Healing Movement
Sea Point Pilates Studio has become home to a new exercise format called BodySensing. Although it has been taught at the studio for little over a year, it has attracted a firm following of clients who find its gentle, whole body approach both healing and reviving.
It’s taught by Antoinette Kavanagh, who founded Sea Point Pilates Studio some years ago. A former dancer, her practice was Pilates based but she was always open to new ideas. When she first started studying BodySensing, she expected it to be just one in an impressive line up of skills. Instead, she has found it so fulfilling that she’s now working exclusively within that medium.
Before looking at the benefits it has achieved for just one of Antoinette’s clients, here’s a brief rundown of what BodySensing somatic therapy is.
It’s a trauma informed somatic therapy to regulate your nervous system. The nervous system lies at the heart of healing. It influences every biological system in the body.
You can heal from trauma, reduce stress and ease chronic pain by unwinding emotional patterns through embodied movement.
You don’t have to be a victim of a violent act or living in a war zone to experience trauma. The trauma could be anything from the damage that unrelenting modern day life inflicts on our bodies to the stress that chronic pain imposes on our overall health.
BodySensing does not work with trauma psychology, it focuses instead on healing the physiological and sensory effects of stress, trauma and chronic pain.
Very simply, it is based on self myofascia release. Fascia is a bodywide network, now considered one of the richest organs for body perception. It is embedded with billions of neurons, the majority of which are interoceptors. A history of chronic emotional stress can change the sensitivity of these free nerve endings.
Fascia is bathed in a gel like liquid (intestitium) that provides plumpness, elasticity and suppleness. It becomes dehydrated and sticky when stressed or inflammed. Loss of suppleness is linked to a sympathetic response that signals that the nervous system is under stress, resulting in symptoms that range from stiffness and discomfort to chronic pain, inflammation and autoimmune conditions like Arthritis and Fibromyalgia.
BodySensing uses gentle sliding, bouncing, rocking, winding and unwinding movements to rehydrate and allow the body to move with ease and regain it’s elasticity. Tapping into our body’s innate ability to heal itself.
As an example of how BodySensing can help ease pain and stiffness, and increase mobility, Antoinette told me about how it has helped bring about life-changing improvements for her client Monica.
Monica is in her early 70s. She had polio as a child, which damaged her spine to the extent that it is braced by a metal rod.
For many years, she has used a walker to move around and been dependent on carers to help her with daily chores. She found ordinary daily tasks like standing up from sitting on a chair or getting out of a car both challenging and exhausting, as was getting down to and off the floor for exercise. Standing for more than a few minutes was painful. A poor sense of balance made her cautious about moving in case she fell and hurt herself.
When she and Antoinette first started doing BodySensing, her general discomfort was exacerbated by painfully stiff neck and shoulders. She’s an artist and work was taking its toll.
Antoinette introduced Monica to the gliding, rocking, soothing movements that BodySensing is known for. All are whole body movements, designed to rehydrate fascia that has dried and become stuck, causing stiffness and pain.
Monica managed the gentle movements quite easily and particularly liked the mindful element, saying it felt like a form of meditation which encompassed both mind and body.
After only three weeks, Monica was already showing huge progress. She could stand for as long as she wanted to, balance on one foot and could get out of a car with relative ease.
She was particularly pleased to be able to get down to ground level and back up again without exhausting herself. She enjoys floor-based exercise as her back is supported and she can move more freely, so this was an important milestone.
About four or five weeks in, she woke up early one morning, well before her carer was scheduled to arrive. Having needed help for some years to do ablutions and dress in the morning, she boldly decided to see how she could manage on her own. By the time her carer arrived, she was up and about, fully ready to face the day.
That huge achievement gave her confidence to push herself even further. Three months later, she rarely uses her walker and is doing more and more on her own.
Her friends have noticed the difference in her. Some have commented that she looks younger, more vital and moves with greater ease, tackling stairs without help and becoming much more independent.
Monica herself says she feels as though she has been rebalanced and her pain has eased significantly.
Antoinette’s only negative is that Monica isn’t doing her homework often enough!
She explains that the the shifts often happen quickly and sometimes dramatically, but need to be repeated often. In an ideal world, Antoinette would like to see clients becoming self sufficient as there is a strong intuitive aspect to the work. After 8 to 10 weeks of regular sessions, with homework inbetween, clients can and often do continue the healing process on their own, checking in occasionally for a session or fascilitation.
‘Homework’ can be incorporated into daily routine. The secret is to not be inactive for long periods of time, and to notice when there is stiffness and or discomfort in the body. Rocking and gliding movements, pausing and coming to quiet within, expansive whole body yawning sensations all help to keep the fascia hydrated and the body fluid and supple.
For Antoinette, BodySensing Somatic Therapy has completely changed not
only how she works with her clients but how she lives her life.
Understanding that the body mirrors the shape of the mind, responding to how we think, feel and experience life is profoundly life-changing .
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