This blogpost started out as an email to my clients. But the more I tried to explain, the longer and more in depth the content got. And let’s face it, not everyone is going to want to read all this! However, if you do take the time, I hope you gain a deeper understanding on the role of the fascia and how it affects not only our physical bodies, but emotional bodies too.
I have previously written a blogpost on fascia, please see here: https://www.auraflow.co.uk/blog/trigger-point-pilates-and-fascia
What is Fascia?
A brief reminder on what Fascia is: A fibrous, connective tissue made up of collagen, elastin and ground substance. It is a 3D matrix that weaves continuously throughout our bodies, from head to toe. Surrounding and protecting everything from blood vessels, organs, muscles, bone and skin. It is our communication highway and largest sensory organ in the body. Did you know, its contains 250 million nerve endings! That means it relays information from every part of our body back to our brain and works intrinsically with our nervous system and the Vagus Nerve. The Vagus Nerve communicates changes in the fascia to the brain and back again, helping to regulate your autonomic nervous system: Sympathetic (fight or flight) and Parasympathetic (rest and digest) states.
When fascia is healthy, it allows for a gliding motion between tissues. Healthy fascia is hydrated through movement, conscious and deep breathing, Myofascial Release and massage. Unhealthy fascia, known as fascial restrictions, becomes dehydrated, sticky, dense, thick and bound down, creating pain, inflammation and compensatory movement. These restrictions can then lead to further pain in the body, and cause a cycles of dis-ease, inflammation and chronic pain. Fascial restrictions can occur from physical injury, emotional overwhelm, trauma, inflammation (disease or surgery), poor postural habits or lack of movement.
Chronic pain and Fascia Informed Bodywork
Everyone has differing reasons and outcomes for experiencing chronic pain. There is more and more research coming out about chronic pain in the form of migraine headaches, IBS, Fibromyalgia, Chronic Fatigue and more and the role of a dysregulated Nervous system. For when we experience a trauma, be it physical or emotional, we go into shock and either freeze (immobile) or faint (collapse), causing the fascia to contract. The charge from the shock, if not resolved becomes stored and continues to build in the body, creating a sense of stuckness. This can lead to a disconnect in the body and ultimately disassociation. With chronic pain, reconnecting to the body is more difficult because there can be a fear that you may relive painful experiences emotionally and / or physically. Disconnect and disassociation are forms of survival mode to protect you.
One of the ways Fascia Informed Bodywork can help is by regulating the nervous system and bring it back into equilibrium. Where massage is by doing to the body, FIB is allowing the body to receive, inviting a healing to happen on a very deep level. The techniques are gentle and non intrusive yet incredibly effective, addressing not just the physical aspects / symptoms of the pain but also the emotional holding patterns within it.
One caveat being however, if you have been suffering with a chronic pain, illness or injury for a long time, this is not a one time process. Chances are, you have disconnected from parts of yourself and reconnecting is a journey of self discovery and coming back home to you. Noticing, feeling into, having awareness of these sensations and acknowledging that they are there; allowing them to move through the body are key for a conscious and subconscious change in the tissues and cellular memory.
What happens during a session?
During a session, the client could experience:
– heat or cold running through the body
– pins and needles
– a need or desire to stretch or move limbs / part of the body – — yawning
– deep relaxation
– sensations in other parts of the body, away from the Therapists touch
– tremors
– emotions such as irritation, wanting to cry, sobbing tears, anger, laughter.
– Or very simply, nothing much at all.
There are no right or wrong ways for a session to go, every one will be different depending on where we are at that day. Our bodies generally know how much we can handle and have their own innate wisdom to return us back to health. We just need to listen to that internal messenger.
In order to facilitate long lasting change, a dialogue between the client and Therapist is pivotal. This conversation can bring that awareness to certain parts of the body, inviting a sense of change in tissue length or density, it can invite a change in sensation in the area, allowing for energy to be moved through the body; it can create a shift in feelings or emotions, bring back a memory. Allowing these things to move through the body and complete the stress cycle that has been stored in the body for potentially years.
As my teacher says, ‘there is no healing without feeling’. We must be aware and tune into our bodies in order for the change to happen. Acknowledging the change from both the Therapist and client. Taking the time to connect with the body and spending time in one hold to invite the change in the tissues, creating that sense of safety in the body. Regulating the nervous system, establishing trust between the client and Therapist. Without that combination, the fascia will work like an elastic band, lengthening for a short time but going back to the original length, meaning temporary change rather than long term.
