My Philosophy

The work I do often involves working in vulnerable spaces, usually emotionally and also sometimes physically. The only way for that work to be safe, or even have a desirable impact, is for your consent to be honored at all times. I always ask before touching another person, my interventions are suggestions my clients can accept or decline, and even with my hands on someone else, I'm listening for their body's yes, no, or stop, in addition to verbally checking in. I've occasionally gotten feedback that I don't need to check in as much as I do, and I have intentionally disregarded that because of all the times people have thanked me for checking in so much. Nothing happens in my treatment room unless you say it can

I believe in our bodies' intrinsic ability to heal themselves in community with others. Our bodies are wise and our capacity to recover from injury and trauma is truly astounding. Between myself and my clients, I believe that my clients are the healers because they are the ones doing the healing, and that as their therapist I am a facilitator, cheerleader, and guide each person's unique healing process by listening deeply to them. Listening in this context refers not only to the words spoken, but the entire story the body communicates to us; patterns of tension in connective tissue, subtle movements or changes in posture that indicate a subtle but perhaps repressed feeling, the movement of energy and warmth within the body, changes in rhythms of breath, heart rate, and the flow of cerebrospinal fluid in and out of the brain and spinal chord. Our bodies communicate in so many ways beyond just the words we speak and listening to all of what's being shared is how we work towards you feeling better

I like to say that faith is a choice, and trust is innate. Faith is the decision to give a person some amount of power over you and to expect them to use it to help you instead of hurt you. Attending any therapy appointment is an act of faith. Trust is an organism's response to having put faith in another and having that faith be rewarded with desirable outcomes. Healthy trust necessarily takes time to build, sometimes years. A deep level of trust is required for certain heavy emotional lifting in the case of processing the worst traumas that have ever happened to us. I do not need nor want you to trust me completely the first time we meet, that's bad for you; you deserve and need to have boundaries and healthy doubt. I want to gradually earn your trust over as much time as it takes as we work together on healing what's hurting you. Allowing that process the time and space it needs to happen at its own pace will serve you  much better than trying to convince yourself to trust me with vulnerable parts of yourself before I've proven myself to be worthy of that trust

Our world is unnecessarily harsh and cruel. So many terrible things happen to all of us that do not need to have ever happened at all for the sake of maintaining the structure of power in our society, and it's truly monstrous. My practice is intentionally a sanctuary from that. There are styles of bodywork where the therapist treats their hands and elbows like hammers, and the hard tissues in their client's bodies are treated like nails. These styles are not necessarily wrong or invalid, but they do not fit within the framework of my ethos. My power comes from being gentle and slow. I want to meet the tense places in your body with softness. I want to give the restrictions in your fascia the time they need to fully unwind, which can take tens of minutes over several sessions. My bodywork is drastically different from what you might expect to receive at a spa or massage clinic, and it can even be more effective, and it is more soft, slower, more subtle, and very gentle

I want to know what your experience is like because it's how I get better not only as a practitioner in general, but also because it's how I get better at treating you with your own unique needs and preferences. If something hurts, I want you to tell me so I can stop doing that thing and do something else instead. If you're having some internal experience that is challenging or confusing or uncomfortable, I want you to share that with me so I get the opportunity to respond to it. I also operate from a place of honesty. You can always ask me what I'm offering and why, and I'll always give you as many answers as you need before proceeding. If there's a specific problem you're having that I don't know how to help you with, I will say so. The affects my work can have on a person sometimes surpass my expectations, but there are limits to what I'm able to do, what I'm licensed to do, and what I'm educated enough to safely do. You have a right to be informed and to understand my limitations

I am an expert on some functions of the human body, I know a lot about anatomy and trauma, and I have a lot of knowledge on how nervous systems, connective tissues, and the musculoskeletal system function. However, between me and you, you are the expert on your body because you have lived in it your whole life, and I never will. I want you to tell me what is or is not working for you, I want you to tell me "no I don't want to do that" or "stop doing this" or "yes I want to try that but I want to do it in this different way". The path to healing is not me doing therapeutic techniques on you and you getting better, it's us working together within the framework of my expertise to find what works for you to improve your life. This also applies to modalities and care outside of what I can offer; I want you to be in psychotherapy and seeing a chiropractor and working with a naturopath and a nutritionist at the same time you're having appointments with me, and I will happily help you find practitioners who fit with your needs as best I can. Humans are not machines that can be fixed, we are pack animals that are healthiest when we are in community with one another, and I want to work with you on finding how your healing needs can be met in community with me and other practitioners