Alignment - improved Postural Alignment

Many things can affect our posture and alignment. We repeat our daily activities and so our bodies, which are ‘plastic’ (meaning they can change and adapt), start to choose the body shapes and variation that we repetitively use and cut out many of the others. Eventually this can severely reduce the choice that we have. We are in effect stuck in what we have created. This idea of ‘plasticity’ , though, works in our favour, because if we start to change the demands we make of our bodies they begin to adapt and and re-recruit some forgotten movement pattern and even some completely new ones. In Hellerwork we get very specific and clear direction to give the body so that it can adapt in the most efficient way.

Posture

See improved postural alignment.

Ease of Movement

All of us have certain patterns of movement that we favour. This is because our bodies adapt in the best way they know how to the factors in our lives. Our jobs, our daily activities, sports, past injuries, and the emotions we frequently feel are just some of the factors that that influence the patterns of movement we adopt during our lives. The thing is that sometimes of these movement patterns can eventually become limiting. Some of us start to feel restricted, or stiff, uncomfortable or even that moving can be painful. During the Hellerwork series we will be looking for what movement might be redundant, and more importantly for ways of moving that could be very useful. The more choice we have in how we move the more ease we have when we do. And we are all moving all of the time - the simple act of breathing is a movement.

Confidence

Self-awareness is one of the skills that I am most interested in helping people develop. With an expanded ability to sense our selves we have a greater sense of of self. There is a relaxation that comes from spending time really listening to yourself. We all want to be really listened to and if we can learn to listen to ourselves then we can in part relax that at least someone has heard us.

Physical Comfort

Many of the physical, emotional and mental stresses we encounter in everyday life can cause physical discomfort. By addressing these we can restore physical comfort.

Tools for Self-Care

At every step of the way during the Hellerwork series you will be invited to participate in the process. We will always be guided by your experience, sensations, and needs. Your awareness of your experience (which is often unconscious) will increase so that you will be able to sense when you might need to do something to help your body. After each session you will take away something from the session to practice and by the end of the series you will have quite a number of things you could use. You will come away from the series with good number of things to use.

Relief from Pain

Pain can have a number of causes. Often we can find clues in the tension of the tissue, the body use or in an habitual emotional state that can be accessed and modified to attain relief.

Rehabilitate after injury

After an injury or surgery we adapt how we move in order not to put pressure on painful or injured areas. When the injured area is healed what often happens is the  body has got used to this new pain-avoidance-posture and keeps it and so the knock on effect is that over time a chain of adaptations is set up. One thing needs to compensate for another and so on.

Reduced Stress and Tension

Most of us can feel our shoulders get tense if we’re in a stressful situation. Other parts of our bodies too, can reflect different emotions. Some stressful experiences and emotions can go on for a prolonged period of time and the result will be that the body will take this on as the norm. The body can then go on expressing the past situation physically long after the situation has changed. This physical expression will in turn be fed back to the central nervous system which will interpret the situation as still being as it was and so on an unconscious level you will still have some of that past stress or emotion playing out in your system. By addressing these physicalisations we can help the body to understand the lack of their ongoing necesity and validity, and so let them go and move on.

Expanded Energy

We use up a lot of energy to be hold our muscles tight, which is what is happening when you are tense. Let go of this tension and we have a lot of released energy to use for other more useful things. If, too, we are using our bodies in a way that is not well aligned with gravity then we must use excess energy to hold ourselves upright against the force of gravity. In the Hellerwork series we are aiming to align ourselves within the gravitational field and this will allow us to be supported by, rather than fight, gravity. Here, once again we fin energy is available for other things.