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This post was originally posted on Yogawithdaphne.com on May 5th 2020

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I’ve also ruffled some parents’ feathers in the process, as a number of them are adamant (and also prided themselves) that they have “trained” their child to sit and stand sooner than their peers.
The proliferation of chronic neck, shoulder, mid, lower back pain and spinal issues are not just happening amongst the adults I’ve worked with, but increasingly manifesting in children and adolescents as well. With most adults not being able to get to the ground and staying there comfortably, babies are often coaxed out of rolling, crawling, creeping sooner than they are ready for with sitters and walkers, as well as being trained to interact with a world that mostly hovers above them rather than at a level closer to the ground.
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A lot of the rehabilitation and movement education work I’m exploring centres around developmental patterns. It involves getting back onto the floor to rediscover and relearn our gross motor skills from the ground up. This is also important in rewiring neural pathways in the brain stem (heart rate, blood pressure etc) and limbic system (emotion, learning, memory) that offer us a sense of safety in our body’s relationship to gravity and the environment. We learn how to move through different planes, and also learn how to fall with ease and grace. This has a profound effect on our nervous system’s ability to self-organise, self-soothe, and build resilience.

This post was originally posted on Yogawithdaphne.com on November 18th 2019

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Being hyper-mobile, yoga asanas came easily to me as a practitioner. When I was a new teacher, I’d be teaching 18 classes a week and demonstrating everyone of them on my dominant right side, and doing physical assists on the other.

Then I got very involved in “universal principles of alignment” that’d prescribed systematic methodology of getting into poses, working into end range, and accomplishing peak poses for a recognition of my practice, not forgetting the photo ops.

When I got into my 40’s my right hip started clicking, my thoracic spine lost its kyphosis, my head feels to heavy for my neck and shoulders, my SI joint felt wonky and sore at times, and I’m always in a state of feeling like I’d jump out of my skin UNLESS I’m bending myself into deeper stretches.
Something wasn’t right. If Yoga is the path to freedom and bliss, my body felt shackled to the ball and chain of a yoga mat.

I got into somatics first through the wonderful Feldenkrais classes with Tara Eden in Chiang Mai. Subsequently I dived into Body Mind Centering’s embodiment work of non linear movement and understanding of the nervous system in psychosomatic relationships, learning to listen to the body through sensory awareness into different biological systems, to re-learn and repattern very conditioned ways of inhabiting our body, through self inquiry, using the body as a baseline.

Now I can walk, run, sit, hike… do the functional stuff normal humans do for extended periods – pain free and with presence. My movement repertoire consist of a mix of different activities in addition to mat yoga – swimming, rock climbing, dance, resistance work – so my body’s neural mapping gets wired in a variety of possibilities. I’ve also been working with yoga practitioners and teachers on preventing / rehabilitating repetitive injuries through therapeutic bodywork, yoga therapy which addresses the person through the different layers, and somatic movement education – learning so much about the body-mind as an integrated whole.
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I really hope more yoga people are waking up to the message in this article, so we can create a much more sustainable, enriching and mindful dialogue to this ancient tradition. As Richard Freeman says in the first line of Yoga Matrix, “Yoga begins with listening.”

#ahimsa #satya #aparigraha 

This post was originally posted on Yogawithdaphne.com on November 10th 2019

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Allopathic (so called Western) medicine and complementary therapies has had a long-standing strife in regards to a symptomatic vs holistic approach. With the rising popularity of alternative therapies, more people are seeking treatments away from the allopathic healthcare system. But even though alternative and Eastern traditional medicine are supposed to address the whole person rather than just the symptoms, I think it is also imperative that we (collectively as complementary therapists) reframe how we can move towards a more human-centric, constructive, and empowering approach in our duty of care.

Though often well-intentioned, the No Pain, No Gain and Fear-Based treatment philosophy is counter intuitive and counter productive. We need to let go of the negative narrative that is often isolating, disempowering, re-traumatising and fear breeding. I’ve so often heard from clients that they’ve been told by their therapist that their pain or condition is due to a much bigger, scarier issue of their own doing – be it lifestyle, diet, emotions etc. Some are even told that their energy or anger or grief is stuck in this chakra or that plexus, and which if not dealt with via external intervention, will culminate in devastating consequences.

And for some this is when sales pitch is cued – a 5-step program or 6-month Transform your Life package, and all the bad stuff will miraculously dissipate.

This person then spirals into a state of self-blame and self-doubt, and becoming ever more resentful, and untrusting of their own body. They might feel that they have no other option but enter into a relationship of co-dependency with their “therapist”, or they shut down, disassociate or numb themselves further to avert the pain.

For those of us working in complementary healthcare – PLEASE STOP THE FEAR MONGERING, even if you think that it is all in the name of service.

As therapists,

We need to stop self-aggrandising as the healer or the fixer, and start to see our very own humanity in the treatment room or the massage table.

We need to stop assuming that we know better than our client, prodding into their pain physically or psychologically to promote a “cathartic release” can be re-traumatising. Being presumptuous and soliciting / fabricating storylines to their experiences are most of the time NOT WITHIN OUR SCOPE OF PRACTICE.

We need to step into the supportive role – to hold space and not to overwhelm, to use our knowledge and intuition and skills to create the conditions / environment for the client’s nervous system to regulate and biological systems to re-integrate.

We can help to lay down the groundwork for the person to find a symbiotic relationship with their body through safety, connection and trust.

We can serve as guides for our clients uncover the strength and intelligence of their body to cultivate resilience, balance, and homeostasis.

We need to let go of our persisting ego to fix and get out of the way for the person to take ownership of their healing process for it to be sustainable.

So how about this. The next time you treat someone who has a back issue or dealing with pain or is always stressed and anxious. Instead of creating storylines of their trauma, try to offer something constructive – like “if you sit too long at a desk, how about setting a 20 mins timer to walk around so you’re not slouched over all the time?”
OR “When you feel overwhelmed, notice if you’re clenching your jaw or anywhere else in the body? And if you are, can you consciously unclench? Notice what happens.” etc etc.

There is so much more we can do if we also do our own shadow work and look within, into our own human conditions, our own fears and tribulations. As therapists we might have the tools to heal, but in order to do that we need to step off that pedestal of power differential, and hand the agency back to our clients / patients so we can enter into a effective, ethical, compassionate, heart-based therapeutic relationship.

#yogatherapy #reframingtherapy

This post was originally posted on Yogawithdaphne.com on October 30th 2019

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