What is body-centered
therapy?
Therapeutic offerings at heartwood
yoga & body-centered therapies include Therapeutic
Bodywork
and Yoga
Therapy.
We chose the term 'body-centered
therapies' to describe our work because we feel it accurately
expresses our understanding of the role of therapist and
therapy in support of individual healing. We first wanted to
communicate that our therapeutic approach toward our clients is
through the physical body (i.e. manipulation of soft tissue,
passive and active movement of the body, and development of
breath). And we also wanted to express our understanding that, though the approach may be physical, the
entire being is affected - physically, mentally, emotionally,
and, spiritually. We feel it makes a
difference when the therapist and the individual receiving
therapy approach their work together with the understanding
that healing is a return to wholeness, a journey that does not
allow for parts to be left behind..
While the orientation of western medicine is to treat the
disease; the orientation of yoga therapy is to treat the whole
person. Yoga therapy
is based on the fact that, despite the frequent successes and undisputed
value of our modern medicine, most healing results from the
body’s remarkable resiliency and natural recuperative
powers. One might accurately offer that Western medicine
is a medicine adding much to the health and well-being of
humankind but a medicine still not all-encompassing in its
understanding of disease or its capacity to make whole.
For some, including the understanding and accumulated wisdom
of other traditional medicines clearly makes
sense.
Yoga therapy offers an approach to wellness founded on
the observation that each of us is an ever-changing process
arising out of hereditary factors, mental and emotional
attitudes, dietary habits, exercise patterns, and a host of
environmental factors. It holds that each of these
factors is intimately linked to our present state of health
and together will act to influence future states of wellness.
Yoga therapy is founded on the
belief that healing is a natural process, one that arises from
within and only when the appropriate conditions exist.
In yoga therapy we are most interested in coming to understand
and alter the factors that might be inhibiting this natural
process. The underlying goal of the therapist is to help
the individual discover and understand what in their life is skillful and
supporting harmony and healing and what is
unskillful and causing separation and dis-ease. The work
then is to find ways to cultivate what is skillful in attitude
and action and to let go of what is not. This is therapy
intended to help each person discover their own innate ability
to heal and to support each person in that process. Even
in cases where the underlying disease (dis-ease) cannot be
cured, yoga therapy can still make a valuable contribution to
the physical, emotional, and spiritual health of the person.
Yoga Therapy sessions are designed
to meet the individual needs of the person coming for
therapy. Sessions might include breathing retraining,
instruction in techniques to calm and focus the mind, or
development of a personal program of simple
movements to release chronic tension, develop structural balance and strength,
or open blockages to the free flow healing energy within the
body. Back
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Our therapeutic bodywork sessions vary according to the needs of those who come to us for this
work. Therapeutic bodywork can be a treatment in itself
to relieve the cumulative effects of stress on body and mind,
or a therapy in support of other treatment regimens.
Physical stress often
accumulate from vigorous activities such as athletics,
child-rearing, or gardening. But significant injuries
are just as likely to be the result of low-grade, chronic,
long-term stresses arising out of hours spent at the computer,
telephone, or driving. Mental, physical, and emotional
stresses often combine to eventually show themselves neck, shoulder or low back
pain, high blood pressure, TMJ dysfunction, chronic fatigue, diffuse
myofascial pain, and disruptions to natural sleep
patterns.
When dealing with physical pain or discomfort initial efforts are directed toward relief of symptoms
such as the
pain itself or the limited range-of-motion associated with the
pain.
This work usually joins various soft tissue therapies aimed at
relieving primary contributors to soft tissue pain: excess
muscle tension, myofascial restrictions, soft tissue inflammation,
swelling, and the accumulation of metabolic waste products
As acute symptoms subside; a more
global approach is adopted with a focus on understanding and
correcting the factors
contributing to the onset or the prolongation of symptoms.
Finally, work moves to developing a plan aimed at reducing the likelihood of
recurrence. Often this means better management of the initial
stressors whether physical,
mental, emotional; or some combination. Treatment
strategies frequently include recommendations for
simple changes in environmental and lifestyle factors at work or home
and
training in a series of postural re-balancing
exercises.
If you have questions about our therapy offerings please
take the time to communicate with us. You may contact
either of us for further information by telephone
or via email (Kate
or John).
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heartwood yoga - birmingham, alabama
instructors: john lemunyon,
ryt - kate tremblay, ryt
private and classroom yoga instruction in the classical tradition
yoga therapy
therapeutic bodywork
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heartwood
yoga & body centered therapies