10 Tips to Get More Out of Your Myofascial Release Treatment Sessions

These 10 pointers are focused on enhancing your treatment sessions for you and your patients / clients. 

By following any or all of the suggestions, you will be optimizing the healing potential within you, and your response to each treatment will be maximized.

1. The Fascial Voice Experience:

Scan your body before, during, and after treatment feeling for areas that capture your attention. You may feel heat, tingling, pain, tightness, tension etc. Look for reddened areas. Report any findings to your therapist at the next treatment session. This provides your therapist with important information about areas that may need treatment.

2. Breathwork:

Allow your breath to sink into your area of pain or the area being treated. Visualize a tube going right to that area and breathe through the tube into the pain or into the part of your body being stretched or touched.

It is also valuable to notice the lack of breath or difficulty of connecting your breath to your body so don’t force the breath. Simply see if you can allow it to flow to that part of your body.

3. Awareness:

Sink your awareness into the pain through observing and feeling, not thought. Allow the area to feel like sinking sand to create more connection in this area. Do this by feeling the inside of your body. While in that same area, scan your whole body to feel the connections to other areas. Ask yourself, "where does this connect internally?" Allow those areas to soften like butter melting or taffy pulling. Imagine more space in this area. Provide feedback to your therapist.

4. Unwinding:

Your body may feel the urge to move during treatment. Allow any spontaneous motion to occur. This motion is your own inherent self healing wisdom in your body. Everyone has this but we don't all know how to find it. Your therapist will protect and guide you through the motion. Trust it! Your body knows what it needs to heal itself.  This treatment approach does not require you to lie still. Be engaged with your body’s urges to move in any way.

5. Emotions:

Emotions are a natural response to this treatment. Be willing to tune in and allow any emotions you may experience during or after treatment to surface. Our bodies hold emotions in our fascial system like a storage tank, until we are ready to release them. Sometimes the body holds them in a form we call pain. We encourage full expression of all emotions to help your structure release and achieve optimum health. Do not analyze the why of these emotions. You do not need to understand them.  Do not judge them as good or bad emotions. All have wisdom!

6. Images / Memories:

Images or memories may float into your consciousness during or after a treatment as they are being released from your tissues. Consider sharing these experiences with your therapist as it will aid in our ability to guide you through your healing process. You are never required to share anything and ability to release and find insight in total privacy is one of the awesome aspects of MFR yet sometimes the sharing facilitates deeper healing.

7. Dialogue:

The therapist may ask you questions throughout your treatment. When answering, allow the response to come from the area of your body being worked on and not from your head. You do not need to have an understanding of your response or of any emotion that may surface. There is no right or wrong answer so trust whatever comes up even if you feel it doesn't make sense. You always have the option to not answer any question. Never force an answer.

8. Language:

Listen to the messages you give yourself in everyday life. The "I cant's", "should have's", "I never's", etc. Can you switch them to a positive message such as: "I'm getting better and better everyday in every way!" or something more specific that feels right for you. Awareness of the disempowering self talk is a big step towards shifting it to something that will provide better results.

9. Zigzag:

People do not improve straight away. This is the frustrating aspect of healing. Progress occurs in a zigzag fashion. When you flare-up or have a set back, we call this a healing crisis. This is a normal part of your healing process. This is when most people quit and why their pain persists. Allow yourself to feel and experience the frustration of the ups and downs. Then return your eyes on your intentions/goals. Life and healing are a journey similar to a roller coaster ride --- uphill, downhill, around corners and in circles. This is the body's way of clearing out deeper levels of restrictions for greater health!

10. Intentions/Goals:

Visualize your goal in as much detail as you can imagine. Feel what it would be like once the goal is already accomplished. Allow it to be something that you truly want and enjoy doing, not something that you think you should or have to do. You've now done your part. Now allow yourself to open to a greater force working in your life. Goals are adaptable and we are meant to reassess, listen and redirect our goals according to what shows up for us.