The benefits of MFR are myriad.  Because MFR is effective at various levels of internal structure (superficial, intermediate, deep/cellular), it can benefit conditions at every level.  Whether you are suffering from superficial pain, deeper pain within a muscle or joint, or cellular dysfunction, MFR can offer some benefit*.  

• Complement other therapies:  Myofascial Release is a great complement to other treatment regimens.  For example, in the case of chiropractic treatment, the addition of MFR can ensure that the chiropractic adjustments "stick" and don't reoccur as soon as you leave your chiropractor.  MFR can also help provide a better adjustment by your chiropractor.  In the case of nutritional supplements or medicines, MFR can ensure that they effectively reach their intended target area and affect their full benefit.  After all, if a particular gland or organ is not functioning properly due to a fascial restriction that is depriving it of vital nourishment, no amount of medicine or supplement will change that if it's subject to the same internal pathways of delivery that are affected by the restriction.

 

• Repetitive Motion Injuries:  Myofascial release is also effective for Repetitive Motion Injuries.  In such cases, MFR can create space around affected ligaments to releive inflammation naturally without medication or surgery. Whether it's Carpal Tunnel Syndrome, Tennis Elbow, or any number of shoulder and knee conditions, MFR can naturally and gently relieve the tension in the connective tissues surrounding the joints that, when tight, irritate and impede the natural movement of ligaments and cause inflammation.

 

• Poor Posture:  Today's sedentary lifestyle of office jobs and driving, of using computers and smart phones for extended periods of time, every day, have created the tendency for Head-Forward and Shoulder-Forward postures that can manifest independently or concurrently.  Head-Forward posture alone can decrease vital (lung) respiratory capacity by as much as 30%.  Combined, they exert a heavy toll on our lungs' ability to function optimally.  Additionally, these postures are often associated with chronic pain at the base of the neck and mid-back.  MFR can release the restrictions responsible for maintaining these postures, thereby allowing your head and shoulders to return to their intended positions, alleviating the cause of the chronic pain, and restoring lung capacity.

 

• Bulged or Herniated Disc:  Myofascial Release can decompress the spine. This takes pressure off the disc, relieves associated pain, and creates space for the disc to heal naturally.  This can eliminate the need for back surgery to repair a disc and avoids hours of discomfort sitting or standing in a mechanical traction device.  

 

• Temporal Mandibular Joint Dysfunction:  Myofascial Release can release tension from distant or surrounding tissues that compress or impede the function of the TMJ. This release can return the TMJ to its proper range of motion and eliminate lateral deviation, clicking, and pain.

 

• Injury:  Myofascial Release can resolve both the direct and indirect results of injuries.  Often, damage occurs not only at the sight of a primary impact, but also subsequent impacts that occur afterward.  For example, in whiplash, the brain first impacts the skull in one direction, then the other, as the soft tissue of both the front and back of the neck are stretched violently.  In the case of a fall, the first impact is a body part encountering the ground . . . subsequent impacts occur where the shockwave terminates elsewhere in your body.  As MFR is a whole-body therapy, it can help locate and release related (and connected) restrictions at locations other than the initial impact site.  This concept isn't even considered by most accepted health care professionals. Then there are secondary injuries that are caused by the primary injuries.  For example, after breaking your ankle and being confined to a wheelchair, you develop sciatic pain.  Or, after using crutches for a week, you develop shoulder/neck pain.  Then there are the pain syndromes that result from long-term holding patterns.  After an injury, your body adopts a protective posture designed to protect the injured area.  While this posture is initially a conscious thing, after about three days, it becomes ingrained into our subconscious and permanently reinforced by our fascia.  This subconscious holding pattern remains long after an injury heals and perpetuates a state of imbalance in the body.  Long term imbalance in the body can lead to additional pain and injury.  For example, following a sprained ankle, your hips can become imbalanced.  This imbalance in the hips is compensated for by a lateral curvature of the spine (scoliosis), is reflected in the shoulders, and finally results in a lateral compression of a disc between two vertebrae in your neck and misalignment between the skull and first cervical vertebra.  Consequently, you end up with chronic headaches and pain in the neck and shoulders--all because of the sprained ankle.  The MFR approach can decode these patterns and restore your body to balance and motion--leaving you feeling lighter, more stable, and pain free.

 

• Sciatic Pain:  Myofascial Release can take pressure off of the Sciatic nerve. Whether it's caused by compression of the lumbar spine or impingement by the Piriformis muscle, MFR can create the space necessary for the surrounding joints and muscles to function without impacting the Sciatic nerve and causing pain.

 

• Chronic Headache/Migraine:  Myofascial Release can take tension off of the superficial cranial fascia and pain sensitive areas at the base of the skull that can lead to chronic headache.  MFR can also take tension off of fascial structures inside the skull that can lead to migraines.  

 

• Gland Dysfunction and related disease:  Myofascial Release can release tension/restrictions in tissue surrounding glands that can either apply pressure to, restrict the movement of, or impede the flow of nourishment to glands inside the head. Fascial tissue both lines the cranial cavity and divides the two halves of the brain. Whenever restrictions occur in this tissue, proper function of associated glands, and even the brain itself, can be inhibited.  By releasing those restrictions, MFR can restore proper function.

 

• Trauma:  Trauma occurs any time the control center of our brain (limbic brain) is overwhelmed with sensory input.  Whether it is emotional/physical/sexual abuse, military trauma, a life-changing encounter, etc., when the limbic brain is overwhelmed, sensory input is diverted away from the higher, cognitive brain to the lower, primitive brain.  This lower brain is responsible for instinctive behavior and controls our "fight/flight/freeze" response.  In these conditions, the primitive brain directly controls the peripheral nervous system (the spinal cord and nerves).  As sensory input and decision control is diverted away from the higher brain, all record of the trauma, associated emotions, and resulting behavior/response resides not in the higher brain but in the areas of the body that were activated during the originating traumatic event.  MFR is a physical and energetic therapy that can release these records--emotions and memories--from the body tissues.  Once they are released into the greater fascial system, they become aware to the higher brain and are then available for cognitive processing and resolution.  For this reason, it can be very effective to incorporate MFR into your trauma healing regimen where it can complement cognitive therapy and make it drastically more effective.

 

*  It is always advisable to consult your physician first.  Only doctors can diagnose. Once you receive your diagnosis, then we can determine how you can benefit from Myofascial Release.