In every myofascial release seminar I teach, I tell the therapists ‘you do not have to believe a word I say, but I like for you to have an open mind and hear what I am expressing as a therapist who has treated other therapists from all over the world for the past 50 years.’

What I have seen throughout these 50 years is that our mind/body complex is a self-correcting mechanism. Most of what we have learned has been to try and “fix” the person. The theory was logical and intentions were good. But the methodology was flawed. 

In my seminars, I teach therapists how to center themselves and quiet their minds; so that they are fully alert, very aware of how to communicate through their touch with their clients. The client feels safe on their subconscious level and trusts the therapist Unwinding is never forced and the client has the ability and full awareness and will power to stop the process. As the body moves, the therapist takes gravity out of the system. Somehow the mind/body finds these positions of past trauma and as it reaches these past positions, all the information, sensations, sounds, images that were not fully experience during the original trauma. These come forth through the conscious mind. This process is completely non-injurious and allows the holding patterns that have thwarted all forms of traditional therapy and massage to come out. It is about being with your client. 

Leaning into Letting Go

In our society whether we realize it or not, one of the many dysfunctional messages that we have been taught, is to never let go of control! As if losing control was some sort of a negative attribute. One scenario of letting go is when they are so exhausted that they finally move into sleep. Sleep is moving into the dream state or the intuitive side or 

Channel 3 where true healing occurs. During an unwinding, a client may thrash, drool, images in their minds come forth, emotions are expressed and a trained therapist is there to assist, never forcing, keeping the client safe in finding these past positions. 

It appears that not only the myofascial element, but also every cell of the body, has a consciousness that stores memories and emotions. 

Research findings (suggest) that the mind and body act on each other in often remarkable ways. With the help of sophisticated new laboratory tools, investigations are demonstrating that emotional states can translate into altered responses in the immune system, the complex array or organs, glands and cells that comprises the body’s principle mechanism for repelling invaders. The implications of this loop are unsettling. To experts in the field of (psychoneuroimmunology), the immune system seems to have almost a brain of its own. This in turn creates a revolution in medicine in the way we view physiology. More than that, it is raising profound questions about the nature of behavior about the essence of what we are.

Emotions and the Human Mind 

The new field of psychoneuroimmunology stems from three classic areas of neuroscience, endocrinology and immunology. Scientists have discovered a bidirectional network of communications which probably has to do with the neuropeptide system between our mind and body by way of the emotions.

The fascial and neuropeptide systems have thus turned our view of how our bodies function upside down and inside out. This is good news for our old view of the body as a mindless machine was embarrassingly inadequate. While advances in medicine, surgery and electronics have accomplished marvelous things, much more can be done. A better understanding of the fascial system that surrounds and influences every other system and cell of the body and how cells can communicate with the brain and central nervous system, and vice versa, allows us to see the enormous value of myofascial release in positively affecting the whole person.

Copper wire is a well-known conductor of electricity. If copper wire ability to conduct energy properly. It isthought that fascia may act like copper wire when it becomes restricted through trauma, inflammatory processes, or poor posture over time. Then its ability to conduct the body’s bioelectricity seems to be diminished, setting up structural compensations and ultimately, symptoms or restrictions of motion.

Other Factors 

The diminution of our fascial system ability to conduct energy may be due to melanin. Melanin is present incopious quantities in the fascia, and neuromelanin is present in the neural structures and brain, which are encasedby fascia all the way down to the cellular level. Melanin has superior conducting properties at room temperature and is synthesized in mast calls, also found in the fascia, which influence the immune system. As a superconductor, melanin may regulate firing of nerve cells. It seems centrally involved in control of allphysiologic and psychologic activity. The neuromelanin-neuroglial system is the major site of mental organization. The nervous system is made up principally of glial cells. These cells have electrical properties that appear to be responsible for the piezoelectric phenomenon.

Piezoelectric behavior is an inherent property of bone and other minimized and nominalized connective tissue.Compressional stress has been suggested to create minute quantiles of electrical current flow.

Like untwisting a copper wire, the techniques can restore the fascia’s ability to conduct bioelectricity, thus creating the environment for enhanced healing. They also can structurally eliminate the enormous pressures that fascia restrictions exert on nerves, blood vessels, and muscles.

Myofascial release can restore the fascia’s integrity and proper alignment and (similar to the copper wire effect)can enhance the transmission of our important healing bioelectrical currents.

It has been demonstrated consistently that when myofascial release technique takes the tissue to a significant position, or when myofascial unwinding allows a body part to assume a significant position three-dimensionally in space, the tissue not only changes and improves, but also memories, associated emotional states, and belief system rise to the conscious level. This awareness through the positional reproduction of a past event or trauma allows the individual to grasp the previously hidden information that may be creating or maintaining symptoms or behavior that deter improvement. With the information now at the conscious level, the individual is in position to learn without holding or bracing patterns. This release of tissue, emotions, and hidden information creates an environment for change that is both consistent and effective for the client.

Check out these related articles:

Myofascial Unwinding: Part 1

Structural Myofascial Release