Just when I was afraid I might be reaching another plateau, I met Christine Eckery, an orthopedic massage therapist. Don’t expect a nice relaxing spa massage – I hesitate to even call it massage. This is an interactive working session where Christine, as the therapist, will treat your muscles, joints, and connective tissue to find where the issues are, then she will “massage” the specific spot to “melt” or move the tissue into a better position for a new habit.
Christine has an amazing sense of where pinches and energy blockages are, but you are an active participant in her detective work. So listen to your body, react to her manipulations, and communicate back to get the best results. Often tender spots are found where you don’t even know they exist, and her working with them can unlock what seems to be an unrelated area.
For instance, Christine has spent lots of time trying to reset my ankles and calves. Apparently, my years of ballet “turnout” have caused me to roll out on my foot, which causes me to not push off evenly when I walk, which causes me to have a twist in my sacrum, which causes my hamstrings to tighten, which causes my back to compensate – and ouch! The ankle bone is truly connected to the back bone! Just like the kids’ song!
Next she moved on to my neck, forearm, and hamstrings for similar detecting, apply massage therapy techniques, and retraining. In addition to her massage therapy work to get my muscles to relax and relearn a new way, she also gave me exercises to strengthen the complimentary muscles to help retrain the new pattern. Christine’s orthopedic massage therapy techniques [along with chiropractic adjustments from Dr. Scott Rosenthal] have worked together with a special synergy. And their spirituality and caring, which is sorely lacking in most healthcare providers, add immensely to the holistic healthcare they provide.
A couple of weeks ago, I had my first pain-free yoga class in years! It was a very emotional moment when I realized that I went through the whole class without struggling with ever-present pain. It is indeed strange to realize how much pain I had put up with on a daily basis and had learned to ignore – until it was gone!
— Sandra B.