SPRE is Relational.
There are a lot of different modalities out there-massage therapy, structural bodywork, cognitive/talk therapy, energy work, chiropractic, acupuncture, or some combination of these-that can address pain, stress, tension, relationship difficulties, or the many other challenges of being a human.
The benefit of SPRE is the combination of attuned listening, compassionate co-regulation, and the hands-on relief of your body’s symptoms; it all happens in one place and it can create lasting and effective change.
I have had a lot of clients, however, who integrate other types of bodywork, movement programs, and cognitive counseling with their SPRE sessions; with great results!
I’m happy to work with clients who also wish to continue their cognitive therapy sessions; SPRe can be a great compliment to talk therapy. Together, we can work on embodying and integrating therapeutic realizations.
Everything you need to know is already in your body, it just needs to be invited, and explored. I attune with who you are - past and present - so your body is a reliable source of information that you have constant access to.
Your body contains all the information you need! Let’s explore it together.
SPRe as a Tandem Service to Other Treatment Modalities
SPRE makes a great partner with other somatic and holistic healthcare practices. I work in partnership with many psychotherapists, chiropractors, naturopaths, massage therapists and acupuncturists in their efforts to support clients’ emotional and physical healing. In fact, not only was I a massage therapist for seven years, I worked for a chiropractor for 15 years, and have undergone chiropractic care for chronic pain. I have also sought care - successfully - from naturopaths, acupuncturists, and cognitive therapists.
To My Fellow Practitioners…
I understand the clear benefits of each type of care. I’m aware of how valuable practice time can be and that there are always clients who want to talk about their pain or injuries, as well as what they might sense as the underlying emotional reasons for them. I can help your clients explore the reasons for their stress-related diseases, injuries, and chronic pain and tension, using attuned dialogue and collaborative, structurally-informed bodywork; renegotiating a more balanced, healthy bodymind connection that can create more ease and comfort.
Having tandem services for a client can really result in more comfort in a client’s body and greater integration of each type of work.
Have you been told you need to: “just breathe,” “relax,” or, “just be in your body.” Many of us don’t just know how to do those things, so it isn’t helpful information. Besides, you might not be “in your body” because its less painful to be out of it!
It’s all about exploring - together - what your bodymind is already experiencing, what it might know, and what it might want.
SPRe sees the body as an aggregate system - a person’s history in total, and not disparate or compartmentalized parts – body and mind connected.
SPRe holds that the body is an embodied record of a person's life and experiences, healthy and unhealthy, traumatic and otherwise. We all hold a certain amount of tension in our bodies; tension patterns that are healthy are how we remain upright, move around and function.
Architect Buckminster Fuller coined the term, “tensegrity” to describe how the integrity of a system depends on this balance of tension.
Find a great description of tensegrity here: https://vimeo.com/49052724
“The body, not the thinking brain, is where we experience most of our pain, pleasure, and joy, and where we process most of what happens to us. It is also where we do most of our healing, including our emotional and psychological healing.”
Physical and emotional wellness, ease, and transformation begins with the bodymind. Pain, unnecessary tension, or illness are signals from the body that something isn’t right, that the nervous system is under stress and may be struggling.
Tension patterns that are unhealthy are layered on top of a nervous system formed by our past, and are signals from the body that there are disconnections and barriers that impede comfortable movement.
We help clients notice what their bodymind is doing, including how they might be compensating around an injury, or suffering from unnecessary and painful tension in their neck and shoulders, for example. We then encourage people to take the discoveries and physical changes we make together out into the world.
“One can make choices when one becomes aware and awake, not before.”
Once we’ve discovered that the way we were doing things in our bodies (or our lives) isn’t the only way we have to do things, we can change those ways - we can potentially have more freedom and less pain. The path to change lies in having options; having different experiences to compare!
SPRe engages with:
Dr. Gabor Mate’s work on stress-related disease
Stanley Keleman’s Emotional Anatomy
Dr. Candace Pert’s work on psychoneuroimmunology
Dr. Stephen Porges' polyvagal theory, and attunement/attachment theories.
“The chemicals that are running our body and our brain the same chemicals that are involved in emotion, and that says to me that we’d better pay more attention to emotions with respect to health.”
SPRe engages with your unique tension patterns, using collaborative, structurally-informed bodywork and attuned dialogue; renegotiating a more balanced, healthy bodymind connection that can move you forward into more easeful living.
For more detailed information, please visit the SPRe website, www.sprebodywork.com
“There is deep wisdom within our very flesh, if we can only come to our senses and feel it.”