Integrative Bodywork, Prestwick Heights Southeast, Calgary, AB (2025)

10/12/2024

As I make my way back to Canada, I find myself contemplating a pattern of the past week. On at least three separate occasions, I was asked what I was doing in Austin. I replied, “taking a course on trauma.” Each time the response was the same: “oh, you must be a nurse or a doctor!”

Interestingly, I didn’t meet one nurse or doctor at the course. We were mostly a group of mental health professionals or bodyworkers. I don’t mind correcting the assumptions about my work. It’s a good practice in humility, and opens the door for me to talk about what trauma is, how it extends so much further than the ER, and what we can do about it.

During the past week of studying trauma, one of the most impactful lessons for me was about the polyvagal system. If you’re interested in neuroscience and/or trauma, keep reading!

When a healthy nervous system perceives danger, the first thing that that we do is look for human connection. If we scan our environment and don’t see someone offering us loving reassurance, then we are likely to resort to a more primitive state of fight or flight. In a healthy nervous system, fighting or fleeing is not the default defence. Finding safety in human connection is our default defence, which we are capable of doing thanks to our evolutionarily advanced ventral vagal nervous system.

We are, by design, wired for connection. From the moment we are born, our survival depends on our ability to connect with our caregivers. One of the ways we do this is by learning how to read their facial expressions. Facial expressions are controlled by a collection of cranial nerves that are part of the ventral vagal system. Now here’s the interesting part: the nerves of the ventral vagal system are myelinated, allowing for faster and more nuanced nerve transmission than the non-myelinated counterparts of the fight/flight system. One of the fastest and most effective ways for us to determine whether or not we are safe is to see it on another person’s face (or hear it in their voice).

Safety through human connection is our birthright, and a lack of it, especially in infancy - a type of trauma called developmental or relational trauma - can compromise our ability to regulate our stress response and relate well to others.

01/31/2024

Our annual couples massage class is scheduled for Sunday, March 10, 2024, .studios.

01/17/2024

Being surrounded by Doctors of Acupuncture and Traditional Chinese Medicine (TCM) for the past 4+ years has really started to wear off on me!

I’ve decided it’s about time that I learn a bit more about sound vibration and TCM theory, so I’m taking a course called Acutonics in June 2024 and am already looking forward to integrating some of the practices into my massage therapy and integrative bodywork treatments.

12/13/2023

According to Traditional Chinese Medicine (TCM), fear is the emotion associated with winter, and water is the element. The thought of diving into a deep, dark ocean is scary for many of us. Is it safe? What hides beneath the surface? Just as diving into the ocean requires us to let go of what feels safe and familiar, in many ways, so does winter. One of the primary teachings of winter, therefore, is to learn how to be present with fear and uncertainty.

If you’d like to learn more about five element theory and how to live more harmoniously with the energy of each season, you might like our newly designed “Seasonal Renewal Workshop,” which combines teachings from TCM within a trauma-informed restorative yoga class, combined with massage, acupressure and sound to support you through the transition of the darkest time of year.

We have two workshops scheduled for December, 2023. Both workshops have limited capacity to ensure that each participant receives therapeutic touch in every restorative yoga pose from a talented team of Registered Massage Therapists.

Saturday Dec. 16, 7pm

Sunday Dec. 17, 6:30pm (sold out)

12/09/2023

In October 2023, I finished my second year of Dr. Peter Levine’s Somatic Experiencing training. Although bodyworkers are generally eligible to apply to the three(+) year continuing education program, I found that most of my peers were mental health professionals of some kind (ex. social worker, counsellor, psychologist, etc.). As a result, I have spent most of my journey toward becoming a Somatic Experiencing Practitioner feeling like a fish out of water.

Through the process of studying how to work with trauma (based on Levine’s approach), one of the things that I have come to know is that it is vital to have embodied access to something that feels resourcing before moving into something that feels more challenging. If we can embody some of what brings us ease during a difficult encounter, we are much more likely to successfully integrate the difficulty, and emerge with a renewed sense of self.

For many people, self-care practices like massage therapy or yoga allow us to tap into an embodied sense of ease, which has a positive effect on the way we approach life’s challenges and, ultimately, our mental health. Learning about trauma and the way that the human nervous system works is therefore an invaluable piece of the puzzle not only for mental health professionals, but for bodyworkers too.

12/08/2023

Winter is coming, and with winter comes the invitation to move inward. Not only does winter invite us to spend more time indoors, but it invites us to go deep within our selves.

In Traditional Chinese Medicine (TCM), the winter season is associated with the water element. There are many parallels between the depths of winter and the depths of the ocean. Both are deep, dark, quiet, and potentially isolating.

As we enter into the darkest time of the year, it can be helpful to sense into the body and allow yourself time and space to be with the places where you feel most at ease. Learning to identify and trust when our bodies feel safe or at ease is paramount in building the capacity to meet the deepest and darkest parts of ourselves.

The theme of our next “Seasonal Renewal” workshop is all about winter.

12/04/2023

Our “Seasonal Renewal Workshop” combines restorative yoga, massage, acupressure and *sound, with an emphasis on sharing teachings from Traditional Chinese Medicine (TCM). The theme of the upcoming workshop is winter, and will include teachings about the water element, along with the kidney and bladder meridians.

My friend and co-facilitator, .cejaye.thoraldson, Doctor of Acupuncture and TCM, will share the teachings of TCM throughout the class, while a team of practitioners offer touch and sound during each restorative yoga pose.

It’s a unique and beginner friendly offering, combining many different modalities into one special event. We have two workshops scheduled for December, 2023, as follows.

Saturday Dec. 16, 7pm (only a few spots left - use the link in their bio to register)

Sunday Dec. 17 (sold out - email the studio if you’d like to join the waitlist)

*pictured here: tuning forks on the kidney spirit points

12/03/2023

Starting later this month, I will start teaching yoga workshops again. For years I’ve been co-facilitating a yoga workshop that combines restorative yoga with massage, but my role has been little more than to offer mini-massages throughout the class.

Over the past year, the workshop has morphed into a seasonally inspired offering, themed around the solstice or equinox. In the past months, we have made several changes to the structure of our workshop, including our intention to provide a true workshop experience, with an emphasis on sharing the teachings of Traditional Chinese Medicine (TCM) and five element theory.

10/08/2023

The generating cycle is a foundational teaching within the five element theory of Traditional Chinese Medicine (TCM). The cycle teaches us that each element generates another element. Water generates wood (trees need water to grow), wood generates fire, fire generates earth, and earth generates metal.

The transformation of metal to water is the most mysterious of the five element transformations (though less so for those willing to follow a stream of water to its source within a mountain).

Each of the five elements is also associated with a season. While metal is associated with the season of autumn, water is associated with the winter season. According to the five element theory, we could then say that we are about to transition into one of the most mysterious times of year.

The deeper I dive into the world of element theory, the more inspired I feel to align my work with its teachings. That being said, I am currently reframing the way that I share restorative practices so that they are more aligned with the changing elements of nature.

I am looking forward to sharing what feels like a culmination of my life’s work in unique workshop offerings starting in 2024.

09/17/2023

Autumn brings with it the invitation to shift inward and to sort through what we might still be hanging onto that has outlived its purpose. It invites us soften our grip and open ourselves up to receive something new.

Similar to the lungs, the large intestine allows us to release what we no longer need, and to keep only what is nourishing and essential. Energetically, these two organs work together so that we can let go and make space for the new.

The large intestine meridian begins at the tip of the index finger on the posterior (or dorsal) side of the hand. From there, it travels up the arm, through the shoulder, anterior neck and face, where it terminates on the side of the nose. Of all of the acupoints along the large intestine meridian, Li-4 is one of the most widely used, with analgesic properties and the ability to create harmony between taking in and letting go.

If you’re feeling called to align yourself with the energy of nature’s changing seasons, consider joining us for our “Seasonal Restore” workshop on September 24 .studios.

Workshop includes
• 90 minutes of beginner friendly, restorative yoga led by
• acupressure
• meridian massage
• tuning forks vibrational/sound therapy
• therapeutic touch by one of three Registered Massage Therapists/Acupuncturists in every pose (.cejaye.thoraldson, , .yyc)

09/16/2023

The lung meridian begins in the chest and travels down the anterior aspect of the upper arm bone, crosses over the elbow crease, then follows the radius on the anterior side of the forearm before terminating in the thumb. For those familiar with Anatomy Trains, the lung meridian follows a similar pathway to the Deep Front Arm Line.

Our lungs expand to bring in new energy and contract to get rid of the old. In this respect, the lungs are most similar to the season of autumn, which also releases the old in order to become new again.

As a way to mark the transition into the autumn season, .cejaye.thoraldson and I have created a special restorative yoga class that will allow us to tap into the meridians most closely associated with autumn: the lung and large intestine. Each pose will be enhanced with therapeutic touch, using a combination of acupressure, meridian massage and tuning forks, while leads the class through a series of beginner-friendly, restorative yoga poses.

Our 2023 Fall Seasonal Restore workshop will begin at 1:30pm on Sunday September 24 .studios, in the beltline district of downtown Calgary. Please register in advance at passagestudios.ca/workshops

09/12/2023

Kidney-1 is on the bottom of the foot. It is a useful point for connecting with the earth and bringing excessive energy down.

In the practice of sound healing and oriental medicine, it is suggested to begin every session with the application of ohm tuning forks to KID-1 to facilitate grounding and a return to homeostasis. Ohm is widely believed to be the primordial vibration or sound, and listening, toning or humming to this vibration is said to connect us with our cosmic origin.

Integrative Bodywork

10/12/2024

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