Workshops
Myofascial Technique Workshops offered at Swedish Institute with Carrie Taylor are currently $250 for a 5 hour class. Each workshop provides 15 CEU contact hours NCBTMB. Please call 212-924-5900 and ask for Continuing Education to reserve your spot, as class sizes are limited. These workshops are open to Licensed Massage Therapists, with some exceptions made for 4th semester students.
Suggested reading: Anatomy Trains by Thomas Myers.
Materials needed: 2 sheets (draping demo also included), 1 towel, 1 pillow, pen & paper, comfortable stretchy clothing (shorts and sports bra or tank top)
Sunday February 7, 2010 9am-2pm Basic Myofascial Release Techniques
-In this intensive hands-on course, participants will learn basic myofascial release techniques such as strain/shear, counterstrain, pick up & roll, skin rolling, pin & drag, using body limbs as levers, and fascial unwinding.
-Demonstrations will show how to apply these techniques to any area of the body, including the sternum, abdomen, scapulae, limbs, back, and neck. The participant will learn how to integrate this style of treatment into their current massage practice.
Sunday March 21, 2010 9am-2pm Basic Myofascial Release Techniques
Sunday April 11, 2010 9am-2pm Basic Myofascial Release Techniques
MORE ABOUT MYOFASCIAL: Fascia is a Connective Tissue (CT) that connects and compartmentalizes everything in the body. It wraps around the organs, blood vessels, nerves, and bone and becomes tendons and ligaments. Fascia is a combination of cells and fibers suspended in a fluid matrix – a mixture that’s almost 70% water. (When they say the body is 90% water and you wonder, where is all that water? Well, you now have an answer.) The majority of that water is in the fascia which, as we already know, is everywhere. The cells in the fascia are primarily immune cells and the fibers, (suspended in that water mixture), are structural fibers, some of which you may have heard of – collagen, elastin, reticulin.
So where does this “myofascial treatment” stuff come in? When everything in the body is working well, the fascia, which is normally a movable and fluid substance, promotes healing. Healthy myofascia ensures that the muscles tendons and ligaments are well lubricated, and can glide against each other or bone smoothly. On the other hand, whenever the body experiences fatigue, stress, trauma or malnutrition, it can damage the ground substance of the fascia which can lead to increased healing time, increased toxins and increased pain sensitivity. Anatomists have learned that fascia responds well to energy, heat, or charge by aligning along the lines of stress placed on it. This is called the “Piezo Electric Effect”. Whenever we touch the body our hands induce a charge. This charge is normally undirected and undetected; however, when a myofascial practitioner directs her or his hands effectively they can use that charge to heat and soften the fascia, and allow it to realign to its healthy state.
A good way to picture fascia is to use the “SWEATER CONCEPT”. Think about what a wet sweater looks like when you first take it from the washing machine. If you just left it balled up then as it dried it would dry with kinks in it. If you lay it flat then it would dry in that position; but, if you hang it, the weight of the water stretches and elongates the fibers of the sweater. When it finally dries it will be longer than when you first put it into the washing machine. If we apply this concept to the fascia in the body: the way the sweater normally exists is similar to the way our fascia exists in a normal state of functioning – dealing with the normal stressors of everyday life. If you abuse it – through exaggerated stress, malnutrition, trauma or fatigue, your fascia starts to look the way that wet sweater looks when you take it out of the dryer. When you receive a myofascial treatment, your fascia begins to look like that sweater that was left hung up to dry. Although this may not be the desired condition of a $400 cashmere sweater, the elongation and softness of the fibers is exactly what you want from your fascia. Warm, lubricated, elongated fascia is happy fascia.
The other interesting trait of fascia is that it is connected throughout the body. Therefore, a fascial plane (a line of connected fascia in the body), can be affected in many different places and these effects can manifest in different places far away from the point of origin. Let’s try another image, let’s think of a fitted sheet on a bed. Imagine that sheet is the fascia of the body. If you move to the foot of the bed and bunch up some of that sheet in your hand, you’ll notice that the sheet stretches and pulls, and you get long wrinkles that sometimes reach all the way to the head of the bed. Now remember, that sheet is our fascia. If that’s the case and you injure or stress some part of the fascia on the bottom of the feet, think about how that fascial plane will pull all the way up the backs of the legs and the back and the neck all the way to the head. You could end up with a headache because of an injury to your foot!
Myofascial treatment seeks to release the entire fascial plane. By releasing the legs you can get relief in the back, by releasing the jaw you can get relief from a migraine, by releasing the pelvis you can get relief in the shoulders and so on and so on. Myofascial treatment can have remarkable results on everything from normal muscle aches and pains to surgery scars, hernias and deep adhesions. Myofascial treatment is a fascinating field that is only recently starting to be explored by therapists with tremendously successful results for patients!