15 years of experience: Integrative. Therapeutic. Inspired.
I begin treatments by asking my clients "What do you need today?" Together we explore what feels stuck, tight, heavy, sore, painful or blocked in the body. My work is a culmination of study and experience across multiple decades, influenced by massage and bodywork modalities, Humanistic, Somatic and Existential Psychology & Eastern wisdom traditions like Yoga and Buddhism. "What do you want to create?" As we explore areas of dis-ease and seek to integrate the parts to whole, we maintain curiosity and increase awareness, making space to gently include thoughts and feelings along with body sensations as a way to connect with your full experience of being alive; to be with versus pushing away, to expand versus contract, to replace rigidity flexibility and difficulty with ease. Science teaches us that our bodies experience input from our surroundings (via the nervous system) before our cognitive processes engage and translate life into thought and feeling that we express verbally. It's all connected. It's all part of you.
therapeutic-adjective
having a healing affect; tending to make a person healthier
Greek therapeia, "attend, do service, take care of.”
“Causing someone to feel happier and more relaxed or to be more healthy.”
“Having a beneficial effect on the body or mind.”
Therapeutic bodywork: Cultivating presence, curiosity & acceptance.
Have you been dragging your body through life stuck in old patterns of sensation, thought and movement? In order to connect the body-mind, we need to slow down and engage, get curious and listen to what our bodies might be communicating to us. This is where our relationship comes into play. I help you listen, engage and get curious about your body, mind and spirit as it collectively moves through this earthly life. Ask yourself: What am I holding onto and how does it influence my movement patterns and daily activities? What does this ache or pain say about my lifestyle? What is my role and responsibility in creating lasting change? I'll assist you in softening, soothing, opening and breathing your body.
“Bodyworkers hands are not like pharmaceuticals or scalpels. They are like flashlights in a darkened room. The medicine they administer is self-awareness. And for many of our painful conditions, this is the aid that is most urgently needed.”
Soft & Strong
If you tend to say to your bodywork practitioners in a first session phrases similar to "Don't worry you can't hurt me" or "I like really hard and really deep pressure" then I may not be the therapist for you. And there is someone for every-body. My approach is a combination of soft and strong. I may not get to some regions of your body because I discover a region that is desperate for attention. Unless of course in our conversation you need everything addressed and present no particular challenges or specific needs that day. In the strong moments, you'll communicate if any touch becomes uncomfortable.
The treatment table is like the yoga mat or a formal mindfulness practice. Breath and intention are integral. I encourage your breath awareness to become part of the session. It can be utilized when we move a restriction to the edge of comfort; breathe and soften. Begin setting an intention on your way to the studio. Invite mindfulness. Hold our time together as a practice.
New clients often ask "What technique is that?" and I often reply "Erik's 15 years!" My work is integrative. This means that I approach the body with my tool kit and take it from there. First, I listen to you and your experience of being in your body (current thoughts and sensations). Then I listen to your muscle and tissue. My intention is therapeutic and that almost always includes relaxation. Just because you drift off to sleep or ease into another state does not in any way negate that deep therapeutics are taking place. On the contrary, these are deeply restorative places, often needed by most of us, and often part of the results of my work. And the treatment never ends when you get off the table. It continues as you exit the studio. Bodywork is impactful in ways we don't often give ourselves space or permission to notice. I encourage you to use our sessions as inspiration to move forward with increased awareness of what action(s) you need to take to increase or adjust your practice of self-care. My work is inspired by Global Healing Traditions, cultures and modalities that have been using touch to facilitate healing and change long before the western spa culture created massage as a luxury as opposed to my holding of it; an integral part of your health & wellness practice.