The Therapeutic Power of Massage + Movement
Massage is often viewed as a way to soothe tight muscles and alleviate aches, but its benefits are far-reaching. Massage offers preventative and accumulative advantages, helping to ease stress, reduce pain and tension, and cultivate awareness, balance, and a sense of well-being. Combining massage therapy with embodied movement practices – gentle, intentional ways of reconnecting with how your body feels, moves, and activates – can enhance these benefits, supporting you on your path to feeling and moving better.
At Embodied Movement & Massage, I believe in a collaborative and multifaceted approach to wellness. By combining therapeutic touch with embodied movement, I help my clients experience relief and carry a heightened sense of self-empowerment, awareness, ease, and presence into their daily lives.
What Is Embodied Movement?
To me, embodied movement is about connecting to our body in simple ways, moving in ways that feel good, curious, beneficial, and joyful. I want to support my clients to do the movement that truly moves them, from runners, to yogis, to dancers. I focus on teaching embodied movement practices that help enhance how your body feels and moves. Gently guiding you to:
Activate and strengthen: Engage muscles in new ways to improve functional strength.
Increase awareness: Pay attention to sensations, areas of tension, and natural movement patterns.
Promote self-embodiment: Develop a deeper connection with your body and its capabilities.
Reduce pain and tension: Let go of restrictions and feel better.
This mindful approach, emphasizing tuning in and curiosity, fosters self-empowerment, healing, and resilience
How Massage + Movement Supports Your Nervous System
Combining massage and movement helps to positively affect your nervous system. Our nervous system is our body’s control center. Everything we feel, like pain and tension, is perceived through our brain and nerves.
I offer embodied movement practices that incorporate targeted isometric and eccentric contractions, providing novel and safe stimulus to your nervous system. By gently loading tissues with and without movement, you and I can create a powerful dialogue with your nervous system.
This precise communication offers a new input to your brain, helping to re-map any perceived danger that may be causing pain and tension. This allows for a new output —improved muscle activation, reduced protective guarding, and a decreased perception of discomfort. The result is a cycle of positive change, where massage and movement work together to help your nervous system establish new, healthier patterns, leaving you feeling more balanced and self-embodied.
If you're curious to experience this approach for yourself, my one-on-one Massage + Movement Sessions are the perfect place to start. These are hands-on bodywork sessions; each uniquely tailored to your specific needs.
I also invite you to my Virtual Fascia Love Class, held every Monday from 7-8pm EST. It's a wonderful opportunity to learn a gentle, embodied movement practice that feels like a full-body, yawning stretch. This practice positively affects your nervous system, improves your neuro-myo-fascial tissue health, and leaves you feeling more connected and aware.