Structural Integration: $105 per session
Structural Integration, or KMI (Kinesis Myofascial Integration) is a systematic series of sessions designed to ease the body's movement via the musculo-skeletal system, and restore the natural alignment and integration inherent in the body's design.
We all develop a characteristic way of standing, moving and holding ourselves. This produces our individual body signature that is often recognizable to our friends even from several blocks away. Some of this pattern, of course, comes from our genetics, but mostly it comes from habit, from imitation, from compensatory responses to traumatic injury or surgery, and from the way our attitudes are expressed in our movement. And it is open to change.
The KMI method consists of slow, gentle, and deep stretching and opening of the body's myofascial system, coupled with the client's movement and breathing. (Myofascial: myo = muscle, fascial = the sinewy biological fabric, that attaches the muscles to the bones). The method is designed to compensate for the adverse effects of bad postural habits and the after-effects of injury or trauma. The goal is to restore skeletal alignment, the reciprocal balance of muscles, and the full range of anatomical and physiological motion.
Any long term muscle tension produces a strain pattern throughout the body. Over time, these muscular tensions get written into the fascial fabric, and thus get set into our structure, our posture. It is impossible to simply relax our way out of these patterns. Our skeletal frame gets slowly pulled out of place and the body fights with gravity, setting up further tensions. Some of these strain patterns may be minor and benign, but some, either immediately or over time, produce pain patterns or create significant limitation of movement etc. These patterns may begin in one locale, or may regularly produce pain in one spot, like the shoulder, knee or low back, but the strain pattern, because of the distributive nature of the fascial net, is always body-wide.
A person with a sunken chest may feel pain in his neck or restricted breathing, but there will also be subtle, silent changes in the position of his pelvis, legs, neck, and spine. To undo the pattern requires working progressively with the whole body to establish the support for a new place of balance.
The KMI process is set up as a series of about 12 sessions, designed to be completed over three or four months, or at ones own pace, where each session concentrates on a different aspect of the body's supporting structure. Your KMI practitioner will be happy to apply the skills s/he has to your particular issues, however, the best and most lasting results are obtained when the entire body is addressed in the completion of the series.
KMI is a development, by author and KMI founder Tom Myers, of the pioneering work of Dr Ida Rolf, with additional perspective drawn from movement education and body-centered psychotherapy. The work itself is direct but sensitive, and involves a deep, slow opening of the myofascial tissues, while the client participates with his or her movement.
The work is performed on a treatment table or bench with the client clothed in underwear or a bathing suit.
One does not have to accept ones posture as: just the way I am, or structural pain as: that's what happens when you get older - you can change these patterns and KMI can help.
What can I get from KMI sessions?
- Relief from structural aches and pains
- Will feel less fatigue, more energy
- Achieve better alignment and ease in movement
- Better balance of body, emotions, and spirit
- Improve performance in sports and other movement activities
- Opened and reclaimed chronically tightened and held tissues
- Regain length in the body's joints and muscles
- Prevent or abate future degenerative problems
- In summary: Feel more at home in your body!
