8921 Three Chopt Road, Suite 100 Richmond, VA 23229
Body Memory Recall
(90 minutes, $190.00) Three Day Intensives are also available ~ jump start your transformation!
"KAREN POSSESES THE PRIMARY ATTRIBUTE OF A GREAT THERAPIST; SHE WALKS HER TALK. KAREN DEMONSTRATES COMMITMENT, VULNERABILIY, AND DEDICATION TO TRANSFORMING HER FEARS, RELEASING HER PAIN AND EMBRACING HER CAPACITIY FOR TRUE HAPPINESS. SHE IS A LEADER AND A GREAT ROLE MODEL FOR THOSE WHO SEEK SUPPORT IN THEIR PERSONAL GROWTH, HEALING AND TRANSFORMATION."
JONATHAN TRIPODI, FOUNDER OF BMR
1.. What is Body Memory?
Body memory refers to the energy of past experiences that is suppressed in the body. The body converts the physical sensations, emotions and psychological impressions of one's experiences into various forms of energy. When a person feels overwhelmed or stressed, a protective mechanism is triggered that supresses the experience in the body, until a later date when they are able to release it.
Body memory creates tension that adversely affects the function of every system in the body. It has been discovered that many of the chronic, recurrent symptoms a person commonly experiences in their body are caused by body memory that has accumulated for years.
2. What is Body Memory Recall?
Body Memory Recall (BMR) is a form of therapeutic bodywork that integrates myofascial release, cranial sacral therapy, visceral myofascial release and unwinding. Collectively, these modalities comprehensively treat the effects of body memory and activates a person's innate ability to release it.
The BMR approach was developed in 1997 by Jonathan A. Tripodi, a physical therapist and pioneer in the field of body memory therapy.
3. A Brief Description of BMR Techniques
When a person relaxes enough for protective tensions to release, the release of supprressed body memory occurs. Stress in the body takes the form of energy. As body memory releases, there is a flow of energy that stimulates involuntary movement .
A therapist cannot make unwinding happen. He can only support it to occur. With gentle, sensitive touch, a BMR therapist communicates safety to the body which disarms outdated protective responses and allows unwinding to occur.
As the body unwinds, it may shake or tremble, get hot or cold and suppressed emotions can surface and release. Sometimes, individuals will involuntarily move into positions of old injuries or trauma, an experience referred to as "positional memory release."
Because of our lack of familiarity with unwinding and the fear of losing control, our body's most powerful ability to heal itself has been minimized to yawning. Yawning is the most common experience of unwinding which coincides with a release of tension. The beauty of unwinding is that we were designed to do it. A BMR therapist can help you to experience unwinding more deeply and experience relief unlike anything you previously imagined was possible.
Myofascial Release
Myofascial release is the component of BMR that treats connective tissue, also referred to as fascia. Fascia is a continuous, web-like tissue that surrounds and interconnects every structure in your body. Unlike a muscle that has a defined location in the body, fascia is three dimensional and is uninterrupted from head to toe.
Research in biophysics has revealed how connective tissue when hydrated becomes a liquid crystaline substance capable of receiving, storing and transmiting our experiences in the form of bioelectricity. When body memory develops, it is encoded in part within connective tissue.
Body memory causes muscles to tense which, over time, strains the surrounding fascia causing it to harden and restrict. Since fascia surrounds every structure in the body, fascial restrictions distribute tension throughout the body. Myofascia tension and restriction directly cause muscle and joint problems, including pain and mal-alignment.
Myofascial release consists of gentle, sustained pressure and stretch into myofascial tension and restriction for 3-5 minutes, sometimes longer, until a release is felt. As the restriction is released, movement is restored and so is the transmission of suppressed energy or body memory.
Myofascial release techniques can be applied to all major areas of the body including the arms, legs, back and neck.
The freeze response creates a high degree of tension in the body. In his book, Waking the Tiger, Phd psychologist Peter Levine describes how humans can remain in the freeze response long after the threatening or overwhelming experience has passed. This explains why so many people remain tense despite good therapy and exercise that does release the freeze response. The freeze response maintains muscle guarding even while you sleep.
Cranial Sacral Therapy consists of light, sensitive touch to areas of the head, body and spine, which relaxes the nervous system and releases the freeze response. Cranial sacral techniques are also used to release connective tissue or fascial restrictions around the spinal cord, brain, sacrum and head.
The abdominal psoas muscles, pelvic floor and respiratory diaphragm are three primary muscles that lock down in response to stress. When stress is suprressed, especially emotion, these muscles stay tight creating abdominal tensions that collectively cause shallow breathing, alter spinal and pelvic alignment and compress organs. In this way, body memory has been directly linked to low back pain, pelvic pain, spastic colon, gastric reflux, colicystitis, constipation, infertility and incontinence.
Visceral Myofascial Release incorporates gentle, rhythmic massage with sustained pressure and stretch around organs, the diaphragm and pelvic floor which helps to release muscle guarding, surgical scarring and body memory. Visceral myofascial release improves breathing, proper digestion, elimination, reproduction and circulation.
4. What is a BMR session like?
Interview: Your BMR session begins with an interview, during which you share with the therapist your medical history, current health conditions and goals for treatment. The therapist may also inquire about traumatic, stressful or particularly stressful experiences, past or present, which are often the source of body memory. Examples include injuries, illness, pain, trauma, abuse, surgery and overwhelming change.
Posture Evaluation: The interview is followed by an evaluation of your posture. The therapist will look for evidence of the freeze response and myofascial tension which pulls the body out of its ideal alignment. She will also identify "epicenters" or central areas of tension.
Imagine if you scrunched the center of a flat sheet. You would notice the tension created in the center of the sheet would extend into all four corners. Epicenters of tension in the body have a similar effect. A BMR therapist identifies and treats epicenters of tension which tend to be the primary cause of stress, pain and dysfunction.
Treatment:The therapist utilizes the information gathered in the interview and the postural evaluation to begin hands on treatment. Once his hands contact your body, he relys on the highly trained senses in her hands to locate and treat body memory. BMR bodywork may be combined with therapeutic dialogue to encourage relaxation and deepen the self healing process.
Follow-up Treatment:After your BMR treatment, the therapist will note changes in your posture, ask you how you feel from the treatment and provide recommendation on how to proceed. The frequency of treatment depends on what you want to achieve, the condition of your body and how you respond to the initial treatments.
Self Care & Home Exercises:Your therapist will provide you with self care recommendations including exercises that will help you maintain and further your progress. If needed, he may recommend that you include other health care professionals such as a personal trainer, counselor, acupuncturist, dietician or physician to comprehensively address your unique needs for healing.
5. How do you feel after a BMR treatment?
You may feel relaxed and experience increased freedom of movement. Symptoms, such as pain, can temporarily increase from the release of stored stress but eventually decreases considerably as your body integrates and returns to a state of balance.
It takes energy to integrate the physical freedom, toxins, emotions and memories from a release of body memory. In general, a short period of rest, adequate hydration, vital nutrition and gentle exercise will maximize the integration process.
6. Can you feel worse from BMR?
Yes, There can be down times when you feel worse, but these periods are temporary and followed by significant change and progress.
7. What if memories surface?
If memories surface, your therapist will guide you to open to and release them. Insights can occur during or after a memory recall that provide you with a new understanding about yourself and your past. If needed, your BMR therapist will recommend that you incorporate counseling, journaling or other self help therapies that support you to integrate and resolve your body memories.
Vivid awareness of a specific event does not always accompany a release. Individuals can carry a melting pot of stress from many different experiences over many years; most of which is physical and emotional. For the most part, to release these accumulated stresses is all that is needed.
Keep in mind that body memory refers to those experiences that you have already survived. But surviving an experience is different from resolving it. Survival involves protection. Protection involves suppressing and disconnecting from an experience. BMR supports a person to release, integrate and thus resolve body memory; a transformational process that we are all designed to do to maintain ideal health, function and vitality.
8. Who is a good candidate to receive BMR?
A good candidate for BMR is anyone suffering from pain, stress, emotional challenges, overwhelming change, or a particularly challenging condition that has failed to resolve from other forms of treatment and therapy. BMR is safe and effective for seniors, children and infants and provides both relief and resolution of the conditions listed below. It is particulary effective when combined with chiropractic, acupuncture, proper hydration and nutrition.
Joint & Muscle Dysfunctions
Fibromyalgia
Low Back Pain
Sacral Iliac Pain
Neck Pain
Joint & Muscle Pain
TMJ
Headaches
Scoliosis
Restricted Movement
Post-Surgical Pain & Dysfunction
Organ Dysfunctions
Digestive & Intestinal Disorders
Gallstones
Asthma
Breathing Problems
Immune System Disorders
Fibromyalgia
Lupus
Pediatric Conditions
Scoliosis
Autism
ADD
Hyperactivity
Infant Conditions
Colic
Torticolis
Poor Shaped Head
Breathing Problems
Stress Conditions
Anxiety & Depression
Fatigue
Shock
Phobias & Fears
Reproductive & Pelvic Conditions
Infertility
Pelvic Pain
Ovarian Cysts
Loss of Libido