Manual therapy and teaching self-massage can be useful for calming muscles and mobilizing soft tissue. At Passages, treatment is designed to  suit your needs.  We may include manual therapies, joint and visceral mobilization, scar and myofascial release, posture and pain strategies, muscle energy techniques, neuromuscular re-education, and strain-counterstrain. We avoid using passive modalities, so we have more time for direct interventions.  This promotes your body’s natural healing and faster results.

We put therapy into movement! We begin with helping you have a better team of support muscles, plus how to know if you are in a good position for activities.  We don’t stop with isolated or static exercises with counting repetitions.  Our mission is to help you learn how and when to use muscles in practical ways.  We often use medical therapeutic yoga movements to assist the timing of muscle contraction, to be more effective.  Posture and “body mechanics” instruction can help you avoid   re-injury, to move better at home, work and other fitness activities.

What about Kegels?  The pelvis provides the foundation for your support, but the pelvic floor muscles are just part of a team.   Vintage Kegel exercises usually teach to squeeze hard and hold, but not when or how much the muscles need to work.  In fact, traditional Kegels can worsen certain bladder and pain conditions.

Therapeutic exercise programs for home often include starting with the breath for relaxing and releasing muscles.  We teach special tips for comfort positions and how to help release muscles. We may instruct mat or chair exercises, or how to use gym balls for a convenient way to begin calming postural muscles. Core work coordinates your abdominal, spine and pelvic support muscles. You can learn to include your whole postural team to fight against the pressures of  activities, such as lifting, straining, working, gardening, and use properly for many fitness programs.