Taking an Integrated, Holistic Approach to Health
Most people think of therapeutic massage —bodywork—as a means of promoting relaxation and providing relief from the everyday stresses of life. While massage therapy can dramatically improve the quality of your life, therapeutic bodywork offers so much more.
Sturbridge, MA (PRWEB) August 26, 2006
Most people think of therapeutic massage —bodywork—as a means of promoting relaxation and providing relief from the everyday stresses of life. While massage therapy can dramatically improve the quality of your life, therapeutic bodywork offers so much more.
“My mission is to provide my clients with an integrated approach to massage therapy that combines bodywork, ergonomics, and postural and movement reeducation. As an Aston-Patterning® practitioner I tailor each therapy session to the specific needs of my client’s body,” said Linda St. Laurent owner of Le Visage Integrative Massage Therapy located at Center Styling on 48 Main Street (Route 131) in Sturbridge.
St. Laurent takes a detailed history and conducts a pretreatment observation of the person’s simple and specific movements. “This enables me to ascertain one’s postural alignment and tension-holding patterns,” she explained. “By assessing the body’s natural integrity and alignment I design a specific movement therapy that allows the body to be dynamic, move naturally, and improve its function, balance, and coordination.”
Spiraling Touch is part of the Aston-Patterning® approach. This method releases unessential tension from surface to bone. “It is a painless, hands-on approach that respects and matches the layer, shape, and grain of the soft tissue, allowing me to work from the surface layers through to the bone with ease.” Specialized attention is placed on keeping the whole body in balance as localized tension is released.
Movement education, or neuro-kinetics, is a vital aspect of Aston-Patterning®. The goal is to elicit easy, efficient, and less stressful ways of performing simple movements and release accumulated tension in the body. “Through step-by-step coaching, I teach my clients effortless ways to reduce physical stress and strain, and sustain the effects from the bodywork.”
St. Laurent employs the Kinesis Myofascial Integration (K. M.I.) method which involves the slow, gentle, and deep stretching and opening of the body's fascial and myofascial tissue coupled with movement reeducation. “The method is designed to counteract the adverse effects of poor postural habits and the aftereffects of injury or trauma,” she explained. “The goal of structural integration is to restore skeletal alignment, the reciprocal balance of muscles, and a full-range of anatomical and physiological motion.”
This integrative session combines awareness through movement and breathing designed specifically for the client. “The structural change will increase range of motion, flexibility, balance, and reduce or remove the person’s level of pain.”
Since graduating from the Bancroft School of Massage, St. Laurent has continued her bodywork and movement education and certification under the guidance of the Tom Myers, notable Rolfer/Anatomist in Kinesis Myofascial Structural Integration, Whitney Lowe, the Core Institute, and Konrad J. Obermeier. “It is my desire and goal to create and maintain a trusting rapport with each individual I serve.”
Le Visage Integrative Massage Therapy is located at Center Styling on 48 Main Street (Route 131) in Sturbridge. 508-347-9554. Please call for photographs.
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