies to further my healing, by learning how to determine which therapy might assist me in my process in the current context and moment. But, I have experienced that no therapy will truly work, or last, if that therapy is not administered or presented in a way that turns on an inner ‘light bulb,’ or “ah-ha” moment of understanding in the client; that includes the client in the process. In other words, that engages and connects the client’s own neurological processes so as to be able to integrate the work. Furthermore, true “therapy” should EMPOWER the client with the knowledge and ability to identify, resolve, and integrate issues that occur on a daily basis, when the body naturally presents them, and when one cannot instantly appear in a therapist’s office for assistance!
Welcome to a therapy that teaches you how to awaken and trust your innate therapist. Modern medicine often disregards the client’s own perspective of their condition, and gives one a ‘third-person’ view of the body, which is not always accurate. Even the modalities of ‘alternative medicine,’ though generally holistic, are usually delivered by an expert who is ‘doing something to you,’ the client, from an outside point of view. Unless one is helped to understand their condition from an inside, ‘first-person’ perspective, and taught to participate in their own healing process, continuously repeated sessions might be ‘deemed necessary.’ Treatment results may only last a few days, and can become very expensive!
I am not stating that alternative medicine is not beneficial. I have consistently used modalities such as Chiropractic Neurology, Acupuncture, MyoFascial Release and Structural Bodywork, NeuroKinetic Therapy, Personal Training, and Rolfing. However, until I learned to use these therapies somatically, I was throwing money away. Very few, if any, therapists will teach you how to change your condition from within, so that you do not need to return for multiple sessions. They might teach you a stretch or an exercise, but what is really needed is to learn how to change the way your brain is keeping you in that injury or stress pattern, or mental or emotional state. Nothing will “fix” you, unless you learn how to re-pattern the way your brain is controlling your body.
The intention of Applied Somatic Therapy (AST) is to help you to reawaken your Mindbody’s physiological self-healing mechanism. It is not only ‘holistic,’ but ‘wholistic.’ And yes, although the Structural Bodywork and Myofascial Release portions of AST modalities are technically performed ‘on you,’ or ‘to you,’ from another person’s viewpoint, they are executed in specific ways so as to empower you with a keen sense of self-awareness. Yes, I can help relieve acute pain, enhance athletic performance, and reverse damage caused by repetitive motion and other stressors. But I will do so in a way so as to help you retrain the way your brain has kept your body in subconscious patterns of recurring pain, and thereby help you to regain conscious control of your self-body, and your life!