Article Index - Myofascial Release
 
Myofascial Release and the Body-Mind Connection
Have you ever experienced, or had a patient experience, an emotion, memory or spontaneous movement during therapy? It is in fact very common and many therapies promote this as an integral part of treatment and healing. We know this as the body-mind connection. However, even that statement is erroneous as it implies that the mind and body are two separate entities. Myofascial Release (MFR) is a whole-body, hands-on therapy that treats the entire person. It promotes that the body is the container of the unconscious mind and that this human container is not simply a reflection of the personality, but is the personality.
 
New Discoveries
As the journey into the human body continues, new discoveries are being made to highlight the likes of MFR as a primary treatment for physical and emotional pain and discomfort. Dr Ervin Laszlo's Science and the Akashic Field, Lynne McTaggart's The Field and Dr James Oschman's Energy Medicine in Therapeutics and Human Performance all discuss the nature of the human body, its electromagnetic qualities, and that the entire organism of the human body acts as one (not separately, as previously thought). Dr Laszlo states that the human organism is not a mere biochemical machine but that it is a living organism, dynamic and fluid, with all components in instant and continuous communication. Could he be describing the fascial network?
 
The Human Body and Consciousness
Consciousness can be described as information. We store information of our life experiences and learnings as memories and awareness where they live as a resource for the rest of our lives. We never lose a memory. We can forget something but we can never lose it. Once it has been written in our database, so to speak, it cannot be deleted. We can change our reactions to a memory but we cannot delete the memory.
 
Neurons are alive
Consciousness, or information, infuses our entire being. With the use of electron microscopes, Neurologist Stuart Hammeroff and Mathematical Physicist Roger Penrose have discovered microtubules filled with fluid within the cytoskeleton of each human cell. Each and every cell is surrounded and interconnected by a viscous gel called ground substance. They suggest that, with the use of water molecules, the fluid within the microtubules is able to conduct/transform incoherent disordered energy into coherent photons. These photons (light) travel as information (consciousness) between each cell of our body via the viscous ground substance. This promotes that neurons are not simply switches but are living cells with the ability to retain and conduct energy as information or consciousness.

In addition to this, Candace B. Pert, author of Molecules of Emotion, describes in her brilliant new book Everything You need to Know to Feel Go(o)d the role of, what she calls, the 'molecules of emotion'. These molecules are receptors and ligands (hormones, neurotransmitters and peptides) and she describes how receptors vibrate at a certain frequency on the surface of each and every cell in order to attract a ligand that vibrates at the same frequency so that they can exchange information. Information carrying ligands is responsible for 98% of all data transfer in the body and brain. Pert states that there are over 200 peptides, responsible for emotions/feelings such as endorphins, mapped in the brain and body. Each peptide sounds complex emotional chords to attract a specific ligand that also vibrates to the same frequency, modulating our physiology in response to our experiences. Dr Eric R. Kendel, a neurobiologist at Columbia University College of Physicians and Surgeons, received a Nobel Prize for Medicine in 2000 for showing that memory resides at the level of the receptor. He shows that memories can be made conscious by the receptors and their ligands.
 
What does this mean to us as therapists?
Molecules of emotion decide whether or not to make a memory conscious or not. Memory is emotion driven. If the emotion associated to the memory is too traumatic to withstand, the memory will be buried in the body in order to prevent feeling the emotion. The longer the memory stays buried the more the body has to compensate physically and emotionally. More often than not the memory becomes buried so deep that it hinders perceptions, decisions, behaviour and ultimately health. So, our memories are stored within, in our physical bodies, and every cell of our bodies is an expression of all our experiences, both physical and emotional. Myofascial release and body memory 'Myo' means muscle and 'fascia' is a network of connective tissue that surrounds, protects cushions and infuses every living cell of our body. Fascia, like the microtubules within the cytoskeleton, is a network made up of hollow tubules through which the viscous ground substance flows. As the fascial network infuses each and every cell, information carried between the cells flows through it.
Continued ...............................
 
The effect of injury on the fascial network
The fascial network and viscous ground substance is dynamic in nature. It meets force with force in order to protect and support the demands imposed on it both internally and externally. When the body is injured the fascial system binds down or scars in the affected site and the ground substance loses its fluidity. The ground substance solidifies, and as it does so the free flow of information between the cells is hindered. If the injury is not treated the fascial network begins to compensate, creating poor posture and limited range of movement. When the body is fascially tight the 'molecules of emotion' detect this as further trauma and continue to bury memory in order to protect. The body becomes stuck in the flight and fright response and associates present trauma to older buried memories creating a broken-record-style effect within the unconscious mind, almost like adding insult to injury. The body can also become so tight in order to keep the traumatic memory and associated emotions buried it creates a straight-jacket effect on the body.
 
To release the body is to release the mind, Myofascial release utilises the piezoelectric phenomenon. This phenomenon is where a chemical and physical change occurs within the body from a low load of pressure over a sustained length of time. The MFR technique is very different to that of massaging muscles, tendons and the ligaments of the body. The time component is vital, coupled with the fluidity of the therapist's hands in applying pressure and moving though each and every fascial restriction. Fascia cannot be forced, as it will naturally meet that force in return. Hence the MFR therapist provides a sustained, gentle, pressure for a minimum of 90-120 seconds, allowing the fascia to elongate naturally and return to its normal resting length. As it does so the ground substance begins to soften and return to its gel state, allowing the free flow of restricted memory and information to return into awareness. As the straight-jacket effect is released, patients can become aware of, and elicit, emotions and reactions that they did not know were still affecting them. Often, memories can surface that they haven't thought of in years. As memories and their associated emotions are released and expressed, sometimes for the very first time, the tissue no longer needs to brace to suppress or repress the emotion. Simply put, the physical affects the emotional and the emotional affects the physical. Function, posture, balance and health can now return coupled with a deeper awareness of emotional scarring that hindered health in the past.
 
Myofascial unwinding
When the fascial system physically and emotionally releases, the body may begin to move in order to further release its tensions. This is called the body's self-correcting mechanism. Within MFR this is called Myofascial Unwinding. The body may jump, shake and judder as excess energy is released and may also move into positions of trauma in order to release the emotions involved in order to heal at the deepest level. As patients begin to move, the MFR therapist follows them and supports them. Myofascial Unwinding can be a local movement, an area of tissue, a limb, or a full-body movement. This unwinding allows for the deep release of age-old injuries that have been hindering health.
 
Integrated Myofascial Therapy (IMFT) is a series of advanced experiential workshops for bodywork professionals, teaching fascial techniques from various healthcare approaches, all of which can be easily and effectively integrated into existing practice. References John F. Barnes, 'Cellular Consciousness and Healing', PT Today. Mind and Body, 1996.
Journal of Consciousness Studies, 1, Summer 1994, pp. 91-118. #.
Roger Penrose, Shadows of the Mind, 1995.
 
For more information visit www.myofascialrelease.co.uk or telephone 0845 602 6274. Ruth Duncan is an advanced Myofascial Release therapist and presents Integrated Myofascial Therapy in the UK. She runs her own clinic in Glasgow: www.thenaturaltherapycentre.co.uk. She has trained and assists on seminars in the US with John F. Barnes PT. Myofascial Release Treatment Centres and Seminars: www.myofascialrelease.com.
 
Jan Feb 07
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