About The Work

Since 1997, I have practiced deep tissue, trigger point based massage, and I continue to incorporate these techniques with Structural Medicine to create individual treatment plans. I have a strong proclivity for working with trigger points and use this as a baseline to my approach with every session. The work that I do is concentrated, focused, and muscle specific.

Alternatively, I have grown to appreciate the benefits of more generalized, traditional massage, and welcome people seeking this out.

I am happy to accommodate whatever treatment goals each individual has, and I am also willing to strategize together to accomplish these objectives. Additionally, I welcome requests to work with individuals as ongoing, regular maintenance; periodically; or just once for specific treatment.

What is Structural Medicine?

Structural Medicine is a customized treatment approach to an individual’s unique health issues. Distinctive to the field of structural integration, Structural Medicine directly addresses specific pathologies, painful complaints, and movement dysfunctions. Structural Medicine is a deep, anatomically precise modality that works with the soft tissues of the body.

As a Structural Medicine Specialist:

  • I look for patterns and contributing factors of pain or dysfunction in the body.
  • I design specialized treatments to address those issues.
  • I use techniques which treat the layers of muscle and fascia to release adhesions.
  • I help facilitate increased awareness of and lasting change in the body, giving more freedom to move and live with greater ease and comfort.

Structural Medicine is distinct from other soft tissue bodywork in its anatomical precision and comprehensive approach.

What are Trigger Points

Trigger points are distinct, hyper-irritable spots located in a taut band of skeletal muscle and produce pain locally and/or in a referred pattern. Acute trauma or repetitive microtrauma may lead to the development of stress on muscle fibers and the formation of trigger points, and they often accompany persistent musculoskeletal disorders. Patients may have regional, persistent pain resulting in weakness and/or a decreased range of motion in the affected muscles. Trigger points are associated with pain on manual stretching, contraction, or stimulation of the muscle. Trigger points are classified into active and latent based on their clinical features: active trigger points are characterized by spontaneous pain at rest with referred pain on palpation whereas latent trigger points produce pain on palpation in addition to restriction of range of motion. Palpation of a hypersensitive bundle or nodule of muscle fiber of harder than normal consistency is the physical finding typically associated with a trigger point. Palpation and treatment of trigger points can reproduce the patient's complaint of pain, elicit pain or tenderness directly over the affected area and/or cause radiation of pain toward a zone of reference, as well as a local twitch response.