​​If like many people these days you are looking for non-chemical, noninvasive ways to address pain and physical dysfunction, either for yourself or (if a bodywork practitioner) for your clients, Chapman’s Neurolymphatic Reflexes might provide an answer. 
​
One hundred years ago, osteopathic practitioner Dr. Frank Chapman recognized and used reflex points that correlated to the Chinese & Japanese Acupressure systems. He identified a system of points on the body where bound or reactive nerves impede the circulation of lymph fluid. These nerves are connected to various internal organs and skeletal muscles. When these organs or muscles are stressed (for example, by injury or disease), the connected nerves contract and impede the flow of lymphatic fluid.  This can be observed by physically palpating the Chapman’s Neuro-lymphatic Reflex points and feeling the stagnant lymph.

A positive result (represents an imbalance in the distal organs including the adrenals, lungs, kidneys, and intestines as well as muscles and muscle groups) is indicated by a small bump, variously described as being the size of a BB, a tapioca bead, or half of a pea. The bumps are smooth and solid but not hard. They are loosely anchored to the area; in other words, they move but not much. These points might also feel ropy. They do not radiate pain the way that trigger points do, instead, the pain is local within the point itself.

The bump itself, along with the pain response, indicates a reduction of nerve flow with the connected organ or muscle. In this way, Chapman’s Neurolymphatic Reflexes are an assessment tool.

Perhaps more importantly than as an assessment tool, Chapman theorized, appropriate stimulation of these points offers an avenue to balance the organs, nervous system and lymph system.  Thus, creating a holistic approach to various physical dysfunction and pain. This stimulation, not to be confused with massage, releases the bound nerves and improves the circulation of lymphatic fluid. Lymph fluid is an important component of the immune system. 

Chapman theorized the stimulation and movement of lymph improved immune response. In addition, he believed when the bound-up nerve was released, the function of the connected body part was also improved. Chapman recorded  hundreds of case studies that showed efficacy and proved many of his theories.  Chapman’s Neuro-lymphatic Reflex Points offer not only a balancing tool but also an avenue for helping the effected organs to more optimal function.

What then constitutes appropriate stimulation of Chapman’s Neuro-lymphatic Reflexes? For assessment and subtle treatment, the points are stimulated for about 15 seconds. This  pressure is directed on top of the skin going ever so lightly into the lymph to check for a small bump or bead type structure under the skin. This allows the practitioner to locate the reflex point and helps the practitioner or individual  determine whether the client has a pain response.  If there is a pain response then additional balancing is required to alleviate the blocked lymph. 

For a stronger effect on the point there are three ways to release Chapman's Reflex points.  

First ~ Pandiculation. The practitioner can either use directed compression or traction at an angle that impacts the point in a specific way.  The angle, along with the catalyst allows the lymph fluid to move and releases it from the area and discontinues blocking the nerve ganglia.  The angle is kind of like wringing out a sponge. Pandiculation is by far the most effective in working with Chapman's system.  Pandiculation is also incredibly effective when working in the Chinese Ethnomedicine & Japanese Ethnomedicine Systems.

Second ~ Abrupt Stimulation.  This technique takes longer, can be painful and can take between 30 seconds and two minutes per point location. It is abrupt stimulation of the point with the fingertips pressing in a 90% angle into the Tsubo/Psubo.  The stimulation directly impacts the lymph and nerve ganglia where the lymph can become stuck.  This system is not as gentle as Pandiculation and can lead to a strong detoxification process for the client.  If done incorrectly or too many points are stimulated, it can produce uncomfortable results for the client and make them feel nauseous and sick to their stomachs.

Third ~ Lymph Pushing ~  light tapping or smoothing out the actual lymph fluid within the reflex point.  A light touch is both necessary and sufficient because lymph structures are delicate and very close to the surface of the body.  Again, because we are moving the fluid, this method should be handled with great perception and care.  

Caution should always be taken as some clients have an uncomfortable reaction to the treatment.  This is called Menken in Japanese Ethnomedicine.  This is not in any way a contraindication and in Eastern Philosophies is expected.  It is a detoxification process. Always remember, less is more with Chapman's.  Only stimulate about 3-5 points per day and in an order from the legs upwards.  

Some clients have what is called a menken in Japanese Ethnomedicine where the points put them into a detoxification spiral.  The client might feel a little lightheaded as the body detoxifies.  Always speak to your Doctor before starting any self-care program or seeking complimentary and holistic services.

A knowledgeable practitioner will be able to guide their client through a series of  pandiculations, abrupt stimulation and lymph pushing that will release the Chapman's reflexes.  A professional will not simply follow a protocol, but will design a session specifically for that persons body, biochemistry and historical health imbalances.  
​
Chapman did not share his work with the public. I have often theorized it was because his work stemmed from acupressure & acupuncture charts that were not favorable and considered pseudo-science at the time. In some religious settings, acupressure & acupuncture were even considered demonic. Today, mainstream and even modern medicine are beginning to recognize these practices as valid and efficacious with case studies showing positive results. 

Instead of sharing his body of work and where he got the points from, Frank Chapman passed away with the majority of his work & knowledge unpublished.  After his death, Chapman's partner Dr. Charles Owens wrote about the Neuro-lymphatic Reflexes in the book "An Endocrine Interpretation of Chapman’s Reflexes",  (1937). The book was a brief compilation of Chapman's notes, research, case studies and illustrations.

In this work, Owens provided charts of 50 distinct reflexes. Many of these points are located on the front side of the body between the ribs where the ribs meet, the sternum, and on the back of the body along the spine. Chapman's Reflexology spinal points are the same as the Shu Points in Chinese Acupressure & Ethnomedicine.  Chapman's torso points are the same as the Alarm Points in Chinese Acupressure & Bo Points in Japanese Shiatsu & EthnoMedicine.  Clients can stimulate these points or have a practitioner do so. 

Over the years, Chapman's Neurolymphatic Reflexology System was almost lost completely because of laws that limited this practice even though it was not dangerous or harmful to the public. 

​Quite the opposite, it is effective in balancing the body. 

At the same time that Chapman's Reflexology Micro-System was criminalized, almost all other holistic health practices including herbalism, reflexology, homeopathy, nutrition, yoga and many other alternative health care practices were outlawed as well.   This criminalization of all holistic health was due to Medical Practice Acts passed in almost every state in the 1920's & 1930's. These laws made all alternative health illegal.  Even today, complimentary and adjunctive holistic practices are only legal in 10 states.     

Not until 2013, after 14 grueling years of trying to change the law, did we finally accomplish that goal in the state of Colorado.  Myself and a handful of extremely dedicated individuals were able to reverse the laws that made all holistic and adjunctive health care practices illegal in the state of Colorado & New Mexico.  This included Chapman's Reflexology system. 

During the time of our legislative challenge, I could actually practice legally in the state of Colorado under my professional licensing.  Even though I could practice legally, I felt to exclude any healing modality from a human being (and their animals) was a crime against humanity. 

An ethical healing act between two people should never be criminalized.  I am excited that herbalism, nutrition, Chapman's & many other healing modalities are once again legal, but we have many states to go. To date there are only 10 states where holistic health modalities are legal.

Today, there are very few instructors that know Chapman's Neurolymphatic Reflexology well.  I was very blessed over 25+ years to have learned, practiced and now teach this impactful system. As a historian, and now instructor of Ethnomedicine, it has been my life-long passion to find practices that are highly effective.  I have spent a lifetime learning as much as I could from familial and lineage based mentorship and acedemic learning so these modalities are not erased permanently from our body of knowledge.  It's a privilege and honor that I might share what I know with anyone who might want to learn.  It is also a great success that we now all have the freedom to do so.

A word of warning...  We could lose these freedoms very easily with the stroke of a pen. Today, tomorrow or the next legislative cycle we are always being threatened to lose our health freedom laws. 

Six years later, I still have to actively work to uphold your rights to health care choices. Once a law is passed that is when the true work begins to maintain it.  Every year, I fight at the capitol against many organizations, groups, professionals and individuals that would take your basic right to health away from you once again.  There are many who want to criminalize the human act of healing. 

​What is most unfortunate is many people who fight against Health Freedom Laws in the United States are holistic practitioners themselves.  Actively promoting legislation that would create monopolies which benefit them financially while excluding those with great knowledge and skill.  For more information on maintaining the legality of holistic practices please join our facebook group HERE and sign up for our newsletters by returning to our homepage.  

We have made great strides in upholding your rights to choose holistic health care and we will continue to do so, however, we do need your help.  The opposition gets stronger every year.

For now, I'm excited that Chapman's Neuro-lymphatic Reflexes are out in the public domain again and are actively helping people to have stronger and better lives.  

Until next time,

Kim M. Green, Founder
www.advancedtherapyinstitute.net

Kim is the Founder and Senior Instructor at Advanced Therapy Institute of Touch.  She teaches laypeople and professionals alike advanced bodywork techniques which utilize Integrative Meridian Therapy, Hara Assessment, Somatic Trauma Release therapies, Japanese Ethnomedicine & Chinese Acupressure and Musculoskeletal Rehabilitative forms of bodywork.  She loves teaching practitioners to assist their clients in releasing long-held chronic injury, traumas or somato-emotional patterns that reduce a persons ability to enjoy their lives fully.  At ATIT, we believe "All Things Are Possible!"  Check out our School Tour.  Please go to the links FMI on taking ATIT's Reflexology Certifications or Massage Therapy Certification.

We have a new blog coming soon on Chapman's Neurolymphatc Reflexes.  Please keep checking back.  After a bit of a down time, our monthly blogs will soon recommence.

Blessings,

Kim M. Green, Founder
www.advancedtherapyinstitute.net

In ancient acupuncture and acupressure practices, there were points known as diagnostic points, which would access a number of body systems at once.  These points would allow the practitioner to determine what was out of balance in their client. Over the years, they observed that these same points could be used as treatments in addition to assessing imbalance. This became known as “reflexology". These points are located over many different parts of the body, including the hands, feet, back, chest, ears, nose, long bones, reproductive organs and scalp. Today we’re going to focus on the scalp, and the many ways that accessing specific points on the scalp can bring balance to your body.

When you apply gentle pressure to reflexology points on the scalp, it sends a calming message to the peripheral nerves that flows into the central nervous system.  This then sends a signal to the body to adjust the levels of tension in your body, increasing blood flow, increasing oxygenation in the blood and stimulating the organ that the nerve controls. Specific stimulation to certain points, allows the process of reflexology to create an overall sense of relaxation. 

In Reflexology and Acupressure we stimulate specific points that are related to organ function. By stimulating specific points reflexology increases blood supply to your internal organs allowing for optimal function. When your organs receive an optimal amount of oxygen via your blood, it enhances the delivery of nutrients as well as the removal of waste from your cells. Reflexology can also provide pain reduction through its calming effect on your central nervous system.

Before we dive into this subject, I’d like to caution you that the head is vital to your health and well-being. You should always be careful and seek out a professional who is specifically trained with hands-on classes and well-educated in reflexology and acupressure, especially scalp reflexology. There are many workshops popping up online that offer no hands on training whatsoever.  These workshops are limited and only teach a few protocols that are not effective with the majority of the population.  Someone trained through only online courses with no real hands on requirements usually will not have the training to facilitate a reflexology and acupressure session properly. You do not want to spend money on ineffective treatments nor do you want to have anyone work on your body that is not properly trained.  Always ask about training, how many hours the person trained for and if they had actual hands on training during their certification process. If there was no hands-on training, I would suggest finding a different practitioner that did have hands on training.  There are many great online classes that require hands-on training in conjunction with online lecture. These are perfectly acceptable. Your therapist should be well trained with hands on practicum.  Not solely internet training.  Why is this?

The scalp is sensitive, and the pressure used should be gentle and specific.  The scalp also controls many functions through the brain and in scalp reflexology we are engaging those functions directly. If trained appropriately in how to deal with root cause, most practitioners can enhance your optimal health.  If a practitioner is solely trained with protocols it is not addressing the underlying issue and your problem will remain the same even though the therapy might feel good.   At Advanced Therapy Institute of Touch, students are instructed in the delicate nature of the scalp. They also receive thorough training and instruction to become skilled at administering scalp reflexology in a gentle, non-invasive way while identifying and working through root cause.

What’s so fascinating about scalp reflexology is that the points on your scalp correspond to your body as if you overlaid the image of a two people laying over the top of your head.  It starts with a body lying supine, with their head at your forehead and their feet pointing toward your ears. Where the feet point down towards your temple/ear area on the reflexology chart is actually the part of the brain that engages motor function.  This brain center allows you to move your legs and arms.  It also allows you to feel sensation in your legs and arms.

The second half of the reflexology chart in Tibetan Scalp Reflexology then has another body lying prone with their head at the base of your skull and feet pointing again towards your ears.  On the Reflexology chart, where the eyes lay at the back of the head is the part of the brain that actually controls vision through the optic nerve. If someone gets hit at the back of the head in this area, it usually causes problems with vision and can even cause blindness.

It has always amazed me that in Scalp Reflexology, ancient Chinese & Tibetan Doctors had such strong biological knowledge of how the brain was wired.  Their knowledge allowed them to create a chart that corresponded to specific  areas of the brain that controlled our basic daily human processes.  Processes such as movement, sight, hearing, sensation and touch.  All this without any research from western medicine or knowing how the brain worked based on what we consider scientific data of today.  It was brilliant!  

    Some beneficial areas that can be effected through scalp reflexology are:

Motor Skills/Balance: The areas affecting your motor skills and legs are located at the crown of your head, following the central line in the middle of your head, and lines parallel on either side going down to your temple.

Hearing/Speech: Approximately two finger widths above the top of you ear is the line governing your hearing, as well as vertigo. Move immediately down to find the area affecting your speech abilities.

Eyesight: If you experience blurred vision or the inability to use your peripheral vision, the areas running along the back of your occipital ridge on either side of the midline of your scalp can help correct the problem.

Reproduction: Yes, scalp reflexology can really affect any part of your anatomy! Lines on your upper forehead, past your hairline, running directly upward from your outer eyebrow can help with your reproductive organs.

Scalp reflexology is a treatment in its own right and can be skillfully used to bring balance to your entire body, alleviate pain, and enhance relaxation.  If you are like me, you will be continuously fascinated with how the body can heal itself through its own internal mechanisms.

Until next time,

Kim M. Green, Founder
www.advancedtherapyinstitute.net

Kim is the Founder and Senior Instructor at Advanced Therapy Institute of Touch.  She teaches laypeople and professionals alike advanced bodywork techniques which utilize Integrative Meridian Therapy, Hara Assessment, Somatic Trauma Release therapies, Japanese/Chinese Practices and rehabilitative forms of bodywork.  She loves teaching practitioners to assist their clients in releasing long-held chronic injury, traumas or somato-emotional patterns that reduce a persons ability to enjoy their lives fully.  At ATIT, we believe "All Things Are Possible!"  Check out our School Tour.  For information on taking ATIT's Scalp Reflexology Class go to this link.

 As this system evolved, practitioners discovered that auricular (ear) points could be used to treat imbalances in the stomach by stimulating the stomach point in the ear as well as other associated points.  Issues relating to the heart could be addressed by stimulating the Shen Men point.  Shen means spirit in Chinese Medicine and is used to treat the heart where it is said the spirit resides. In time, entire therapies developed around the auricular ear points, touching no other body part than the ear. (Like in other reflexology disciplines which include the hands, the feet, or whichever reflexology method that particular therapist wanted to engage in.)

Is Auricular Therapy peer reviewed and proven to be efficacious? Yes. New research has proven that regular auricular reflexology treatments can reduce the symptoms of PTSD. Of note is the Department of Defense interest in Auricular therapies.  Recently the DOD allocated 5 million dollars to train physicians in Auricular Therapy PTSD protocols to help reduce PTSD in active duty military and veterans at home.

The 5 Ear Points that are used in PTSD Relief are:

• Sympathetic
• Shen Men
• Kidney
• Liver
• Lung

Through research these five points have been shown to produce endocrine, biochemical, emotional, neurophysiological and biochemical effects  "The PTSD protocol is shown to reduce craving and withdrawal symptoms associated with addictive substance use. It is consistently and reliably associated with improving engagement and retention (Center for Substance Abuse Treatment, 2006; Helms, 1997). This is not a stand-alone treatment."

Many other imbalances can be treated similarly if the practitioner knows which points and how the body should be addressed.  These issues include imbalances in the endocrine system, pain suppression from injuries, appetite suppression, and depression just to name a few. 

For endocrine imbalances, the ‘endocrine point’ is located just inside the intertragic notch, and can help your body regain a natural hormonal balance. Stimulate that point several times per day, for approximately thirty to sixty seconds for self-care.

There is evidence that basic forms of reflexology were documented as long as 5,000 years ago. This incredible practice has helped people for millennia and will continue to do so for years to come. Students at ATIT are thoroughly trained in all forms of reflexology, including Auricular Therapies, as well as the assessment tools needed to ensure that their clients receive therapies that will best help each individual, not a standard protocol.

​Auricular Reflexology is an incredible way for professionals to work with the body or for laypeople to apply it as self care for themselves and their loved ones.  There are many ways to stimulate individual Auricular Reflexology points.  The most common is by using acupuncture needles, but you can also use a stylus to press into the individual points, vacarrea seeds which act as an analgesic or metal beads that stimulate and promote enhanced function of the correlating reflex points organ or body system.  Just as with foot or hand reflexology, Auricular Ear Reflexology can have profound impacts on the body.  In fact, many practitioners feel that Auricular Ear Reflexology works far better than hand or foot reflexology.  

Students at ATIT learn how to help enhance overall health with a specialty focus to address PTSD, addiction, pain suppression, injury rehabilitation, appetite suppression and hormonal balancing. Research has proven 5 little ear points can help alleviate many related symptoms that go a long with in reducing our surging epidemics of PTSD & addiction.

Until next time,

Kim M. Green, Founder
www.advancedtherapyinstitute.net

Kim is the Founder and Senior Instructor at Advanced Therapy Institute of Touch.  She teaches laypeople and professionals alike advanced bodywork techniques which utilize Integrative Meridian Therapy, Hara Assessment, Somatic Trauma Release therapies, Japanese/Chinese Practices and rehabilitative forms of bodywork.  She loves teaching practitioners to assist their clients in releasing long-held chronic injury, traumas or somato-emotional patterns that reduce a persons ability to enjoy their lives fully.  At ATIT, we believe "All Things Are Possible!"  Check out our School Tour.  For information on taking ATIT's Auricular Reflexology Class go to this link.

​The unfortunate reality of having been in the armed services, especially if you have seen combat, is that your chance of suffering from Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD) is quite high. Women, men and children who have been criminally victimized are also at a much higher risk of suffering from PTSD.  

PTSD is characterized by nightmares, flashbacks, certain triggers that precipitate a severe emotional reaction, insomnia, inability to feel joy, trouble concentrating, being easily startled, avoidance of crowds, and a myriad of other symptoms that severely diminish a persons quality of life.

Studies have proven that hand/foot reflexology, auricular acupressure, somatic therapies, massage therapy  and other types of bodywork are very beneficial to easing both the physical and emotional pain associated with PTSD.

Reflexology works directly with the endocrine system to calm down the adrenaline response that engages during a PTSD attack. Auricular (ear) acupressure works with the endocrine system & can help alleviate these symptoms as well.  Somatic forms of bodywork have been tested for efficacy and were found to help reduce PTSD significantly because it addresses root cause.  Massage therapy engages the muscles and the central nervous system in a calming way to allow your body to calm down.  However, what can you do when your PTSD is severe enough that touch is a trigger in and of itself?  Unfortunately, it is quite common for rape, assault & military PTSD sufferers to be uncomfortable with the touch from massage, even though it is very safe and therapeutic.  

This is where Hand, Foot, Auricular (Ear) Reflexology and Somatic Bodywork come in.  They are all modalities that are done with the actual trauma and root cause in mind.  Somatic therapies were created to work directly with PTSD as a specialty form of bodywork. Even though somatic bodywork dates back over 60 years in America & 1000's of years in the Asian traditions, it is only now becoming mainstream and research is showing more and more that this has been the missing link in working with PTSD.

Reflexologists are also specializing in how to work with PTSD in order to help alleviate symptoms and address the endocrine system to rebalance it.  Reflexology is based on ancient Chinese acupressure points that stimulate your body in a way that promotes deep relaxation. These points trigger your nervous system, sending it a message to relax, causing your body to enter the mode known as “rest and digest.” In this place, real physical and emotional healing can occur.

Somatic Trauma Release is also a modality that can help with root cause by sending messages to the brain which helps alleviate PTSD. Somatic Trauma Release uses verbal cues, touch and, when appropriate, acupressure points to work with the physiology and emotional bodies after a trauma.  Because Somatic Trauma Release works directly with the emotional body, physiology, trauma event/events which created the PTSD to begin with, it significantly helps clients.  It's important to work with both the physiological body and the emotional body after trauma occurs. Trauma affects our minds, body and spirit.  Not just one or the other.  Somatic Trauma Release takes a multi-disciplined level working with all three.  

People suffering from PTSD should always work with bodywork professionals that are trained and understands trauma.   A trained professional will know how to work through triggers, balance the body and bring them out of PTSD attacks.     

One of the reasons PTSD is so difficult to manage and overcome is that the trauma you have experienced continually activates your fight or flight response. Even though the trauma is over, your body relives it constantly thinking it is happening in the present moment. The body is not like our brain and does not know linear time.  It only knows spacial and tactile experiences.  A fun experience for most, like fireworks, can set off a tactile memory of a bad experience of the past.  The body hears the sound and reacts as if it is happening in that very moment.  The body doesn't differentiate between the past experience of gunfire and the new experience of fireworks.  It just responds immediately setting off a physiological reaction that takes the person on a terrible carnival ride.    

Think of a movie that is playing loudly in a movie theater and you can’t turn it down. It’s blaring incessantly. The only way to “turn down” the trauma blaring inside you is to calm the central nervous system.

When specific reflexology points in your hands, feet or ears are released, it sends a message to your central nervous system, telling it to return to the “rest and digest” mode. Once you’re finally out of “fight or flight,” your brain and body can begin the healing process, and you can make your way to living a life free from triggers and flashbacks.

In a study done on soldiers with PTSD, it was found that frequent sessions of reflexology—two to three sessions per week initially—were shown statistically to improve their symptoms. During the first round of sessions, there was a “two steps forward, one step back” pattern to the improvement, with the soldiers showing a return to their symptoms on the third treatment of the week. But over time, the improvement after day three became statistically significant.

This speaks to the ability of the body to begin to process and heal itself when it is in a calm space. Students at ATIT are trained to perform reflexology on clients who are experiencing all forms of anxiety disorder and PTSD.

Until next time...

Kim M. Green, Founder
www.advancedtherapyinstitute.net

Kim is the Founder and Senior Instructor at Advanced Therapy Institute of Touch.  She teaches laypeople and professionals alike advanced bodywork techniques which utilize Integrative Meridian Therapy, Hara Assessment, Somatic Trauma Release therapies, Japanese/Chinese Practices and rehabilitative forms of bodywork.  She loves teaching practitioners to assist their clients in releasing long-held chronic injury, traumas or somato-emotional patterns that reduce a persons ability to enjoy their lives fully.  At ATIT, we believe "All Things Are Possible!"  Check out our School Tour.

For many years, I have believed in the concept of cellular intelligence. Thankfully, other scientists are not only having this epiphany, but are willing to face the inevitable backlash that comes from openly embracing a concept that flies in the face of modern scientific thought. Regardless of the advances made in quantum theory, the very mechanical, Newtonian view of the universe still prevails overall.

In the beginning of my practice over 25 years ago, I would see the body do incredible things that were beyond explanation.  Over time, I started sharing my theories with the students I taught. Hypothecizing that cells do have intelligence, language, communication, cellular cognition, and an inherent desire to reproduce their functional physiology into the world just like our basic human desires to have children. It is my strong belief that cells have the desire to replicate their functionality in our external environments to make our lives more efficient. What if cells have some form of communication and cognition and they are capable of putting ideas into our minds of how they themselves work thereby being the engineers of our inventions and the brain is the drafter creating the plan? Working together to create those things which help us in our lives by replicating the actual cellular systems of our body.   We are only now beginning to understand the brain, yet we invented the first computer during WWII which replicated brain function long before we understood the neuroscience behind it. Ask yourself how does that happen?

There are many other examples of this same phenomena as well.  I also go as far as to state cells have language and a form of cognition we do not understand yet.  How does a thought get into our minds?  Perhaps our cells are the engineers and the mind is just the blueprint that they are drawing upon.  Perhaps science has it wrong.  Perhaps there are multiple intelligence centers in our bodies instead of just the brain as science has thought for centuries.  The brain being the drafter and again the cells being the engineer which the drafter depends on to do its job.  

Bruce Lipton began sharing his ideas some years ago, and his thoughts have often echoed my own. Each cell is its own individual being, that completes all of its own life functions. But these cells have evolved to live in a thriving and harmonious community with other cells.

According to Dr. Lipton, “There is not one function in the human body that is not already present in every single cell. For example, you have various systems: digestive, respiratory, excretory, musculoskeletal, endocrine, reproductive, a nervous system and an immune system but every one of those functions exists in every one of your cells. In fact we are made in the image of a cell.”

Over the years, I have taught my students that these cells have language, a desire to procreate and an understanding all of their own on a micro-level which replicates our macro-level understanding of the world around us.  

Imagine that. You  replicate a cell. You are fifty trillion, living, breathing, acting, thinking cells working together in harmony to live as one organism. And what do you think happens when one or more of those cells becomes disharmonized with its fellow cells? That is when disease begins.

Given that these cells are fully intelligent they are in constant communication with one another, and with you, or rather, they are you—they can tell each other when something is not right. Not only that, but they know what needs to happen in order for them to become reharmonized with every other cell to create balance in our bodies and heal ourselves from the inside out.

Bodyworkers and graduates of ATIT are taught to listen to their intuition in order to “hear” what these cells are trying to communicate. When an Integrative Meridian Therapist is working with your meridians, acupressure points, foundation, fascia and other systems, they are taking a multifaceted approach to following your cells’ instructions on how to rebalance, or reharmonize the body systems that are in dis-ease. Working multiple systems at the same time allows balance and healing to occur much more quickly than if only one system was being touched.

It is when these systems are in harmony with one another that your fifty-trillion cells thrive. When those fifty-trillion cells are thriving, that is when you experience health, harmony, and balance.    

Until next time...

Kim M. Green, Founder
www.advancedtherapyinstitute.net

Kim is the Founder and Senior Instructor at Advanced Therapy Institute of Touch.  She teaches laypeople and professionals alike advanced bodywork techniques which utilize Integrative Meridian Therapy, Hara Assessment, Somatic Trauma Release therapies, Japanese/Chinese Practices, the internal & healing arts of Judo and rehabilitative forms of bodywork.  She loves teaching practitioners to assist their clients in releasing long-held chronic injury, traumas or somato-emotional patterns that reduce a persons ability to enjoy their lives fully.  At ATIT, we believe "All Things Are Possible!"  Check out our School Tour.

Have you ever felt a tingle on the back of your neck when someone was behind you? Have you ever heard the phone ring, and knew exactly who was on the other end? Or have you had a “gut feeling” that a person or a situation was dangerous? 

We have all had those experiences, although we may struggle to explain why. Some people try to claim that it’s a ‘power’ that few possess, when there is really nothing mystical or magical about it. The ‘power’ those people hold is the ability to listen when another person’s body is trying to communicate with their own. Every person’s body is equipped with communication abilities, other than just speech or touch. We all emit signals, from thoughts to feelings, about our intentions. 

Brain waves, and waves that come from other internal organs, differ from radio waves only in their frequency. It is all electromagnetic energy, making its way out from the source and toward a receiver. Whether that receiver is a radio or a person. Radio waves and other communicative waves that we are familiar with travel at a frequency of between 50 and 1000 Mhz (50 million to 1 billion cycles per second), while brain waves are in the 10 to 100 cycles per second range. 

In class, I have been teaching students for decades that intuition is really an electromagnetic form of communication between two people that some people are more skilled at listening to than others. Ultimately, everyone can learn to hear and intuit in this way.  It's simply a matter of learning and then understanding a new language.

Take police officers.  Police officers develop this ability, though they do not necessarily understand what they are tapping into. They are constantly scanning their neighborhoods for malicious intent. Ask any police officer on any given night and they will tell you their gut feeling about what kind of night it is going to be. When criminals are plotting, that intention is being transmitted by their bodies/brain waves and picked up by the police officers. The police may not know what is going to happen, or where, but they do know something is imminent. They develop this ability because they are taught early on in their career to listen to their gut instinct; something most of us are often taught to ignore.  This gut instinct is related to the vagal nerve and part of how we transmit and receive through our brain waves.

MIT developed a machine, called the Magnetoencephalography (MEG) scanner, to isolate and measure brain waves. The machine is in a room that is shielded by mu metal, making interference from outside electromagnetic waves impossible. The lab has been open since 2011 and so far, they have measured the brain’s electromagnetic response to multiple kinds of stimuli, proving that different experiences cause the brain to emit different messages. 

This silent communication is exactly what energetic bodywork practitioners are tapping into when they work with an individual and their body systems. From reflexology, to acupressure, to integrative meridian therapy, to somatic trauma release... these modalities, synergistically combined with a willingness to hear what a person’s body is trying to say, is what facilitates the healing process.  Advanced Bodyworker's can train and learn these extremely subtle forms of communication.  

What a wondrous time we live in where science has caught up to the internal & healing arts of Asian Martial Arts practices.  Science is now proving what bodywork practitioners have known and practiced for centuries.

Until next time...

Kim M. Green, Founder
www.advancedtherapyinstitute.net

Kim is the Founder and Senior Instructor at Advanced Therapy Institute of Touch.  She teaches laypeople and professionals alike advanced bodywork techniques which utilize Integrative Meridian Therapy, Hara Assessment, Somatic Trauma Release therapies, Japanese/Chinese Practices, the internal & healing arts of Judo and rehabilitative forms of bodywork.  She loves teaching practitioners to assist their clients in releasing long-held chronic injury, traumas or somato-emotional patterns that reduce a persons ability to enjoy their lives fully.  At ATIT, we believe "All Things Are Possible!"  Check out our School Tour.

Our fascial system is the largest system in our body, and is the only system that touches all of the other systems. Studies have shown that the effects of manipulating the fascia in one area never stay isolated in that area, but rather creates a ripple effect throughout multiple systems. Our fascia, in addition to permeating every part of our bodies, “swaddles” our musculature and can contract and push our muscles. New research has shown that the condition of our fascia plays a huge role in spinal stability, and can impact whether someone is “injury prone” or not. 

Due to its massive presence in our body, and the effects that manipulation of the fascia can have on multiple body systems, some have labeled it our “second nervous system”. That may seem far-fetched, since the fascial system is not comprised of nerves and synapses. However, the concept of cellular intelligence can explain how this works. 
​
Dr. Charles Sherrington observed in 1952, in his book Man on His Nature, that while paramecium have no nervous system, still they operate all the processes of life. They avoid predators, find food, have sex, all without synapses. He posited that the cytoskeleton of the cell served as its communication system.
 
Since the discovery of the mammalian central nervous system and its operation, science has kept a narrow focus on synapses as the only means of communication within the body. The brain being the holy grail of intelligence and communication. It is widely assumed that without the brain, nothing happens in the body. However, research is countering that belief. 

In recent years, scientists have discovered that our gut contains its own nervous system. It has been labeled the enteric nervous system (ENS) and controls certain functions all on its own with no need for input from the brain, making it the only body system that we have discovered thus far like that. If you've ever had that gut feeling and known something you could not have possibly known, this is the enteric nervous system working.  It tells us when we're in danger, when we need to be alert, what movement to take, stresses we are experiencing and when we should move forward in our lives. It gives us pertinent information to make decisions from a secondary system which has its own understanding. It has comprehension and has a form of communication all of its own.

If paramecium can live lives wholly without a nervous system, and if our own gut can house its own system, it does not seem unbelievable that our fascial system could make-up yet another communication system in our complex bodies. The Founder of Advanced Therapy Institute of Touch believes there is cellular intelligence within the fascial system and all cellular structures that goes far beyond RNA & DNA programming.  She has worked with the body for over two decades and has witnessed the body speaking it's own nonverbal language that defies cognitive understanding.  "In the next decade, science and research will catch up to what bodyworkers have known all along. Research will prove that cells have understanding and intelligence of their own without the brain's cognitive functions to speak for them or by simple cellular programming.  Research will ultimately show cells have intelligence."

As our second nervous system, the fascial system is paramount in improving and maintaining good health and overall balance. Due to the fact that fascia covers all of our bones and muscles, there is fascia under each and every acupressure point and shiatsu meridian. These actions, combined with direct fascial manipulation can communicate health and healing to all of our body systems creating a superhighway along the meridian system that is accessed through the fascia and acupressure points.  This movement literally tells parts of our body about how it should operate, and how the energy should be flowing if it is not flowing correctly.

Until next time...

Kim M. Green, Founder
www.advancedtherapyinstitute.net

Kim is the Founder and Senior Instructor at Advanced Therapy Institute of Touch.  She teaches laypeople and professionals alike advanced bodywork techniques which utilize Integrative Meridian Therapy, Hara Assessment, Somatic Trauma Release therapies, Japanese/Chinese Practices and rehabilitative forms of bodywork.  She loves teaching practitioners to assist their clients in releasing long-held chronic injury, traumas or somato-emotional patterns that reduce a persons ability to enjoy their lives fully.  At ATIT, we believe "All Things Are Possible!"  Check out our School Tour.

​The vagus nerve is the longest cranial nerve, starting at your brain stem and ending in your abdomen. The word ‘vagus’ means ‘wanderer’, and that’s exactly what this nerve does. In its path from brain stem to abdomen, it wanders around and connects to every major organ, influencing every vital function your body performs. As part of the parasympathetic nervous system, the vagus nerve plays an important role in each system it touches.

In the brain, it controls anxiety and depression. Moving down, it impacts the eyes and regulates tear production, then the ears and the tongue, moderating issues like tinnitus and saliva production. Further down, it directly influences the heart and blood pressure. In fact, Vagus nerve stimulation can reduce high blood pressure and mitigate heart problems. As it moves into your abdomen, it wraps around the solar plexus area, placing it directly in the Heart Hara point. Here, it begins influencing your abdominal organs, increasing kidney function, helping with glucose control, digestion, and even urinary issues. Frequent urination is often a sign of low vagal tone. The vagus nerve also helps you absorb vitamin B12 and assists with dopamine production.  The vagal nerve innervates the lungs, diapghragm and stomach so gentle and deep breathing stimulates the nerve as well.  Breath work has been shown in dozens of research studies to calm the central nervous system and help with PTSD.  Vagal nerve response to relaxed breathing is the reason why.  

If you are having problems with fatigue, anxiety, brain fog, digestive issues, blood-sugar issues, heart problems, or urinary problems, you may be dealing with low vagal tone. The best course of action is, of course, vagal nerve stimulation to strengthen vagal tone.  By strengthening vagal tone you also strengthen the meridians and organ function in the body according to Japanese & Chinese Medicine.

There are many ways to do this in Chinese, Japanese and Ayurvedic Practices. Yoga, deep breathing, exposing yourself to alternating cold and hot water, salt baths, and even laughter. The Chinese developed a sound technique - Qi Gong’s Six Healing Sounds which is based on Five Element Theory - to strengthen the meridians of the body.  This meridian system correlates to "governing functions" of the organs that are all attached to your vagus nerve. Chinese Masters knew that by stimulating the voice box (where the vagus nerve innervates), you could bring energy to all the organs functions.  Because the vagus nerve is attached to your vocal chords, humming or making these six healing sounds stimulates it. Vocalization affects organ function because the vagal nerve directly touches the organs themselves with its nerve branches sending signals from the voice bos to the other other organs.

There are specific sounds, body positions and emotional intonations that stimulate your vagal nerve and the correlating organ function according to ancient Chinese Practices.  They are called the Six Healing Sounds.  In order to do this practice, first get grounded into your abdomen or Hara ("Sea of Marrow").  You can do a 5-10 minute practice or longer depending on your time constraints.  Doing something is always better than nothing.  For a 5-10 minute practice, vocalize each sound in the order given and repeat each sound 5-6 times before moving on to the next sound.  Complete each sound until all are finished. The first five sounds should be aloud or vocalized.  The final and sixth sound should be subvocal.  Subvocalization is reached when you silently work with the sound by engaging the voice box but without actually making a sound.  Breathe slowly and gently  into your belly for compounded stimulation to engage the Central Nervous System. To practice in a more traditional way the sounds are repeated 21 times or until the organ system emotionally balances, you direct qi movement in a specific way throughout the body with the breath and you intone the sound and emotions that correlate to each organ function.  This will be covered in part 2 of this blog which will be coming soon.  If you have the time to do it traditionally with the emotional component and longer breath added, this is highly effective and can start your day out in an incredible way.  If done properly, you should be able to feel the organs vibrate slightly as if receiving a small internal massage.  
.    

• Lie down on your right side, place your palm under your left ribs, pucker your lips as if you are beginning to whistle or blow a kiss and make the SHHOOOO (shoe) sound as you breathe out. Breathe in peace and breathe out anger.  This strengthens liver/gall bladder governing functions.

 

• Press both palms down between the breasts on the sternum, open your mouth wide, but keep it relaxed and make the HAAWWWWW sound as you breathe out.  This sound is deep in the throat as if you are clearing it. Breathe in joy.  This strengthens the heart governing functions.

 

• Lie down on your left side, place your palm under your right ribs, pucker your lips in a deeper whistle or stronger kiss and make the WHOOOOO (like an owl) sound as you breathe out. Breathe in ease of life and breathe out pensiveness.  This strengthens the spleen and stomach governing functions. 

 

• Place the hands on both sides of the upper chest spreading your chest apart very gently, keeping your tongue flat on the bottom of your mouth with your tongue touching the backs of the teeth, extend the lower jaw out in a relaxed manner, create a buzzing sound deep in the chest as you breathe out TZZZZZ (as in Tzar without the r sound). Breathe out grief.  This strengthens the lung governing functions.

 

• Place the palms at the back over the kidneys which are located at the bottom of the ribs on both sides on the lower ribs and waistline area, as if sneezing forcefully, make the sound CH'WAAAYYY as you breathe out.  You should feel your lower back muscles tighten. Breathe out fear.  This strengthens the kidney governing functions.

 

• For the Final Healing Sound.  Lie on your back, shake, vibrate and wriggle your torso comfortably as you make the subvocal sound of SHEEEEEEE making sure that you engage the voice box.  The HEEEE should be stronger than the beginning S in the sound. Subvocalization will feel like you are making the sound in your throat, but not a sound should come out. Breathe out imbalance and breathe in balance and playfllness. This strengthens the triple heater governing functions which regulates temperature and homeostasis. 

Try to make time each day for this practice. As with anything, consistency produces the best results. By practicing these breathing sounds each day, you will stimulate your vagus nerve and train your body to be calm and balanced, allowing it to remain in the healthy state it was created to be.

​Until next time...

Kim M. Green, Founder
www.advancedtherapyinstitute.net

Kim is the Founder and Senior Instructor at Advanced Therapy Institute of Touch.  She teaches laypeople and professionals alike advanced bodywork techniques which utilize Integrative Meridian Therapy, Hara Assessment, Somatic Trauma Release therapies, Japanese/Chinese Practices and rehabilitative forms of bodywork.  She loves teaching practitioners to assist their clients in releasing long-held chronic injury, traumas or somato-emotional patterns that reduce a persons ability to enjoy their lives fully.  At ATIT, we believe "All Things Are Possible!"  Check out our School Tour.

A central component in Japanese Bodywork, the Hara, is an area of the body that most people are not familiar with. Known as the "sea of marrow", the Hara is located in the abdomen.  The "sea of marrow" has been understood by Asian Ampuku Practitioners, who specialized in the Hara, for 1000's of years.  Today, science is just beginning to understand what Ampuku Therapists always knew.  The brain and stomach are connected through the Vagal Nerve and cellular structure.  The same cell structure that makes up the brain is actually located in the abdomen as well and both are interconnected to each other.  Thus the term "Sea of Marrow".  So that "gut" feeling is really communication and what modern day scientists are only now discovering. 

The Hara is comprised of sections which correspond to each organ. They do not necessarily correspond to each organ’s actual physical location, but rather serve as the energetic connection point. In this way, Hara assessment is very much like hand, foot, and scalp reflexology. Stimulating each point can positively affect the corresponding organ and the organ functions such as emotion or physical well being that are related to the organs themselves. 

During a Hara assessment, the practitioner will softly palpate the abdomen with their fingertips, taking care to note which sections seem too firm which is an indicator of an excess of energy (Jitsu), or too soft or empty which is an indicator of a lack of energy (Kyo). The goal is to balance each assessment point with specific techniques and affect its corresponding meridian and organ.  As the energy flow in the body is balanced, systems work correctly, and dis-ease is reduced. 

The Hara assessment is a crucial tool for bodyworkers practicing Integrative Meridian Therapy and other forms of bodywork that are taught at ATIT. It is the turning point from palpation to addressing root cause.  Students instructed in the art of Hara assessment share a goal of providing the best care possible by targeting out-of-balance systems in a very precise manner. 

In addition to being used as an assessment tool, the Hara points can be used as treatments all on their own. This a powerful tool available to skilled energetic bodyworkers. Unfortunately, the art of Hara Assessment is no longer widely known and many practitioners are not aware that it even exists. 

Learning the art of Hara assessment will absolutely enhance any bodyworker’s practice and allow for a much more effective treatment, synergistically combining with other aspects of bodywork, such as Chinese acupressure, fascial release techniques, massage and systematic releases to create a powerful combination of balance and healing.  Hara Assessment is sometimes the missing piece in therapeutic settings because it can reveal the answer of root cause.

Kim M. Green, Founder
www.advancedtherapyinstitute.net

Kim is the Founder and Senior Instructor at Advanced Therapy Institute of Touch.  She teaches laypeople and professionals alike advanced bodywork techniques which utilize Integrative Meridian Therapy, Hara Assessment, Somatic Trauma Release therapies, Japanese/Chinese Practices and rehabilitative forms of bodywork such as Integrative Meridian Therapy.  She loves teaching practitioners to assist their clients in releasing long-held chronic injury, traumas or somato-emotional patterns that reduce a persons ability to enjoy their lives fully. At ATIT, we believe "All Things Are Possible!"

The psoas muscles are vital, contributing to your overall health and well-being in a multitude of ways. There are contributing physical factors for tight psoas muscles.  If you sit for long periods of time, sleep with your knees drawn up to your chest, or even do sit-ups on a regular basis, your psoas muscles may be tight or too contracted.

What you may not realize is physiological reasons aren’t the only consideration when understanding the cause of tight psoas muscles. Because these muscles are so tied to our fight or flight response the psoas can contract from an emotionally stressful situation.  This is a fascinating physiological response.

Stressful situations make the adrenal glands release a hormone called adrenaline which rushes to the heart and to the psoas muscles simultaneously. Adrenaline tells our bodies to fight, flee (run) or freeze.  Over time a continued pattern of the adrenals constantly telling the psoas to contract and run can create imbalances both in the musculature and in the adrenals glands themselves creating chronic fatigue.  When you are continuously stressed, the psoas muscles stay “on guard” constantly because the adrenal glands talk to the psoas telling it to stay ready to run or fight. With constant stressors, the psoas muscles are tense and ready to go, every second of the day. This means  they never fully relax.  This creates extreme exhaustion in the body if it has to be "ready" at all times.  

Additionally, these muscles create a surface on which your kidneys and adrenals rest. When these muscles are not optimally balanced, it can contribute to feelings of exhaustion because it's pressure on the organs overstimulates them..

So chronic stress causes tense muscles, which then imbalance your adrenals, which then causes chronic tiredness, which then contributes to more stress. This is a vicious cycle.  The psoas also affects the flow of lymph throughout our pelvis. Improper lymph flow is associated with headaches, migraines, hormone imbalance, chronic fatigue, thyroid issues, and depression. It’s a roller coaster of pain and dis-ease that is difficult to stop without intervention of some kind.

There are things you can do to assist with a psoas/adrenal imbalance. 

Reduce your stress.
The best thing you can do for many physical problems is to reduce the stress in your life. Go through your schedule and ask if this event or activity is really necessary in your life right now.  If not. remove it.  Also, remove yourself from unnecessarily stressful situations and even toxic people in your life.  It's important to be around healthy and loving people in order to have viable relationships.

Start a regular meditation practice that utilizes muscle relaxation techniques..
Stretch your body before you ever get up in the morning like a cat.  Breathe down into your lower belly and ask yourself how you can make this area softer and easier.  Focus in on that softness and then make it even more soft. Do this for 5-10 minutes every morning and you'll be surprised at how effective it is to help create more balance in your body.  

Work through unprocessed emotions through the body.. 
Use somatic body awareness to process through anything that has been emotionally upsetting to you.  Unprocessed emotional trauma can be a cause of chronic stress and fatigue.  The body does not differentiate between physical and emotional pain.  It reacts the same to both, by shutting down and becoming tired.  Utilize somatic therapies that can help you through blockages that are in your way.
​
Work with a professional who understands the Chinese & Japanese Meridian System as well as Somatization in the body.
Activating points in the Chinese and Japanese Meridian System can allow your body to release trauma, stress and begin to regain the balance that has been lost.  By combining specific acupressure points and somatic awareness it can bring both physical and emotional balance back to the body. 

Practice Yoga.
You don't have to spend a lot of money or time with yoga.  Go to youtube and look for mindfullness meditation, somatic movement and gentle yoga videos.  Even 10 minutes a day can help tremendously.  These gentle forms of yoga are really some of the best for stress and chronic fatigue.  Make sure you find gentle and relaxing yoga.  We want to relax the body not overstimulate it with an aggressive yoga workout.

Take time for yourself.  Play, laugh and enjoy your family or friends.
If you have few friends or your family does not live close by.  You can still get out and play in nature, play in an art gallery or just do something that feeds your soul.  Relax, breathe and have fun.

I hope you find this both informative and helpful.  Until Next Time,

Kim M. Green, Founder
www.advancedtherapyinstitute.net

Kim is the Founder and Senior Instructor at Advanced Therapy Institute of Touch.  She teaches laypeople and professionals alike advanced bodywork techniques which utilize Somatic Trauma Release therapies, Japanese/Chinese Practices and rehabilitative forms of bodywork such as Integrative Meridian Therapy, Massage, Reflexology, Cranio-Sacral Therapy & Lymphatic Drainage.  She loves teaching practitioners to assist their clients in releasing long-held chronic injury, traumas or somato-emotional patterns that reduce a persons ability to enjoy their lives fully. At ATIT, we believe "All Things Are Possible!"

If you ask a person where their biceps are, or their glutes, or any number of muscles, they would likely be able to tell you without even having to think. However, ask someone where their psoas muscles are located and you may be faced with a blank stare. The psoas muscles are some of the most vital muscles in your body, and yet most people don’t even know of their existence.
Connecting your 12th thoracic vertebrae to your 5th lumbar vertebrae, the psoas muscles run through your pelvis and end at your femurs. The psoas influences a multitude of body movements. Most importantly, they influence posture and their stability directly influences the stability of your spine and body functions.  Ultimately, a continuously contracted psoas can lead to a multitude of functional imbalances such as hormone and lymph imbalances in the body due to instability of the spine where the nervous system is housed and protected.  It is the nervous system that makes these functions run smoothly.

I’m sure you have heard of the flight or fight response. You may not know that the psoas muscles are the ones responsible for your physical reaction in those situations. They contract quickly when startled, pulling your legs toward your abdomen, allowing you to quickly break into a run if necessary.
As if that wasn’t enough to convince you of their importance, the psoas muscles also affect your diaphragm, thereby influencing how you breathe. A tight psoas can cause you take short, shallow breaths that don’t reach your abdomen. Shallow breathing can cause a multitude of negative effects, not the least of which is the inability to fully relax. These muscles also support your internal organs, allowing blood and lymph to flow freely, and are the only muscles that attach from your spine to your legs.

For muscles that impact so many of our body functions, it is amazing that they’re not more well-known. However, while we may not know what they’re called or where they are, everyone knows when these muscles are out of balance.
Some things you may notice when your psoas muscles are imbalanced: one leg that is longer than the other, sudden and unexplained lower-back or knee pain, excessive menstrual cramps, difficulty having a bowel movement, issues with your posture, and, as mentioned before, the inability to breathe deeply.

You may be wondering, how do I make sure my psoas muscles are balanced and healthy? To keep these muscles in top working condition, you really need to make sure you aren’t sitting for excessively long periods of time. I’m sure you’ve heard that sitting is the silent killer, and there are a myriad of reasons, this being one of them. You also need to be aware of over-exercise. Many people looking to have six-pack abs do sit-ups obsessively. There really can be too much of a good thing, and too many sit-ups can cause tight psoas muscles.

So what can you do to release your psoas muscles?  Yoga, broad range of movements where you use your entire body like our ancestors did, not getting into fixed positions, gentle spinal movements, deep breathing exercises and Somatic Progressive Movement are all good for the psoas muscles. 
​
Students of advanced bodywork at the Advanced Therapy Institute of Touch learn techniques that will allow your psoas muscles to return to their natural balanced state. Utilizing pandiculation and movement, coupled with acupressure points, advanced bodyworkers can restore balance, allowing your psoas muscles to operate as they were intended.  

Until Next Time,
​Kim
www.advancedtherapyinstitute.net

​Stretching is the first thing people are prescribed when there is any issue with mobility or tense, tight muscles. So, you take your body and you stretch against it to lengthen the muscle or to move the joint. The limitation here is that stretching only communicates as far as your spinal cord, not your brain. It is also easy to stretch a little too far and cause damage. Additionally, pulling and lengthening a muscle actually activates your stretch reflex, causing the muscle to contract again. This can exacerbate a problem with tense, contracted muscles.

Thankfully, there is another, more effective method: pandiculation. This movement is actually quite natural and you have undoubtedly done it yourself. Have you ever seen a cat, upon waking up? The cat tenses up the muscles in its back and legs before relaxing and stretching itself out and relaxing. You likely do the same when you wake up in the morning.  That is pandiculation. 

Remember how stretching not only activates the muscle’s stretch reflex, but also communicates only as far as the spinal cord? Pandiculation begins with a contraction, and so, activates the body’s lengthening reflex, which helps it to remain relaxed afterward. The muscle is contracted even further than it is currently habituated to be, and then is lengthened out and relaxes. This particular movement sends information directly to the brain. What this means is that while stretching is very simply a body-only movement, pandiculation can actually provide new information to the brain and allow that muscle or body-area to learn something different. It can also serve as a reminder to your muscles that they do not have to remain tense and tight. This is especially helpful for anyone who suffers from sensory motor amnesia (SMA), or inefficient muscle patterns that you cannot sense or control.   SMA is when the smaller more intrinsic muscles no longer remember how to move effectively and stop engaging fully during movements.  Only the larger muscles are engaged and they take over the movements becoming overly strong as the intrinsic muscles become weak.  This creates pain over time where the smaller muscles have stopped working effectively.

SMA is widespread in our modern society due to the excessive repetitive motions we all engage in on a daily basis. Think of the office worker who sits in the same chair and types on a keyboard for forty hours per week, or the nurse who stands and checks vitals over and over again. Our highly specialized lives cause us not to engage in a wide variety of movements the way our ancestors did.   

Our bodies were built for a wide range of natural movements when we were hunting and gathering. Even today, our bodies still naturally want to engage all movement possibilities to stay at our optimal health.  We used to crawl on our bellies when hunting, reach up to the top of the trees when picking fruit and bend over when planting seeds and harvesting ground plants.  Our bodies need to move and we no longer have jobs that allow us to have that wide range of mobility which leads to pain in our bodies.  So in slow motion... crawl on your belly, get on all fours and move your spine in the way it wants to move, reach for the stars (literally with your arms up), and bend over in slow small motions.  It all helps relax, release and rehabilitate your body.  

These movements all overcome sensory motor amnesia and provide deep release in clients to help those who suffer with impaired mobility, pain and repetitive motion syndromes.   The trainings at ATIT also help people learn to facilitate pandiculation.  These techniques have been around for a long time, but are only now gaining traction as science catches up and understands why they work neurologically. 

Until next time...
​
Kim M. Green, Founder
 www.advancedtherapyinstitute.net

​“In every culture and in every medical tradition before ours, healing was accomplished by moving energy.” Albert Szent-Gyorgyi, Biochemist and Nobel Prize Winner.
 
We all have energy within us. The Chinese call this energy ‘qi’ or “chi” and the Indian Yogis call it ‘prana’ – many cultures have different names for it. Regardless of the name you assign to the energy, it flows through humans via channels or meridians.  

In fact, Korean scientists have definitively proven that meridians do in fact exist. They injected dye into specific acupuncture points, and the dye flowed through and highlighted the classical meridian lines.  When they injected dye into portions of the skin where there are no acupuncture points present, there was only a pooling of the dye and the lines were not defined.  This was a major scientific revelation for western science, though it was a well-known fact in Eastern Medicine.  This medical knowledge, which has been observed for thousands of years in other cultures, is finally being seen as valid in western society.  Qi does exist.

Our bodies can actually help this energy to flow by utilizing physical movements, or  point stimulation. Think of Tai Chi, where the artists execute very specific movements, with the goal of activating and moving energy to specific parts of the body, or external to the body, in particular ways.

The opposite scenario can also occur, wherein our energy can cause the body to move. Your brain thinks of a movement, and the energy of that thought activates your nerves and muscles, causing your body to move. It can also be subconscious, where a nervous energy can cause you to shake or tremble. It’s something that we all take for granted, but it is truly amazing.

Advanced Bodywork Practitioners who teach at the Advanced Therapy Institute of Touch know how to move energy and the body synergistically.  By facilitating a very methodical and specific form of therapy called Integrative Meridian Therapy, we move both the body and the energy at the same time, achieving more efficient and dramatic results.
​
The ultimate goal of Integrative Meridian Therapy is pandiculation, which sends a signal to the central nervous system to release and relax the entire body instead of just one system at a time.  Moving the body and energy simultaneously, in a specified manner, allows for deep releases and a drastically accelerated healing timeline. The reason is: while moving the body helps the client’s brain relearn appropriate movement, moving the client’s qi balances their energy in a way that allows the natural healing processes of the body to operate, unobstructed.  Simultaneous activation is a highly efficient way to allow the body to achieve optimum health.  Until next time.  Kim  www.advancedtherapyinstitute.net
 
Kim M. Green, has been a life long student of various cultures and unique alternative healing practices from all over the world since her interest was piqued at a very young age.  She started training with scholars and traditional Judo Masters in the late 80’s/early 90’s and since then has developed her own style of bodywork which she’s used to help clients gain optimal health as well as help herself heal from a life-threatening accident in 2008.  Her philosophy  ~  All Things Are Possible!

Have you ever watched a Judo master and wondered how he could make such a strong impact with such subtle movements? Or watched a very small martial artist easily disable a much larger opponent? These people are not using just physical force, or external arts. They are using a combination of the external and internal arts of Judo.

The internal martial art of Judo is, essentially, energy awareness within and externally to the body. It complements the external art by allowing the martial artist to sense the energy of his opponent. That empathic sense identifies areas of weakness and allows him to strike where he will make the most impact physically.

From a defensive standpoint, he can also use that awareness to mask his own energy, or qi, and approach his opponent undetected, like a ninja.

An experienced martial artist can use that same energy awareness to heal rather than hurt, gauging where a person’s qi is weak, so that he can work to balance that energy and create an atmosphere where the body can create its own optimal health. In traditional martial arts schools in Asia, the internal, healing, and martial arts were all taught together. Advanced martial arts were one of the last forms to be taught after internal and healing was mastered by the student. "One must first learn to heal their opponent before harming them." 

A well-trained Judo master keeps his body loose and flowing while keeping perfect alignment and activating the specific muscles needed for movement. As skill and practice is developed he can read his own energy, his opponent’s, and anyone coming at him. This takes discipline, training, and time to achieve. The internal and healing arts of Judo is a skill Advanced Therapy Institute of Touch teaches, based on years of instruction from traditional Judo Masters and developed practice. 

Over time, students learn to apply this skill with their clients when studying Integrative Meridian Therapy and Somatic Trauma Release. It is like a dance where students are deeply aware of internal qi, but know exactly how to impact the physical body to benefit the client most. The flow also allows for the energy and physicality to communicate together effortlessly and symbiotically for integrated releases. The practitioner understands this form of language which allows them to facilitate what is necessary for the client’s body and their own. Our bodies communicate very well if we will only listen. The internal art teaches you to listen to your qi, and to the qi of others. The healing arts teach you how to positively effect the body to allow it to heal itself.

You don’t have to be a martial artist to develop energy awareness. We all have the ability. Every human body puts out information about itself that other people can read. In western culture, especially, we’ve lost the ability to understand what our bodies are telling us. We sometimes don’t even know if we’re dehydrated, much less have an awareness of the energy of another person. With practice, though, we can learn to increase our empathic energy awareness.

Bodyworkers who study with Advanced Therapy Institute of Touch understand how to strengthen their own qi and practice cultivating awareness of their own energy and the energy of others. We can use that awareness to bring balance, much like the internal martial artist, and to intuit where a person is experiencing an imbalance resulting from or causing a serious illness. Once that imbalance is identified, Bodyworkers can work with the channels, points, areas, structure, and any system in the body through which your qi flows to strengthen weak qi, or lessen excess qi. Your body then uses its own natural healing abilities to make things right. 
​
Kim M. Green, Founder
www.advancedtherapyinstitute.net

Waking in the middle of the night with your heart pounding, extreme anxiety, body sweats and night terrors aren't fun.  Plus the confusion, fatigue and sleep deprivation over time can be extremely challenging long term.  If that wasn't bad enough, the automatic chemical releases that happen during a PTSD episode create long term adverse health issues such as dementia, heart disease, cancer and premature aging.  Sound hopeless?  It's not.  There are things you can do to get your PTSD under control.  

The Flight or Fight response is your bodies own protective mechanism which is made to protect you during adverse situations.   When this flight or fight response engages your chemistry is engaged and a plethora of hormones are released to help you in a life threatening situation.  Over time when this response is engaged repeatedly your body becomes confused and you don't know what is a real threat or a perceived threat.  

The flight or fight response doesn't understand time so your body might also be confused that the event is actually happening right now even though you're resting in bed and there is no danger.  It is such a strong response that an event that happens in 1985 could trick your body into feeling it's happening right now even though it's 30 years later.  

PTSD can be very debilitating but it doesn't have to be.  Here are five great ways to help when you are in the midst of a PTSD attack.

1.  Your body does not know time.  Only space.  During a PTSD attack look around the room and acclimate your body to the real time and the space that you are in.  Your body is confused and thinks the event is happening in that moment.  It sounds crazy but speak out loud when doing this technique.  Your thoughts are not convincing, but your words will be.  State the time, the date, where you are at and that you are safe in your environment.  State out loud the color of the walls, the color of the drapes and everything you see.  This will acclimate your body into the current time and space.  Again keep repeating the date, time, where you are at and that you are safe in your environment.  Also state this event happened however many years ago and that your body is not in danger.  This technique is very important.  If you do this again and again, it will calm your body as well as acclimate your flight or fight response to where it actually is in linear time.  

2.  If you are not allergic to smells use lavender on your pillow case each night before going to bed.  Lavender has a calming affect and helps to release DHEA which is the relaxant hormone that helps calm a PTSD attack down when it is unleashed.

3.  Exercise, exercise, exercise.  This is the number one way to help with PTSD.  When you exercise you release many chemicals that naturally help you reset your body to a normal functioning level.

4. Diaphragmatic Breathing:  See my earlier blog post to learn how to do this technique properly.  

5.  Cry!  Have you ever noticed that you are exhausted and tired after you cry?  That's because you elicit chemical responses during the crying process.  Crying elicits the relaxation response and helps reset body chemistry.  There are actually toxins in a particular type of tears that will help your chemistry as well.  Release your tears and it will make you feel so much better.  If you're used to stuffing down those emotions and just getting through the attack by not crying this will actually prolong PTSD.  

Bonus: 
6.  Laughing!  Laughing also helps promote the  DHEA relaxation response that helps reset imbalanced adrenal chemistry.  Find those moments in your day where you authentically laugh and keep those belly laughs coming.  Long silly, zany, belly laughing bouts are not only fun but they will help you reset your chemistry more quickly.  

There are many forms of bodywork that can also help with PTSD.  Acupressure, Integrative Meridian Therapy, Somatic Trauma Release, Acupuncture, Meditation, Foot Reflexology designed for PTSD, Yoga and many forms of alternative therapies can help you regain your life and your sense of well being.

So next time you need a little help try one of the above or reach out to a practitioner in your community and allow them to assist you.

Until next time...

Stress is one of the top silent killers in our society today.  When we are stressed, even without our permission, chemicals are released into our body that cause many adverse affects.  The following are just a few of the adverse affects that stress creates.

Long term stress causes:

• Dramatic Signs of Aging  (Think of the presidents they go in young and come out grey.)
• Cancer
• Heart Disease/High Blood Pressure
• Dementia/Confusion
• Weight Gain From Hormonal Imbalances & Fluctuations
• Depression & Mood Disorders
• Chronic Pain & Illness
• Lethargy & Inability to Function

There is a very simple technique that you can get in the habit of doing right now to reverse this chemical process and is directly related to the Polyvagal Relaxation Response and Chapman's Neuro-lymphatic System of points. 

What is this miracle technique to help reverse chemical stress that automatically happens in our bodies?  Diaphragmatic breathing.  Diaphragmatic breathing leads to increased oxygenation of the blood as well as chemical release that counters cortisol release which leads to the above conditions.  Here's how you do it:

1. Place one hand on the chest and the other on the abdomen.
2. Inhale into your noise and exhale through your mouth.
3. Bypass breathing into your chest, breathe in a very relaxed manner straight into your belly making sure your hand on your belly is rising.
4. Make sure the hand on your chest is not rising.
5. Ask yourself how you can make your breathing gentler and easier in your body.  This engages the relaxation response and relaxation chemicals are released in your body.
6. Breathe deeply, but gently and easily in long breaths.  Do not force your breathing at all. 
7. Continue to ask how you can make your breathing easier and your belly softer as you breathe into it.
8. Breathe for 20 breaths in this manner.  
9. Every day multiply this number by 2.  On the second day take 40 breaths in the same manner until you are doing this about 5 minutes a day at each meal.  
10. Do this exercise any time you feel stressed out, anxious, or panicked as well as right before meals so it will become an everyday exercise that helps you in your life.

Diaphragmatic breathing leads to increased DHEA release in the body which combats those stress hormones that are released on a daily basis.  This in turn leads to a happier, healthier life.  

This exercise is one which I give frequently to people with PTSD.  PTSD is an anxiety/panic disorder that triggers automatic chemical responses in the body.   It is not a cure all, but it is a beginning to finding balance in the body and a way to combat stress chemicals that wreak havoc in our system.  

Until next time. 
Kim

Years ago I had a lovely client who had set her life up to where she could do everything from home.  She married a man who worked in retail, she ran a business out of her home and she never really had to leave.  In the beginning of living in her home it was safe and wonderful for her, but it soon became her own little prison.  We worked together for a while doing Somatic Trauma Release and I had some incredible experiences with her.  This woman's body would speak to me in nonverbal ways even when she didn't realize it herself.      

Body language was her expression because she did not have words in the beginning of her therapy.  During one session after she had become "unfrozen" I asked her where do you feel the most pain from being abused and she would state emphatically, "I don't know."  At the same time her finger would actually point to her belly. I asked this question of her probably 5 times because being new to this field I didn't believe my eyes.  Each time her index finger would point to her belly in a very large gesture and then her finger would go limp. During this particular session there was another therapist there and I looked at her quizzically, silently asking, "do you see what I'm seeing?"  The other therapist nodded her head yes.

I then asked my client if she realized her index finger was moving every time I asked that question.  She stated, "My finger isn't moving what are you talking about?"  I asked her again but this time made her look down at her hands that were clasped across her stomach and that's when she saw her own index finger pointing to her belly and that's when she looked at me and asked me if I'd been baking that day.  

I said,  "no."  

She stated, "I smell baked bread."   This olfactory memory of baked bread and her pointing finger was the beginning of her turning point or apex session.  

A turning point/apex session in STR is usually a session where something miraculous happens and the client goes onto major changes almost overnight as if there were a miracle.  That's what this lovely woman did that day.

Even though I was new to this work I was excited because I knew this was important.  She was hesitant to go where her finger was directing us, but with a little safe guiding she did in her body.  We worked through an association that day based on the intertwined association of the smell of baking bread, being slapped and being punched in her stomach.  

Her mother had been a devout baker and unfortunately was also very physically abusive.  The session ended with her realization that going outside usually meant going shopping as a child and going shopping meant getting a beating when they got back from the store.  As an adult going outside reminded her of going to the grocery store and going to the grocery store meant there were smells of food - especially the triggering smell of baking bread along with horrible abdominal pain.  Her abdominal pain was one of the reasons she had sought my help originally.   We worked through multiple body triggers that day and then as I stated above something miraculous happened.

At our very next appointment she told me she had bought a brand new car.  I asked, "You bought a car?  Really?  What are you planning on doing with your new car?"

She stated, "I'm going to travel. I've always wanted to travel and I'm going to do it. I want to start visiting friends and family again"  I was floored.  This was a woman who could barely drive to the convent for her appointments, her husband did all the shopping for the home and she occasionally ventured out to the park or the hobby store. 

I said, "That's wonderful.  Are you going to travel with your husband?"  

She stated, "No.  I want to do this alone for now.  I'll travel with him later."  

Again, I was completely astounded.  Agoraphobia is characterized by people who have a deep need to feel safe at all times.  She was venturing out where no agoraphobic will venture and especially by themselves.  Traveling was not just a baby step, it was like climbing Mount Everest.  She went from not going anywhere to buying a new car so she could see friends and family she had missed for years.  This was truly courageous as well as miraculous to me.  I was a little worried about her sudden shift and we discussed it.  She wasn't worried at all.  She told me God had lead her to me so she could be free and she was ready.  God is beside me and he's going to be with me all the way.  

She followed through and would go on weekend jaunts to visit friends and family that she hadn't seen in years.  When I would see her she would beam and radiate a new type of life.  It was a beautiful unfoldment to witness.

After about two months of doing weekend jaunts she said she wanted her husband to go with her and then she surprised me again.  She said, "I'm selling my business and going to work outside of my home."  I asked her what she was going to be doing?

She responded, "The same type of work I already do, but I want to get out and meet people and be a part of the world.  I don't need to work out of my home any longer.  I'm ready to leave my prison for good."  That one statement made my heart smile.

She re-affirmed my commitment to doing the Somatic Trauma Release.  Over 20+ years ago when I first started, Somatic Bodywork was a very new pioneering profession with few practitioners and little understanding.  I was ostracized by mental health practitioners and sometimes even my peers who did somatic work.  My approach was very different and edgy.  I work with victims of abuse, offenders and addicts.  Because I work so differently with multiple populations, my approach was not accepted in the Somatic World at that time.  It has since become widely received because after years of case studies, it's proven efficacious. In some circles I still get the occasional raised eyebrow, but now therapists, doctors, D.A.'s offices, domestic violence workers, probation and parole officers all see the validity in the Somatic Trauma Release and work alongside me and my graduates. 

This client helped me stay on my path and continue what I was doing.  She inspired me to stay true to my approach with the faith that what I was doing could help lives even if it was different than others.    

Somatic Trauma Release helped her life as well as my own and many victims/addicts/offenders along the way.   

I will never forget this lovely woman.  She taught me so much in that time I worked with her.  She taught me that miracles do happen.  The body is incredible and has such innate intelligence that we are only just beginning to tap into the depth of its knowledge.  I was the one blessed to work with her and I have thought of her often over the years.  

She would stop in occasionally and update me on what she was doing over the next 5-7 years.  She never went back to being agoraphobic during the years she maintained contact with me.  That part of her life was over and she was free.  I haven't spoken to her in over a decade and sometimes wonder where she's at or what she's doing.  Maybe she's in Greece or Italy.  It's fun to wonder...

Until Next Time,
Kim M. Green
www.advancedtherapyinstitute.net

​Kim is the Founder and Senior Instructor at Advanced Therapy Institute of Touch.  She teaches laypeople and professionals alike advanced bodywork techniques which utilize Integrative Meridian Therapy, Hara Assessment, Somatic Trauma Release therapies, Japanese/Chinese Practices and rehabilitative forms of bodywork.  She loves teaching practitioners to assist their clients in releasing long-held chronic injury, traumas or somato-emotional patterns that reduce a persons ability to enjoy their lives fully.  At ATIT, we believe "All Things Are Possible!"  Check out our School Tour.