SWEDISH​BALANCE

Margo-

Frozen Shoulder.

When Margo came in to me for the first time she was very sleep deprived as the pain in her shoulders kept her awake at night. 
Her pain had been going on for about one year, and she had been doing physical therapy throughout this time. She found it both strange and frustrating, because her pain had just all of a sudden appeared out of nowhere and didn’t want to go away. 
She hadn’t had a particular accident that had caused the pain. 
Margo had been told that she had a bulging disk in the neck, but so does many other people, and they don’t have a frozen shoulder, so the disc didn’t seem to be the cause of the problem. Many people can have bulging discs without any symptoms.
 
Observation:
Scartissue in abdominal area (from c-section) Feet everting, twin girls, one leg shorter than the other, hence the unbalance in pelvis and shoulders. 
An area by the ribs, near pectorals minor was swollen and tender to the touch; a sign of inflammation. 
 
Action:
I worked where I felt tension, which was in viscera, psoas, and the shoulder area; subscapularis, and pectorals minor. These areas were extremely tight.
Craniosacral approach worked the best. The tissues were super reactive, and would tense up as soon as a trigger point had released, I therefore tried a different approach. I backed off and took a craniosacral approach, which means I first of all listen to what the body wants; what it is ready to release at first. This work is very subtle, and as a therapist, I’m merely a facilitator to the body’s own work- and self healing. 
This approach softened the tissues. 
 
I gave Margo a few and very simple exercises to practice at home in the effort to realign and balance out her hips.
 
I continued to work in this fashion during session nb 2.
 
When Margo came in for the third session, she reported that the nerve pain down her arms were gone. She had also been able to sleep a little more. 
 
In the next few sessions, as Margo was feeling better a little by little, she asked if I could also work on the hips, in case they had something to do with the upper body pain. In many cases a pain issue start in a different part of the body than where the pain manifests. It had been a while since we worked on the hips, so I thought it was a good idea to pay some attention to the hip area again. 
 
As we moved on to lower body work, I came across a very tight gluteus on one side of the pelvis. On the left, the Piriformis had no tone, but the abducter (inner thigh) and attachments were practically locked. They wouldn’t give way from my pressure, not even the slightest. Margo had a very small range of motion in the hip joint, and I found lots of tension around the sacrum. 
 
During the next session Margo reported that she felt better again. She was able to sleep a little more each night.
But, she wanted an answer to the pain. She was wondering why it wasn’t completely gone by now.  She had done physical therapy for a year, and now she saw myself for hands on bodywork for the 6th time. She felt that: “There has to be something else that’s going on!”
Margo seemed very discouraged. 
 
So, we took a break from the treatments.
During this time she went to doctors appointments, did some tests, x-rays, and MRI. 
 
When Margo was done with various tests and doctors appointments, she came back for more treatments. The tests that she had done hadn’t shown anything to be wrong. 
 
So, we started working on her soft tissues again. This time we included work on the diaphragm and the fascia from pelvis to upper ribs, collar bone, and neck.
The chest area had given her referred pain in her palms. 
As we were doing this work, she felt the pain diminish, and then she exclaimed: “I understand it now: I understand how everything is connected!”
As I was working on her neck, a memory surfaced for her. 
She said: “I remember how this started. It was not just a bulging disc in the neck. 
I had a lot of stress at the time. I started holding my shoulders hiked up and tight.”
 
The memory of that stressful time had surfaced. Now she was ready to let go!
And, now I could tell she trusted the treatments fully. 
 
I saw her again two weeks later. Her neurologist had suggested that we see what happens if we focus on just working on the muscular tension in chest and neck area. She thought that, “maybe it’s all muscular after all….”
The neurologist had prescribed a muscle relaxer for Margo, but it made her feel “like crap”, so she threw them out. 
At the end of session nb 8 she lifted her arms up. It was a remarkable difference from before. She was able to lift her arms so much higher.
 
After a few days I got a text message saying that she’s noticing a huge difference when she’s blow drying her hair. 
Margo sounded much more positive and hopeful than before, and she exclaimed: “I think you’re curing me! I really feel your treatments are moving me to a better and healthier life!”
 
In the next few sessions, she reported improved sleep.
 
Some pain in front of her shoulder persisted. I gave her some strengthening exercises to do, as I saw that the shoulder rolled in towards the chest and forward.
Obviously there was still some tension in the chest area (Which is common during stressful times; to roll the shoulders in- and forward is a way for the body to protect the heart.)
 
Margo came in for a few more sessions after this, but at this point she felt good.
Her shoulders weren’t painful anymore, and she could sleep much better.
She wasn’t fully recovered, but at this point I felt that we had done as much as we could with the hands on body work, and now she needed to strengthen her body, more than she needed to loosen it up with soft tissue release. 
I gave her some exercises and off she went.
 
A few months later she came back. This time she felt more tension in the left shoulder. It had always been the right shoulder that had been frozen and most painful. The right one was now doing really well, full range of motion and no pain.
So, in this session we did a full body massage with focus on the left shoulder. There was some extra tension, but not too bad.
The tension on the left released, and, later Margo reported that she felt completely healed. 
 
Currently, Margo comes for bodywork every few months for maintenance or a little “tweak” here and there, but the frozen shoulder syndrome has not returned. 

Keith

Hip fracture due to bike accident. Post surgery work.

5-6 days after surgery

The first session took place very soon after the surgery, and we therefore moved along very carefully. I started off with cranio sacral therapy and some other very light touch techniques. I started working on the healthy Left leg at first, which gave releases in the injured right leg.

The right leg was very swollen. There were big purple bruises from the inner thigh down to the knee. There were Compresses and bandages on the outer side. As there were a lot of tension in the gluteus I also worked that muscle group on both sides. 

Session 2

 

The very next day we did session number two. As I was working on the right shoulder, Keith had some releases in the right leg. As I was working on the wounded leg, releases throughout the whole body would ripple from specific points in the gluteus and hamstring. I worked through the tissues carefully and patiently not moving on until one area had released as much as I felt the body wanted to release at this time. As I worked through area by area of the body, more and more releases rippled like waves throughout the whole body.

 

Results: This time the results were fantastic. Keith called it magical. He reported a couple of days later that the swelling of the leg had gone down to half the size and he was able to put the double weight on it.

 

A few days went by

Session 3

 

I witnessed the smaller size of the leg. The bruise looked a lot better, and the foot wasn’t swollen anymore.

I continued to work directly on the injured leg. The bandage had been removed and only band aid covered the scar.

We both felt a “dead” area in his leg right under the gluteus in the hamstring. This was above the area where the first screw had been placed. I worked slowly and deeply in this area.

When supine, Keith noticed a pain that ran from the inside of his lower leg up to the groin. I worked on this area from foot to inguinal area, and as I was doing so, Keith felt a shooting (referred pain from trigger point) pain from the toes all the way up to his throat, and then he felt a release, and the pain went away.

Session 4

 

From Sunday to Wednesday.

The right injured leg looked almost like the left and normal leg. The bruise was almost gone completely. Keith felt something stuck in the gluteus along the attachment at the sacrum. I worked this area and Keith reported it felt liberating. I continued with thorough work on the gluteus, and hamstring. It was obvious that the body had healed a lot since the first day of treatment. When Keith got off the massage table, he uttered: “I feel like I can walk now”. However, his wisdom took over and he promised not to push it and use his crutches as advised by his doctors. 

Session 5

 

Friday night.

When Keith came in he was excited about the progress. He even made some silly grovy moves to show how good his hips felt. He said that now it just felt like some piano strings and sticks inside his leg were bothering the muscles. He also felt something being stuck around the sacrum on the right side. We started out with a regular back massage to calm the body and mind. Then I moved on to work the healthy leg since that was actually the tighter leg.

That seemed to waken up the wounded leg. When I got to the wounded leg it felt more alive. From working on the wounded leg we got some responses in the shoulder, which showed up as a jolt of the shoulder joint.

As I got deeper into the gluteus, there were still some spots that felt stuck and without vibration.

I am sure that some of you wonder what it means that something feels " stuck" or "dead", and how would someone feel it. Well, there is a specific feel to it!

When you touch a tissue that feels like it’s alive, it moves, it has a bounciness- a supple feeling, and sometimes the temperature is a little warmer. And, sometimes it's a lot warmer. To touch what feels like "dead” tissue, is like touching a rock. It’s simply hard; it doesn’t respond to the pressure or touch that you apply to the body. It's also cold.

I awakened this part simply by sending energy through the tissues, and I finished when I felt a more vibrant and healthier tissue.

 

When we were done Keith reported, as he walked out with a big smile on his face, that he felt great. He thanked me a bunch, and two days later he left for China to make another movie.